Ask most Americans and they'll tell you they want to protect the environment. But, time after time, when polls are taken, the environment ranks well down the list of most respondents' priorities. Not number 3 or 4, but much farther down. Then comes a disaster like what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now, in the water and increasingly on the land, with no end in sight. When that happens, the environment moves up in priority.
The truth is that we're spilling oil every day. Pouring one of its major by-products into our atmosphere as if there were no tomorrow. Not just from oil, of course. We're doing the same thing with coal. Even most of us who know about climate change, who believe in the science of climate change, who have actually registered in our brains the effects of climate change that are already happening, even with all that, we keep doing what we've been doing. Pouring that global warming pollutant into the atmosphere. Behaving, just as the polls show, as if the environment is way down on our list of priorities. As if it doesn't really matter. As if it's at best an after-thought, after the economy, after social change, after financial regulation, after whatever we've planned for Friday night partying.
The Gulf Spill has our attention now. And it no doubt will for a while. And many, if not most of us are discussing how we need to change. But, ultimately, if history is any guide, we'll do just what we did after the Haitian earthquake. At first we pledge ourselves to make preparations for whatever disaster might strike where we live – floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes of our own. But then we keep delaying those preparations until we forget about them altogether.
Don't waste a crisis, Rahm Emanuel famously said. If there is any silver lining in the Gulf Spill, it's that it has produced a crisis that ought to spur us to change our own behavior, the behavior that ultimately underpins the industry that was drilling for that oil deep in the ground in deep water. It ought to spur us to get our government to change its behavior, too. To stop the delays in doing something about climate change, about our energy mix, about coddling the fossil-fuel industry. Will we waste this crisis? Or will we wait until the greater crisis wastes us?
= = =
The Gulf Spill generated a boatload of diaries in the past three days. So the Green Diary Rescue, which begins below the fold, starts with all the non-spill diaries first.
Black Skimmer
Green Turtle
These are from Haole in Hawaii's Oil Impacted Creatures.
The Green Diary Rescue appears Thursday and Sunday.
Water, Conservation & Pollution
dov12348 wrote about Critical: Water.
Cenobyte gave us a lesson in Dead Zones: Another Gulf Environmental Disaster: "I've been teaching about the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico in my university's first-year seminars since I started teaching in 2005. These are hypoxic regions where virtually every living thing is killed off if it is unfortunate enough not to be able to flee. The current dead zone spans 8,543 square miles. But, like so many of the issues that plague humankind, it doesn't pose an immediate enough threat to our existence, and so we ignore it."
Agriculture, Gardening and Food
gravlax dug into the S.510: Food Safety Bill Debate Continues (just not in the Senate): "Both the House and Senate bills would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to regulate food, including by authorizing the Secretary to suspend the registration of a food facility. The bill would go a long way towards uniting the FDA and the USDA in their efforts to regulate food in this country. As it stands the different agencies regulate different spheres of the food and agricultural industries. The separation often makes little sense."
He also wrote GMO Alfalfa and the Supreme Court: "On Tuesday, April 27 the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Monsanto v Geertson. The case is the first on the subject of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) to be heard by the court. Chances are good that it won't be the last. The decision, expected by June, should have a wide-reaching effect on US agriculture, especially on organic agriculture."
john de herrera discussed Daily Kos & Monsanto: "So why can't Daily Kos wake up? Why can't its "leaders" and Rec List notables make the critcal distinction between symptoms of the problem, and the problem itself? The problem is institutionalized corruption, and only the Constitution can break the status quo in order for it to be reformed."
In Tales from the Larder: Seafood Diaries part 5...Shrimp!, Patric Juillet talked about shrimp: "But here's a warning: knowing that more than half the world's supply of seafood comes from aquaculture (including shrimp), cheap & abundant supplies have come at a huge price. Mismanagement of environmental and social impacts of aquaculture include destruction of habitat, depletion of wild stock caught for feed, disruption to the natural food chain and, obviously, the threat to food security. Always make sure you know the provenance of any type of seafood. If it's not made available on demand, move to the next supermarket."
