Dems Go Medium on Climate, Part 2: Spill Bill Passes E&NR

by RLMiller

Good news, not-so-good news on climate/energy news today. The Bingaman "spill bill" reforming leasing practices at the Agency Formerly Known as Big MMesS, S.3516, draft previously analyzed, has passed the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on a unanimous vote.  However, there's no certain path to transforming that victory into a climate bill.  It seems that when the Democrats decided last week to go big by attaching climate legislation to the spill bill, they forgot to agree on a particular climate bill to attach to the spill bill.  Whoops.

continued at Daily Kos....

A simple thought for a clean carbon fee ...

by A Siegel

In pure economic efficiency terms, the most cost-effective system for establishing a price on carbon pollution and starting a societal move toward a lower-carbon future, might be an upstream simple price.

Carbon Fee not tax

This price is not a "tax", because a 'tax' implies a taking of a good. That assumes that we have a right to pollute and impact others. In fact, that very pollution is a taking of a good, a seizing of a value, that occurs today without any form of compensation.

If you dump an old mattress at the county dump, you pay a fee ... not a tax.  We need to charge a 'dumping fee', a polluter's fee for dumping CO2 into the air we breathe ...

continued at Daily Kos....

BP's Well May Leak For 55 Years Or More Into The Gulf Of Mexico?

by Edger

On June 15, 2010 the US Department of Energy announced that a group of federal and independent scientists convened by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command's Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) Dr. Marcia McNutt (Director of the U.S. Geological Survey) had developed a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico that indicated the leak could be spewing up to 2.52 million gallons of crude oil per day into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico from British Petroleum's Macondo Well.

continued at Daily Kos....

Updated: Comment against oil expansion! (ACTION)

by Cpt Robespierre

UPDATE: I've change the title to reflect that the agency made a last-minute extension of the deadline earlier today. It's no longer due at midnight tonight, but we don't know when it will be, so you should still comment as soon as possible.

If you oppose the proposed expansion of offshore drilling, please submit a public comment (public meaning your name will be attached to it unless you unselect that) to the official review process at the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. The deadline is midnight tonight (Eastern time). Even a short "I oppose this proposed expansion of offshore drilling" would be helpful.

Direct link to comment form:http://ocs5yeareis.anl.gov/...

continued at Daily Kos....

The Gulf Coast, its beaches, life is just a hot mess (Videos)

by icebergslim

I wrote a diary last week about Pensacola, Florida beaches smelling like a gas station, well on Hardball today Chris Matthews asked MSNBC's Science and Environment Expert, Jeff Corwin does it smell like that?  Corwin replied, "...it smells like a gas station...."

continued at Daily Kos....

EcoAdvocates: Gulf Tribes, Chemical Testing, Green Burials, Climate Justice, and Saving the Peaks

by Aji

While the Gulf Coast disaster continues apace, three small tribes and several groups and individuals focused on rescue and remediation need additional support.  New legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to require more rigorous testing of chemicals; the Environmental Defense Fund wants your help in improving it.  You can join several efforts currently under way to save sacred lands in Northern Arizona from pollution by sewage effluent, and to help promote aggressive action on climate change.  And how would like to know that, when you "walk on," you're doing so in an environmentally friendly manner?  It's now possible.

Tonight's EcoAdvocates edition includes posts by Aji on The Gulf Tribes:  Rescuing Coastline and Cultures, Meteor Blades on The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, Ojibwa on Green Burials, Boatsie with Take Action Alerts, and Oke with a special "Save the Peaks" Action Alert.

continued at Daily Kos....

A Diary for David Kroning II

by gchaucer2

On June 18, 2010, David Kroning II published one of the most extraordinary diaries I have read here:  Voices for Nature.  In that diary, not only did he demonstrate a facility of knowledge and language, but also a call out to the community to speak for all species which are being destroyed or injured due to the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster.  On June 26, David reiterated his plea in A Crime Against Nature.

David challenged me to read and write about Aldo Leopold's "Thinking Like a Mountain."  I agreed -- but I fear I've lost David's ear -- his eyes.  David, this diary is for you.

continued at Daily Kos....

In The Forest Of The Giants (photos)

by Richard Lyon

This is a short natural history of the coast redwood Sequoia sempervirens forests found nowhere else on earth but the Northern California coast. I recently took a trip to the Redwood National Park in the far northwest corner of California. This article will be illustrated with pictures that I took on that trip.

continued at Daily Kos....

Saving the ocean from acidity death economically and sequestering CO2 in algae, saving the fishery

by chondrally

Richard A. Feely of the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic association (NOAA) in Boulder Colorado, has published some stunning papers available at
www.scirus.com for free,  that shake our world view of the oceans.  By 2017 when the projected CO2 level will reach 450 ppm,  the deep ocean currents will offgas CO2 in the southern ocean,  turning this part of the ocean very acidic from carbonic acid which exists in huge quantities in the deep oceans due to ocean pressure and millenia of diffusion.
The following article suggests a way that we can economically save the oceans, the fish, the coral and the shellfish and molluscs, by some simple calcium chemistry in the oceans involving Calcium carbonate (aragonite and calcite:limestone deposits) and calcium bicarbonate.

continued at Daily Kos....

Kill to Drill

by Vetwife

Some of you may say this is all in my imagination but I can
not come up with a logical one other than this.

No matter what the hearings are producing.  No matter that
no one is seriously in jail yet.  No matter that bulldozers are covering up so much oil under the sand.
No matter that in spite of the horrific horrors of the Gulf
gusher, people are still allowed to swim.
We did not think it possible for torture to be allowed in this country.  We did not think it possible that

continued at Daily Kos....

EPA Inexplicably Greenlights WV Mountaintop Removal Permit

by rperks

Maybe the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should change its acronym from EPA to WTF.

How else to explain the perplexing and downright disgusting decision last week by the agnecy to recommend approval by the Corps of Engineers of a permit sought by Coal-Mac (subsidiary of Arch Coal) for the Pine Creek Surface Minein Logan County, West Virginia.  So much for EPA's supposedly hard-line water protection standards issued in April which promised tougher oversight of mountaintop removal. 

continued at Daily Kos....

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: A Voices For Nature Diary

by Pam LaPier

We are all aware of the devastation to wildlife happening in the Gulf of Mexico due to this monstrous oil spill. We know about the gentle sea turtles, the frolicking dolphins, the graceful birds, the giant whale shark and the majestic sperm whale but at the ocean floor, in places once thought to be devoid of life, there are teeming communities of clams, mussels and tube worms that we've only just discovered in recent years. We have not yet sent submersibles down to measure the impact on these amazing communities and I fear what we may find. There is more about these fascinating worlds below the jump.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 36

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY:Gulf Watchers ROV # 159 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe
Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

continued at Daily Kos....

