Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Tonight's editor: LaughingPlanet
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Since 1937, our nation has been a victim of reefer madness. It is time for some sanity. It is time to free this healing plant from the shackles which have for decades bound it and the victimless criminals who use it.
Also below, you can get even more free goodies.
Plus, we will read the green tea leaves of the current status of s3516, the climate bill being formed in the Senate.
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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.
Quote of the day:
"It’s an act of egotism for humans to think we’re a primary source of climate change"
- Newt Gingrich
Well, I'll admit that Newtie does know a shitload about egotism....
California can lead the nation into the future
I don't smoke pot, but I'm very supportive of legalizing hemp and all forms of cannabis. I'm an old-school activist for the cause, in fact. I was gathering signatures for an earlier version of this porposition - in 1993!
My college thesis was actually titled How Hemp Can Save the Planet. (Let me count the ways!) I still have a bit of hope that it can and will. Passing Prop 19 this November would be a great step in the right direction.
Tax Cannabis in 2010 on Facebook
IMO, Steely Dan wrote the theme song for this campaign 30 years ago.
Vote Yes on 19!
(diaries on the topic by SmileySam &
greendem )
HuffPo does some actual journalism!
It is hardly worth wading thru the pr0n there to find news items. But I appreciated that this one was actually very high up on its front page. Any time a HuffPo Green link gets such high billing, it kinda makes me less nauseated by the HuffPo and its celeb gossip stuff.
Gulf Oil Spill Myths Debunked
I kinda like these, but the whole list is interesting.
On-Shore Drilling is Safer
What each of these – deepwater drilling, fracking and tar sands mining – has in common is that they are very difficult, expensive and risky. And that they are made necessary by our appetite for oil; the cheap oil that's easy to get at is being exhausted, leading us to these highly complex, highly controversial and highly risky methods.
Offshore Oil Could Make the U.S. Energy Independent
Myth. The U.S. imports 57% of the oil we burn, and two-thirds of those imports come from politically unstable or hostile countries. As a nation, we spend more than $700 million a day on imported oil (the figure was more than $1 billion as recently as 2008, when oil prices were higher). There isn't enough oil offshore to offset that imbalance.
This chart from TPM helps to fathom this insanity of #6:
Now We Know How Much Oil Is Spilling
Myth. Just how big is the Gulf oil spill? Recently leaked internal BP documents show that engineers have estimated a worst-case spill rate of 100,000 barrels a day. That's two-thirds bigger than the worst-case estimate (60,000 barrels) of independent scientists charged by the government with estimating the spill ... which was nearly three times the worst-case estimate (25,000 barrels) released by the government in June ... which was five times the worst-case estimate (5,000 barrels) released by the government and BP in May ... which was itself five times the estimate (1,000 barrels) released by the government and BP in April.
BTW, Treehugger has an ancillary item:
Debunking the GOP Claim that Cap and Trade is an "Energy Tax"
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York
on 06.30.10
Politico practices shoddy journalism (again)
Trying to paint reality as doom and gloom for Dems, the web's version of Fox News lite painted a rather dreary picture of the current climate climate. Funny thing, though. They used a distorted view of reality, false statements, and crafty editing to bury the good news.
Whoodathunkit?!?
Since Obama’s arrival, the GOP has stood unified against health care reform and the $787 billion economic stimulus proposal.
Yeah, those three GOP Senators (and one House memeber) who voted for it do not count.
Word has this news about the actual state of the process. Kerry, Lieberman Willing To Scale Back Energy Bill To Get Republican Support
oh, joy.
Hey, Rocky!
Watch me pull a rabbit outta this hat!
The good news from the Politico link comes on page 3-
Environmentalists hope that Republicans will join the debate soon, with the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters planning to start an $11 million ad campaign this week that highlights swing votes on both sides of the aisle. Others expect GOP participation to come, but only at the very last moment and in a very quiet way.
"They have to do this individually," Steve Cochran, who runs the Environmental Defense Fund’s national climate campaign, said earlier this month. "Obviously, on their side of the aisle they’ve got a leadership challenge. They’re not looking to disagree with their leader, and he’s been pretty clear about being in opposition to anything in this area. So, I really wouldn’t expect them to go out and try to take a lead on this stuff.
