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Tonight's editor: ekos team
Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 80
Gulf Blogathon Review
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GULF RECOVERY BLOGATHON CALENDAR/DIARY SCHEDULE (All Times Pacific)
(Tayo Fatunla, Freelance Cartoonist for Cagle Cartoons (West Africa), Buy this cartoon)
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For a detailed roundup of the first two days of the blogathon, check out Meteor Blade's Green Diary Rescue
ekos rangers review today's diaries:
La Feminista puts the spill in perspective, comparing it to natural seepage:
Oh shit, in one three month period we added 205.8 million gallons; that's a 53% increase over and above what happens every year.
...and then reminds us of its place beside other collateral damage of our collective dependence on oil:
There is another type of oil pollution, a byproduct we take for granted in our everyday lives and it enters our oceans in colossal quantities every year; plastics.
And also:
We have no idea of the effect of oil in the oceans deep but we are sure as hell going to find out now, oil has been found in crab larvae [zooplankton] that are the foundations of the food web.
She concludes:
When someone turns around a tells me that nature will take care of this all, I just want to slap them silly.
But she also leaves with concrete action to take.
by solarmom
In Pam LaPier’s diary "Gulf Recovery: How To Help", she provides an amazing list of links and suggestions for how to effectively turn your disaster-inspired frustration (and the rest of your) emotions into positive actions.
The list is so thorough that there is bound to be something to fit everyone’s heart’s desire.
It includes ways to donate or volunteer with organizations that aim to help fisherman and local residents, and many that are dedicated to wildlife rescue and monitoring. Also included are waysto help volunteer, how spread the word via twitter, how to report oil that you find, and many, many simple steps you can take in your everyday life that will ease impacts on Gulf Coast wildlife.
It’s a long list that may be a little intimidating, but there is no need to be overwhelmed. Just go check it out and pick a few things that speak to your personal preferences and desires. If everyone takes a few actions, the combined result will be huge!
by Hopeful Skeptic
In Gulf Recovery: "It's [still] the economy, stupid...", rb137 makes a powerful case that if we want to develop a renewables sector it is crucial that we make capital available to small businesses. For without capital, small companies in the renewables sector cannot hire scientists and engineers needed for innovation, and all plans for implementation come to a screeching halt. Worse yet, the only companies that would be able to set the narrative for our energy future then would be the ones that already have working capital -- Big Energy, in particular. She urges to make noise, and to make it soon:
Action item: make noise, and make it soon.
Support Reid and Pelosi in their fight to fully fund the DOE's renewable energy and transmission loan-guarantee program. Write your congresspeople, the DOE, the OMB, and President Obama and remind them that the loan program is a proven job creator, and it will positively impact economic recovery.
Talk to your neighbors, and convince them that this loan program helps the middle class, and should be expanded. Explain why guaranteeing capital to small businesses in the renewables sector will create jobs, jobs, jobs.
Defecit hawks are limiting capital to small businesses; this kills middle class jobs and hurt the economy. On a related note, ask your congresspeople to support the Small Business Access to Capital Act that seeks to increase loan limits and provide for low interest refinancing for small businesses: S.1832 and HR 4302.
by citisven
Gulf Recovery: Helping those that need it most
If I could sum this up in one sentence, it would have to be this, "When disaster strikes, the most vulnerable often suffer the most." As Laurence rightly points out, historically, those who are poorer and of the wrong color are the ones who will most likely suffer the consequences of our dirty energy choices, pollution and environmental disasters. The Gulf is no different.
And unfortunately, those most vulnerable are also the ones who can be most easily lawyered out of their rights. And so goes the tactic that other companies have employed in the past, capitalize on the "small people" by using the law to work against those it's meant to protect.
When there is an environmental catastrophe, everyone suffers. But the most vulnerable suffer the most. The poor and minorities often are the most vulnerable. It should be no surprise that poor minority communities are suffering from the BP oil disaster. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) and Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA) explain that the cleanup is only the beginning:
This is not only the worst single-incident environmental disaster in our country’s history, but it also is the world’s worst accidental marine oil spill.
