Tuesday, August 31, 2010

French Perspective: The World's Planet Page

by A Siegel

This summer represented the longest vacation in a long, three weeks spent in the homes of relatives and friends in France driven, in part, by a serious illness in the family. This time, often with (extremely) limited web access, provided some breathing space, too much weight gain with excellent food, and provided some windows on France and French society that reflect back on what is (or isn't) happening in the United States.

To be clear, no society is perfect ... which makes it ever more important to be open to lessons and learning from others ... especially if one really is interested in the continuing struggle to form a more perfect union.

Several weeks in France provided a window -- however obscured or partial -- on how France is changing in the face of mounting energy and climate challenges (domestically and locally) on the governmental, societal, and individual level.  This is the first, of which will likely be several, posts providing some thoughts derived from glancing through that window.



continued at Daily Kos....

Can Wind Power Save School Budgets?

by ManfromMiddletown

This past weekend, Laura Tyson made the case for a second stimulus in the New York Times. Things, you see, are looking down, particularly for the states. State budgets are being strained, and the prospect of teacher layoffs is a possibility without continued federal aid. Yet.....

The situation would be even worse without the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package passed in 2009. The conventional wisdom about the stimulus package is wrong: it has not failed. It is working as intended. Its spending increases and tax cuts have boosted demand and added about three million more jobs than the economy otherwise would have......

But by next year, the stimulus will end, and the flip from fiscal support to fiscal contraction could shave one to two percentage points off the growth rate at a time when the unemployment rate is still well above 9 percent. Under these circumstances, the economic case for additional government spending and tax relief is compelling....

Two forms of spending with the biggest and quickest bang for the buck are unemployment benefits and aid to state governments.



continued at Daily Kos....

Bjorn Lomborg Now Thinks We Should Fight Global Warming

by Dartagnan

After years of making a name for himself as the fossil fuel industry's favorite Climate Change Skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg has apparently now seen the folly of his ways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

Lomborg, once a critic of methods to reduce carbon emissions, now appears to have done a turnabout and now espouses the idea of a carbon tax.  



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 98

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #99 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #348 - Waiting on Weather - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Monday, August 30, 2010

Ecojustice - Katrina is All About Environmental Justice; Monday eKos Earthship

by eKos

PhotobucketWelcome 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

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 97

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



continued at Daily Kos....

Macca's Meatless Monday...Besame Barcelona

by beach babe in fl

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

Nitrous oxide is about 300 and methane about 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly methane and nitrous oxide, have increased steadily. In 2005 they accounted for 14 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

By 2055 the emissions  of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture could be cut by more than eighty percent, researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research find



continued at Daily Kos....

Rodents, maggots and steaming piles of hypocrisy at egg farms

by Deep Harm

Today, the FDA issued inspection reports on the two egg farms involved in a recall of half a billion eggs for salmonella contamination, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms.  Conditions were, shall we say, less than optimal.  

The inspectors found manure piles up to 8 feet high, holding doors open and giving wildlife access. "Wildlife" included live rodents, wild birds and a plague of flies, live and dead, including their larvae (maggots).  "Additional problems included overflowing manure pits, improper worker sanitation and wild birds [a potential source of avian influenza] roosting around feed bins," reports the New York Times.

The investigators also found salmonella bacteria in chicken feed and in barn and walkway areas, and in water used to wash eggs at a Hillandale facility.  It isn't clear, yet, which came first:  the salmonella or the egg.



continued at Daily Kos....

Coral Reefs Dying from Climate Change

by rebb

an earlier version was previously posted at intlawgrrls.com

As an avid diver, I wanted to cry when I read last week's announcement from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)  that coral reefs off the coast of Indonesia are being devastated by unusually warm sea waters. In what is being called "one of the most rapid and destructive coral bleaching events on record" large swaths of coral off the coast of Sumatra have died.

A world without coral reefs is too horrible to contemplate.  Not only would our destruction of coral reefs completely violate whatever social contract exists between generations, it would leave the world a sadder, uglier, and much poorer place.  We have to stop spewing carbon!!



continued at Daily Kos....

Judge quashes VA AG's subpoena of UVA/Michael Mann

by seesdifferent

The University of Virginia was given a was given a subpoena by VA Attorney General Cuccinelli, who wanted to investigate/imtimidate climate scientist Michael Mann (he of "hockey stick" fame) for possible fraud. The subpoena has now been quashed for lack of evidence.  

Judge Paul Peatross Jr. ruled that while the Virginia attorney general could investigate state grants awarded to scientists, Cuccinelli and his staff failed to demonstrate that such an investigation was warranted in this case. "The nature of the conduct is not stated so that any reasonable person could glean what Dr. Mann did to violate the statute," the judge wrote. "... The Court...understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann’s work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did that was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia."



continued at Daily Kos....

Science Tidbits

by possum

The time is here once again.  Time to gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day.  Science talk is here.  New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world.  Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world.  Today's tidbits include an ancient galaxy is still producing stars, a bug with bifocals, a 200-fold boost in fuel cell efficiency, "spintronics" offers possible next generation computers, biosynthetic corneas, and the North American continent is a layer cake.  Pull up that beach chair and relax.  There is plenty of room for everyone.  Settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.



continued at Daily Kos....

Celosia: Nature’s Prettiest Vegetable

by NourishingthePlanet

Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

You may know it as that pretty ornamental flower in your garden, but did you know that Celosia could also be a delicious snack? This beautiful plant with flame-like flowers is actually a common and important food in parts of tropical Africa, its original home



continued at Daily Kos....

Broken food chains

by Steve Masover

I wrote in late May  about industrial food production, as an exemplar of a general thesis  that complexity breeds collapse. And here we go again: news in the U.S.  press this week skews heavily toward eggs contaminated with salmonella.  Not just one or two eggs. We're talking "recall of a half-billion eggs from two mega-farms in Iowa" according to Friday's San Francisco Chronicle.