Frankenoid bemoaned the Denver weather in Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 6.10: "Sigh. I really want to start getting gladiolus in the ground but now it's just too damned wet, and other planting has taken precedence. At least one of my orchids brightened my day by finally deciding to bloom."
possum showed us photos of Wilmington Garden Day 2010.
wide eyed lib was checking out the spring foliage again in Free Food: Foraging Old Plants with a New Book: "In the blink of an eye winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris) has gone from a shiny, dark green basal rosette to a 3 foot tall flower stalk topped by tiny yellow flowers. I have a high sensitivity to bitter flavors, so it's not my favorite plant, but my partner eagerly harvests it every year."
Roundups and Digests
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse: Climate denier battle lines drawn in California ballot measure: " Some in media say federal government was slow to respond, but GOP Florida Senate candidate says it appeared "much of the early information provided to the federal government by BP" had been "either inaccurate or shortcoming."
Jerome a Paris: blow baby blow.
mark louis: Alternative Energy Round-Up.
eKos: eKos Earthship 4/30/2010 (an eco-diary roundup with more!)
eKos: eKos Earthship Sunday: Oilpocalypse Edition (Updated w/worst case scenario and briefing)
The Media Consortium: Weekly Mulch: Oil rig sinks, as does Senate climate bill.
rserven: Community Action: Working to Save our Environment: "I hope you will keep the forests in mind, all over the world. Whether an old-growth forest like the McClellan that we have here, or a tropical rain forest like those in the Amazon or Indonesia, or a temperate rain forest like the ones I grew up near in the Pacific Northwest, the trees need protection. Since they don't have voices, we need to lend them ours."
Miep: Happy Homeless May Day Urban Gardening News.
Climate Change
A Siegel asked, Does coal money speak with the Washington Post?: "The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is the Washington Post's exclusive launch sponsor of PostPolitics.com. It would be laughable if it weren't so sad. The coal industry bought access to the 2008 political campaign by sponsoring presidential debates. It has spent $100s of millions bringing us things like Santas handing out 'clean coal' and 'clean coal' carolers. The ACCCE, since its 'founding' a few years ago, has been right in the center of this effort to white wash coal's deadly impacts and ACCCE has been, for example, implicated in such above-board tactics as the sending of letters to Members of Congress using organizations' letter heads without permission. The opening days of Post Politics featured ads blaring about the "clean coal" and other deceptions from the 'exclusive sponsor.'."
HumeSkeptic looked at the Morality and Politics of Climate Change: "Environmentalism, on the other hand, encompasses preservation, betterment and continuation of all life, and, therefore, is the highest level of morality. It being the highest morality, it is not a surprise that the vast majority of Republicans oppose and mock environmentalism."
cenacle made a foray Regarding Climate Change: "And I don’t need a scientist to see how humans are currently affecting the planet, & have been for a long time. I arrive at the office I work at in downtown Portland by walking down paved streets strewn with trash, passed by hundreds of cars spewing poisons into the air. Not too far from almost anyone is a factory of some kind with a cloud of black smoke coming from it. Where North America was once mostly forest it is now not. One can see these things with one’s own eyes, smell them. I do what I can, in terms of recycling, & product purchase, & using public transit. But that is a small drop in the bucket."
cadetcap explained What Cape Wind announcement means for climate legislation: "This development is particularly relevant now because it comes during the same week that bipartisan negotiations on climate change legislation stalled. Ironically, these two events play into the narrative that an activist government cannot succeed in solving major American problems. Many would say that this shows the power of American business in moving the country forward. Personal entrepreneurship clearly trumped government intervention in this case, yes, but lets take a step back."
And mark louis asked What Are the Options for Climate Action?: "Various events over the last couple of weeks have made the passage of any possible climate/energy bill more difficult. From Lindsay Graham's temper tantrum to the continuing catastrophe in the Gulf, the odds of passing a comprehensive cap and trade (or dividend or whatever you want to call it) seem to be slim and none, and slim just left town. So, what are the other options?"