What is equally disastrous, but less frequently reported, is the impact to the physical health, economy and livelihoods of communities living adjacent to the Gulf Coast. Among these communities, perhaps the most vulnerable are thousands of Southeast Asian and African-American families. The adverse effects experienced by this population are potent and unique.
A third of the Gulf Coast's registered fishing vessels are thought to be owned by Southeast Asians, and twenty percent of the region's Southeast Asians work in the seafood processing industry. Some eighty percent of the region's Southeast Asians will be directly impacted by the BP disaster.
This threat to livelihood has serious implications for a community already struggling economically, having arrived in America as political refugees, resettled in unsatisfactory camp conditions, remaining largely invisible and silent in the South.
Language is another barrier that Laurence mentions, where the fisherman are not entirely aware of what they are signing, and they may even give up important rights or hire a lawyer without their knowledge. Lack of adequite healthcare is another exacerbating issue, since as many who are following this blogathon know, dispersants and oil are not good for people or any other living things, for that matter.
The reason we enjoy such low food costs is because we have workers such as those in the Gulf who will fish, who live their lives like this and we have to remember that we have an obligation to care for every part of our society, not just when things are going well, but when things go south too. Or in this case, when things go far worse than anyone could have ever imagined.
by ellinorianne
"I Thought We Were Supposed To Be Telling The Truth"
by Project Gulf Impact
At Netroots Nation in Vegas a couple weeks back, at the DKos-sponsored wrap party, I happened to end up sitting adjacent to Matt & Heather, the people behind Project Gulf Impact. As a fellow documentarian, I was able to get some good info about their process and the goal of their project.
They are very driven and eloquent young folks, and I feel that their efforts will not be for naught if they get the support they need to finish their mission.
Not stuffed in a hotel, we're given a much better window into how people's lives are affected. Some more than others, yes, but from ship to shore, families are being hit by the thousands.
I love that. The fact that they are on the ground, talking to people of all walks of life. Living in the same environment, eating the same food. It is the same way I try and travel the world on those too-rare times I get to see the far away lands of this Earth and talk about what is going on there.
Too often our media fails to grasp what things are really like. Even the best reporting from Haiti felt a bit like those reality TV shows where the people are "forced to live off the land" even though you know there is a huge catered spread nearby for the crew, and just in case, the cast.
Living the life on the edge for real is a totally different story that I know firsthand.
So where do we go from here? Are there cancer-causing petrochemicals and chemical components of Corexit 9500 in the air and ground water? Is the well really capped? Does anyone really care? Is everyone down here going to die of cancer in ten to twenty years? Can we eat the fish?
Heh; I wrote about the fish earlier this week. My idea was to get BP on camera feeding it to their families, as they said they would.
Eat up or shut up, fat cats!
As for the folks at PGI, if you can't donate, you can also volunteer.
And of course spread the word.
We all await the finished product, and hope its impact is felt not just in the Gulf but around the world.
Review by LaughingPlanet
Time's up.
Only this one item on top of the team reviews above:
Deutsche Bank spurns U.S. for climate investment
(Reuters) - Alternative energy investment prospects have shriveled in the United States after the U.S. Senate was unable to break a deadlock over tackling global warming, a Deutsche Bank official said.
"You just throw your hands up and say ... we're going to take our money elsewhere," said Kevin Parker in an interview with Reuters.
Parker, who is global head of the Frankfurt-based bank's Deutsche Asset Management Division, oversees nearly $700 billion in funds that devote $6 billion to $7 billion to climate change products.
Amid so much political uncertainty in the United States, Parker said Deutsche Bank will focus its "green" investment dollars more and more on opportunities in China and Western Europe, where it sees governments providing a more positive environment.
Oops!