Spill tons of oil: Go yachting... Hang a banner: Go to jail?

by Hopeful Skeptic

What the hell is wrong with this country when horrendous environmental disasters go virtually unpunished, and non-violent, non-destructive activism result in the possibility of months in jail?

Environmental activist Ted Glick is facing possible jail time for hanging banners on the Hart Senate Office Building.  One of the banner's read "Green Jobs Now" and the other read "Get to Work".  That hardly sounds like the kind of dangerous anarchism that deserves jail time, does it?

But, the fact is that Glick faces a maximum penalty of 3 years in jail, and while he's not likely to get the max sentence, there is a good chance he could end up serving months in jail.  Especially since the prosecuting attorney's are pushing for a severe sentence.

More details, links and action you can take below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

What Does it Look Like Inside One of Those Huge Fishing Nets?

by Ellinorianne

You know those nets we hear about from gill nets to purse-seining nets, the ones that are full of not just tuna, but sometimes full of other fish and dolphins, turtles and other sea animals that wind up dying because of the use of outdated and dangerous methods that wind up doing a huge amount of harm to other species.

The New York Times did a huge expose on the Tuna's End because of our over fishing of this one very popular fish.  But it's not just overfishing of tuna that's doing irreparable harm to our oceans, it's the method by which we catch them.

continued at Daily Kos....

URGENT: Climate Debate begins in earnest today! (ACTION diary)

by LaughingPlanet

This news is also breaking...

Today, the President held a private meeting with key people in the current energy/climate debate in the Senate.

Muted Outcome from White House Energy Meeting

The statement reflects no wavering by Obama on his insistence that "the best way for us to transition to a clean energy economy is with a bill that makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses by putting a price on pollution."

...
Here’s the White House statement:

The meeting the President hosted with a bipartisan group of Senators was a constructive exchange about the need to pass energy and climate legislation this year that lasted more than an hour-and-a-half. The President made clear his view that a full transition to clean energy will require more than just the government action we’ve taken so far. It will require a national effort from all of us to change the way we produce and use energy.

continued at Daily Kos....

Why Can't U.S. Wind Power be like this? [Update]

by tergenev

I'm not a wind industry financier, as is Jerome a Paris . .I'm just a fan of sustainable energy. I have been for 30 years. I tend to follow the news on these things. And while I like the way things are going in terms of the adoption of new energy generation technologies, particularly wind, I see a story such as the one reported today in WindPower Monthly, and I find it quite irritating. The city of Yumen in the northwest Chinese Gansu Province, has announced that they will be constructing a 500MW wind farm next month, and they will use nothing but Chinese built turbines. Why are the Chinese able to do that, but something so straightforward, so direct, to spur the U.S. industry is seemingly impossible?

continued at Daily Kos....

John Boehner Contradicts John Boehner on BP Oil Disaster

by TheGreenMiles

John Boehner is a formidable opponent. For John Boehner.

You see, John Boehner thinks President Obama is doing too little to respond to the BP oil disaster. But John Boehner, on the other hand, thinks President Obama is doing too much.

It depends on which John Boehner you're talking to. Is it the John Boehner trying to pander to voters? Or the John Boehner trying to suck up to Big Oil?

continued at Daily Kos....

Climate Change -- Jihadist Plot?

by Steven D

Who knew that extremist Jihadi Muslim Arab Islamofascists would go to such great lengths to destroy our beloved American Oil Companies and wreck our economy as to hold a conference on Climate Change in which they push the leftist propaganda of Al Gore? The horror! No, the TERROR!

continued at Daily Kos....

FARCES of Coal: Apple Juice Creeks and Gatorade Streams

by J e d

Remember FACES of Coal? The less than bona fide astroturfing organization whose members keep turning up on iStockphoto.com?

Well, the antics continue as they're none too pleased with the EPA these days.  It seems the EPA has got it in for Apple Juice creeks and Gatorade streams.  Typical right?!  Far as we know, Lisa Jackson and Obama don't yet mind Willa Wonka's chocolate river, but we'll keep you posted.

More Below!

continued at Daily Kos....

Scott Brown: Wrong on the Merits AND The Politics of Clean Energy

by Lowell Feld NRDC Action Fund

Two weeks ago, Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) met with President Obama and "told him he would not support a cap-and-trade plan or carbon fee to limit greenhouse gas emissions." In the Boston Globe, Brown is quoted as expressing how "excited" he is "about working with [Obama] in a bipartisan manner to come up with a comprehensive energy plan."

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 35

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY: Gulf Watchers ROV # 156.

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

continued at Daily Kos....

A Bipartisan Strategy for Energy Leadership

by Teryn Norris

By Teryn Norris and Clifton Yin
Published by The Huffington Post

When President Obama and key Senate leaders meet today to reach a compromise on energy and climate legislation, they should strongly consider increasing federal investment in clean energy technology to at least $15 billion annually.   This is a comprehensive third way strategy to improve U.S. energy independence, economic competitiveness, and climate security, and it deserves bipartisan support.

We are a Democrat and Republican.  One of us campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008, the other as a delegate for John McCain.  One of us worked on energy and climate policy for the progressive Breakthrough Institute, while the other worked on similar issues for the conservative American Enterprise Institute.  We disagree on a wide range of issues, and we hold different economic philosophies.

continued at Daily Kos....

Green diary rescue & open thread

by Meteor Blades

At SolveClimate, Leslie Berliant writes:

Earlier this month, California voters rebuffed a power-grab by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), defeating a ballot initiative that would have helped the utility maintain its monopoly on electrical power in northern California. California’s Prop 16 would have required local governments to gain the support of two-thirds of voters before purchasing local power. The state’s voters rejected the measure. It would have made it extraordinarily difficult for local governments to create or expand their own municipal utilities and compete with PG&E. PG&E is not the only utility company using legislation, ballot propositions and lots of cash, to try to hold onto its monopoly or control the future of power supply in the vicinity of its operations. In May, an attempt by New Hampshire utility PSNH to spend most of the state’s renewable energy project funds was rejected by the state legislature. In Kansas, Sunflower Electric Corp has been waging an ongoing battle to build new coal-burning power plants that would export most its power to out-of-state customers. And in Colorado, the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), passed by a large majority of voters, is facing attack in the legislature. But in these fights, political influence and a deep war chest does not necessarily translate into victory for the utilities. PG&E spent $46.1 million on the failed ballot initiative in California. Opponents say they stopped the utility with a campaign that cost less than $100,000.

