Two Hundred. Two Hundred and One....

by WarrenS

I had an idea one day in December.  The new year was coming up, and I wondered if I had what it took to sustain a daily discipline that wasn't about practicing music or doing the dishes (not that I necessarily do those every day, nowadays, but...).

For a few years I had been following the news about climate change.  JohnnyRook was the person who woke me up.  Reading his diaries and learning about him was transformative.  Unfortunately, it seemed to transform me at first into a pretty gloomy guy, because all I ever saw was politicians squandering opportunities and media figures abandoning their responsibilities, while the scientific evidence mounted higher and higher.

Understand: I am the child of scientists.  While I am by profession a musician, I know enough about science to know that when scientists say something like, "Well, we have observed significant correlations between atmospheric CO2 and increased global mean temperature," in a soft, calm, slightly hesitant voice, what they are doing is screaming is "HOLY SHIT!!! EVERYBODY!!! WAKE THE F**K UP!!! NOW!!!"  That is, phrases like "significant correlation" and "robust" are scientists' way of shouting.

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EcoJustice: Turning the Canoe

by blue jersey mom

As many of you know, I recently returned from an archaeological field season in Hawai'i. Tonight I want to talk about issues of sustainability and reestablishing traditional forms of horticulture on Maui. The diary is based, in part, on a film called Ho'okele Wa'a (Hawaiian for Turning the Canoe) that had its premier at the Maui film festival in June. (Full disclosure--the film was written by Dr. Janet Six, one of my former students.) While the film highlights many sustainable technologies, I want to focus on the re-establishment of the taro fields or lo'i, since taro played an major role in Hawaiian subsistence before European contact.

I will begin with a little bit of history below the fold.

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'the long now' earthship

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: boatsie

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

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Climate Scientist Stephen Schneider Dies at 65

by aaraujo

STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER (1945 - 2010)
Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies
Professor, Department of Biology
Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
Professor, by courtesy, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University

http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/

Outspoken researcher had received death threats in past year

Stephen H. Schneider, a pre-eminent Stanford climatologist who persistently called for action to curb global warming, died early Monday. He was 65.

http://www.baycitizen.org/...

He died today of a heart attack on a flight from London to Stockholm.

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Stephen Schneider has died

by strobusguy

Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider died today at the age of 65.  Andy Revkin has posted a brief account of Schneider's critical contributions to climate science and policy.  And the Washington Post has this:

In 1992, he received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation for his research.

"Steve, more than anything, whether you agreed with him or not, forced us to confront this real possibility of climate change," Jeff Koseff, Schneider's colleague at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, said in a statement.

Schneider also was a leader in research seeking to quantify future effects of climate change on various areas - from the insurance industry to farming - to help guide policy decisions, said Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Science Tidbits

by possum

Science talk is here one more time.  Gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day.  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 tiny satellites for big science, sophisticated fibers that interact with their environment, Gulf spill altering food web, nature's insect repellents, and global warming slowing coral growth in the Red Sea.  Pull up a chair.  There is plenty of room for everyone.  Get comfy and settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.

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Moms Write "No Coal" on Mt. Rainier!

by greendem

(Repurposed with persmission from the "Climb Against Coal" Moms)

Photos available for press and blogger use. (Spread the word!)

http://www.flickr.com/...

http://www.flickr.com/...

Credit: courtesy "Climb Against Coal"

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Front Page Quotes Village Truthiness ... need to look behind the curtain

by A Siegel

On the front page, Kagro X (David Waldman) quotes from a Washington Post article about how the oil in the Gulf isn't shifting public opinion on energy issueslike environmentalists desire.

Not surprisingly, the article is rather mediocre in a balanced journalism sort-of way: legitimate and interesting material is balanced with mediocrity and truthiness.  

To be clear, David's key point is one that I agree with:

File this for use the next time somebody tells you that the key to getting people fired up in this country is letting things go to hell so they can see for themselves how bad things have gotten.

E.g., simply saying 'let things go to hell' and people will wake up and magically become progressives as about as reality based as planning on the Washington Nationals making it to the World Series this year ...

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Reading tea leaves, sipping stone soup for a climate bill?

by RLMiller

The energy/climate bill will be released the week of July 26, giving the Senate a short window of opportunity to debate and pass it before its August recess.  Two big questions: what's in it? and does it stand a chance?  Answering the second is anyone's guess, and it'll depend in part on the answer to the first.  

In the last few weeks, it seems that half the Senators have introduced their ideas on clean energy bills.  Some, like the Oil Independence for a Stronger America bill sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), are good; some, like the Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment Act by senators George Voinovich (R-OH) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), are horrible.  Motives are transparent: place options on table, build coalitions, fold into big bill.  

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What Happens To All That Oily Sand? You Won't Like The Answer

by Something the Dog Said

Oil is nasty stuff. It is full of various toxic chemicals which  you really don’t want to have on you, your wild life or your beaches. The question is, what do you do with it when you spill an estimated 5.16 million barrels (based on a 60K barrels per day) into an area where there are lots and lots of beaches for it was up on?

Sadly the main concept for dealing with spilled oil is to let it "weather" which means it breaks down into small droplets, gets eaten by bacteria and is generally sent to the bottom of the sea where we can’t see it so we don’t worry about it. This does nothing in terms of getting the toxic chemicals out of the water, but there is a hell of a lot of water in the oceans and there is toxic crap from other sources, so we don’t sweat it as much as we should.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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BP Ecocide v12.1: "Undetermined Anomalies”

by vets74

"Where there's smoke, there's fire" comes to mind.

Except for scale. Residual leaks work to drain the Macondo Prospect reservoir. That's 100,000,000 barrels or 4,000,000,000 gallons of crude oil.

Senator Nelson (D-FL) references the seabed geysers imaged by Viking Poseidon ROV #1.

UPDATE: BP off-loading finding seabed leaks to NOAA. So-called "undetermined anomalies" rising from the seabed are noted by Coast Guard.

Oil Biz apologists belong on SNL:

-- "I don't see oil."
-- "There are plenty of misleading videos...."
-- "I am calling... you a conspiracy theory nutjob...."
-- "It's pitch black down there."

The ROVs have very good lights and cameras. MTBF:::

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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 55

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #56 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #226. BP's Gulf Coast Disaster. - ekyprogressive

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!

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Thank you President Obama from a long frustrated whistle blower

by Lefty Coaster

Americans shouldn't have to applaud when their government does something right. Americans should expect that kind of competence from their government. Needed changes in chemical safety have been bottled up by special interests for so many years that it became a long running national scandal. I referring to likelihood of stricter EPA regulation of formaldehyde emissions, that was the subject of Eclectablog's fine diary earlier today: A DEMOCRATIC legislative & regulatory WIN you didn't know about

For me this is a deeply personal issue. One I've been living with for the last 24 years. You see I'm a formaldehyde whistle blower who went public 22 years ago.

My job involved an industrial process that vented hot formaldehyde vapor directly into my work area. For the 2+ years I did that job I suffered blinding migraine headaches that would go on for days, lasting up to 10 days at a time. Working around formaldehyde turned my life into a living hell. A miserable ordeal to be endured. I finally made the connection between these intense migraine headaches and my work environment when these insentient migraines disappeared during a two week vacation, and resumed as soon as I returned to work.

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