Animals, Forests and the Great Outdoors
Bee Catastrophe Threatens American Crop Failure warned FishOutofWater: "No one cause has been found for colony collapse disorder, but pesticides are suspected of playing a role by weakening or disorienting bees. Investigators have found over 120 different pesticides in hives. Varroa mites, which are ejected from colonies by healthy bees, prey on bees which are weak. Weak and hungry bees are also more susceptible to bacterail and viral infections. Moreover, because the report counts only the losses over winter, the true extent of the collapse since 2006 may be underestimated."
sheddhead gave us the lowdown on his Happy Arbor Day Good Works: "Beyond being part of a grade school class that watched someone plant a tree in the school yard for Arbor Day, I've never participated in an Arbor Day celebration. Until yesterday."
soothsayer99 excoriated Horseracing: "The glamour of this one day of horseracing belies a brutal 'sport.' Horseracing is the USA is not the 'sport of kings' but rather a marginalized meat-grinder industry which chews up both young and old horses at an alarming rate. It is a loosely regulated federation of state 'gaming' commissions with little federal oversight, an industry where serial dopers are Eclipse Award winners and multi-millionaire breeders may neglect and starve their horses."
It almost sounded like a right-wing Arizonan talking from mydailydrunk's headline of Eating Machines migrating from Mexico. But no: "Relax, I'm only talking about the hummingbird, an intrepid traveller who breeds and winters predominately in Mexico and Central America, and without a care about immigration policies, stealthily invade vast swatches of the US during the warmer month."
tgypsy had some great desert photographs in Dawn Chorus Birdblog: The Salt River - An Oasis in Arizona's Sonoran Desert: "Ah, Arizona, you’re breakin’ my heart. You seduced me with your beauty and your free spirit. You’re the keeper of the Grand Canyon and the Sky Islands, truly magnificent jewels among this nation’s many treasures. You have Gila Monsters and Trogons and, maybe, if we hope hard enough, the Jaguar. You took me in and rocked me on your waters. And then, just a few days after returning home from a much needed respite from the everyday stuff of life, news from your dry, dusty world makes me think of the Gestapo and the stereotypical "Show me your papers" from too many B movies."
Eco-Philosophy & Miscellany
don mikulecky is always of a philosophical bent and he had two ponders for us: We keep eating it one dose at a time! A nation of sheep.: "We are dying step by step. We are in denial of the worst kind. We are reaping the natural outcome of greed and power run wild. It has blinded even the best of our analysts. I read and I search but they are all playing the losing game." And Art, science and global warming.
Calvin Revolt USA's dad got upset until some digging changed the picture as Calvin explained in Fox news took my Dad and now it's Personal: "It appears that many inland bodies of water and wetlands fall into a gray area and are not subject to the clean water act that keeps them from being polluted or from going away due to development. And it also appears that states and counties are not picking up where the clean water act leaves off and these bodies of water are disappearing at an alarming pace."
Energy
Magnifico brought some good news in Pentagon withdraws its opposition to huge OR wind project: "Here's some great news! Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden along with Republican Rep. Greg Walden, all representing Oregon, issued a joint press release today announcing the Pentagon will no longer block the Shepherds Flat wind farm in Eastern Oregon. If the project is completed as planned, it will be the largest land-based wind energy project in the world."
But there was bad news from RDemocrat in Coal Mining Tragedy Strikes Again, This Time in Western Kentucky: "On the heels of the worst coal mining disaster in American history two more coal miners have died on the job. Justin Travis of Dixon, Ky., was 27. Michael Carter of Hanson, Ky., was 28. Both of these men were taken from this earth far too soon in their young lives and before saying anything else we would like to offer our sincerest condolences to these young men and the families they leave behind."
futurebird argued for a different attitude in You know what's regressive? subsidizing driving.: "Whenever someone proposes a much needed measure like a gas tax the immediate response is: "That's regressive!" But, what many forget, is that the poorest people in this nation do not have cars. The sorry state of public transportation the the myriad ways that the government has subsided auto-centric living for the past 50 years has been regressive policy for the nation's poorest and most vulnerable populations. We must do something to address this gross imbalance."