• • • • • • •
The green diary rescue regularly appears on Sundays and Thursdays. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it. The rescue begins below and continues in the jump:
• • • • • • •
Brad Johnson of the Wonk Room, known here as The Cunctator, explained how Senator Harry Reid Calls The Bluff Of The Climate Peacocks: "Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is giving obstructionist senators a chance to finally take action on climate and clean energy, after they attempted to block the "unelected bureaucracy" of the Environmental Protection Agency from doing so. After holding a 'thrilling' climate caucus with his members last week, the Democratic majority leader plans to bring an 'impenetrable' comprehensive package of legislation to repair the damage caused by fossil fuels to our economy and our planet."

NRDCActionFund suggested that it might beTime to Turn Off The A/C At the White House?: "...perhaps we should all hope for the White House air conditioning to be broken tomorrow – or turned off on purpose - so that the Senators meeting there get a taste of what the planet will feel like everywhere if they don’t do something about it now.  When you think about it, a bit of Senatorial sweat and a few stained shirts is not too high a price to pay if it results in long-overdue, comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation on the President’s desk sometime this sweltering summer.  Is it?"


continued at Daily Kos....

Lionfish and Other Amazing Critters - A Photo Diary

by Haole in Hawaii

Aloha and welcome to another one of these (mostly) underwater photo diaries.  This diary is meant as a brief respite from the struggles of the day and as a reminder that we share this damaged planet with some amazing and beautiful creatures.  

I will structure this diary roughly from the simplest to the most complex creatures that I photographed over the weekend. Of course we have all be evolving exactly the same length of time so let's have some humility.

Tiger or Divided Flatworm
We will pass over the cnidarians (jellys, hydroids and corals) that often appear as supporting characters and start with a flatworm. This brightly colored critter contains tetrodotoxin, the same poison found in pufferfish. Don't eat it.

continued at Daily Kos....

A Never Ending Battle Against a Bunch of Nasty Critters

by Walden Ponderer

Of all the horrendous things we have to deal with living in Texas, and surely no story can end well when it begins with a review of horrendous things you have to deal with living in Texas, fire ants are perhaps our least favorite, not excepting Rick Perry.

Eradicate Rick Perry (via the ballot box, naturally --ed.) and I'll thank you.  Eradicate fire ants, and I will erect a shrine in your honor and burn incense there night and day for the next three centuries.

Big Myrtle's Tea Shoppe and Egg Emporium proudly presents our review of what to do about fire ants.  To our indulgent neighbors from the north who don't have to deal with this scourge, thank you for your patience.

continued at Daily Kos....

eKos Earthship Monday, Kids Cereal Recall, Dispersant Issues and Plastic Islands

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: Ellinorianne

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos....

EcoJustice: Truth & Reconciliation for the Gulf

by citisven

In tonight's EcoJustice diary I'd like to present an idea that has been going around my head since it became clear that the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe wasn't "just" another oil spill:
If we are looking to achieve true and lasting environmental justice and restoration, it would behoove us to set up something along the lines of an ecological Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Gulf.
Unlike any other TRC ever attempted, it would be the first of its kind to represent non-human victims, such as fish and birds killed and defiled by swaths of crude oil.
The thoughts behind the idea below the fold.


continued at Daily Kos....

Reid Calls The Bluff Of The Climate Peacocks

by The Cunctator

From the Wonk Room.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is giving obstructionist senators a chance to finally take action on climate and clean energy, after they attempted to block the "unelected bureaucracy" of the Environmental Protection Agency from doing so. After holding a "thrilling" climate caucus with his members last week, the Democratic majority leader plans to bring an "impenetrable" comprehensive package of legislation to repair the damage caused by fossil fuels to our economy and our planet.

continued at Daily Kos....

Macca's Meatless Monday...Basil, It's You (with McCartney concert!)

by beach babe in fl

In this weekly series we have been discussing the benefits of a vegetarian diet including: better health, animal rights, global food crisis, food safety, frugal living and the immense contribution of meat production to climate change/depletion of resources.

Animal products are important because more than half of the world's crops are used to feed animals, not people.

Agricultural production accounts for a staggering 70% of the global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use, and 14% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture and food consumption are identified as one of the most important drivers of environmental pressures, especially habitat change, climate change, water use and toxic emissions.

continued at Daily Kos....

MN-03: Meffert - "Let's have an honest conversation about clean energy"

by Jim Meffert for Congress

Listen to MN-03  challenger and Democratic Farmer-Labor party (Minnesota's Democratic party) endorsed candidate Jim Meffert talk about the across-the-board changes we have to make in our country to achieve a real clean energy future in our country:

continued at Daily Kos....

Dolphins "Basted" in Oil Are Watching Us

by BlueDragon

Humans have made a living hell for the most beautiful creatures on this planet.

For nearly forty years I have been more than enchanted with Cetacea, especially dolphins.  I believe John Lilly was correct about the intellectual capacity of Cetacea in general and the bottlenose dolphin in particular.

The video over the fold was posted two days ago.  It comes from a familiar source:

John Walten

http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/...

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Turning Tykes Into Eco-Activists

by dantilson

It's hard to know what to tell young children about the biggest news story of our time, the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Four-year-olds are curious by nature, to say the least. They're such indiscriminate information sponges that it can be darned difficult keeping big news of the "real world" out of their intake zone, even if you try.

Heaven knows must of us are careful not to sit them down in front of the evening news and go off to make dinner. But they still manage to catch wind of some of the more super-sized news stories of our day & age.

When that happens, it feels to this parent like the safest thing to do is offer some factual context, and some reassurance - enough information to create a basic understanding of what's happening, without nightmare-inducing levels of detail. Then let them question, comment, vent a little as needed, treating them like the little emerging citizens of the world that they are, complete with free speech rights (within reason, that is!).

continued at Daily Kos....

My Dogs Have Gone Green

by Dem Beans

Last summer, I adopted a kitten that was being given away by a neighbor.  The kitten was great.  The fleas he carried into my home were not.

Within weeks my Pomeranians were scratching and upon examining them I found a small number of fleas on each.  Horrified, I treated them all with Frontline, which I regret to this day.  One of my dogs had a serious skin reaction from it, and he still suffers from a skin condition as a result.

Obviously, another approach was required, and I started to research a better solution to flea control. The more I read, the more I realized how toxic most pesticide-based flea products for dogs and cats can be.  

continued at Daily Kos....

What I Learned in Detroit

by Reverend Billy

At the United States Social Forum in Detroit I concentrated on three areas:  reclaiming the commons, organic farms and the end of mountaintop removal.  My idea was that this trinity of issues make a revolutionary combination.

continued at Daily Kos....