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 97

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #98 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #346 - Watching and Waiting - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Gulf Watchers Overnight / Tomtech

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Hawai'i Underwater - A Photo Diary

by Haole in Hawaii

This is another in a series of diaries meant only as a brief respite from the stuggles and infuriations of the day and as a reminder that we share this planet with all manner of amazing critters.  These photos were taken during a handfull of dives over the past two weekends including a night dive last night at Pupukea Marine Reserve. I hope you enjoy your visit.

082410_0438
Lanikai Beach



continued at Daily Kos....

UPDATE: We just have to take it for ourselves. Nobody's going to help us.

by Muskegon Critic

Well...we did it.

We did our first ever pro-wind power parade in Muskegon during Roosevelt Park Day. Incidentally, Roosevelt Park is a 1 square mile city in Muskegon built around a factory, CWC Textron, in the 1940's. If you got a job there, the company would finance a house for you and give you a set of plans to choose from. A lot of little Cape Cods were built there. Well laid out, 1200 square foot homes. The theory behind the planned city was, a worker with a stable life was a better worker.

Yep. Long time ago.

Anyway, back to the parade.

Planned and organized by three members of our group, the West Michigan Jobs Group, we got on the ground and kept up rallying support for wind power. I gotta confess, I basically just showed up to the parade and brought literature, it was the three others who planned the whole thing.



continued at Daily Kos....

Sunday Train: Can Trains Help Win the Day in Australia?

by BruceMcF

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

It seems as if many people have been paying more attention to the Beckapalooza in DC ... and the whole furor had me initially confused, as originally I thought it was something to do with Beck the Mongolian Chop Squad ...

But last weekend, there was an election in Australia, and on the night it seemed like it could be the closest in Australian history. As the week went on, that proved to be the case. And I got to thinking, listening to the various independents that hold the balance of power, that there could well be an unlikely working partnership available, where trains could help delivered a progressive governing majority on the most improbable of foundations.


NB: the grassfire in a dry lake bed shot that I use on occasion is in fact from Australia, suffering what has been characterized as a long running drought, but what seems more likely to be a secular shift to a dryer climate.



continued at Daily Kos....

Time to blame climate change for extreme weather?

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

Scientists are working on linking extreme weather events happening today to climate change now. Scientists have been careful in the past to state the distinction between weather and climate change. As NASA states, some "scientists define climate as the average weather for a particular region and time period, usually taken over 30-years."   Some scientists and government officials have recently moved the ball forward, saying that the Pakistan floods and Russian fires might be linked to climate change.  Last week, atmospheric scientists met to discuss Attribution of Climate-Related Events or the use of simulations to calculate probabilities for extreme climate events now.



continued at Daily Kos....

Biodiversity Photodiary: Carnivorous Plants and Friends (aka Little Blog of Horrors)

by matching mole

This is the international year for biodiversity.  Early this year I planned to write a series of diaries in honor of the year.  I haven't got very far but will try to make up for it now.  Yesterday I finally visited a habitat I'd heard quite a bit about ever since we first considered moving to Tallahassee over three years ago.  Although the Florida panhandle is called the redneck Riviera and is rightfully known for its right wing politics, it is also one of the most biodiverse regions of the US.  The long leaf pine forests, rivers, and swamps house an incredible diversity of plants, reptiles, and other forms of life.  One spectacular example of this diversity are bogs filled with carnivorous plants.



continued at Daily Kos....

A cautionary tale of corn and corruption in California

by RLMiller

A couple of weeks ago, a small story appeared in the Stockton Record: Ethanol Supports Approved:

Pacific Ethanol Inc. said Wednesday that its two California production plants, including a currently idle facility in Stockton, have been accepted by the state Energy Commission for a new price support program.

The California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program would provide payments to ethanol producers when market conditions are poor but would require the payments be reimbursed when economics improve....

The incentive program itself is stalled, however, by the ongoing state budget impasse....

Pacific Ethanol's operating subsidiaries, including its California production plants in Stockton and Madera, emerged from Bankruptcy Court reorganization in late June. Both remain offline, waiting for market conditions to improve.

Below the fold, multiple layers of wrong.



continued at Daily Kos....

Sourcing Skepticism ...

by A Siegel

Skepticism... the ability to question unquestioned beliefs and stated certainties is a powerful intellectual tool.

Sadly, "skepticism" is receiving a bad name through association with those erady, willing, able, and enthusiastic about denying the reality before their (and our) own eyes about the global changes in climate patterns and humanity's role in driving these changes.

Questioner ... Skeptic ... Denier ...

To often, it seems, skeptics/deniers are simply stated as derived from X motivation, Y reasoning when, in reality, the situation is more complex.  While it quite possibly exists, I have yet to see a treatise examining and deconstructing different types and motivations for deniers and skeptics when it comes to Global Warming.

Join me, after the fold, for a  shot at Typing Skeptics: Providing a Window on the Varying Motivations for Global Warming Skeptics ...



continued at Daily Kos....

Climate News: 29 August 2010

by billlaurelMD

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

Arctic sea ice is in the forefront of the news I have today.  But I also have a graphic of the globally integrated near-surface temperature to show you all below.

Global Mean Temperature Time Series from U of Alabama Huntsville, 1998-2010
UAHnearsfctemps_20100827

All but a few days in July have been warmer in 2010 than any of the previous 12 years. This is something not at all surprising given the kind of climate year we've had to date. That this is the case as we have transitioned to a La Niña from an El Niño in the last few months, however, may well be unprecedented.

More below.



continued at Daily Kos....

Dawn Chorus: Spur Of The Moment

by Kestrel

This is literally a spur of the moment Dawn Chorus which I'm throwing up because our normally scheduled host hasn't appeared at the appointed hour. The last time that happened, we later discovered it was because she lost her computer connection and couldn't post anything. So, perhaps she's just late and Dawn Chorus will appear momentarily (in which case this diary can be deleted) but I'm posting this as an alternative while we wait.

Few words, mostly pics, over the fold.



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 96

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #97 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #344 - Broken Handle & Stack Removal - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Recession causes U.S. birthrate to drop 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 Red Orbit.

