Friday, June 4, 2010

BP Oilpocalypse ROV Diary #55

by Groucho Marxist

You are in the current BP disaster ROV, number 55. Number 54 is here. Please DO NOT Rec this diary, rather rec the Mothership REC THE MOTHERSHIP instead. She needs your love to stay afloat. Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this. PLEASE visit Crashing Vor'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 for working on this! For a description of the mothership/ROV liveblogging process, check out this thread.

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Oil Spill Mythbusters

by murrayewv

This blog is quick to condemn technological solutions on little data.  Diaries on the inadequacy of science and engineering abound (ironic, since we all are using computers to reach the internet).  Folks are quick to jump to conspiracy theories.  The problems of the oil spill are bad, but to read Daily Kos, the horrors are incredible, often in contradiction to all logic.  Chiming in to doubt some of these claims has resulted in What the hell, dude? You sounded earlier as if you were defending BP, and there's shitloads of anecdotal AND empirical evidence that they're in no way worthy of it. There's a point where you just have to stop playing "devils advocate" or "supporting the underdog". Or whatever that earlier bit was. Truthfully, it didn't make a whole lot of sense in context with the rest of the discussion, but seemed more designed to introduce the idea that "the fumes just aren't that bad, so people really didn't need masks anyway....

continued at Daily Kos....

Oil spill - Related: Ocean Currents/Wind Currents/Hurricane Links

by dov12348

To help us project this thing.

continued at Daily Kos....

POEM/PICS: Gulf/Oil(Whales/Dolphins) - Humanity, what hast thou wrought ...

by ArthurPoet

The poem&pics are below the fold, but first, please see Eileen's diary: * PICS of Oil-Soaked Wildlife (may you keep those dark images in your mind's eye) And... * I keep thinking about those Sperm Whales ... Oil Spill to Wipe Out Gulf's Sperm Whales? If the Gulf of Mexico oil spill kills just three sperm whales, it could seriously endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf's native whale population, scientists say. Right now between 1,400 and 1,660 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, making up a distinct population from other Atlantic Ocean groups, in which males make yearly migrations. All sperm whales are considered endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. But the Gulf of Mexico population is thought to be especially vulnerable due to its relatively small size.

continued at Daily Kos....

I'm so sad. Floating doom, sign of things to come? (no pics)

by Gorette

Grief. That, on the edge of the rage. Feels like getting ripped up inside. I don't even live on the coast, but in Florida it's not that far as the crow flies. Encroaching slicks of oil are floating doom. What in hell are we doing? Oil corporations endanger our planet. Are they beyond the law or do they just act that way? It's not just here, but everywhere. They get away with worse elsewhere! Here, our media and culture are not letting them get away with hiding it all, as hard as they have tried, $50 million ad campaigns and all. What does this signal for our future here on earth? What does it say about us? Unbelievable. Just now: Out my window I spotted a gaggle of white geese across the lane! Never before. Beautiful creatures, escapees? Another day four wild turkeys were feet away from where I sit. Ancient looking dino type creatures! More below.

continued at Daily Kos....

Action on BP Disaster: Calling all the great minds here

by zmom

I can no longer grieve without actually doing something.  I know this may be an excercise in futility, but I really needed to put the following outline down on paper, and would love for it to change, grow, expand, and get better.  The long term needs from this environmental catastrophe will be huge, and I am thinking there could be a way of creating an upswell of positive action from people all over this country.  

continued at Daily Kos....

Reconsider the Oyster

by Crashing Vor

"A little oyster is born, then, in the water. At first, about five to ten hours after he and at least a few hundred thousand of his mother's eggs have been fertilized by his potent and unknown sire, he is merely a larva. He is small, but he is free-swimming ... and he swims thus freely for about two weeks, wherever the tides and his peculiar whims may lead him. He is called a spat. "It is to be hoped, sentimentally at least, that the spat — our spat — enjoys himself. Those two weeks are his one taste of vagabondage, of devil-may-care free roaming. And even they are not quite free, for during all his youth he is busy growing a strong foot and a large supply of sticky cementlike stuff. If he thought, he might wonder why. "The two weeks up, he suddenly attaches himself to the first clean hard object he bumps into. His fifty million brothers who have not been eaten by fish may or may not bump into anything clean and hard, and those who do not, die. But our spat has been lucky, and in great good spirits he clamps himself firmly to his home, probably forever. He is by now about one-seventy-fifth of an inch long, whatever that may be ... and he is an oyster."                      M.F.K. Fisher Consider the Oyster

continued at Daily Kos....

The Florida Coral Reefs may be Next ...

by jamess

If BP, along with the 'Best and the Brightest' can't manage to turn off the spigot ... The Florida Coral Reefs may be Next Group Records Florida Coastal Environment Before Oil Arrives Creighton Team Helps Oil Spill Study MSNBC June 3, 2010 A research team from Creighton University is gathering data along Florida's Gulf Coast and trying to stay ahead of the oil spill. The team's leader, John Schalles, said recovery crews aren't the only ones scrambling against the resulting environmental disaster. Creighton Professor John Schalles on the Oil Spill http://www.youtube.com/...

continued at Daily Kos....

Renewable Energy Round-Up

by mark louis

Before I get to the energy, I'd like to let everyone know that I've created a bracket challenge for the 2010 FIFA World Cup @ ESPN.com.  You can sign up here.  If that link doesn't work for some reason, go to the ESPN Fantasy Games homepage here. Group name: dailykos wc challenge Password: dkos Hope to see everyone there.  BTW, if no one else beats me to it, I plan on writing a World Cup preview diary, probably tomorrow.  With that, on to the energy!

continued at Daily Kos....

Fiddling in Bonn while the Gulf oil spills

by Desmogblog

It almost seems like there is a firewall between the urgency of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the pace of the climate treaty negotiations underway in Bonn, Germany this week. The two are very much intertwined.

continued at Daily Kos....