From day one of the BP oil spill back in April, locals in southeast Florida feared that a carefree day at the beach might soon be a distant memory, a devastating prospect for a region whose primary industries consist of tourism and retirement. In mid May, satellite images showed oil starting to enter the Gulf Loop, a current that pulls water through the Florida Keys, into the Gulf Stream and up to Palm Beach County. Haunted by the specter of the Gulf Stream bringing spilled oil to the shores of southeast Florida, several organizations here mounted nonviolent responses to the largest oil disaster in U.S. history. With the renegade pipeline in the Gulf apparently capped, this is a good time for a post-mortem wrap-up.

BP Boycott Kickoff – May 12

The Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition was the first responder, calling for a boycott kickoff at a local BP station on a Wednesday evening. The roughly 30 demonstrators on the scene drew mostly positive responses from rush-hour drivers, but the station had customers throughout the 90-minute demonstration. Media coverage of the event, however, was extensive and may have had a greater impact than was at first apparent. A month after the boycott kickoff, a story about local BP station owners being unfairly hurt by the boycott appeared on the front page of the Palm Beach Post, persuading a lot of folks to abandon the boycott.

World Oceans Day – June 8

Three weeks after the boycott kickoff, A World Oceans Day meeting called by a local Greenpeace member attracted a diverse crowd of about 40. Housewives, teenagers, teachers, business owners, and retirees all seemed eager—desperate even—to act, but no unified action was suggested and none materialized. Instead, people were given a list of things they could do on their own, e.g., volunteer for the clean-up effort, sign a petition, make a donation, join a mailing list, etc. People left that meeting as isolated in their efforts as they had been before. In retrospect, World Oceans Day may have failed because it didn’t propose a mass action that directly challenged one or more of the groups responsible for the spill, namely BP, the federal government, and consumers themselves. Read the rest of this article »