A partially oiled sea lion after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Courtesy Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

I didn’t know squat about environmental issues when an oil tanker captain crashed the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska 20 years ago. I was in college at the University of Georgia at the time and the seminal moments of my life then were determined by the quality of the dates I got and by the points I scored in our daily intramural basketball games. Read more