US Birth Rates Affected By Economic Downturn

Health officials said Friday that the economy may be causing some women to think twice about having children as the birth rate in 2009 declined for the second year in a row.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 4,136,000 children were born in 2009, which was down 2.6 percent from the 2008 estimate.

That followed a similar decline in 2008, which was the beginning of the economic downturn.  The CDC said the 2009 numbers are preliminary and could change.

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



continued at Daily Kos....

Saturday, August 28, 2010

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 95

by Gulf Watchers

The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #340 - BOP Swapping - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

You Are What You Use

by Miep

Or maybe not. Many people who care about environmentalism, get caught up a great deal in thinking about how they consume, and changing their consumer habits.

That's good, but it's not enough.



continued at Daily Kos....

A 'Death Warrant' in the Amazon {Earthship Friday}

by eKos

eKosLogo

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

Tonight's editor: patrickz

••
••

The Brazilian government has given a 'green light' for construction of the world's third largest hydroelectric power plant. The Xingu river, which supports indigenous peoples and many endemic species, will be dammed, flooding 190 square miles and forcing the evacuation of 50,000 people.

In other news, El Niños Are Growing Stronger due to climate change, the wheat genome is sequenced, and James Hansen has a message about activism and greenwashing.

••
••

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....

Friday, August 27, 2010

Rediscovering Simplicity: The Cyclists of Italy (a photo diary)

by citisven

Whenever I travel to different countries and cities, one of the things I'm interested in is how locals move around in their daily lives. Call me a transportation glutton, but I'm a sucker for trains, boats, rickshaws, trams, buses, gondolas, back alleys, and sidewalks.

Then, of course, there's the most sublime transit invention of them all: the bicycle. It's so simple — even a non-techie like myself understands how it works — and yet so deliciously useful, relieving traffic, getting you anywhere quickly, reducing CO2, keeping you in shape, letting you see a place and interact with its people.    

One thing I noticed on my trip to Italy a few months ago was how much bikes were part of everyday life. With David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries as my companion I strolled through the streets of cities and towns, trying to capture the mundane beauty of cycling.

Italy-bikes_03



continued at Daily Kos....

World oceans leading the way through the looking glass?

by RobertConnors

As global temperatures rise, the oceans continue to absorb much of the excess heat, acting as a sort of 'shock-absorber' in modifying the impact of sharp changes in the atmospheric content of both CO2 and the even-more-dangerous methane.



continued at Daily Kos....

Fisherman Flotilla: They are Righteously Fished Off!!!

by War on Error

New England fisherman are being shut down by Obama's appointee:  Lubchenco

Like small farms, the fisherman will be displaced by large AquaCorps.  Nice.  Thanks.

They need us to fight with them in this war between the little guys and the big guys.


Fisherman Flotilla



continued at Daily Kos....

EnergizeUS: Restoring American Manufacturing

by Energize US

 There will be no recovery without jobs. It's just that simple. We've watched for thirty long years as the manufacturing jobs that made America strong were spirited away to countries with lax environmental regulations and little or no protection for their citizens. American workers were forced to compete with three hundred million underemployed Chinese who were willing to work for $132 a month.

 
 We have to buy it here. We have to make it here. And unless those doing the making are themselves making it our downward spiral will continue.

  We can make this change and local energy production is the first step we should take.



continued at Daily Kos....

Citizens Against Taxing Big Oil

by Forgiven

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. – (attributed to) Abraham Lincoln

One evening I was watching the news minding my own business when I was astonished by what I saw. It was an ad paid for and produced by the American Petroleum Institute or API the main trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. According to the commercial which depicted what appeared to be ordinary Americans upset because the Congress is considering raising the taxes on the industry by 80 billion dollars in the 2011 budget. According to these ordinary Americans raising taxes during a recession on anyone is bad policy. This rationale sounds eerily familiar to the rhetoric being used to justify keeping the Bush tax cuts. It is this type of blatant propaganda that must be exposed for what it is.



continued at Daily Kos....

We don't need ... don't want your help ...

by A Siegel

When it comes to the necessity of facing down pollution in the nation's electricity system and other major polluting industries, it is hard to read recent Obama Administration action as anything other than a strong statement to leading environmental organizations:
Stay out of our way.

We don't need your help.

We don't want your help.

With monumental inaction by the U.S. Senate in the face of devastating climate chaos from flooded Pakistan to smoldering Russian to heat records in many nations and many areas of the United States, the paths forward to effective action to turn the tide away from egregious CO2 emissions seem limited (at best).  With the President (and his Administration) having, to put it politely, flubbed its leadership role on the climate front in terms of getting serious and meaningful action through the U.S. Congress, we have to wonder seriously at the latest action.



continued at Daily Kos....

New Report Reveals Widespread Toxic Coal Ash Contamination

by Bruce Nilles

Power industry lobbyist Jim Roewer: "Wasn't a problem."
Leslie Stahl: "Well, it was a problem, but we just didn't know it."

This excerpt from a recent 60 Minutes story on toxic coal waste sums up the current trouble with the millions of tons of toxic ash left over each year from burning coal for energy.



continued at Daily Kos....

In Defence of the Wilderness Act

by ban nock

Yesterday in the NYT there was an op ed bemoaning the stringent enactment of the Wilderness Act and the fact that so much of our lands have received designated wilderness protections

Aw Wilderness NYT August 26 2010

 title=
Footprints out onto the shore ice Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, January 90



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 94

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #95 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #340 - BOP Swapping - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Have I Got A Deal For Actual Environmentalists Here

by terryhallinan

This is not a normal diary but rather a surprise comment on an aging diary about biomass powdered fuel that the community might be interested in. I hope I have not stepped over any rules:

Daily KOS Greetings Summerhill Biomass Systems

Hi Terry, everyone,

I am Lee McKnight, son and brother of the inventors, and Member of the Board of Directors of Summerhill Biomass Systems.

And a member of the Daily KOS community.