Yalin expressed similar views in Gasoline Prices Are Rising Again? Time to Raise My Taxes (Yes, You read that correctly): "There is so much that could be done to address our ecological shortcomings. Hopefully this diary sheds some light on our potential courses of action. In short: a) Raise the gasoline tax and heavily incentivize activities such as car pooling and purchasing fuel efficient vehicles (50mpg+) to alter driving behavior; b) Eliminate the payroll tax ceiling and cut the rate in half for all those making less than the current ceiling of $107,000; c) Divert the raised revenue to cover our infrastructure shortfalls and invest heavily in the green economy nationally."
As did Jerome a Paris in Oil spill: we are the problem. Time to tax gas. Massively: "But until gas taxes are jacked up - and continue to be jacked up regularly (Europe stopped increasing taxes in the last 90s, and we started moving towards bigger cars again soon afterwards), we'll continue to burn oil as if there were no tomorrow, and the price will be paid by random coastlines (remember the Torrey Canyon, the Santa Barbara platform, the Amoco Cadiz, the Exxon Valdez, the Erika and many more before the BP spill), and... by us as taxpayers, in the form of oversized military budgets whose purpose is largely to protect oil shipping lanes and friendly oil regimes (never mind the population of the countries variously invaded and bombed along the way)."
jamess explained how a simple act made a huge difference in What a 40-to-1 Benefit to Cost ratio Looks like: "Back in the 90's, despite strenuous objections from the "resources extraction" crowd, a 'cap and trade' program was enacted by the EPA. and guess what -- IT WORKED! and guess what -- It solved the Acid Rain pollution problem, without hurting national productivity. And eventually ended up COSTING much less than originally projected, when the EPA Clean Up Program was started."
With the Gulf Spill in everybody's mind, A Siegel tried once again to show Better paths forward ...: "How many times does it need to be said? Offshore drilling is, at best, a 1 cent, 1 percent solution 20 years off to the question of gasoline prices."
The Fire God of Geothermal Is Very Angry wrote terryhallinan: "Maybe America needs first to help itself. Nearly all geothermal power development in this country is being done by companies based in Canada, Israel, Iceland and Italy. We even buy geothermal power from Mexico. As far as I know, there were no Americans representing the U.S. at the World Geothermal Congress though other countries from all over the planet were there."
[The Gulf Oil Spill]
Turkana: This is us. This is on us. No one will rescue us.: "We have to be rid of fossil fuels. We are junkies, and we are dying. We are killing not only ourselves, but so many of the beautiful and wondrous creatures with whom we share this spinning blue garden oasis. If a biosphere fails in a far corner of an obscure galaxy on a distant edge of what may be but one of countless Universes, will anybody hear? This is us. This is on us. No one will rescue us. There will be no redeeming such a catastrophic collective failure. Myths and fantasies will not save us."
jamesboyce: I Am Responsible For the Oil Spill: "We each use too much oil in our lives and we are each willing to spend more and more on oil, meaning that we drive the profits and the plans of the large oil companies. It is our consumption, our willingness to pay that drives oil companies to explore the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on rigs, because they know we will buy their product."
incondite: 600+ Wildlife Species Threatened by Spilled Oil in Gulf.
sideboth: So you are selling your car?: "So while it’s good for our government to support alternative forms of energy, it’s also up to us to make sure we aren’t part of the problem and more of a collation looking for a better way. We can’t complain about off shore drilling and then drive our 2 SUV’s to the grocery store two blocks away."