Video: Dolphins and Whale Struggle to Survive in BP Oil Slick

by RogerShuler

Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer

A new video from an Alabama environmental investigator shows more than 50 dolphins, some of them dying, in the BP oil slick. The video also shows a sperm whale with oil all around its blow hole and red splotches down its back, as if it's been "basted in crude."

John Wathen provided perhaps the most dramatic early images of the oil spill and uttered the unforgettable phrase: "The Gulf appears to be bleeding." In his latest video--filmed June 21--Wathen provides disturbing images of the struggle for life in the Gulf of Mexico.

continued at Daily Kos....

Really. It IS time to Blame Canada, re climate bill.

by newusername

First of all, I do not mean blame Canadians, or the country as a whole. The vast majority of Canadians are very progressive, and vote that way.  But that majority has been held hostage for years by a political logjam.

The problem is that the center and left in Canada are divided into three significant parties. And all of the right wing support is in the hands of a well-disguised far-right circle of corporatists. People used to call them Bush/Cheney light, when a more accurate description is probably Bush/Cheney sly. Rand Paul on mute.

They are one with the oil industry in every practical way, and as a result the current Canadian government is partnered with big oil, and working hard to weaken climate legislation in the US.

continued at Daily Kos....

Action! Tell The White House: It's Time For James Hansen!

by WarrenS

Well, the great climatologist James Hansen got another important prize.  Meanwhile, he continues to be (shamefully) ignored here at home.  

Time for some action, doncha think?

Here's something simple all of us can do to help Dr. Hansen, and to help our embattled planet:

Tell The White House — It's Time For James Hansen To Get What He Deserves.

I just faxed the letter below to the White House: 202-456-2461. I'll be sending a hard copy in today's mail (The White House / 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW / Washington, DC 20500 ).

Perhaps some of us here at the GOS could do likewise.  Calling the WH is easy: 202-456-1111.  Emailing them is easy, too.

continued at Daily Kos....

Good plan

by Jed Lewison

So yesterday was declared an official day of prayer to plug BP's leaking well by state governors along the Gulf Coast (plus Alaskan half-termer Sarah Palin).

Meanwhile, also yesterday:

Oil spill makes first landfall on Mississippi mainland, hits Alabama beaches

Countless patches of light oil sheen moved into waters north of the barrier islands of Alabama and Mississippi on Sunday, as brown and orange blobs washed ashore from Orange Beach to as far west as Ocean Springs.

Boats worked to corral iridescent sheen just north of Dauphin Island's Katrina cut Sunday morning.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast for Sunday showed the main body of light oil completely surrounding Dauphin Island for the first time since oil started pouring into the Gulf of Mexico in late April.

I've got a prayer: God save us from these idiots.

continued at Daily Kos....

Making Drilling Safer Using Magnitude Of Regret

by Something the Dog Said

I know that post might be drowned out by the death of Sen. Byrd (R.I.P Senator, your service will be remembered for a long time) and the start of confirmation hearings for Elana Kagan (Release the Kagan!) but given the intense pressure that short-sighted politicians are putting on the administration for the resumption of deep water drilling I thought it is worth looking at what we might be able to do to decrease the chance of another of these accidents.

BP and the other oil companies rated the chance of a major blow out as statistically zero. This was a huge mistake in and of itself. The odds of picking all six numbers in a 42 number lotto drawing are 184 million to one. You have a better chance of being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day than doing picking those numbers. Yet they are picked all the time. On average there is a jackpot won every 4 weeks. 184 million to one are effectively and statistically the same thing as zero chance, but as the example shows zero does not mean no chance.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

continued at Daily Kos....

A Sickening in the Gulf Stream

by Bob Higgins

[Editor's note: This began as a comment this morning to "Oil spill: The nightmare becomes reality" a Carl Hiaasen piece on the arrival of BP's poisonous gusher of crud on the shores of Pensacola.]

Originally posted at my site Bob Higgins

Carl,

You're right; it is difficult for people living far from our coasts to feel the horrible weight of this disaster.

I live in Ohio but have lived on the coasts of California and North Carolina. I have also lived through and helped clean up an oil spill near San Francisco in 1970 or thereabouts. I have friends and family though who have never seen or at least never lived near the sea and had it become, as seems inevitable to me, a part of them.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 34

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY: ROV #151.

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

To repeat: please refrain from commenting in this mothership diary, unless you're volunteering for a submersible shift.

continued at Daily Kos....

It doesn't smell like a beach.  It smells like a gas station.

by icebergslim

Pensacola Beach, the way it used to be.....

continued at Daily Kos....

Walk, don't run (your engine) {ECSTASY}

by LaughingPlanet

I am a bona fide DFH.

I am coming clean, just don't ask me to take more than the minimum number of showers required to be tolerated in our modern world.

With that said, now more than ever, the DFH ethos is proving to have been right all along. Organic foods, once a fringe boutique food item, can be found at Walmart. Going green, once popular only amongst frogs, is now cooler than ever amongst image-conscious people and corporations alike. Climate change, once just a theory known as the greenhouse effect, is now a scientific fact backed by 98% of the world's scientists, and 100% of the population of non-stupid people worldwide.

The final hurdle of our eleventy-bazillion mile barefoot hippie high hurdle marathon in the little fact that even the most granola-filled and hippified amongst us still burn oil. Lots of oil.

The good news is that the solution is simple and has served mankind just fine for millennia: WALKING

x-posted @ TLP

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Nixes Congress Talking to Key Employees (and other BP News)

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

Stupak: BP Won't Let Congress Talk To Key Employees, but not ready to issue subpoenas now.

The chairman of a House panel investigating the Gulf oil spill said Friday that BP won't let members talk to several employees who may have critical information about what led to the catastrophe.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., told The Associated Press that BP PLC has cited its own investigation as its reason for denying access to the employees.

This is not the first time BP has tried to control governmental probes of BP. The excuse of BP's own internal investigation was used to wiggle its way onto a governmental probe team where it succeeded in flipping employees to recant prior statements unfavorable to BP. Congress does not need to give BP an inch:  BP’s approval ratings of 6% is approaching Saddam Hussein’s 3%, a person that "our nation has gone to war against."

continued at Daily Kos....