A few comments:

  1. Terry you are right on new news soon : )

  2. Folks are wrong claiming standard internal combustion engines cannot run on our fuel - we have been doing just that for 4 years now.

a) well ok there are tricks and we are a long way from a commercial release for automotive applications...but:

If the DailyKOS community wants to see us go faster - we may have a deal for you! Seriously, a student team is designing a 'green race car,' and we are designing a biomass bus, both of which should be operational 2011/2012. If you all are interested in seeing a 'Daily KOS' logo on the race car...let's talk more!



continued at Daily Kos....

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Corporate Tar Sands Boycott Gathers Steam

by geodemographics

Some good news for a change:

More major U.S. corporations join boycott of Alberta oil sands fuels

EDMONTON - Another four major U.S. companies are joining the move to either avoid or completely boycott fuel produced from Alberta's oilsands.



continued at Daily Kos....

"Stabbed in the Back": Obama sides with nuisance polluters

by RLMiller

"We feel stabbed in the back," Pawa said. "This was really a dastardly move by an administration that said it was a friend of the environment. With friends like this, who needs enemies?"

Plaintiffs' attorneys are shocked by the Obama administration's decision to side with the wrong people on a case known as AEP vs. Connecticut seeking to apply the common law of nuisance to polluters.



continued at Daily Kos....

Fox News Caps Flow Of Oil Spill Stories

by KingOneEye

A new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism analyzed the coverage of news stories about the Gulf Coast oil spill. The results show that, while everyone else was busy trying to plug the leak, Fox News was putting a "top kill" on coverage of the catastrophe.

Brought to you by...
News Corpse
The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.



continued at Daily Kos....

One word: Plastics

by Laurence Lewis

Good science, bad news:

Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue. Now, a team of researchers from Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Hawaii (UH) published a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students in the latest issue of the journal Science.

A previously undefined expanse of the western North Atlantic has been found to contain high concentrations of plastic debris, comparable to those observed in the region of the Pacific commonly referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

The greatest concentration of the more than 64,000 pieces of collected plastic was centered at a latitude roughly corresponding to Atlanta, Georgia.

Said SEA scientist Kara Lavender Law, the Science paper's lead author, "Not only does this important data set provide the first rigorous scientific estimate of the extent and amount of floating plastic at an ocean-basin scale, but the data also confirm that basic ocean physics explains why the plastic accumulates in this region so far from shore."

Surprisingly, despite a great increase in the disposal of plastics over the 22 years of the study, the concentration has not increased.

The whereabouts of the "missing plastic" is unknown.

This is disturbing on many levels, and the report itself offers some seemingly possible explanations, although measurably improved efforts at preventing or recapturing spilled industrial resin pellets is not considered likely, as such residue constitutes but a small fraction of the overall material; and dispersal through anomalous currents and eddies is not considered capable of having offset the fourfold increase in input over the course of the study.

Possible sinks for floating plastic debris include: fragmentation, sedimentation, shore deposition, and ingestion by marine organisms.

It's unlikely that enough plastics could have broken down that much over the study's timeframe, and there's no evidence suggesting much of it sinks.

Because the cohort of pelagic organisms that ingest plastic, their ingestion rates, and the fate of ingested plastics are unknown, it is impossible to estimate the size of this sink.

In other words, we just don't know. The remaining accumulation is massive, but even more is missing, and there are no good explanations. Not that any truly plausible explanations could be defined as "good," anyway.

Further, the model indicates that the minimum time for surface tracer (i.e. drifter or plastic) to reach the collection center from the U.S. eastern seaboard is less than 60 days, at least half the time required to travel from Europe or Africa. The influence of the Gulf Stream is particularly evident in some of the fastest propagation times – 40 days from Washington, DC and Miami, FL, for example – in which tracer traveled along the coast before entering the gyre interior. While not indicative of the size or location of landbased sources, or of the age of debris, these estimates demonstrate how quickly plastic entering the ocean near major U.S. population centers could impact an area more than 1000 km offshore.

Just another contribution of our fossil fuel economy to the world's ecosystems.



continued at Daily Kos....

Solar's Bright Future in the US, assuming Incentives continue

by jamess

If you need a reason, to get out there, and get Democrats re-elected, here ya go ...

Solar Power: Brighter Long-Term Investment Outlook
Energy standards requiring U.S. utilities to use solar power could drive growth for companies ranging from inverter makers to installation financiers
David Bogoslaw, Bloomberg Businessweek, msnbc.com -- 8/25/2010

With U.S. installed capacity growing at a faster pace than that of the international market, the country may be on track to become a more dominant market by 2014, according to Larry Sherwood, an analyst at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).

Some 23Gw of solar capacity are under development in the U.S., enough to provide electricity for 4.4 million households, according to the Solar Energy Industries Assn. (SEIA). Solar demand in the U.S. is expected to grow 75 percent in 2011, compared with 2010.

Sounds Great!    What's the catch?



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 93

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #94 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #337 - Perpetual fishin' - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Gulf Watchers Overnight/peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

How They Do The Banks, AND Climate Action, in Scotland

by Miep

Fascinating. I'd be more impressed by people in the USA, not only if we'd figure out how to engage in these sorts of protests...but even dance this well.

h/t to Melvin at Free Speech Zone.



continued at Daily Kos....

A World Lacking Leadership and Vision.

by LaFeminista

Here we are standing on the brink of a crisis greater than any war, and in itself may be the cause of the greatest conflict ever to be seen by man.

We are turning our oceans into a plastic soup and yet some still insist this is only a physical pollution yet they are also wrong.

We flood our oceans with oil every year let alone merely with the outrageous accidents in the Gulf of Mexico and the slow strangulation of the Niger Delta.

We continue to pollute the very water we drink and then spend billions of dollars and create additional pollution in cleaning it sufficiently for human consumption.

We pump green house gases into the air with unabated ferocity as if our own doom was something to look forward too, yet some still insist on burying their heads in the burning sand.



continued at Daily Kos....

Some good news for a change: Pacific Salmon

by yuriwho

Perhaps it's just me, but I perceive a lot of negativity lately on this site. It's understandable given our situation. I wanted to highlight a new development that should make a lot of people smile.

