The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has people shaking their heads wondering what can be done and what they can do.
Tuesday night, two organizations tried to make a difference by educating a concerned public on the oil spill and offering solutions to a standing-room-only crowd of about 850 people who attended the forum at St. Petersburg College's The Palladium Theater.
"There's so many people who look at this oil spill and feel rather hopeless and helpless to do anything about it, and so we wanted to give people information," said Susan Glickman, director of the Florida Business Network for a Clean Energy Economy.
"We're going to give the opportunity to people to really do something about this spill," Glickman said. "Not only dealing with the impacts today, but also to end our reliance on fossil fuels."
The Florida Business Network, along with the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, sponsored the program to discuss the impact, explain how people can get involved and discuss solutions, such as moving from fossil fuels to a low carbon economy.
Five days after the oil spill Capt. Jon Brett, who attended Tuesday's forum, went to Louisiana. He has now created a Web site - drilledbyBP.com - to document the crisis on his own dime from a fisherman's perspective.
"We can't end drilling in the Gulf of Mexico today," Brett said. "But, hopefully, you know, sometimes it takes a disaster of this magnitude to get people to wake up and say, 'Hey, look, maybe we need to take a more serious look at alternative energy policies.' "
"If there's one glimmer of hope I'm holding on to here, it's that," he said.
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