Village Green: to Aid NOLA Recovery, Lose the Treme Expressway

by Kaid at NRDC

As we reflect on the five years that have passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, we can observe both progress and much, much left to be done.  At Xavier University Sunday, President Obama spoke for many when he said that despite progress there are still too many vacant lots, too many people unemployed and "too many New Orleanians who have not been able to come home."  Writing for the Associated Press, Cain Burdeau and Michael Kunzelman also report that the President noted the harsh reality that the recession and the Gulf oil spill have only compounded the challenges of recovery.

Rebuilding one of our nation’s most loved (if also most impoverished) cities has been inherently a matter of planning and architecture, and the task has brought out many ideas, some fabulous, others well-intentioned but falling short of the mark, in my humble opinion.

continued at Daily Kos....

Everybody Knows

by Crashing Vor

Everybody knows the boat is leaking.
Everybody knows that the captain lied.

A few people have asked me recently why I've stopped writing about The Hell, why issues other than the petro pus from the Macondo well have crept into my posts of late.

I figure it's mostly because I'm dumb. There are people way smarter than I who can tell you whatever you need to know about all that, and the consensus from the smarter people is clear: It's over. Move on.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 99

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #100 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #349 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Yasuragi

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....

French Perspective: The World's Planet Page

by A Siegel

This summer represented the longest vacation in a long, three weeks spent in the homes of relatives and friends in France driven, in part, by a serious illness in the family. This time, often with (extremely) limited web access, provided some breathing space, too much weight gain with excellent food, and provided some windows on France and French society that reflect back on what is (or isn't) happening in the United States.

To be clear, no society is perfect ... which makes it ever more important to be open to lessons and learning from others ... especially if one really is interested in the continuing struggle to form a more perfect union.

Several weeks in France provided a window -- however obscured or partial -- on how France is changing in the face of mounting energy and climate challenges (domestically and locally) on the governmental, societal, and individual level.  This is the first, of which will likely be several, posts providing some thoughts derived from glancing through that window.

continued at Daily Kos....

Can Wind Power Save School Budgets?

by ManfromMiddletown

This past weekend, Laura Tyson made the case for a second stimulus in the New York Times. Things, you see, are looking down, particularly for the states. State budgets are being strained, and the prospect of teacher layoffs is a possibility without continued federal aid. Yet.....

The situation would be even worse without the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package passed in 2009. The conventional wisdom about the stimulus package is wrong: it has not failed. It is working as intended. Its spending increases and tax cuts have boosted demand and added about three million more jobs than the economy otherwise would have......

But by next year, the stimulus will end, and the flip from fiscal support to fiscal contraction could shave one to two percentage points off the growth rate at a time when the unemployment rate is still well above 9 percent. Under these circumstances, the economic case for additional government spending and tax relief is compelling....

Two forms of spending with the biggest and quickest bang for the buck are unemployment benefits and aid to state governments.

continued at Daily Kos....

Bjorn Lomborg Now Thinks We Should Fight Global Warming

by Dartagnan

After years of making a name for himself as the fossil fuel industry's favorite Climate Change Skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg has apparently now seen the folly of his ways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

Lomborg, once a critic of methods to reduce carbon emissions, now appears to have done a turnabout and now espouses the idea of a carbon tax.  

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 98

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #99 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #348 - Waiting on Weather - 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....

Ecojustice - Katrina is All About Environmental Justice; Monday eKos Earthship

by eKos

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

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: ellinorianne

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 97

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos....

Macca's Meatless Monday...Besame Barcelona

by beach babe in fl

In this weekly series we have been discussing the benefits of a vegetarian diet including: better health, animal rights, food safety, frugal living, global food crisis and the huge contribution of meat production to climate change/depletion of resources

Nitrous oxide is about 300 and methane about 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly methane and nitrous oxide, have increased steadily. In 2005 they accounted for 14 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

By 2055 the emissions  of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture could be cut by more than eighty percent, researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research find

continued at Daily Kos....

Rodents, maggots and steaming piles of hypocrisy at egg farms

by Deep Harm

Today, the FDA issued inspection reports on the two egg farms involved in a recall of half a billion eggs for salmonella contamination, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms.  Conditions were, shall we say, less than optimal.  

The inspectors found manure piles up to 8 feet high, holding doors open and giving wildlife access. "Wildlife" included live rodents, wild birds and a plague of flies, live and dead, including their larvae (maggots).  "Additional problems included overflowing manure pits, improper worker sanitation and wild birds [a potential source of avian influenza] roosting around feed bins," reports the New York Times.

The investigators also found salmonella bacteria in chicken feed and in barn and walkway areas, and in water used to wash eggs at a Hillandale facility.  It isn't clear, yet, which came first:  the salmonella or the egg.

continued at Daily Kos....