Last year, near Christmas, a good friend of mine from BC arrived here in Ontario with one sockeye, telling me that this might be the end. Last years catch was abysmal and the fishery was crashing hard.

The Canadian government was concerned enough to establish a commission to investigate the fishing collapse. The Cohen commission began it's work August 18th.



continued at Daily Kos....

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Climate News: Week ending 21 August 2010

by billlaurelMD

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

We're heading toward the end of the Arctic sea ice melt season as the sun descends toward the horizon in the polar latitudes. Speaking of polar latitudes, here's a picture from Barrow AK from yesterday morning, annotated with the weather at the time.  Foggy and gloomy, par for the course in August.

Barrow AK web cam photo, 23 August 2010 at 5:36 a.m. Alaska Time

ABCam201008220536

More below the fold.



continued at Daily Kos....

African Wildlife and More - A Photo Diary

by Haole in Hawaii

This is another one of these diaries.  You probably know the drill by now.  No meta or conflict, just some photos of wildlife and some beautiful things.  I have to say that I am in a serious post vacation funk abetted by tons of ugly news and a country that seems to have gone utterly insane. I doubt I am alone in my anger and disgust.  I hope this helps in some small way.

082410_0097
The Mokuluas, Oahu



continued at Daily Kos....

蓝 / 藍 ou xanh dương ou 青 ou bleu earthship

by eKos

PhotobucketWelcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for 'green' diaries and series. Below the fold: news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup Check out the  eKos Library for previously listed diaries, and remember to follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight views are those of guest editor boatsie, so they don't necessarily represent those of eKos.

Ergo, welcome aboard the first flight of the blue earthship!



continued at Daily Kos....

Plan Z for climate change

by DarkSyde

New data and reports of a rapidly warming Arctic prompt the Gray Lady to publish a decent op-ed:

Globally, 2010 is on track to be the warmest year on record. In regions around the world, indications abound that earth’s climate is quickly changing, like the devastating mudslides in China and weeks of searing heat in Russia. But in the world’s capitals, movement on climate policy has nearly stopped.  ... Policy makers need to accept that societies won’t make drastic changes to address climate change until such a crisis hits. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for them to do in the meantime. When a crisis does occur, the societies with response plans on the shelf will be far better off than those that are blindsided. The task for national and regional leaders, then, is to develop a set of contingency plans for possible climate shocks — what we might call, collectively, Plan Z.

Tiny nit-pick: Plan Z for climate change better include a time machine somewhere. Without some way to affect past, piss-poor decisions, it's hard to make an effective change after the Greenland ice sheet slides into the North Atlantic.  



continued at Daily Kos....

An Apology To My Newborn Son

by Attorney at Arms

My son was born last Saturday at 1:45 p.m. He's perfectly healthy. He has all the right parts in all the right places. He's sleeping in my lap under my keyboard right now. Since about five minutes after he was born, I've been thinking I owe him an apology. You see, he has come into a world that is very difficult to explain to a child. Some of you may share this feeling.

It's not just that I can't explain to him the purpose of life, the problem of good and evil, or why I just love him so much already. It's that I can't explain to him what his future holds because his world is not going in the right direction at the moment, and the most recent moment where we thought we may have corrected that is quickly turning out to be a total illusion.

Some generations build great monuments. Some walk in their ruins, going about their business hardly taking notice of the weeds overgrowing them. Sometimes in history, these generations are next to each other. I think of the generation of the Tannaim in Ancient Judaea. One day, their temple stood. One day, it was destroyed. Or the generation who lived among the hustle and bustle of the Roman empire, and a generation that came shortly after them that lived in mostly empty cities.



continued at Daily Kos....

EcoAdvocates: Our Toxic Lives

by Jill Richardson

I've been doing some research on toxic chemicals that Americans are exposed to lately and ... WOW! Turns out that, without any consent from me, I've been exposed to a long list of highly toxic chemicals from things I thought were harmless like my couch. So were you. It could be your socks, or your toothpaste. Or perhaps your washing machine. So why the hell are these chemicals legal?

More below.



continued at Daily Kos....

TLC

by A Siegel

TLC ...

Tender, loving, care.

What beautiful words.

We can all use some TLC.

And, looking at peat fires smoking out Moskovites, flooded Pakistanis, overheated Washingtonians, and other climate chaos victims around the world, it has to be clear to all but the anti-science syndrome sufferring haters of a livable economic system that our planet needs some TLC as well.

That TLC is, of course, some Transparency, Long-term, and Certain when it comes to energy and climate policies ...



continued at Daily Kos....

"Coldest winter I ever spent"

by LaughingPlanet

Do you really need to be told about the famous quote falsely attributed to Mark Twain?

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco

A funny thing happened to me yesterday on my way to the cold, foggy, town in which I grew up:

I nearly melted.

It was the warmest August date ever in San Francisco, which topped out at 98 degrees, smashing the previous high for Aug. 24 by 9 degrees.

This is my hometown. It is never, EVER boiling hot in the summer. It is cold like the chasm where Dick Cheney's heart would have been.

Thanks to {do not say global warming}, things everywhere are changed. It's a change of a weathery pattern of some kind.

All I know is that the most beautiful city I've ever seen was an ugly, fetid, stinky swamp yesterday, and it sucked. Except for all those homers the Giants hit. w00t!



continued at Daily Kos....

Great Lakes Oil Disaster Waiting To Happen? Again?

by Detroit Mark

Enbridge Energy Partners is the Canadian oil company who stepped up the Gulf Oil Disaster story to ironic comedy status by adding its own version of the oil volcano in the largest Fresh Water region on the planet recently, even as BP and its minions were stumbling over themselves to cover up the damage they had done.

Now, they appear to be on the verge of making it an even more ridiculous commentary on the Oil Industry's inability to control their shit.

