Lionfish and Other Amazing Critters - A Photo Diary

by Haole in Hawaii

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

A Never Ending Battle Against a Bunch of Nasty Critters

by Walden Ponderer

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by eKos

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

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

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

Tonight's editor: Ellinorianne

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

continued at Daily Kos....

EcoJustice: Truth & Reconciliation for the Gulf

by citisven

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


continued at Daily Kos....

Reid Calls The Bluff Of The Climate Peacocks

by The Cunctator

From the Wonk Room.

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by beach babe in fl

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

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by Jim Meffert for Congress

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

continued at Daily Kos....

Dolphins "Basted" in Oil Are Watching Us

by BlueDragon

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

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

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

John Walten

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

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Turning Tykes Into Eco-Activists

by dantilson

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

My Dogs Have Gone Green

by Dem Beans

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

What I Learned in Detroit

by Reverend Billy

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by RogerShuler

Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by newusername

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by WarrenS

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

Time for some action, doncha think?

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

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

Good plan

by Jed Lewison

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

Meanwhile, also yesterday:

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

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

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

Making Drilling Safer Using Magnitude Of Regret

by Something the Dog Said

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

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

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

continued at Daily Kos....

A Sickening in the Gulf Stream

by Bob Higgins

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

Originally posted at my site Bob Higgins

Carl,

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 34

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY: ROV #151.

Rules of the Road

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

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

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

continued at Daily Kos....

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

by icebergslim

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

continued at Daily Kos....