Unexpected Environmental Alliances Amidst The Oil Spill: 'Jesus Will Rip Your Head Off'

by PaulLoeb

In the wake of the BP disaster, we've heard powerful stories from fishermen whose livelihoods may have been destroyed for decades or longer. However long it takes for the Gulf's fish, oyster and shrimp harvests to recover, those who've made their livelihoods harvesting them will need to create a powerful common voice if they're not going to continue to be made expendable. A powerful model comes from Seattle and Alaska salmon fisherman Pete Knutson, who has spent thirty-five years engaging his community to take environmental responsibility, creating unexpected alliances to broaden the impact of their voice, and in the process defeating massive corporate interests.

"You'd have a hard time spawning, too, if you had a bulldozer in your bedroom," Pete reminds us, explaining the destruction of once-rich salmon spawning grounds by commercial development and timber industry clearcutting. Pete could have simply accepted this degradation as inevitable, focusing on getting a maximum share of dwindling fish populations. Instead, he's gradually built an alliance between fishermen, environmentalists, and Native American tribes, persuading them to work collectively to demand that habitat be preserved and restored and to use the example of the salmon runs to highlight larger issues like global climate change.

continued at Daily Kos....

New Gulf video; Oiled & dying dolphins and whales

by worldforallpeopleorg

Whenever we get a shift to sustainability - years from now or decades, it will be because enough people have realized deeply enough that we absolutely have to find a way. Spreading that realization is slow going. Jarring videos like this new one may be our best hope.

continued at Daily Kos....

What is Behind the War - Our Real Issue and What I Can Do

by Ellinorianne

We can argue all we want about why we fight but ultimately the issue comes down to resources and what is at stake it is the survival of us as a species and our place in the world.

Our hubris as a species has not only put us in peril but has systematically wiped out species after species due to habitat loss from our encroachment on their space because we just need more.  

Deforestation, desertification and urban sprawl is snatching up vital space and pushing out species at an alarming rate.

continued at Daily Kos....

National Works Alternative Energy Program

by shpilk

In rough order of priority, here's what I'd be proposing in Congress.

Start with a national program.

Fund it by Federal surcharges on stock transactions, interest and dividend payments, profits from sales of property, taxation on Estates, and progressively apply these taxes. Here's a rough guide .. additional taxation for families making more than $100K/year add 1%, $250K/year 2%, $500K/year 3%, $1M/year 5%, $10M/year 10%, over $100M/year 25%. The rich will still be rich. They'll just be paying part of their fair share. Is that 'socialism'?

First, take these funds, and use them to hire Americans, using American made materials to upgrade, retrofit and reconfigure existing residential, government and business spaces to be more efficient. This will require labor, materials, technical management and engineering assets, it would employ unskilled as well as skilled labor. Our level of energy waste is horrendous and must be curtailed.

next ..

continued at Daily Kos....

James Hansen Awarded, but NOT yet Acknowledged

by jamess


Climate Scientists Awarded Prestigious Blue Planet Prize
Environmental News Service -- June 20, 2010

TOKYO, Japan, (ENS) - Two prominent climate scientists - one from Great Britain and one from the United States - have been are the winners of the 2010 Blue Planet Prize, an international environmental award which is considered to be Japan's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
[...]
Professor [Dr. Robert] Watson was chosen because of his significant part in providing scientific evidence for the depletion of the ozone layer in the 1980s, leading to the Montreal Protocol which banned ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs, and for his more recent role in bringing together science and policy to protect the global climate, as a former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Professor Watson said, " [...] It is a particular honor to receive it in the same year as James Hansen who has played a critical role in the climate change debate."

continued at Daily Kos....

A Sense of Place and a Changing World

by matching mole

'I have to be where I can see the sea'

Just now I was introduced to a relatively new word while listening to 'To The Best of Our Knowledge' on NPR.  The word is solastalgia, coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht.  The word is a 'riff' (using Albrecht's phrase from the NPR interview) on Nostalgia.  Nostalgia, a word coined in the 17th century, refers to a melancholy desire to return to a home you have left (the meaning has been broadened since then).  Solastalgia refers to melancholy due to changes to your home (i.e. your home has left you).

continued at Daily Kos....

News from the Arctic: 27 June 2010

by billlaurelMD

This is the next in an occasional series of diaries on the state of Northern Hemisphere Arctic sea ice (and other topics as warranted), written in memory of Johnny Rook, who passed away in early 2009. He was the author of the Climaticide Chronicles.

In my diary last week, I neglected to put the header acknowledging Johnny Rook's contributions to the environmental diaries here at Daily Kos.  I apologize for the oversight.

Okay, now on to this week's news.  The international study of the Arctic still goes on, despite our economic troubles.  At the North Pole in April 2010, two buoys with weather instruments were launched.  They're currently drifting south toward an area between Greenland and Svalbard called the Fram Strait; the green and red lines in the map below show their path through 11 June. At 26 June their locations were about a third of a degree or so further south than shown in the map.

More below.

continued at Daily Kos....

Dawn Chorus: Vermont's "Northeast Kingdom"

by juliewolf

Crossposted to Vermont's Green Mountain Daily

Birding and camping in Northern Vermont this month took us through Island Pond, Victory Basin and a part of the Sylvio Conte refuge network.  We had good sightings of birds, butterflies and even one fairly cool sighting of a young bull moose.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 33

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY: Gulf Watchers ROV - # 146.

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

To repeat: please refrain from commenting in this mothership diary, unless you're volunteering for a submersible shift.

continued at Daily Kos....

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solstice and Lunar Eclipse edition)

by Neon Vincent

Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.

This week's featured story comes from CBS News.

Partial Lunar Eclipse Comes and Goes
by Charles Cooper

A partial eclipse took place early Saturday when the earth passed between the sun and the moon.

The event , which was visible to many in western stretches of North America and parts of  the Asia-Pacific region, began at 3:17 a.m. PDT (1017 GMT) and ended about three hours later.

There will be a total solar eclipse on July 11.

More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

continued at Daily Kos....

To an oil-fearing Floridian threatening to go GOP

by tbetz

A friend writes:

In a discussion with a friend concerning the republicans and their lack of response to the oil in the gulf problem except to get more and more involved with bp: a friend is letting me have it as though it is my problem that obama has not responded the way she wants to because she is in florida. So I mentioned the lack of response by the republicans and that obama is trying but gets stopped [...] and that obama has done stuff, and all of that. What is your take on all of this? thanks

There is a myth that the government has secret magic technologies available that would clean this oil mess up, but the fact is that nobody does.  Why?  Because Republicans have consistently made sure that we don't require oil companies to develop such technologies before drilling oil wells. The only way to stop oil from leaking from oil wells is to prevent it from happening, and for 30 years, Republicans have consistently prevented government regulatory agencies from doing that, as well.

continued at Daily Kos....

Rain falls in Imladris

by AndyS In Colorado

The year 1998 was the year of eternal autumn for me.  Now, it feels like those days are here again.