Photobucket



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 92

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #93 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #334 - More Waiting... - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Gulf Watchers Overnight/peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Updated: NEW Study indicates Microbes ARE rapidly consuming the Gulf Oil

by jamess


I, for one, hope that this is true, and will be further substantiated:


Study: Petroleum-eating microbes significantly reduced gulf oil plume
David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer -- Tue, August 24, 2010

Petroleum-eating bacteria - which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor - proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing that reduced the amount of oil amounts in the undersea "plume" by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

The findings, by a team of scientists led by Terry C. Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California [...]



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 91

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #92 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #330 - Cantankerous ram - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

BP and the Coast Guard; "Move along here... Nothing to See"

by Flint

Yeah... this is a short diary... so sue me!

Every day we see more crappy headlines blowing holes in the narrative being shucked by Bp and the good Admiral. This one made me sick to my stomach.



continued at Daily Kos....

Monday, August 23, 2010

"Disaster at The Top of The World": ekos Earthship Monday

by eKos

PhotobucketWelcome 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

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 90

And don't forget to check out Ecojustice, tonight's diary is EcoJustice: Coming to Ecuador, with or without Chevron

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



continued at Daily Kos....

EcoJustice: Coming to Ecuador, with or without Chevron

by citisven

A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of meeting Lou Dematteis, a former Reuters staff photographer who covered the wars that raged throughout Central America in the 1980s and first traveled to Ecuador's northern Amazon region in 1993.

What he found there was not a shooting war, but a war on the environment, a gut-wrenching clash between the "civilized" world's thirst for cheap oil and indigenous people's right to live in health and harmony with their native lands.

Lou's photos not only tell the story of the human and ecological cost of our oil addiction, but they've been invaluable visual documents helping to keep Chevron/Texaco, the culprit of this epic environmental catastrophe, from engaging in "pollute and run" business as usual.

Most importantly, these images highlight the power of local communities not only in fighting the corporate juggernaut that is fleecing the planet's resources for short term profits, but in calling attention to the systemic problems inherent in fossil fuel dependent economic models, and inspiring sustainable solutions for all.  

Take a ride and see for yourself.      

   



continued at Daily Kos....

Tribe, School Show DC Green Energy = Eco/Econ Smart

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

While DC fiddles and runs from comprehensive climate change legislation, a tribe in California and 3 school districts in Chicago recognize that green energy is not just good for our environment but also can sustain communities economically. Both have decided to invest in wind farms as a remedy for the economic shortfalls that each face.

Tonight's Climate Change News Roundup also includes news on how Koch Industries linked to climate denial machine, UN may rein in carbon trading scam, BP settlements likely to shield top defendants, fish beachings may be increasing due to BP gusher, toxic oil possibly found on seafloor, lizard species going extinct now, and even Dems voting NO on climate bill attacked as if they voted yes.



continued at Daily Kos....

Help Me Help Haiti - Please.

by environmentalist

Please Help Me Volunteer in Haiti

Straight up. I’m going to ask you for money.  I warned you about this when MB asked WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!?!  

So click HERE and donate at my paypal button or please read on for the details.  



continued at Daily Kos....

Macca's Meatless Monday...My Grill Is Red Hot

by beach babe in fl

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

What You Eat Is More Important Than Where It Came From

"Where you get your food from is a relevant factor in family food decisions, but what you are eating - and the processes needed to make it - is much more important from a climate change perspective,''



continued at Daily Kos....

Cannabis Prohibition: The Past, Present and Future of Fail

by xxdr zombiexx

4 current articles on the Internet illustrate the past, and present failures of cannabis prohibition as well as point to the future in which we will make use of it, but others are beating us to the punch.

America's political commitment to the utter failure of cannabis prohibition profits fuel a worsening problem with outrageous Cartel violence in Mexico and causes large sums of money to change hands untaxed;

Meanwhile, over our northern border, sneaky Canadians are capitalizing on America's prohibition of hemp (same damn plant) to make strong, lightweight materials for electric cars. No... really. I don't have time to make this stuff up.

And it doesn't have to be this way: California is attempting to be the first state in America to fully do the right thing, but there are a number of blatantly dumb arguments circulating for continuing this unmitigated disaster of a policy.

It's all after the Jump™



continued at Daily Kos....

Floods in Asia a Result of Climate Change?

by akmk

Whether or not there is a link to the Gulf oil disaster, scientists and news media are now discussing seriously the possibility of severe flooding in Asia being caused by climate change.  Collapsing ocean ecosystems are also being noted.

Severe flooding and unusually dramatic heat waves, all appear to point to global warming and climate change.  And May of 2010 appears to be time of the start of the most dramatic changes.

The Gulf oil spill was in April.  The earth's atmosphere gained a considerable amount of methane.  The ocean's life forms have been subjected to a considerable amount of toxins.

What happens in one part of the planet affects all of the planet.  It's called ecology.

Other human caused factors may be contributing to the flooding in Asia as well.

And there are political implications to all of this.



continued at Daily Kos....

Time to Take On Global Warming Deniers

by Steven D

Global warming deniers come in basically one version: the one which holds their hands to their ears and sings lalalalalalala all day, refusing to discuss any and all evidence of global warming or that fossil fuels have anything to do with it.  

They are more willing to believe the craziest conspiracy theories and outright lies rather than deal with facts.  It's a shame really, because the facts are there and they are telling us something needs to be done -- Now.  Not twenty or thirty of fifty or one hundred years in the future, but right fricking now! Like this information, for one:



continued at Daily Kos....

Science Tidbits

by possum

Once again the time is here to gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day.  Science talk is here.  New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world.  Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world.  Today's tidbits include new coating developed to fight MRSA (methicillin resistant stap aureus) infection, many Americans are still clueless on how to save energy, new satellite data reveals true decline of world's mangrove forests, large masses of plastic found floating in the ocean, drought drives decade long decline in plant growth, and ancient 'terror bird' used powerful beak to jab like a boxer.  Pull up that beach chair and relax.  There is plenty of room for everyone.  Settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.



continued at Daily Kos....

Baobab: Mother of the Sahel

by NourishingthePlanet

In this regular series, crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet, we profile African indigenous crops that can improve food security and protect the environment.



continued at Daily Kos....

