Please rec the BP Gulf Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership!
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Tonight's editor: boatsie
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Deepwater Horizon Flaring Operation by DVIDSHUB
I remember so many 4th of Julys from my childhood ... Driving downtown Farmingdale with my grandparents to watch the fireworks display in the huge gaping hole of a field sideways cross the street from the A&P; slipping and sliding through the jetties on Amagansett Bay as Poppop buried his utterly bald head, covered in a battered brown straw fedora, behind the wind-bedeviled pages of the Long Island Press; the year, much later on, when my friend's son, a raging 'flam-o-maniac'(he grew up to be a fireman!) meticulously blew up my daughter's headless Barbie on the deck outside our house in Bolinas, as sparklers spun out their magic in the depths of our deeply wooded back yard and the dogs shivered and shook at the shock and awe of it all.
Seems like we're all shaking this year with shock and awe. Not much to celebrate. Even if you are heading out to some nearby beach to catch some waves, chances are there's no way to wash the images of the Gulf from your mind's hypervigilant eye.
And so, as I welcome you, my fellow readers, to ekos's first 4th of July earthship, I pray for us: May we sail forward from this day onward with added resolve to take up the call to action, to free ourselves from the tyranny of multinational corporations and re-claim and create the future of our planet! May all living ecosystems have equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
SignThe Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to rid themselves of an energy system that may threaten their lives and liberties, it is only decent that they should declare the causes of separation from the dependence on Fossil Fuels. We, the youth of these United States, know that some truths are self-evident: that all people are created Equal and that they have certain inalienable Rights: especially the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Because of our dependence on Fossil Fuels, the earth's climate is being pushed out of balance and is suffering from Global Warming.
The projected effects of Global Warming include extreme weather shifts, more frequent natural disasters, melting ice caps and glaciers, global sea level rise, reduced habitat and species loss, and lack of fresh water supplies. These problems put the children of this and every nation, thousands of entire species of animals and plants, and future generations in danger of losing their rights to Life, Liberty and Happiness.
So, when the burning of fossil fuels risks Global Climate Change, it is time for those most affected to stand up and to demand change. We call for change from our cities, our states, and from our nation. And we commit to change ourselves.
Therefore, We, the youth of the United States of America, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Country, solemnly publish and declare, that we, as a Community, ought to be Free and Independent from dependence on forms of energy that cause Global Climate Change.
Are You Addicted to Oil? Take the Quiz
The Year of the Americas? North America? NOT.
Whow! As if the G20 Climate Backslide wasn't bad enough! Now, leaked documents from the Toronto Summit reveal that Canada has no new plans to phase out ANY of the estimated $2 billion per year in tax breaks to gas and oil producers! Rather, it plans to phase out one specific subsidy to tar sands projects. Link
Oh, Canada! Shame on you!
Just how many Fossil of the Day Awards have you accumulated over the past few years as you rise in status in the Climate Change Hall of Shame?
The NYT recently reposted Climate Wire's Lisa Friedman's article Latin Americans Add Fizz to All Sides in 2010 Climate Talks.
While impoverished countries like El Salvador and threatened small island nations like Barbados push for climate funding, Brazil will dominate the debate over deforestation. Mexico, as host of the 16th Conference of the Parties, will claim the stage in trying to force countries to a compromise on a treaty -- even as it grapples with its own responsibilities as a middle-income nation.
Meanwhile, members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, otherwise known as ALBA, have become a force to be reckoned with ever since they prevented the United Nations from adopting the political agreement known as the Copenhagen Accord last year.
The group of leftist nations has styled itself as the champion of Mother Earth (even as oil-rich countries in its ranks like Venezuela routinely team up with Saudi Arabia to thwart ambitious measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions). ALBA is widely expected to block any climate deal that falls shy of the most ambitious.
While we're still talking climate negotiations, the movement to champion the rights of Indigenous Peoples received another signficant plug as the UN Institute's Sam Johnston (who is leading the development of the Traditional Knowledge Initiative) recently joined forces with Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Executive Director of the Tebtebba Foundation, to penn The Road Ahead: What next for Indigenous People in the climate change negotiations?
