What aren't I doing?

by Miep

What am I not doing, that might help? What activities am I not engaging in, as a community activist, that might add a tiny bit of push in the right direction?

Inspired by MB's question about what we are doing.

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Of Pole Signs, Coal Plants, and Impractical Energy Plans.

by RLMiller

A local city bisected by a freeway has a number of fast food and fast gas outlets, all with large signs on poles to to attract weary travelers.  City officials and voters don't like eyesores.  A dozen years ago, the voters overwhelmingly passed an ordinance requiring all pole signs to come down in seven years.  

Naive voters thought that their ultimatum meant exactly that: in seven years, the signs would be gone.  However, to the fast food and gas franchises, the ultimatum meant something else entirely: seven years to hire lobbyists to determine how best to ignore the law.  

Which brings us to the Practical Energy and Climate Plan bill, S. 3464, recently proposed by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN).

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eKos Earthship Monday: How Global Warming and Capitalism Are Deeply Intertwined

by eKos

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

Beneath the fold you will find announcements, today's eco-diary roundup and some cute animals of course.

You can also follow us on Twitter!

Tonight's editor: ellinorianne

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EcoJustice: Action -- Help create conflict-free green technology.

by rb137

The Second Congo War, also called Africa's World War, killed 5 million people between 1998 and 2003. It was the largest war in Africa's history; it involved eight African nations and more than twenty armed militias. Although there was an agreement between the warring parties in 2003, the conflict continues in the eastrn region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It continues because of the metal mines that the armed groups fight to control.

There is an action item at the end of this diary that will certainly help save lives and impact suffering: The Senate Financial Overhaul Bill contains a provision that requires companies that use targeted metals to annually report where they buy them. The House Financial Services Committee is reviewing the Senate bill during the next two weeks.

We need to preserve that provision as a necessary first step in conflict relief. These metals are used in clean energy and green technology, as well as medicine and industry in the US across the board. Transparancy is key to resolving this war.

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U.S. Government, Stop BP from destroying the evidence

by icebergslim

Stop BP from destroying the marine life evidence.

Why is BP allowed to control the media take on marine life or the DEATH of marine life washing up on the Gulf Coast shores?

The dead marine animals washing up on the Gulf Shores are picked up FASTER than any BOOM or oil by BP!!  And that alone is a DAMN SHAME.

Question:  Why is that?

Don't you get that the evidence of marine life killed is just as important to removing the oil period?  Let alone, HELPS YOUR CASE AGAINST BP for the Gulf Coast.

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News, that BP would rather, you not Use. UPDATED

by jamess

NWF Flyover Oil in Marshes
NationalWildlife - May 27

http://www.youtube.com/...
Chris Pulaski, Coastal Louisiana Organizer, National Wildlife Federation:

We received reports this morning from BP that there was approximately 30 acres of Marsh that were impacted with crude oil, which we felt was really low. So we wanted to go out and see for ourselves and get an idea of how much is really out there. We flew out of Venice, down the Mississippi River [...]
I think saying that there were 30 acres of impacted Marsh, was an insult. I think it's 100's if not 1000's of impacted acres already -- and it's still early.

...


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Macca's Meatless Monday...A Hard Rock Night

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.

The report by the UN Environment Programme’s International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management concludes that food production and the burning of fossil fuels are the greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions. But while fossil fuels will eventually run out and be replaced by renewable energy such as solar, tidal and wind, the way we feed ourselves will be an ongoing concern.

The report’s lead author, Professor Edgar Hertwich, said animal products were more harmful in terms of emissions than the production of sand, cement, plastics or metals, adding that biomass and crops for livestock were as damaging as burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Feeding the world and reducing climate change at the same time can only be accomplished if the world reduces its dependence on meat and animal products, and adopts a more vegetarian or vegan diet, its authors recommend.

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The Five Flawed Choices of the Oilpocalypse?

by Unenergy

Just came across a post by emptywheel at Firedoglake who has put up a letter the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Henry Waxman has written to BP regarding the decisions made by BP leading up to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

BP’s Well Failure Due to Effort to Save $10 Million?

It lays out five choices which BP appear to have made which, had they taken a different route, one which did not appear to be focused on saving time and money alone, the destruction in the Gulf of Mexico may not have happened.

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After prodding, BP delivers more aggressive oil capture plan

by Jed Lewison

After the Obama administration pushed BP to develop a more aggressive plan to capture oil, BP has responded with a plan that would capture up to 60 percent more oil than its previous proposal.

BP's initial plan was to develop capacity to capture 38,000 barrels per day by the end of June and up to 50,000 by mid-July. According to Reuters, the new plan would create capacity for up to 53,000 barrels per day by month's end and up to 80,000 barrels per day by mid-July.

Nothing will actually stop the well from leaking until a relief well is completed. That won't happen until August at the earliest and could take longer.