It's raining here.  Water world, Caladan ... Global warming run amuck.  Is here the last bastion of humanfolk?  The last bastion of the free people of middle earth?

Our climate is changing.  I have lived here all my life, and I can feel it.  As the economy dredges, one hundred years to a halt, here, the Rocky Mountain High, is becoming a temperate rain forest.

And I think .. Rivendell.  The autumn leaves swirl.  From my childhood, I can smell the smoke of burning leaves.  Burning pine needles as our forests turn brown with the ravages of the pine beetle.  Burning leaves.  It's a smell from my youth, from innocuous and unknowing people and causes, plying the results of their uncaring into the atmosphere.  But I remember it fondly, alongside the acrid diesel of the airport.  The end of days, the burning leaves, the hubris of human technological triumph.  Twinned in complex carbon compounds.

continued at Daily Kos....

A Key Strand in the Web of Life: PhytoPlankton

by jamess

Please watch the Planet's Forests, Inhale and Exhale, with the Seasons ...

Observing Plant Life Health From Space

http://www.youtube.com/...

Now, watch Earth's "Ocean Forests", Breathe in and out, as well ...

Observing The Biosphere From Space

http://www.youtube.com/...

continued at Daily Kos....

Dems Go Big, Part 1: Bingaman Spill Bill Analysis

by RLMiller

The big news out of Washington on matters environmental has been a unanimous decision by Senate Democrats to craft an impenetrable package: a legislative strategy "more akin to the financial regulatory legislation than of health care, with Democrats bringing to the floor an impenetrable package that Republicans could not roadblock."  Specifically, they "plan to anchor the climate and energy effort to widely popular legislation that would overhaul offshore drilling regulations in the wake of the Gulf spill, and then dare Republicans to vote against it."

The "widely popular" legislation, already fast-tracked for action, is S.3516, the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010 drafted by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).  Analysis of that bill below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

A Crime against Nature

by David Kroning II

As an environmental historian who has worked on fisheries-related issues, for more than two decades, I’m not surprised by the popular discourse surrounding the calamatous oil gusher still pumping millions of gallons of crude uncontrollably into the Gulf of Mexico.  It is only the most recent assault in a long, destructive and attrocious campaign waged by humans in an effort to expand their exploitation of the planet's dwindling resources.   The most frequent questions that have arisen from this latest environmental crisis could have been written in advance out of the rhetoric of the last crisis. We hear people asking: "What does this mean for fishermen and their ‘way of life’",  "What does this mean for tourism and the dollars tourists bring to the region?", "What does this mean for the political futures of this politician or that one?", "What will this mean for the price of shrimp, or the availability of oysters?" In short, "What does this mean for us?"

continued at Daily Kos....

FRACK YOU, Mother Earth!

by A Siegel

For too long, on my "to do" list has been to post on the serious questions related to the booming in America's natural gas reserves due to the development of "Fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) technology and approaches that have enabled exploitation of the massive amount of carbon atoms in shale natural gas.

We know that "Clean Coal" is an oxymoronic lie useful as an advertising slogan but (generously speaking) little substance behind it (at best, "less dirty coal" could be accurate).  Deepwater Horizon has given us a very clear understanding that "Beyond Petroleum" made people feel good while the Bloody Polluters having been happily taking their cash to the bank.  Yet, "clean natural gas" is a term that seems to roll off far too many tongues without, it seems, any realization of the irony that the best we can do with a fossil fuel is make it "less dirty" as opposed to clean.

continued at Daily Kos....

Oilwellian

by good grief

Watching the BP oil disaster unfold, lurking in the back of my mind has been a disturbing realization that the American people have few options for trustable protection -- from corporations or from our elected government -- when it comes to something like health safety after exposure to the toxic mixture of oil, methane and Corexit and its vapors, at sea, in the wetlands or on the beach. When one drills down, as it were, one finds a curious disingenuousness that can be described as, well, Oilwellian.

Who can we trust?

Let's start with the NYTimes 6-18-10 report that BP's toxic testing firm, the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH), had a questionable record in prior chemical exposures before it became BP's main source of testing on health effects after the Mocando blowout disaster:

After a million gallons of oil spilled on a Louisiana town in 2005, after a flood of toxic coal ash smothered central Tennessee in 2008 and after defective Chinese drywall began plaguing Florida homeowners, the same firm [CTEH] was on the scene -- saying everything was fine.

continued at Daily Kos....

by Pakalolo

Fifteen miles southwest of Fort Myers, Fl is a sub-tropical barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico named Sanibel Island. A good portion of this small, and very wealthy I might add, island has been preserved as a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling was instrumental in blocking the sale of this portion of Sanibel Island to developers and in 1945 the Sanibel Island NWR was signed into law by President Harry Truman. In 1967 the refuge was renamed J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge to honor the hard work of the person who made this refuge possible.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 32

by Liveblog

Please rec the New Mothership. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: BP Oilpocalypse Liveblog ROV #144.

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

continued at Daily Kos....

Poor Graham: BP Disaster mucks up his politics {eKos Earthship Friday}

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Tonight's editor: patrickz

••
••

Is this the year the United States finally puts a price on carbon? While Senator Lindsey Graham (R-CRYBABY) pouts, Reid and the rest of the Democratic Caucus have decided to go big or go home on climate change.

Meanwhile, Asian carp threaten to destroy the ecology of the Great Lakes, sea cucumbers warn us about climate change in the deep, and scientists put the pieces together in understanding the end of the last ice age.

This and more in tonight's edition of the eKos Earthship.

••
••

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos....

May 2010 ... 393 ppm ... and CO2 is Accelerating

by jamess

We live in Epic Times.

For nearly the last Million years, CO2 levels in the Atmosphere, stayed mostly below 300 ppm (parts per million).

Well those happy days are apparently over.

Welcome to the New Normal!

CO2Now.org

Earth's CO2 Home Page

Atmospheric CO2 for May 2010

392.94 ppm

larger image

Preliminary data released June 7, 2010 (NOAA-ESRL MLO)

Well maybe 393 PPM of CO2 is not really that big of a deal?

CO2Now.org

What level is safe?

The upper safety limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm). Atmospheric CO2 levels have stayed higher than 350 ppm since early 1988.

Well maybe that extra 43 ppm's is not really big enough to matter?  (... we can hope.)

continued at Daily Kos....

Washington Wilts While Arctic Melts

by A Siegel

Simply put, Washington, DC, weather is miserable at this time.  It feels like the middle of August, at the moment, with temperatures nearing 100 degree with very high humidity. Life for many: air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned office, with too much sweat in the seconds moving from one air-conditioned space to another.