RogerShuler: Is Oil Spill About to Give Alabamians What We Deserve?: "Few states have a stronger record than Alabama when it comes to sucking up to the oil industry. So it's ironic that a massive oil spill that started off the coast of Louisiana now is moving eastward toward . . . Alabama. And it is poised to land a possibly catastrophic blow to our state's economy and environment."
BlueHighwayman: Who's to Blame for the Oil Spill?: "Yesterday I mowed my land with a riding mower as did several individuals in the neighborhood. I ate breakfast opening several plastic containers for food that traveled thousands of miles. Turned on my plastic encased computer and watched my plastic enclosed flat screened TV. I drove my car loaded with plastic to an event in the evening as did many other people. I took photos with a plastic encased camera stored on a plastic SD Card. At that event were plastic cups and eating utensils. Some of the food had also traveled thousands of miles to get there not to mention the fertilizer required to grow the food. I could go on but the point is it took lots of oil to get through one day in my life."
Florida Boy: This Should Have Never Happened: Florida's Gulf Coast: "Whether it is picking up scallops along the bay's floor in Port St. Joe with my extended family or walking down Navarre Beach during sunset while on high school spring break with childhood friends or fishing off Pensacola Beach with my uncle as a young child or swimming off Grayton Beach with my nieces or laying on a raft in the Santa Rosa Sound as an adult: All of this will be no more. This will never be experienced again by another generation. Ruined - forever."
lineatus: Oiled Wildlife - the organizations who help: "International Bird Rescue Research Center (donation link at top right on the home page). They already have team on the way to the gulf."
Unenergy: Documenting the Gulf Oil leak with Wikileaks: "There are two very good reasons why documenting this is important. The first is to make sure that the reporting is kept transparent and honest. The best way to do this is through individuals video taping, photographing what they see and recording it. The second is that this will be something which will test America's mettle."
brooklynbadboy: Breaking: Obama Temporarily Bans all New Offshore Drilling: "What we need is a ban on offshore drilling. Excepting the arctic circle region, where I believe the bounty is worth the risk."
Hookah: Gulf Oil Spill: MANUFACTURED CRISIS!!! Update: Limbaugh Chimes In!: "The real "adults," the cooler heads - the conservatives - who are all into conservation, natch - over at Free Republic (find your own way there if you like; ain't gonna link) aren't fooled by what they see in the lib media, no sir! They see right through this pitiful charade, trying to gin up sympathy for tree-hugging, America-hating envirowhackos. This is a MANUFACTURED CRISIS!"
Dr Teeth: The Oil Spill is not a Natural Disaster: "I've seeing a trend in the coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The media is treating this spill as if it was just another accident. There is a very broad information gap in the media's narrative that I think needs filled in."
justmy2: WH: No oil drilling in new areas until review: "The media is beginning to attempt to imply the Administration was not on top of a crisis and began pulling quotes from the campaign where President Obama stated he would respond aggressively to crisises unlike President Bush and trying to link this to Katrina. That is overboard and way ahead of where we are at, but the CW will set in before you know it. Democrats better not let that happen, and they need to reinforce Republicans wanted more drilling and less regulation."
RLMiller: Will Obama Change His Mind on Oil? Can We Make Him?: "Public opinion is shifting against an expansion of drilling. A poll at the flaming liberal Wall Street Journal is running 2 to 1 against expanding offshore drilling. More importantly, as the oilpocalypse has shown, it's smart policy. Our job is clear. First, petitions are now circulating at sites as diverse as the Sierra Club, 350, and FireDogLake. Sign one, sign them all, and update my list with additional petitions and online actions here."
paziz: Spill is Obama's fault?: "But the work has begun to distract attention from the culprit. Ok, hard to ignore that BP had something to do with this, but if we can't erase that from people's minds, let's add the poor government response! This is really the fault of Obama."
dangeo: What Obama Should Say: "The President can seize the moment for what it is - a turning point in our consciousness about how tightly connected energy, the environment, the economy, and our national spirit are."