Looks like we kinda shot ourselves in the foot on that one.
OUCH!
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over two 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. Be sure to steal his stuffand visit his blog.
Month 8, Day 13: L.A. Heat Edition.
There’s a heat wave expected in LA this weekend, says the LA Times.
Not a standard boilerplate LTE.
A midsummer heat wave is not particularly remarkable. They happen all the time. But there are more and more of them happening these days, in the U.S. and around the world. As a consequence of climate change, we’re getting very extreme weather, and we’re getting it more often. While it’s impossible to say that global warming caused a specific weather event, climatologists have predicted for two decades that it will bring about ever more frequent extremes of temperature and precipitation. In the past, climate change was something that would happen in the future. But the past is gone and the future is now. Climate change is happening to us. News media must begin including this information as part of their print and online articles on weather conditions. People need to understand what’s going on so they can make informed decisions; ignorance is no longer an option.
Warren Senders
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I only became aware that there was a TV show by that name a few seconds before hitting "publish."
A screen snapshot at the conclusion of last night's blogathon! Yes, WE DID!
Announcements
Stay tuned for Patriot Daily's Sunday diary summarizing the Gulf Recovery blogathon.
Advertise here!
If you would like to make an announcement for an upcoming diary or event, please e-mail us at eKos350atgmaildotcom. Please send us formatted HTML!
(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Friday, August 13, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Gulf Recovery: Helping those that need it most | Laurence Lewis | 8:00:34 PM | Recommended, BP oil disaster, Gulf oil disaster, ecojustice, environment |
Gulf Recovery: "It's [still] the economy, stupid..." | rb137 | 6:01:24 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, renewable energy, economy, small business |
Gulf Recovery: How To Help | Pam LaPier | 5:01:11 PM | Recommended, Gulf Oil Spill, Volunteer, Donate, Help |
Gulf Recovery: A Skeptical Perspective. | LaFeminista | 3:57:59 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, BP, environment, climate change |
Consider the Electric Bike | partialobs | 3:55:26 PM | ebike, green commuting, ekos |
12.5 Trillion Reasons to Keep Drilling the GOM | War on Error | 11:48:51 AM | ekos, deep water drilling, offshore drilling, Gulf of Mexico, North Sea Drilling |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 80 | Gulf Watchers | 6:00:00 AM | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Global Warming in 2010 | Mary | 3:17:10 AM | global warming, eKos |
Green diary rescue & open thread | Meteor Blades | 12:03:31 AM | green diary rescue, eKos |
eKos diaries from Thursday, August 12, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
eKos: Mississippi Delta Will Drown by 2100 w/o Action | FishOutofWater | 11:27:59 PM | Mississippi delta, ekos, climate change, global warming, environment |
Final Update #8: Gulf Recovery in Editorial Cartoons - Helping the Helpless | JekyllnHyde | 11:13:06 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, eKos, Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum |
Gulf Recovery: Dispatches, Day #2 | Project Gulf Impact | 9:28:17 PM | Recommended, oil, spill, bp, oil spill |
Gulf Recovery-Genocide by Oil | Oke | 8:23:44 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, BP, environment, climate change |
Gulf Recovery: Feature or Bug? | Meteor Blades | 7:10:49 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, Bill McKibben, eKos |
Gulf Recovery: It's a CRUDE CRUDE world | citisven | 6:00:22 PM | Recommended, Gulf Recovery Blogathon, BP, environment, climate change |
There's No Planet B | aaraujo | 4:13:06 PM | eKos, climate change |
RECOVERY: SF Breaks Ground on High Speed Rail's "Grand Central" | greendem | 12:54:05 PM | transbay center, San Francisco, recovery, eKos, Rescued |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 79 | Gulf Watchers | 6:00:51 AM | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Open thread for night owls: Heat wave | Meteor Blades | 12:00:16 AM | open thread for night owls, russian heat wave, Russia, wildfires, drought |
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