Right now, with temperatures predicted in the high 90s for most of the  coming days, we're about to shatter the record for the hottest June on record (see Capital Climate).  In fact, the current June average temperature of 79.5 degrees is 5 degrees above the norm and 0.3 degrees higher than a typical July.

A frequently heard question heard from 10 year olds and 70 year olds alike: If June is like this, what will August be like?

continued at Daily Kos....

Weekly Mulch: As risks for oil and gas grow, USSF offers change

by The Media Consortium

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
BP oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico for more than two months, and while attention has focused there, deepwater oil drilling is just one of many risky methods of energy extraction that industry is pursuing. Gasland, Josh Fox’s documentary about the effects of hydrofracking, a new technique for extracting natural gas, was broadcast this week on HBO. In the film, Fox travels across the country visiting families whose water has turned toxic since gas companies began drilling in their area.


continued at Daily Kos....

Whales: "No future, except extinction" - biologist

by worldforallpeopleorg

The ocean is still pretty - if you steer your yaught clear of the oily sections and swirling eddies of millions of tons of plastic garbage. But it is not healthy.  

"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction. This not on anybody's radar, no government's radar anywhere, and I think it should be."

The canary in the coal mine has become the whale in the ocean. New information;

continued at Daily Kos....

Village Green: Thinking about the economics of sustainable communities

by Kaid at NRDC

Earlier this month, I spoke to the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects in Miami Beach, as part of a session on neighborhood density.  We had a sizable, knowledgeable and attentive audience, and I was struck by the fact that most of the comments and questions after our session were about what we need to do to craft sustainable urban economies, not the facts and figures we had presented regarding the market for walkable neighborhoods, how to design for environmental sustainability, and the dividends that urban densities can bring to their communities.

continued at Daily Kos....

Arctic Sea Ice Meltdown Accelerates: DK Greenroots

by FishOutofWater

Thin Arctic sea ice, is cracking up and melting down at record rates so far this year. A central core of ice north of Greenland is intact while most of ice is failing across the Arctic. The melting of Arctic sea ice has more profound ecological and climatological implications than the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Arctic sea ice concentration.

continued at Daily Kos....

Protein

by bigjacbigjacbigjac

This is actually another of my overpopulation alarm diaries.

But I feel a need to focus on a particular point, the question of what is the ideal human diet.

I got a diary on the rec list, but many thoughtful readers firmly disagreed with my statement on the topic of nutrition.

This is important, because if we are to make proposals of how many humans would be sustainable on the planet, we need to define, to some extent, what lifestyle we are proposing for the humans of the future.

Fewer humans, yes, but living in what housing, drinking water from what sources, and filtered and processed how, and what nutrition, what balance between protein, fats, and carbs, and what sources for vitamins and minerals, and what sources of protein, fats, and carbs?

On none of these questions should our answer be a shrug of the shoulders and a vague mumbling of whatever has been working, because that would be advocating business as usual, and that strategy has us heading straight for disaster, and quickly so.

We need to think about these things.

I certainly do not have all the answers, but I know we cannot get stuck in analysis paralysis.

I have some ideas, below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership:  #31

by Liveblog

The current ROV DIARY: BP Oilpocalypse ROV #141.

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

To repeat: please refrain from commenting in this mothership diary, unless you're volunteering for a submersible shift.

continued at Daily Kos....

OK..Now there is Oily kids...SHUT DOWN THE BEACH

by Vetwife

I have been very distraught about the Gulf and
the wildlife and the sand but there is clearly
child endangerment going on in Destin.

I am posting this so people will see just how
ignorant people are and how desperate they are
to buy the propoganda of "Come on in, the water's fine".

We have dolphins dying and wildlife dying and stupid
parents allowing children to swim inhttp://www.youtube.com/...

continued at Daily Kos....

International Whaling Commission - It is Time to Stop Whaling

by Ellinorianne

This was the week that many conservationists were dreading because there was a compromise on the table at the International Whaling Commissions annual Meeting in Morroco. The deal was supposed to spare lives while giving up the moratorium on commercial whaling by allowing Japan, Norway and Iceland to whale under very strict guidelines, to slaughter whales within smaller quotas than the ones they follow today.

For many like me, this compromise was still too many whales killed.  Many scientists agreed that the quotas agreed to were unsustainable under any circumstance and no matter how closely they were monitored.

continued at Daily Kos....

Breaking: Harry Reid's High Stakes Climate Gamble

by RLMiller

First, 57 Democratic Senators walked out of a caucus meeting today sounding like they'd been to a summer blockbuster movie instead.  The meeting was thrilling and inspirational.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"A number of senators said this was the best caucus they've ever attended," Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said at a press conference after the meeting. "It was really very, very powerful. It was inspirational, quite frankly."

And within a few hours, we learn why Democratic Senators sound like 57 cats who hijacked the cream truck: Reid is making a high-stakes gamble on a climate bill.  Not a clean energy bill, but a climate bill to cap greenhouse gases.  Details below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

Another environmental disaster about to happen.....

by moose67

I love Michigan.  Anyone who has ever seen the fantastic Great Lakes, fished our bountiful streams or walked our beautiful beaches which rival those of California or Florida would feel as strongly as I do.  If you've seen our "Pure Michigan" ads, you get a little glimpse of how protective we are of our natural resources.  But now, as the Gulf is being damaged beyond anything we can imagine for generations to come, by our demand for oil riches - the Great Lakes are on the verge of ecological disaster too.  

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Takes Another Life-Updated with Help Resource Info

by Oke

The criminals running loose are responsible for another life lost.
Gulf boat captain shoots himself on boat's deck

A Gulf of Mexico charter boat captain from Alabama committed suicide yesterday after he allegedly became too upset over the BP oil spill ruining the charter boat business.

UPDATE: I don't like presenting issues without some form of solution or action. There is a resource available for mental health and suicide.

continued at Daily Kos....

Bad Decision Overturns Drilling Moratorium

by rebb

crossposted at intlawgrrls

On June 22, Judge Martin Feldman of the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction overturning the Department of Interior’s May 28, 2010 Temporary Moratorium on deepwater drilling. Several facets of this decision are truly astonishing. Nowhere in the decision is there any recognition of the unique, emergency circumstances or the grave threat to the public that the agency was seeking to combat. Nor did the judge pay much attention to the express and explicit congressional intention that offshore oil activities be suspended when necessary to protect against environmental threats.

continued at Daily Kos....