Knights of Dusk: President obama was not slow in his response to the oil Spill..
empireport: Anti Obama groups hit by oily reality It so Ironic that the very states and governors who have been loudest in talking about 'states rights' are now calling for The Feds to help them.
slinkerwink: President Obama Restates Support For Oil Drilling: "Even though this administration has announced a stop on new domestic offshore drilling until a review has been completed of the Gulf Coast oil spill, indications are that this administration will continue to support the use of domestic oil production. It seems that this recent environmental disaster has not changed their minds."
slinkerwink: President Obama To Visit Oil Spill On Sunday.
Earth Ling: Mr. Obama's Oily Knight retreats... but he'll be back.
rini6: Really?........REALLY???!!!: "Katrina? Really?You're calling this Obama's Katrina?"
SON2007: Spill Baby Spill: "The environmental cause could use a snappy put-down directed against the oil addicts. "Spill Baby Spill" is the answer. In the age of 15 minute fame and the snappy 10 second sound-bite something short and simple has a role to play."
yomamaforobama: Cry Me A River: "Calls for "investigations" plus all the alligator tears in the world, AFTER THE FACT, will not do. Will we ever learn from our past experiences? Not if money is involved. Money is the ultimate opiate, wiping out any vestiges of reason, logic or ethics."
fake consultant: To Attract Tourists, Louisiana Governor Announces Free Oil Giveaway: Snark.
Rei: Electricity Slick Spreads Across Alternate-Gulf Of Mexico: Snark.
JeffLieber Massive windspill reported in Southern California.: Snark
Lefty Coaster: Dick Cheney plans fishing trip to Louisiana's Gulf Coast: Snark.
hissyspit: (Updated) DRILL BABY DRILL Bill Maher Today: "Every Asshole Who Ever Chanted...: "BILL MAHER TODAY VIA TWITTER: 'Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill Baby Drill' should have to report to the Gulf Coast today for cleanup duty.'"
Lefty Coaster: First Oil has Reached Shore - Environmental Disaster looms for Gulf Coast.
LakeSuperior: Thursday NASA Image of Oil Spill.
LaEscapee: The Coast, Our coast, Partial repost.
punditician BP To Gulf Coast Residents: We'll Give You $5,000 If You Give Up Your Right To Sue!: " Thousands or more people have had their livelihoods (and possibly their children's) laid waste by BP and their greed. And BP is running around the Gulf Coast trying to get people to sign away their right to sue for $5,000 cash money."
AntonBursch: BP is responsible for this.
kanuk: What you can do to help with the BP/ Gulf Coast Disaster: " I have read far too many posts saying, "I will not pay for BP's disaster, they made this mess, they need to fix it". Sadly this disaster is just too terrible for the people of the gulf, and the wildlife in the gulf region. There are reports now that this disaster will travel around Florida and go up the west coast. We can not afford to sit on our hands because we are pissed at British Petroleum."
Timaeus: Oil Numbers: A Reference Guide: " Crude oil is generally measured in tons, barrels, or gallons. There has been confusion in the media (and here) due to imprecision about these different measurements."
AnswerLady: George Will and Repugnican Lies - Gulf Oil Spill: "George Will, on Meet the Press, today told us that wind turbines kill more birds every day than have been killed in the British Petroleum Gulf oil spill."
Byron De Lear: Oil Spill in the Gulf: BP's "Beyond Petroleum" if not now, when?: "This moment is a clarion call to ramp-up the immediate diversification of America's energy portfolio."
CornSyrupAwareness: Cosco Busan Oil Spill Two and a Half Years Later: "In early November of '07 I took my dogs Zoe and Hunter to their favorite dog park in San Francisco. It's a great area just south of Ocean beach in an old fort called Funston. There's a top area where you can walk your dogs and hike around a bit on the sandy cliffs or hang glide. Then there's a path that leads down to the beach. This is a picture of Zoe down on the black sand stained from 56,000 gallons of oil spilling into the San Francisco bay."
ajwysocki: Boycott BP.
mwmwm: Oil Disaster as Metaphor: "I could weep, I could scream, I could wax holy as I did not use petroleum products to get to work today. Except for all I know the asphalt I rode my bicycle on — as well as parts of the bicycle itself (and my helmet), were made of petroleum. Or the keyboard I type on. But I don’t want to go there. I want to see this event as larger, as a metaphor."
