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....