Pat Toomey Named to 2010 Dirty Dozen

by TonyMassaro

Today, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) announced plans to target former Club for Growth President and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey for defeat by adding him to the 2010 "Dirty Dozen" list. Coinciding with the announcement, we launched an online campaign that includes a web video and targeted online advertising, alerting Pennsylvania voters to Toomey’s campaign cash from Big Oil and his dangerous support for oil and gas drilling in Lake Erie, even in the wake of the Gulf Coast catastrophe and the record-breaking Midwest oil spill in the Kalamazoo River.



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 90

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #91 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #327 - Endless Fishin' - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Niger Delta: Shell Exxonerated! Bloody Pardoned if you like.

by LaFeminista

A report by the UN has indicated that Shell is only responsible for 10% of the 9 million barrels that have seeped and oozed over the Niger Delta for the last 50 years. This means they are all but exonerated from having to pay one penny towards a clean-up and the Nigerian government is responsible for the rest. Since the government is corrupt and has received billions in oil revenue and millions in kickbacks from Shell this environmental catastrophe will not end anytime soon. 40% of all the crude that comes from the delta and its 606 rigs is exported to the US; a rotting infrastructure is plain for all to see.

The UN report was paid for by Shell.

The Nigerian government is paid for by the Oil Industry.

The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and concludes that the rest has come from local people illegally stealing oil and sabotaging company pipelines.



continued at Daily Kos....

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Aid Pakistan With Money or Action

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

LaughingPlanet asked Why Doesn't the World Care About Pakistanis? I answered his question the day before as part of my Climate Change News Roundup for tonight because why the world does not simply rush without question to help our brothers and sisters is crucial to our shared future. (However, my CCNR grew to over 5,000 words so will post it as a separate diary tomorrow.) The world has been discussing the reasons that are generally related to fear and fatigue. In the U.S., Bush used racism to spread fear with the now presumption that all Muslims must be terrorists. Even if the financial crisis precludes our ability to donate to Pakistan, we can take actions to dispel the fears and support each other to override the fatigue so that friends or colleagues will donate money. Everyone can help to try to prevent future disasters because government officials and some scientists now openly state that the fires in Russia and the floods in Pakistan are linked to climate change.



continued at Daily Kos....

Prop 23: California's Future Fights Back Against Oil Money

by RLMiller

This fall, California voters will vote on Proposition 23, officially termed a "suspension" of California's global warming law (AB32) "until unemployment reaches 5.5%" and named by its supporters a "jobs initiative."  

The battle should play out exactly as similar battles over federal climate policies: conservatives claim it'll destroy jobs, raise taxes, and increase family energy costs; environmentalists valiantly-yet-unsuccessfully try to set the record straight, only to be ignored by middle class voters worried about pocketbook issues.

But a funny thing is happening.

The narrative is shaping up to be quite different.  The shadowy interests behind Prop 23 are being exposed to the light.  And Prop 23 is being opposed by clean technology investors who see a stark choice: build the future or burn the planet.

Consider it evidence of hope.



continued at Daily Kos....

Sunday Train: Guaranteeing Rural Transport in the face of Peak Oil

by BruceMcF

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

Remember to check in next week around 8pm Eastern

In the firefly-dreaming edition of last week's Burning the Midnight Oil for Progressive Populism diary, RiaD raised the issue:

only that i'm a rural dweller, we must have a vehicle as there is no mass transit here. but we do pay very close attention to our trips to town (10+ miles) & city(40+ miles) and do as much as possible each trip. i would guess we actually use less gas living rurally than most city/urban dwellers.

we've got to start thinking differently as a nation.
become more citizens of the planet than american consumers
imo anyway.

... which set me thinking about the difference between One-Size-Fits-All solutions like Auto-Uber-Alles and A-Fit-For-Each-Size solutions. One size fits all makes is seem as if "that does not do this" is a massive obstacle ... when under A Fit for Each Size, it is a challenge to find the means of accomplishing that task.



continued at Daily Kos....

An ENERGY Comparison Between Nuclear Plants Now Under Construction, and World Solar PV Production.

by NNadir

(Cross posted at Charles Barton's Nuclear Green Revolution with Chagall's Golgaltha)

One of the pleasures of the new Department of Energy under Steven Chu and the DOE of past years is clarity.

Until recently, if one wanted to find out from the Department of Energy website what portion of so called "renewable" energy actually came from solar PV, wind, biofuels, blah, blah, blah, one couldn't do it.   With the exception of dangerous and deadly hydropower, the figures of so called "renewables" were all lumped together.  

(One may contrast this with the "Drill, Baby, Drill!" nation of Denmark which lists in excrutiating detail the output of every single one of the wind turbines that that august nation uses to put lipstick on its offshore oil and gas pig.)

Now though, the new transparent energy department breaks out solar from wind from biofuels - with the exception that solar is still lumped with "tidal," not that either actually matter. We may now determine what 50 years of "solar will save us" talk has produced besides complacency and self delusion.



continued at Daily Kos....

Final Update #11: The Week in Editorial Cartoons, Part I - Soup Recipe for Daily Kos Trolls

by JekyllnHyde

John Sherffius
John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Note: Due to a deluge of editorial cartoons over the past week or so, I'm going to, time permitting, post Part II of this weekly diary in the next few days.  In addition to some of the issues covered in this edition, I'll include more cartoons on the floods in Pakistan, the withdrawal of combat U.S. forces in Iraq, and Rupert Murdoch's $1 million contribution to the GOP.



continued at Daily Kos....

An optimistic diary (for once)

by Jerome a Paris

I'm usually known as one of the doomers'n'gloomers round here, with diaries and comments on the economy heavily leaning towards negative views. And to a large extent, I still stand by these positions and fully expect (i) the economy to dive again and (ii) an even worse financial crisis coming our way.

I'm also part of the peak oil / peak resources crowd, and do not consider our current civilisation, especially as hundreds of millions in emerging markets rush to embrace it, to be sustainable. The Chinese and Indians and others cannot all live with the same resource consumption as we currently have in the West, and something will have to give at some point.

