Former NHL goaltender Mike Richter says the oil that's been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico for
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"This is not BP's problem, not even the gulf's problem. This is all of our problem," Richter said in a
MATT CASSELS jersey conference call sponsored by the Sierra Club after he and Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference were among a group of athletes who took a boat tour of the Gulf Coast region on Tuesday to get a firsthand look at the impact of the continuing oil spill.
"We have an opportunity here to use this as a wakeup call. We can do an awful lot -- we're not expecting to get off
KEN STABLER jersey fossil fuels by the weekend, but we have to understand that we need to move in the right direction."
Eleven people died in the explosion, which has damaged everything from beach tourism to
Stitched Bowe jersey the fishing industry along the Gulf Coast. Oil has been pouring into the sea since then, though BP is hoping to cap the leaking well this week.
Ference, who was accompanied by his wife, said fixing the environment is now more of a question of willpower than science.
"We have every technology available right now to change the way we get our power, to fix a lot of
HEYWARD-BEY jersey these problems. We have all this science that's screaming at us to listen to what's going on in this world. All that's missing is the willpower to do it," he said during the conference call.
"We're here as athletes because we're not taking the easy road and ignoring it. We want to accept the challenge, and we want to prove that we have the willpower and that we have a lot of people in this country who are up to the challenge.
