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It’s been said that Americans are a forgetful people and that we live in the United States of Amnesia.

Let’s put that theory to a test. What was the worst environmental disaster in recent American history?

Here’s a hint: it happened two days before Earth Day four years ago, yet the media barely mentions it anymore.

On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, killing 11 men and releasing more than .

They finally capped the wellhead 87 days later, but by then, 665 miles of the Gulf Coast were covered in oil.

The massive spill devastated the region’s ecosystem, tourism, seafood industry and coastal economy, costing tens of billions of dollars.

In response to the spill, large groups of people in every state and more than 40 countries organized and gathered at beaches around the country to participate in what came to known as the first annual .

Forming long human chains across beaches and coastlines around the world, tens of thousands of people drew a line in the sand, saying “no” to offshore oil drilling and dirty fossil fuels and “yes” to clean, renewable energy.

The Surfrider Foundation joined the movement and created a campaign called “Not the Answer” to call for an end to offshore oil drilling.

There seemed to be enough anger and political will to change our policies, and President Obama declared a moratorium on drilling off of certain coastal areas.

So what has changed since then to make sure another major spill doesn’t happen? Next to nothing.

In fact, hardline conservatives in Congress are now pushing for more offshore oil drilling and construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline to pump dirty tar sands oil across the heartland of America and over some of our largest aquifers and supplies of drinking water.

Have we forgotten the disastrous effects of the BP oil spill and the devastating loss of lives and livelihoods? Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? There’s a that are barely even reported in the media.

Just four years after the BP oil spill, our country is at a crossroads.

We have a choice to determine what kind of future we want. We can continue down the oil-stained highways and shipping lanes of the past, pursuing a dwindling supply of dirty fossil fuels, while fuel costs rise — along with the profits of Big Oil — and more spills occur in the future.

Or we can rebuild our aging infrastructure with smart electric grids and pursue solar, wind and biofuels, developing our endless supply of clean, renewable energy and jobs that can’t be outsourced.

Here in Hawaii, Surfrider Foundation is working with the Sierra Club and other groups to bring people together for this year’s Hands Across the Sand Rally at Oahu’s Ala Moana Beach on May 17 (this Saturday).

There will be similar events all across the country, but Hawaii is particularly vulnerable because the state is the most dependent on fossil fuels and has the highest utility rates in the country — more than three times the national average.

And with all that oil being shipped in every week, it’s amazing there hasn’t been a spill in Hawaiian waters since the back in 1977.

At the Hands Across the Sand event, participants will once again line up along the beach and draw a line in the sand to say “No” to dirty fossil fuels, the XL Pipeline and dependence on oil, and “yes” to clean, renewable energy, smart electric grids and energy independence.

The theme for this event and our ongoing campaign is fairly simple yet provocative: “A Tale of Two Futures: The Choice Is Ours.” What kind of future will we leave for our kids and what can we do to change our current course?

During a recent Earth Day talk at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, author and activist said that the most important action is to pressure the Obama Administration and politicians not to approve construction of the XL Pipeline.

Oil from tar sands is the dirtiest fuel in the world and importing it into the U.S. would be a game-changer, dramatically increasing carbon dioxide levels, oil spills and the effects of climate change, including severe storms, droughts and forest fires.

Talking about the environmental, economic and human consequences of climate change, McKibben says people need to fight for the future they want to create because it’s a moral issue.

In effect, we are destroying the environment and the natural resources our children and future generations will inherit — simply for our own short-term needs and greed.

As the founder of , McKibben has helped organize rallies at the White House, across the country and around the world to stop the mad rush to develop fossil fuels that are destroying the planet. But he says the most important weapon in this battle are boycotts, divestment and political pressure.

Concerned Americans and citizens across the world once united against apartheid by divesting from companies that did business in South Africa.

The resulting financial and political pressure forced the country to change its reprehensible racial policies, eventually allowing Nelson Mandela to lead his country into a new era.

Now, universities, churches and groups across the country are using divestment campaigns to withdraw their investments from the world’s largest and most profitable petroleum companies.

“We need an ,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote recently about rejecting the XL Pipeline.

Tutu, who will be returning to Hawaii later this year, has said, “The fossil fuel divestment campaign is the fastest growing corporate campaign of its kind in history.”

It’s been said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.

But the world’s biggest and most profitable petroleum companies have turned tragic oil spills and environmental destruction into an ongoing farce.

McKibben calls them “rogue companies” because they put their own short-term profits above the general welfare of the people and the environment.

Let us not forget BP’s tragic oil spill in the Gulf — and the countless other spills that never make the news — and instead remember that we have the power to choose our future course.

Now is the time to make that choice and move to clean, renewable energy.

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