Avenging Angel: A Perfect Storm for Regulatory Reform: "Nevertheless, that's going to be hard for Americans to swallow after a week which showcased unfettered industries producing unmitigated disasters. After all, people are still gulping oil and choking on coal dust."
BCO gal: Rescuers Cleaning First Oil Slicked Bird
Pen: Where's the outrage Kossacks?.
LaughingPlanet: Black April: "Jonathan Hiskes at Grist today calls this "The worst week ever, brought to you by the fossil-fuel industry." I may be willing to go a step further."
kanuk: Another off shore oil rig falls into the Gulf.
Ellinorianne Sperm Whales, Dolphins and Oil slicks, Oh my, more things to worry about.: "And as the debate continues on whether we should allow Countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland to resume legal commercial whaling with many arguing that this would mean less dead whales via whaling shows how misguided the debate is going."
Ernest T Bass: EPA News Release: BP Oil Spill Website.
Jay Boilswater: Understanding the "worst case" on Deepwater Horizon.
AnnetteK: Palin, 'Drill Here, Drill Now' **Still** & Lie Number *$!?: A look at Palin's Facebook postings.
quaoar: Alabama AG urges prayer, not lawsuits over oil spill.
apollogonzales: Deepwater Dispatches: "The first thing you forget when you leave the Gulf Coast, where I grew up, is the humidity. It is also the first thing you are reminded of when you come home. When I got the call that I was to pack up and head out to New Orleans I loaded my bags with long sleeve shirts and ties, the uniform of DC. I am drenched just sitting here, and my coaster doesn’t stand a chance against the sweating glass of ice water. My ties are not going to see the light of day."
relikx: 2nd Factor of 5 - BP Oil Spill Now Est. 25,000 BARRELS/Day
ARingMD2B: Surprise! Offshore oil leaking 25x faster (25,000b/day)
Brainwrap: Worst-case Scenario: Did BP just kill the planet???
yuriwho: Gulf Oil Spill: Two Very Worrying Articles.
rini6: Really?........REALLY???!!!: "Katrina? Really?You're calling this Obama's Katrina?"
The Cunctator: BP Testified Offshore Drilling Is 'Safe And Protective Of The Environment
tkrawftg8: Drill Baby, Drill: a metaphor for Contempoary American Conservative Opposition: ""Drill baby, drill" is not good enough. Haphazard and clumsy legislation regarding immigration reform is not good enough. The old models of "might makes right" do not work: period. Every problem doesn't have one single fix all solution, but every problem can be worked and negotiated if we just keep our eyes open to the possibility of unconventional resolutions."
RenderQT: 50% Failure Rate on Off-Shore Oil Rig 'Last Resort' Device: "While most people already know of the horrific environmental fall out that can occur, most people do not know that this industry is rife with fundamental failures, crazy corner cutting, all for that mighty dollar and the bottom line, in lieu of even basic common sense."
Karen Hedwig Backman:British Petroleum Is a Syphilitic Infection...: "But, alas, bad, bad BP's history is inextricably intertwined with the history of U.S. international interventionist policy. For example, the gratuitous syphilitic reinfection of Iran through a CIA-led coup in 1953, aka "Operation Ajax."
wyldraven: Deepwater Horizon and Halliburton: "I don't know about you, but I haven't seen a single moment of TV coverage of this incident where the name Halliburton has been mentioned. Now that in itself seems odd to me."
oregondem: BP: 2010 Finalist for Safety Award in Gulf Oil Drilling!: "The following is not a parody. ... For the second year in a row, British Petroleum Exploration & Production, Inc. (BP), has been named a Finalist in the Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE) competition for offshore oil drilling! The award is given by the Minerals Management Service of the U.S. Department of Interior."
bdorland: Oil of Joy: "Dick Cheney's Halliburton, a foreign company (headquartered in Dubai) associated with and fed by the previous administration, evidently failed to properly cement the well, which blew out when changing over to production status."
seawolf1957: Gulf Oil Disaster: The Halliburton Connection, with Commentary
epjmcginley: Oil Leaks into the Gulf like Blood.
