Ugh. Those oil-soaked birds make me sad. Each time I see pictures, I cringe. All this because Americans — including me — are over dependent on plastics and prefer driving to greener alternatives?

“Horrible spills are on everyone’s mind now, but they happen regularly around the world, less in plain view than off of Louisiana, but environmentally damaging just the same,” said John DeCicco, an environmentalist at the University of Michigan.