By Tim Saunders on
Ted Danson – a board member of Oceana – has blogged about the charity’s current campaign to stop offshore drilling in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.
“While images of oiled wildlife and beaches hit us in the gut — and are part of the reason I got involved in ocean conservation decades ago — there’s another reason why it’s time to stop drilling for oil in our oceans,” wrote the actor/activist in the Huffington Post. "It might not have a face or feathers, but it’s just as important.
“The reason is this: The stubborn push to continue drilling not only fouls our oceans and contributes to climate change, it weakens our ability to join the emerging market for clean energy — specifically offshore wind.
“There are several hundred offshore wind turbines installed in Europe, and even China has begun building offshore wind. In comparison, the U.S. is embarrassingly far behind when it comes to utilizing our ocean breezes. Fortunately, several offshore wind projects cleared some major hurdles this year, and it’s possible that we have our country’s first wind turbines off the coast of Delaware and New Jersey in the next few years.”
Danson is no stranger to working towards cleaner oceans – he co-founded the American Oceans Campaign in 1987, which merged with Oceana in 2002. He will be attending Oceana’s Splash party in the Hamptons next month with Sam Waterston.
“This week Obama announced a moratorium on new permits to drill new deepwater wells, and he suspended the planned exploration in Alaska, canceled a planned August lease sale in the western Gulf of Mexico and canceled a proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia,” writes the actor. "This is a huge step forward, but a six-month moratorium is not enough. We need a complete moratorium on offshore drilling, like the one that protected most of the U.S. coastline for 25 years.
“Join the more than 60,000 people who have already signed Oceana’s petition to stop offshore drilling — tell President Obama and Congress that you want clean energy, not more dirty, dangerous drilling.”
Read Ted’s full blog here, then head to Oceana.org to sign the petition.
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