Gamblndan: Perhaps an easier clean up in the gulf?
eljefebob: Bob of The Daily Hurricane Talks About the BP Well Blowout: "Yesterday, I was invited to appear on Fox News America's Newsroom to talk about the blowout on BP's Mississippi Canyon Block 252 well."
niccolo caldararo: Oil "Spill" and Goldman Fraud, Same Cause.
Zurvan: Deepwater Horizon oil spill is best news in year: "I say this is the best thing to happen in years because of the potential to use this as a lesson on government regulation. When future outcomes are unknown it is best to err on the side of safety given the huge cost of adverse outcomes. What happened at the Deepwater Horizon well is terrible, but what will be even worse is if we don't take this opportunity to show that human actions sometimes have very adverse outcomes and that we need to take actions now to minimize those risks."
deepsouthdoug: Oil well worst case – a leak of 2.1 million gallons a day.
MinistryOfTruth: End Big Oil's Billions in Government Subsidies NOW!: "This is what I like to call "Corporate Welfare", but a better term would be "socialism for the rich", because that is what it is, a massive transfer of wealth from the tax paying public to the already very profitable fossil fuel industry."
Unenergy: Gulf Gusher - Where are the photos?: "Man's control over his environment has limitations, as was discovered back on 28 May 2006 when an exploration company in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia, drilling for gas, set in place a chain of events which started an underground mud volcano covering an area home to thousands of people and which to this day continues."
Translator: My Drill Nation: A poem.
zenbassoon: The Time Has Come
eljefebob: Experts Now Estimate BP Blowout Well Flow May Be 25,000 Barrels per Day
epiphyte: Saving the gulf coast with Sacrificial Biomass....
pollwatcher: BP may get its oil back.
innereye: Janet Napolitano Refutes BP's "Guesstimates" of Leak Size - Update: "Their original 'guesstimate' was 1,000 barrels of oil a day, but they have wells that are currently producing over 30,000 barrels of oil a day under controlled conditions. They changed their estimates because of SkyTruth's evaluations of satellite images. SkyTruth says the leak rate is 26,000 barrels per day 'at the minimum.' Now Janet Napolitano says it may actually be 'tens of thousands of barrels per day.'"
thinkingblue: Question Of The Week "What Caused The Oil Spill?": "Let me try to put on an objective thinking cap. It is not an easy task to decipher the happenings within a capitalist economic system."
Larry Wohlgemuth: Do Boycotts Work? Let's Find Out. Boycott BP: "Ahhhh, but a boycott of BP is a different thing. I know, lots of private brands get their product from BP, but we can shut down the BP labeled convenience stores, which would put a huge dent in their wallets, and it would be a very, very visible thing to do. Imagine all those former BP stores all shut down. Join me below the fold and we'll continue."
barath: Boycott BP Now.: "The boycott is symbolic in that we’ll get our oil elsewhere. For now, that is. Since oil is a fungible commodity, this won't make folks stop driving, but it will force folks to think about it. Every time you go to get gas, it’ll make you associate the act of going to a gas station with the oil spill in the gulf."
jer45: BP: Beyond Petroleum? No. Broken Planet? Sadly, Yes: When I see a BP station, I will go elsewhere.
Blicero: Capping the Oil Gusher: Engineering Solutions
Byron De Lear: Oil Spill in the Gulf: BP's "Beyond Petroleum" if not now, when?:This moment is a clarion call to ramp-up the immediate diversification of America's energy portfolio.