Friday, September 24, 2010

The 1st nation to be displaced begins its transition

by eKos

eKosLogo

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

Tonight's editor: LaughingPlanet

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First photo posted without comment.
North Pole
Finalist in the Changing Climate group: Sue Floods' picture of the North Pole sign in melting ice and meltwater
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
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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.



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A Dirty Pledge

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

Originally posted on The MarkUp.

On Thursday, House Republicans issuedtheir roadmap for the midterm elections and the next legislative session. It's called the "Pledge to America," but on energy issues, it sounds more like a pledge that makes powerful promises to the oil and gas industry.



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Environmental Photo of the Year

by Gangster Octopus

Nature is an amazing place, and some folks manage to capture nature at its most amazing and beautiful in images that remind us of this fact and what is at stake.

Th Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management awarded their2010 Photographer of the Year for:

A picture of an unprecedented congregation of Munkiana Devil Rays in Baja California Sur has won Florian Schulz the prestigious 2010 title of The Environmental Photographer of the Year.

"During an aerial expedition over the coast of Baja California Sur, I came across something I had never seen before.... As we glided high above over the water looking for whales, a large dark spot caught our attention. As we got closer we started to discover its nature: an unprecedented congregation of rays. The group was as thick as it was wide, all heading towards the same direction...."

winner-big_1723068a



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A Kentucky Community Surrounded by Coal Ash

by Bruce Nilles

This week's coal ash community profile was written by Elizabeth Irvin, a Sierra Club Apprentice.

For one weekend each year in early May, Louisville, Kentucky, boasts an abnormally high concentration of horses, jockeys, mint juleps, and elaborate hats. Less than ten miles from Churchill Downs, the neighborhood of Riverside Gardens has been dealing with an abnormal and deadly concentration of toxic chemicals every day for more than 40 years. A low income neighborhood in an area of Louisville known for its concentration of chemical plants, landfills, and power plants, Riverside Gardens may soon be forced to deal with yet another threat: a second coal ash dump in their community.



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Gulf Watchers: Time for Change. Please comment.

by ursoklevar

We in the Gulf Watchers community have been discussing for some time how best to go forward now that the well has been declared effectively dead and the ROV activity has all but ceased. This diary attempts to be an amalgamation of viewpoints on that issue culled from the last dozen or so ROVs, which are the liveblog, nonrecommendable babies of what we call our Mothership. The Mothership is both commendable and recommendable.

We would appreciate commentary from more Daily Kos readers as to how the Gulf Watcher series can best meet the needs of the wider community and the needs of all those affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. If you have comments about our future format, frequency, content, please put them here.

Be kind to those with bandwidth issues and do not post videos or images, although though links are welcome.

Kudos to the Gulf Watchers who have worked so long and hard to keep accurate information available. We honor the eleven men who died in the disaster, and extend our best wishes to their families for peace and healing.



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Reality vs. Politics: Climate Change & Mass Extinction

by Steven D

extinction [ɪkˈstɪŋkʃən]

  1. the act of making extinct or the state of being extinct

  1. the act of extinguishing or the state of being extinguished

  1. complete destruction; annihilation

In the abstract, merely a word that describes the process or the state of complete eradication of some class of things or processes.  In biology, those things which can suffer from extinction are living organisms: that is, plants and animals.

We are currently living through a period of one of the greatest mass extinctions in history.  And the rate of extinction is the greatest in recorded history, thousands of times greater than at any time since the mass extinction event that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs.  

The title to this September 17th Reuters article, World examines "impossible" goal to halt extinctions is as ominous as it is blunt:



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Ministers: Gays cause global warming

by Cenobyte

Of course they do. It's always teh gayz, isn't it?

http://www.dangerousminds.net/...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/...

My Stupid Meter just exploded.



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Putting a Stop to the Spreading Sands

by NourishingthePlanet

Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Throughout the Sahel, recurrent drought since the late 1960’s is turning once crop covered land into desert.  And the sand is spreading. Picked up by wind, dunes created by soil particles from the West African coastline and the Sahel are covering villages, roads, crops, and irrigation systems, making it increasingly difficult to farm and maintain infrastructure.



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HEMMED In - Green meets Clean

by JanF

Today's output from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute’s state-of-the-art HEMMED (High-Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector) machine is not sudsing up and leaves a bit of a film. But is it Clean?



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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 122

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #123 here. This one has expired.
Gulf Watchers are currently discussing when and how we will change from the current Mothership format. Please join in if you have any ideas or preferences.

The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #393 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The digest of diaries is here

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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