And this is a matter of years rather than decades, and most of us here will get to see that problem 'solve' itself. And of course, climate change adds a whole other dimension to that emergency.

But, surprisingly, I also have a number of arguments to be optimistic for the medium term, ie that let me hope that I will not spend my late years in poverty and/or in the middle of societal collapse.



continued at Daily Kos....

Ken Hechler .. a name maybe you've never heard of.

by shpilk

Ken Hechler is running for US Senate in West Virginia.
Of course, you'd be hard pressed to know that here.

http://abcnews.go.com/...

Ken's first act would be to offer legislation ending mountaintop removal of coal [MTR].

Here's his campaign site
http://www.kenhechlerforwestvirginia...

Joe Manchin will try to appear moderate, but he's in the pocket of coal mining interests, even as he mouths approval of a carbon tax, his past actions show him to be a Friend of Coal.



continued at Daily Kos....

Animal NUZ #8: Color Comic Strip ONLY(!) on Daily Kos

by ericlewis0

strip 8 panel 1



continued at Daily Kos....

Dawn Chorus Birdblog: The Virginia Rail And Poetry

by Pam LaPier

A secretive, diminutive bird that seldom vocalizes outside the breeding season, the Virginia Rails are a hard bird to track so its precise status is unknown. One thing is for certain, the oil that has proven so deadly for the other wildlife of the Gulf region will have an impact on these vulnerable creatures.



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 89

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #90 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #324 - More fishin' - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - peraspera

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Woodward Dream Cruise 2010 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 Michigan Radio.

It's Dream Cruise weekend on Woodward Avenue
Steve Carmody

Tony Michaels is the Dream Cruise executive director. He says in a time when more hybrid and electric cars are hitting the streets, he expects the popularity of the Dream Cruise will grow.

"It probably put more importance on the nostalgia for the people who own these older cars and keep them in great shape and keep them pretty much forever," says Michaels.

People are already feeling nostalgia for the gas-guzzling, fossil-fuel-burning past.  I consider that to be a good thing.  It means that era is about over.

More after the jump.



continued at Daily Kos....

Saturday, August 21, 2010

An Energy Scientist, His Organization, and a Free Read About Renewable Energy

by SERMCAP

Almost by convention, an independent engineer is a maverick. A footloose nuclear engineer, even more so, is inevitably revolutionary. Thus, Dr. Arjun Makhijani cannot escape being both interesting and controversial This profile examines the man, his ideas, his organizational mission, and, in a preliminary way, his recent monograph, a publication that not only flies in the face of established U.S. energy policy. but also casts down such a gauntlet with both a richly detailed empiricism and a highly honed conceptual framework.

The upshot of this investigation is pretty easy to state.  Dr. Makhijani should be Secretary of Energy for those of us who care both about democratic forms and the Democratic Party.



continued at Daily Kos....

On Human Extinction

by RobertConnors

The odds that humans will be completely extinct within 100 years are rapidly rising. The causes are complex, but mostly inter-related. We have started the process, and it will soon become irreversible, but only a relative handful of humanity is able to recognize the threat, and they are too few to effect a change of course. The result is that we are in for a very unpleasant future...



continued at Daily Kos....

Earth's plant life: dying on land, dying at sea

by Keith Pickering

CO2 is plant food. I know this is true, because smart Republicans like Reps. Dan Shimkus and Michele Bachmann said so. In fact, the "CO2 is plant food" meme can bring up 48,000 hits on Google.

So rising CO2 should be good for plants, right? Because a conservative argument with a patina of science just can't be wrong.

Just a couple of little flies in the ointment: land plants are dying as CO2 rises. And oceanic plants are dying as CO2 rises, too.

Earth's plant life is being killed by the heat.



continued at Daily Kos....

Lake Michigan Wind Farm Update

by Muskegon Critic

For those who have been following the ongoing West Michigan offshore wind farm saga, and for those who have given some generous donations in our fight, I'd like to provide a little update of what's going on.

I think the Big Lebowski said it best:

I often choose the Big Lebowski to express myself about the wind farm issue because I feel like some random slob drinking white russians who managed to haphazzardly stumble into an epic struggle with some of my pals.

The struggle for offshore wind power, and for a new industry in West Michigan continues.



continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Coast Locals, BP Workers, Speaking Out

by jamess


Former BP worker speaks out.

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


I wonder what he's afraid of, still ?

Apparently, BP runs a tight ship -- perhaps it's best to not cross them ?



continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 88

by Gulf Watchers

The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #319 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - gulfgal98

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 Pam LaPier's diary 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....

Energy Bookshelf: Power Hungry gushing of lies

by A Siegel

On reading the opening paragraphs of Robert Bryce's author's note, I felt a kindred soul:

.. just how lucky I am.  There is no more complex or fascinating topic than energy.  ... the scale of energy use and the complexity and the importance of the energy business are unmatched by any industry.  The study of energy includes physics, geology, chemistry, engineering, metallurgy ... the list goes on and on.  ... no matter how much I study it, I still feel like a rank amateur.  And, yet, if we are to make wise choices about energy policy, it is essential for all of us -- as voters, as owners and managers of businesses, and as policymakers -- to understand what energy is, what power is, how they are measured, and which forms of eneryg and power production make the most sense environmentally and economically.

Sadly, the material that followed this opening shattered the reverie of idyllic bonding.



continued at Daily Kos....

Friday, August 20, 2010

Overnight News Digest - Last Call Edition

by Oke

Photobucket



continued at Daily Kos....

The End of the Universe {eKos Earthship Friday}

by eKos

eKosLogo

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

Tonight's editor: patrickz

••
••

In a new study, scientists deduce the ultimate fate of our universe: a "Big Freeze". But don't fret - humans will be long gone before the last stars dim out.

Of much more immediate concern: the Smithsonian Institute and the University of Hawaii have created the first ever repository of frozen Hawaiian coral species, and new satellite imagery gives detailed data on the decline of the world's mangrove forests. In Pakistan, the situation remains dire.

••
••

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....