June 25, 2010
Plant a Flag for Freedom from Oil
I got an email from the Sierra Club to "plant a flag" for "freedom from oil". I clicked on the link and was taken to a webpage thanking me for planting a flag. That bothered me. I just wanted more information. With the BP oil spilling into the ocean, the thought of littering the DC Mall lawn with plastic did not seem like the right thing to do.
I emailed the Sierra Club asking for more information about what the flags are made of.
The campaign:
http://letsmovebeyondoil.org/
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2010/06/plant-a-flag-for-freedom-from-oil.html
My initial email inquiry:
I clicked on a link in a recent email "Five Days Left for Freedom from Oil" and automatically "planted a flag".
What I want is more information about this, in particular, what are the flags made of? Are these plastic flags? Thousands of petroleum-based flags for "Freedom from Oil" would be ironic, wasteful, and wrong.
I'd much rather plant a tree or mushroom patch.
Thank you,
Arianna Helen
After a couple days, this was their response to my email:
Dear Arianna,
Thank you for contacting the Sierra Club.
The flags that we are planting are made of wooden dowels and fabric, all made in the U.S.A. Here's a link to the vendor:
http://www.wholesalestickflags.com/index.html
Your support of the Sierra Club is greatly appreciated. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Best Regards,
David Perry
Sierra Club Information
And my email back:
Thank you for the response.
The website is not clear about the materials, such as, what the "spear-tips" are made of. If the dowels are wooden, is that wood sustainably harvested? Also, from the descriptions of the larger flags, it seems the fabric used could be either nylon or a poly/cotton blend. Both nylon or polyester are petroleum-based fabrics. It's great that the flags are "made in the USA" but what they are made of is important for a campaign such as this.
With millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf, it would be an ironic and irresponsible statement about petroleum dependance to "plant" more of it in a lawn. It would show ignorance about how insidious the oil dependance is in our modern culture and how we have gotten to this crisis to begin with.
Thank you so much for your time and well-intended work,
Arianna Helen
Today is the demonstration and I hope it goes well for them, but I also hope that at the very least they are more mindful of how, and with what, they choose to make their statements.
Tags
activism (2), environment (3), flags (1), letters (4), oil (1)
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Comments (1)
Hi there. Came across this entry this morning, I realize it's an old post but I would like to respond. Our stick flags are made with poly/cotton with a wooden dowel/spear tips. The spears are made with scrap wood found in mills. I hope this explains how our flags put together.
Thanks!
Tony
US Veterans Network
Arianna Helen