Overnight News Digest - Last Call Edition

by Oke

continued at Daily Kos....

The End of the Universe {eKos Earthship Friday}

by eKos

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....

GULF COAST, New Agenda

by Knucklehead

  As usual, I`m back on Fridays to post my coral reef images & to lend my small support to all the people from the gulf, & for all the plants & animals, above & belowthe surface.
I fear the damage will affect more the denizens of the deep, than the more visible surface land inhabitants.
  As I`m sure you`ll all concur, I believe this was by design, … to minimize the visible surface  damage, at the much greater expense of the out-of-sight underwater damage.
I`m encouraged, albeit minimally, of the renewed pushback against the mantra of “the oil is gone”, a magical feat, (read, pack of lies) akin to the  (mushroom cloud from WMD`S in Iraq).

BP

continued at Daily Kos....

"The True Cost of Gas", Tell the Senate to Pass Real Climate Legislation!

by Ellinorianne

I wrote about the issue this week because of a great piece at Alternet, Gas Is Really Costing Us About $15 a Gallon and tied it together with another piece about OPEC, OPEC and Low Oil Prices, 'Raising the entry barrier for alternative fuels'.

It's an issue that cannot be covered enough, especially since we're seeing the environmental impact on our very shores and the external costs around the globe in disasters.

The external costs are those not added to the true cost, the cost we pay at the pump and those who usually pay that cost are the poor, the least of us who live on the outskirts of our society, either in our own Country or Globally in less developed Countries.

But as the Gulf nightmare has shown, the costs will become more apparent at home.  

continued at Daily Kos....

26 square miles of toxic cloud

by mwmwm

and wait -- there's more!

22 miles long, 1.2 miles wide and 650 feet tall -- about 60 stories -- 3000 feet underwater!

That's no plume, that's a massive toxic cloud that shows no sign of abating. BP's dispersant legacy. Perhaps it's lucky that it's not showing signs of abating, since that would mean oil-eating microbes would be eating it with an oxygen chaser, and that layer is currently not showing severe oxygen-depletion. We wouldn't want a dead zone at 3000 feet.

But that toxic cloud is still a problem for a very important reason: the "Deep Scattering Layer," or DSL, which is the great, dense, daily dumbwaiter of thick marine life that moves up toward the surface, and then back down again, in a constant cycle.

Moving daily through this toxic cloud.

continued at Daily Kos....

OK, now what?

by Edger

Everything is getting really blurry now and nothing makes any sense any more.

War is Peace now, poor is rich, the Gulf of Mexico is a never ending domestic supply of oil that will get us off the foreign oil habit, and everything else is upside down too. Or backwards or inside out, at least.

continued at Daily Kos....

No More GM Beets (for a while anyway . . .)

by rebb

a previous version of this diary was published on intlawgrrls.

The most common sugar beet planted in the US is now banned. At last, the courts are forcing regulators to take environmental issues seriously.

continued at Daily Kos....

EnergizeUS: Jobs for America

by David E Cozad

Every day America sends a billion dollars overseas for energy. This would be a bad idea if supplies were stable, but oil depletion and instability in the Persian Gulf means we're not wondering if we're going to have trouble, we're waiting to find out when.

Rather than sitting around hoping things turn out fine, we’ve formed a coalition of candidates to talk about how to take the steps necessary to make sure our future is safe and secure. We'll do that by fixing the biggest problems this country faces today – lack of self sufficiency in energy and the lack of good paying career paths.  

Today I’ve come to Daily Kos to introduce you to EnergizeUS.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 87

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #88 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #318 - 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....

I just sent this email to Bill McKibben and Joe Romm

by texas dem

To Joe Romm and Bill McKibben:

Climate legislation has been pronounced dead.  Those who have worked hardest to pass it have given up.

And yet, this is the only time in the near future in which a bill can pass.  We must not miss the moment.

I write to suggest that a jolt from outside could still revive the patient.  The best efforts of senators, activists, environmental groups, and the climate community have all been put forward.  I salute them and all their work.  It was not enough.  And there is one resource that was not used, that even at this late date could be put in play, and possibly revive the bill.  I think we should use the base.

continued at Daily Kos....

I'm a ____ing believer II. So doubt was bad Science?

by LaFeminista

A number of people myself included were called conspiracy theorists [by a very few here] in the MSM, because we claimed that the governments fairytale that the oil had just up and went was just so much bullpucky.

Well it looks like the the governments own agency is wearing my tin foil hat.

Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) departed from an official report from two weeks ago which suggested the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down.

"I would say most of that is still in the environment," Lehr, the lead author of the report, told the house energy and commerce committee.

It really doesn't take that much intelligence to grasp that a million tons of oil mixed with a previously banned dispersant does not just up and evaporate. I'll be generous and call it wishful thinking, but I will say it is no wonder science is taking a hit when plain bad science is applauded because it fits with the need.

continued at Daily Kos....