Gulf Recovery: BP Worker Exposes Truth of Working Oil Spill Cleanup

by Project Gulf Impact

Project Gulf Impact wants to use its diary in the Daily Kos Blogathon for the next three days to allow residents of the Gulf to be heard. Project Gulf Impact is down in the Gulf right now conducting interviews and launching preliminary relief efforts to give the citizens of the Gulf a voice, a chance that is long overdue for Gulf residents.

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Arsenic anyone with that tea...Time Bomb Poison..The Oil !

by Vetwife

I guess, till I die be posting about this horrible
sickening situation in the gulf and the hits keep coming.

Today I find out the Arsenic levels are up to the point
that it WILL get into our food chain

Where is the outrage?  Why are people concerned with elections and the Stanley Cup and Soccer and going about life and singing about God Bless America, especially the part of Oceans white with foam, when it is actually black with oil and arsenic and of course disbersements.  Below

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Design Challenges and Design Awards

by gmoke

http://www.core77.com/...
1 Hour Design Challenge:  Emergency Shelters
Core77 sponsors these one hour design challenges from time to time.

http://www.core77.com/...
Betacup Design Competition
The object was to replace the disposable cup.

http://www.taipeicycle.com.tw/...
international bike design contest
Annual event based in Taiwan.

http://www.electroluxdesignlab.com/
Electrolux Design Awards
Sponsored by the appliance firm and focused on the home.

http://nationaldesignawards.org/...
National Design Awards
Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Week: October 9–17, 2010

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New WPA for the Gulf oil spill

by mcgee85

The American people are looking for some response to this disaster. We feel powerless while we wait for the so called experts to cap the well. We know that if we ever drill anywhere again that the lessons learned here will be put to good use. But we still want action and I have a starting point for that action. A new WPA for the gulf region.

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No Text. Just Photos. You May Wish to Avert Your Eyes

by Meteor Blades

[The following photos of the collision between oil and land in the Gulf of Mexico are from Greenpeace.] Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace Sean Gardner Sean Gardner/Greenpeace Sean Gardner/Greenpeace

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What's next for coal ash?

by Sue Sturgis

Disaster has pushed Washington to call for new standards for handling waste from coal-fired power plants. It's invited citizens to weigh in, but will their voices carry above lobbyists fighting tough regulations?

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How to Change US Energy in One Growing Season

by gmoke

 Consistently demonstrate practical, affordable energy efficiency and renewable energy ideas, devices, and systems at the over 4000 weekly farmers' markets that take place across the USA from Memorial Day to Halloween or Thanksgiving.   The people who attend farmers' markets are a core constituency for green technology and practical applications that save money, energy, and resources.  They are likely to be early adopters who can spread those possibilities into the community.  I've done energy demos at my local farmers' market and know that a renewable energy company sometimes participates in the year-long weekly market near Providence, RI.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples out there.   Do energy education weekly at as many of those 4000 weekly markets as possible and over one growing season energy use and attitudes would change significantly.  See Mr Franklin's Folks for one vision of how this might work.

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Power politics: Utilities vs. coal ash regulation

by Sue Sturgis

After years of inaction, federal officials are mulling new regulations to confront the growing problem of coal ash. But energy companies have fought off regulation before, and they're fighting the new rules every step of the way.

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UPDATE - Diving into the Oil - Finally Seeing under the Water

by Ellinorianne

"Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters." Quite a headline but that's just what they do and you get to see, first hand, what it looks like to swim through the muck of dispersant and oil that is looming under the surface. It's a metaphor for so much that is wrong with our energy policies in this Country, the costs that we don't see, that are out of sight and out of mind but this disaster is bringing it to full sight now, isn't it? It's something we cannot turn away from.

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Special investigation: Coal's dirty secret

by Sue Sturgis

Coal ash is one of the country's biggest waste streams and is full of toxic substances, yet it remains virtually unregulated. Can Washington overcome the fierce opposition of energy interests to protect communities and the environment?

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Did BP Oil Hit the MS Sound Yesterday? (With Video of Sea Turtle)

by Frenchy Lamour

Ben Marble MD (who told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself) sent me the following video, shot yesterday. It appears that BP's oil has entered Mississippi Sound. Watch for the turtle:

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"...reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

by windje

So closes the appendix authored by Richard Feynman in the report of the commission on the Challenger disaster, and like BP, NASA was criticized for its lack of openness with the press. The Challenger accident (and subsequent commission) parallel the current BP disaster in many ways, not the least of which is the failure of the rubber seal in the blowout protector. The Challenger accident has frequently been used as a case study in the study of subjects such as engineering safety, the ethics of whistle-blowing, communications, group decision-making, and the dangers of groupthink. Ronald Reagan appointed Richard Feynman to the Challenger Commission. His televised experiment dunking a section of O-Ring into ice water led to the truth of what caused that accident.  Less well known is his criticism of the engineering process at NASA. President Obama - Who on the BP Commission will be your Richard Feynman?

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Sylvia Earle Speaks for the Ocean and She Speaks for Me - Congressional Testimony

by Ellinorianne

I thought about writing something regarding the remarks Mr. Carville made regarding the Obama Administration's handling of this nightmare that's continuing to unfold.  I wake each morning, hoping that it was only a bad dream to find that it has just gotten deeper and more devastating in its enormity. But the issue is this, it's so huge, so unknown that I don't even feel qualified to delve into the quagmire.  The most damning circumstances to this Administration continues to be the previous administrations cozy relationship with Big Oil, shunning of the scientific community and total lack of oversight for many things that now affect the outcome of this nightmare. I am not here to defend the apparent lack of urgency by the Obama Administration, I am frustrated beyond words that more political pressure has not been put on BP, Transocean and all those involved to do the right thing, which seems to be inherently lacking in their vocabulary because oil, profit and covering their assets seems to be a larger priority.

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