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Volunteer Boom Department

by asterlil

It was something Fishgrease said, of course. Why weren't the coastal towns armed in advance for spills? Where was the preparedness? The throwaway comment hit me between the eyes, however; why don't towns and parishes that are under threat by oil have Volunteer Boom Departments, in the same way my town has a Volunteer Fire Department (VFD)?

The idea has been percolating in my head for about a week, and this morning I had a conversation with Bennie Long, my town's fire chief. Working from what she told me, in answer to my questions, and my own informal thoughts, I decided to write a diary and find out whether the idea is possible through feedback from the rest of Kos. I am grateful to the crew and all my fellow travelers on the Oilpocalypse Liveblog Mothership whose newborn friendship gave me the courage to publish this.

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Economics Of Alternative Energy

by Richard Lyon

For the past forty years the term Energy Crisis has been a recurring staple in the headlines of US media. It is recurring because it always somehow goes away for a while and the American public manages to convince themselves that there really is no tomorrow. We have had full an adequate warning of the problem since the oil shocks of the 1970s. Yet we have done very little to change or reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Our economy and our lifestyles are stuck to them like a tar baby.  

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by Leo W Gerard

CEOs commonly make incongruous assertions to protect profits after corporate-caused disasters. They’re driven by the same factor that is fundamental to the catastrophes – greed.  Nothing wrong with that, right? Not in a society that has converted greed from a vice to a virtue. Still, American church-goers might recall that greed is one of the seven deadly sins. When it afflicts CEOs, it’s deadly to workers.

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Greed Explains the Disasters and the Lying Afterwards

by Leo W Gerard

CEOs commonly make incongruous assertions to protect profits after corporate-caused disasters. They’re driven by the same factor that is fundamental to the catastrophes – greed.  Nothing wrong with that, right? Not in a society that has converted greed from a vice to a virtue. Still, American church-goers might recall that greed is one of the seven deadly sins. When it afflicts CEOs, it’s deadly to workers.


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An Ancient Tradition

by Pam LaPier

Sea turtles, crocodiles, sharks, manatees, frogs, lizards. These are among the many ancient creatures that we share our planet with. These animals survived whatever ultimately killed the dinosaur. They've survived global ice ages and global warmings (the kind brought on by nature and shifts in the earth's orbit). They've survived super volcanoes and tsunamis and yet now all of these great creatures are endangered.

The reason? One species, a relatively young species, has decided that it's life is more valuable than all of these ancient creatures. One species has decided that it's convenience is more important than the health of our planet. One species gets to make decisions that impact countless species all over the world and what of all those species? Well, we have dominion over them, isn't that what God said?

In the ongoing saga of the oil spill, the LA times has an excellent article about the ancient tradition of the female sea turtle who slowly makes her way to the Gulf every year to breed. The oil spill is only the most recent calamity to befall this ancient creature. Beach lights, waste, dwindling habitats are all leading to the endangerment of this gentle animal.

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Mr. Sandman

by Crashing Vor

Boatloads of thanks to Prof. Robert Young for his continued vocal--and credible--opposition to Bobby Jindal's beloved berms, taken today to the editorial pages of the New York Times.

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Regulation, Litigation & "Canada's Deepwater Horizon"

by StepLeftStepForward

Hello, Kossacks!

A friend of mine, Susan Dodd, is currently writing a book on the tragic Ocean Ranger offshore drilling accident that killed all 84 of its crew off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982. After reading a letter she wrote in response to a NYT editorial, I encouraged her to address this forum, as I believe Kossacks would find her perspective of the BP's Gulf gusherf*ck interesting and valuable. She has joined DKos but has to wait a week before publishing a diary, and so she asked me to go ahead and post what she has written for her. Hopefully, Susan will be able to take some time out of her busy schedule to respond in the comments section and perhaps continue diarying on DKos in the future.

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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: #20

by Liveblog

The current ROV DIARY: BP Oilpocalypse ROV #96

Rules of the Road

• Let's keep this a meta diary. To volunteer to host a liveblog submersible (ROV), leave a comment here.
• 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.

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Fishgrease: Booming BP Execs

by Fishgrease

Hiya Boomers. I guess it's time for me to get all cultural again. No tech this time. I've worked amongst BP and other corporations like them. I'm going to be discussing BP executives here, the tippity toppest of them who are the primary problem -- but I need to start with a warning:

DO NOT research where anyone lives or anything about their lives as a result of what you read here today. DO NOT picket, protest or go anywhere near the private homes of anyone. ANYONE! Doing so is stupid, overwhelmingly counterproductive and if you do it I will denounce you with language more foul than any I've used so far. My crap is being read outside Daily Kos quite a bit and I cannot control that. So I include this warning, not for Kossacks, who don't need such a warning, but for those outside of the DKos community, a very few of whom might lack common sense. You may hate corporate culture as much as I do. Maybe even more. But we effect change in Congress and in print. Not in person. You want to picket BP Headquarters, fine. Wish I could join you. I can't. I have a big opiate addiction family to support.

Here we go. Continued below.

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