On Being Philistines

by rserven

Pelican Gate

Some of you have been following along with a local story I have been following for quite some time (last October):  the proposed destruction of an old-growth forest in West Orange, NJ by the administrators of Seton Hall Prep and the Archdiocese of Newark, as abetted...or in some cases just ignored...by the West Orange Zoning Board and elected officials.

Originally this was a story of people who had no concern for the environment or the value of old trees.  Then it became the story of the destruction of the habitat for an endangered species.  It progressed to being a story of civil irresponsibility when workers for Seton Hall Prep were instructed to demolish some 90 year old Japanese yew trees in favor of what were called "test pits."  Exactly what was being tested was unclear.

continued at Daily Kos....

Putting a Price on Carbon -- Polluting must No Longer be Free

by jamess

Imagine your local Widget Factory, employs dozens of workers,
to put together hundreds of the latest Must-have Widgets, each and every day.

Now imagine this Widget Factory, in the hopes of increasing profits,
took all its industrial by-product Gunk, gathered them up each day,
and quietly dumped them, each night around midnight, when no one was looking,
in the local River waterway.   Pollution be gone!

Instant Profit Gain, right?  No costly "Gunk Processing" equipment to buy or operate. No extra hidden costs, need be added to that Price of a Widget -- which could keep consumers from flocking to Widget Retail Outlets, right?

Wrong ... ONE Big Problem in this Free Market scheme ...

The Folks living downstream on that local River waterway!
The Folks making a living on the beauty and productivity of that River --

They all might notice that somethings up, in their once pristine Waterway?

They might eventually figure it out too, that "Widget One" has been "cutting corners", in its responsibility to be "good neighbors".

continued at Daily Kos....

One of the biggest fish kills in history of Endangered Species Act

by quaoar

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued a notice of violation and is seeking a $2.9 million fine from the city of Birmingham in Alabama for a 2008 incident in which city workers killed off more than half the population of a small endangered fish.

The fish kill resulted in the deaths of 11,760 watercress darters and injury to 8,900 other darters.

continued at Daily Kos....

FL-Sen: Rubio supports oil because it's safe

by Jed Lewison

Marco Rubio, running as a Republican for U.S. Senate from Florida, yesterday:

So now you’re talking about deep-water drilling. And I only want to see it if it can be done safely. And that’s why it’s so important that we study why this happened. And if you tell me we’re going to have to put up with a couple of more of these, of course not. But can it be done safely? There is evidence that it can be done safely. It’s being done safely all over the world.

So Rubio says he'll only support oil if it's safe, and then says there's evidence that "it's being done safely all over the world."

Case closed, right? Thanks to Dick Cheney's energy task force, oil is safe, right? Drill, baby, drill. Right?

Yeah. Uh, except there's always this:

It's being done safely all over the world. Except when it's not.

continued at Daily Kos....

It'd Cost You 7 Cents A Gallon To Ban Offshore Drilling!

by slinkerwink

You ready to pay seven cents per gallon in 2011, and eleven cents per gallon in 2035? That's exactly what would happen if we ban offshore drilling. Here's more on this from RFF Fellow, Stephen P.A. Brown, at the Resources For Future:

"If such risks are not taken fully into account, offshore oil and natural gas production will be too great; oil and natural gas prices will be too low; and the consumption of oil and natural gas will be too high," Brown writes. "Are tighter controls or a permanent ban on deepwater drilling in the United States a reasonable response to such externalities – or an overreaction?"

Brown assesses the implications of a permanent tightening of U.S. government control on deepwater offshore drilling through three scenarios. The first case represents business as usual. The second imposes additional regulatory safeguards that would increase the cost of exploration, development, and production in U.S. deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas by a combined 20 percent. The third case examines the implications of a permanent U.S. ban on drilling in deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas.

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Coast Attorneys File RICO Class Action Lawsuits Against BP

by bdemelle

Gulf Coast law firms Levin Papantonio, Eastland Law and others have begun filing a series of civil RICO actions in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to hold BP accountable for the false assurances it gave the American people that it could handle a worst-case scenario deepwater oil spill. The suits allege that BP committed mail fraud, wire fraud and potentially other RICO predicate act violations when the company sought permits from the federal government for deepwater offshore drilling, knowing that it did not possess the technical expertise or equipment necessary to respond to an emergency such as the ongoing Deepwater disaster.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

continued at Daily Kos....

California: Break the Oil Addiction Cycle

by Ella Arnold

For weeks on end we have watched our dependence on Big Oil cause the greatest environmental disaster this country has ever seen. We have been horrified by pictures like this. We have been saddened by the stories of all of the Gulf Coast residents who have lost their jobs and are now struggling to make ends meet. And we have been angered by the ineptitude of the BP executives who allowed this tragedy to happen and could not care less if the Gulf Coast ever recovers.

The attitude of corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility has once again reared its ugly head, this time in the state of California, where on Monday, a deceptive ballot initiative called the California Jobs Initiative qualified for the state's November ballot.

continued at Daily Kos....

New Aussie PM: limit carbon emissions. Poll.

by HeyMikey

This brief diary is intended to solicit comments from people more knowledgeable than I about Australian politics.

Australia has a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and she's promising to pursue some kind of limits on carbon emissions. This is particularly significant since Australia is a big coal exporter and high per-capita carbon emitter.

More over the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

TX Oil Companies Try to Kill CA Clean Energy Legislation

by NRDCActionFund

As if the oil companies from Texas – and their allies in the corridors of power - hadn’t done enough harm to our country already (for more, see the late, great Gulf of Mexico), now they are at it once again.  This time, it’s Valero and Tesoro, pouring money into a campaign this election season to undo California’s landmark, clean energy and climate law, AB 32.  On Tuesday, the oil companies’ proposition was certified for the November ballot. The fight, as they say, is on!

Why should you care?  Let us count the ways.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP to Alaska's seals, whales, polar bears: " You're Next"

by hester

Head meet wall. Just when you think it cannot get more insane, it does. The moratorium that the Potus declared in response to the catastrophe in the GOM, has not halted the off-shore drilling plans by BP in Alaska. In today's NY Times there is a long piece about how the criminally negligent BP is forging ahead with the Liberty Project.

Three miles off Alaska's coast, BP is set to drill 2 miles under the sea and then farther horizontally (6-8 miles) to get to the 100 million barrel reservoir in US waters. Why you may ask hasn't this project been halted along with other off-shore oil-drilling moratoria? Because they gamed the system by building a 31 acre pile of rock and gravel, in 20+ feet of water, so they can call it onshore. BP long ago received the state and federal permits and has only to file it's final application. Plans are to start drilling this fall.

There's more below.

continued at Daily Kos....