Friday, August 27, 2010

Rediscovering Simplicity: The Cyclists of Italy (a photo diary)

by citisven

Whenever I travel to different countries and cities, one of the things I'm interested in is how locals move around in their daily lives. Call me a transportation glutton, but I'm a sucker for trains, boats, rickshaws, trams, buses, gondolas, back alleys, and sidewalks.

Then, of course, there's the most sublime transit invention of them all: the bicycle. It's so simple — even a non-techie like myself understands how it works — and yet so deliciously useful, relieving traffic, getting you anywhere quickly, reducing CO2, keeping you in shape, letting you see a place and interact with its people.    

One thing I noticed on my trip to Italy a few months ago was how much bikes were part of everyday life. With David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries as my companion I strolled through the streets of cities and towns, trying to capture the mundane beauty of cycling.

Italy-bikes_03



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World oceans leading the way through the looking glass?

by RobertConnors

As global temperatures rise, the oceans continue to absorb much of the excess heat, acting as a sort of 'shock-absorber' in modifying the impact of sharp changes in the atmospheric content of both CO2 and the even-more-dangerous methane.



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Fisherman Flotilla: They are Righteously Fished Off!!!

by War on Error

New England fisherman are being shut down by Obama's appointee:  Lubchenco

Like small farms, the fisherman will be displaced by large AquaCorps.  Nice.  Thanks.

They need us to fight with them in this war between the little guys and the big guys.


Fisherman Flotilla



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EnergizeUS: Restoring American Manufacturing

by Energize US

 There will be no recovery without jobs. It's just that simple. We've watched for thirty long years as the manufacturing jobs that made America strong were spirited away to countries with lax environmental regulations and little or no protection for their citizens. American workers were forced to compete with three hundred million underemployed Chinese who were willing to work for $132 a month.

 
 We have to buy it here. We have to make it here. And unless those doing the making are themselves making it our downward spiral will continue.

  We can make this change and local energy production is the first step we should take.



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Citizens Against Taxing Big Oil

by Forgiven

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. – (attributed to) Abraham Lincoln

One evening I was watching the news minding my own business when I was astonished by what I saw. It was an ad paid for and produced by the American Petroleum Institute or API the main trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. According to the commercial which depicted what appeared to be ordinary Americans upset because the Congress is considering raising the taxes on the industry by 80 billion dollars in the 2011 budget. According to these ordinary Americans raising taxes during a recession on anyone is bad policy. This rationale sounds eerily familiar to the rhetoric being used to justify keeping the Bush tax cuts. It is this type of blatant propaganda that must be exposed for what it is.



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We don't need ... don't want your help ...

by A Siegel

When it comes to the necessity of facing down pollution in the nation's electricity system and other major polluting industries, it is hard to read recent Obama Administration action as anything other than a strong statement to leading environmental organizations:
Stay out of our way.

We don't need your help.

We don't want your help.

With monumental inaction by the U.S. Senate in the face of devastating climate chaos from flooded Pakistan to smoldering Russian to heat records in many nations and many areas of the United States, the paths forward to effective action to turn the tide away from egregious CO2 emissions seem limited (at best).  With the President (and his Administration) having, to put it politely, flubbed its leadership role on the climate front in terms of getting serious and meaningful action through the U.S. Congress, we have to wonder seriously at the latest action.



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New Report Reveals Widespread Toxic Coal Ash Contamination

by Bruce Nilles

Power industry lobbyist Jim Roewer: "Wasn't a problem."
Leslie Stahl: "Well, it was a problem, but we just didn't know it."

This excerpt from a recent 60 Minutes story on toxic coal waste sums up the current trouble with the millions of tons of toxic ash left over each year from burning coal for energy.



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In Defence of the Wilderness Act

by ban nock

Yesterday in the NYT there was an op ed bemoaning the stringent enactment of the Wilderness Act and the fact that so much of our lands have received designated wilderness protections

Aw Wilderness NYT August 26 2010

 title=
Footprints out onto the shore ice Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, January 90



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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 94

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #95 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #340 - BOP Swapping - 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!



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Have I Got A Deal For Actual Environmentalists Here

by terryhallinan

This is not a normal diary but rather a surprise comment on an aging diary about biomass powdered fuel that the community might be interested in. I hope I have not stepped over any rules:

Daily KOS Greetings Summerhill Biomass Systems

Hi Terry, everyone,

I am Lee McKnight, son and brother of the inventors, and Member of the Board of Directors of Summerhill Biomass Systems.

And a member of the Daily KOS community.

A few comments:

  1. Terry you are right on new news soon : )

  2. Folks are wrong claiming standard internal combustion engines cannot run on our fuel - we have been doing just that for 4 years now.

a) well ok there are tricks and we are a long way from a commercial release for automotive applications...but:

If the DailyKOS community wants to see us go faster - we may have a deal for you! Seriously, a student team is designing a 'green race car,' and we are designing a biomass bus, both of which should be operational 2011/2012. If you all are interested in seeing a 'Daily KOS' logo on the race car...let's talk more!



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