Celebrity News
Pearl Jam, REM call for Presidential candidates debate on restoring New Orleans
 
Pearl Jam and Michael Stipe – 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony Inducts R.E.M.
R.E.M., My Morning Jacket and Pearl Jam are reportedly among a group of musicians and bands calling for action to help rebuild New Orleans. The legendary rockers have brought forth a petition demanding U.S. presidential candidates John MCCain and Barack Obama hold a debate on hurricane recovery and restoring Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. Other musicians backing the campaign include Trent Reznor, Jackson Browne, Allen Toussaint and Funky Meters. The proposed debate is being organized by website executives at Google and YouTube. Neither McCain nor Obama had agreed to take part in the debate so far.
I think that’s great! Especially as the nation is so consumed with the energy (re: drill for oil) debate. Louisiana has been drilling offshore since 1942, and has had MASSIVE environmental impacts as a result.
They lose a football field’s worth of coastal wetlands every 45 minutes, mostly because of oil drilliing impacts.
They had a massive oil spill in the Mississippi River this month that shut down commerce for days, and cost the nation hundreds of millions in lost productivity.
Katrina and Rita spilled as much oil as the valdez -refineries, tank farms, pipelines – all of them released a lot of oil into a lot of areas.
I think if McCain (drill a lot more) or Obama (drill a little more) are serious about rebuilding NOLA then they need to tackle restoring all those lost football fields in a committed fashion, and learn what the true costs of increased oil drill ing look like!