"We’ll be looking for their willingness to reach out or be receptive to quiet discussions about how to actually make something work, as opposed to stepping out publicly," he added. "I think stepping out publicly is the last signal they will likely give."
More, via Grist:
Q. (David Roberts)
From news reports about the meeting today at the White House, it sounds like supporters of putting a price on carbon reiterated their support, Obama reiterated his support, and those who opposed it reiterated their opposition. So, where does that leave us?
A. (Sen. Jeff Merkley)
Well, I came away with a good feeling. What you described is accurate, but as I was listening to the Republican senators who were present -- they are engaged on energy. There's a range of ways we could put a price on pollution, and that can range from Kerry-Lieberman applied only to utilities, to some sort of price directly on pollution, or some other form of subsidy for non-carbon [energy], which is another way to create a price differential, which is really what we're talking about.
Susan Collins [R-Maine], working with Maria Cantwell [D-Wash.], has injected a significant idea into the debate. It says, "Yes, let's put a price on carbon, but let's not create regional disparities." So the funds that are paid on carbon stay in the state where they are generated. States that put more in get more back; their families get more back.
G20 Governments Give Oil Companies $100 Billion a Year in Subsidies
June 29, 2010
by Ron Johnson
...the United States will commit to eliminating $3.6 billion in subsidies (already in the current budget), while Japan and Australia apparently have absolutely no inefficient fossil fuel subsidies at all.
"The terrible impacts of the Gulf oil disaster highlight the insanity of giving billions of taxpayers' dollars to subsidize dirty oil and coal," said Mark Fried of Oxfam Canada. "Sadly, what is obvious to everyone else does not seem obvious to world leaders."
According to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 would result in a dramatic 10 per cent drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The OECD estimated recently that subsidies to the companies producing oil, gas, and coal are worth approximately US$100 billion a year.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SPILLS
That image makes this one necessary.
Click the image to get your own free stickers.
Also:
June 30, 2010, 12:49 pm
U.S. Fines BP for Misreporting Gas Production
By BERNARD BECKER
The Interior Department has fined BP America $5.2 million for filing false reports related to gas production on Indian tribal lands in southwest Colorado.
The department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement announced Wednesday that the company had submitted inaccurate royalty rates and prices and "reported well production on leases other than those to which the production is attributable."
Just sayin...
Americans join hands to protest and protect our beaches.
And they had to miss the USA/Ghana soccer match to be there, too!
Considering how the game turned out, these people had the right idea.
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over one hundred letters to congresspeople, newspapers, President Obama, and more. Warren has even had letters published in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Learn Warren's letter writing technique here. And be sure to steal his stuff!
Dear Senator Reid,
I write to express my enthusiastic support for your plan to get a strong climate bill passed before the August recess. The facts and figures from around the world tell a terrifying story: the climate has reached a serious "tipping point," and there is absolutely no time to waste in bringing about very serious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Even with emissions reductions at the highest level that is politically possible, we (all of us on the planet) are looking forward to a world that will be drastically less livable; a world in which a steady climate cannot be taken for granted; a world with more unexpected torrential floods and more sustained droughts. We’re past the point where we can get back to the climate you and I grew up in.
But if we act soon, and act strongly, we may be able to give our children’s children a world they can grow up in. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial that a strong climate bill get passed in the Senate as soon as possible — and that’s why I’m writing to support you.
Thank you for what you are doing. Please don’t let denialists and cynical opportunists weaken this bill. We can’t afford inaction, we can’t afford delay — and we can’t afford Republican obstructionism. Stand firm.
Baobabs in Madagascar
by Olivier Lejade
We have added a few links to the eKos blogroll over there ====>(up higher)
Do you have any sites you'd like to hightlight?
My own blogroll has these three high up
• Rec List, part 2
• Climate Change
• environment
I use them constnatly. They are very useful when the site devolves into another meta storm, repitive BREAKING! diares, and the like.
(All times Eastern!)
Today's eKos diaries:
Late addition:
In The Forest Of The Giants (photos)
by Richard Lyon
Yesterday's eKos diaries:
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