The document analyzes the key gaps in the Copenhagen Accord and makes strong suggestions for how new climate legislation can and must incorporate traditional knowledge.
As with any negotiated text improvements are possible. Key gaps in these texts identified by Indigenous People include, a reference to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in developing methodologies on REDD Plus and their full and effective engagement in REDD plus activities should not only be limited to monitoring and reporting, but should also include engagement in the design of REDD Plus as well. Another issue has been the reference to addressing the drivers of deforestation in the SBSTA and LCA documents being limited to developing countries only. As the international timber trade and international mining operations are significant drivers of deforestation it makes sense to look at the drivers not only within developing countries but also beyond. The need for a UNFCCC expert workshop to discuss the guidance for the effective engagement of indigenous peoples and local communities has been emphasized as well.
The absence of any specific mention of Indigenous Peoples in the Copenhagen Accord, as well as the overall impact of the Accord on the UNFCCC process, is an important outcome of COP 15. The effect the Accord will have on the UNFCCC process and hence the absence of any specific reference to Indigenous Peoples is not, however, foreseeable at the moment. The Accord has two main elements, a substantial commitment for adaptation funding and a mechanism whereby countries individually propose their greenhouse gas emission target without reference to any overall global target. The Accord doesn't contradict or add to the KP or LCA texts. Its main concepts are present as options in the LCA and the KP texts. Indeed, the text of the Accord doesn’t have any specific or obvious effect on the detailed issues in the UNFCCC text that are of direct concern to Indigenous Peoples. So, for example, the Accord recognises the role of REDD + but the details of what this means are contained in the UNFCCC text and it is the detailed safeguards in the UNFCCC text which are of concern to Indigenous Peoples. Furthermore, the Accord was "noted" by the COP and as such it is not an official part of the UNFCCC process (although it does create obligations for those countries that have associated themselves with it - the commitment to funding therefore is of some interest to Indigenous People).
To get a true feel for the rift between the Americas, break out a sixpack of a local brew, download the recently released Fifth U.S. Climate Action Report. You can read it and weep or you can take action....
(wherein ekos turns the mike over to the indomitable Bill McKibben)
Dear World: An invite from McKibben and a new 350 website
Dear World,
It's been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.
So we're having a party.
Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That's the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.
We're calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they're having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they're putting up solar panels on the President's office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they're installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic.
Since we've already worked hard to call, email, petition, and protest to get politicians to move, and they haven't moved fast enough, now it's time to show that we really do have the tools we need to get serious about the climate crisis.
On 10/10/10 we'll show that we the people can do this--but we need bold energy policies from our political leaders to do it on a scale that truly matters. The goal of the day is not to solve the climate crisis one project at a time, but to send a pointed political message: if we can get to work, you can get to work too--on the legislation and the treaties that will make all our work easier in the long run.
You can sign up to host a local event at www.350.org/oct10
Or search for an event to join at www.350.org/map
And don't worry about being alone at this party: there are already 1077 groups in 109 countries around the world scheduled to do something great that day. We'll knit all these groups together with a powerful mosaic of photos, videos, and stories from around the world. You wouldn't want to miss it.
It's been a tough year--but it can be a beautiful day on the 10th Of October if we work together, and party together. And if we do it right, then we'll take a big step towards the kind of political solutions we desperately need.
Onwards!
Bill McKibben and the 350.org team
P.S. If you feel a little shy, or wonder if you can really make a party work, check out these pictures from last year's Global Day of Action. There were 5200 demonstrations in 181 countries, which means an awful lot of folks like you figured out how to get it done!
Activists spill ‘oil’ at Tate Britain-BP party
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!
From his blog:
Month 7, Day 1: Day 182! The Halfway Point!
Submit YOUR comment against expansion of offshore drilling to the MMS Five-year Oil & Gas Program EIS here. I did.
What America (and the world) needs is not more offshore drilling. What we need is a transformation in our approach to our energy needs. Our priorities must be shifted: conservation, frugality and efficiency need to be first priorities.
More drilling is guaranteed to lead to more spills. We’ve already extracted the easily found oil; what’s left is going to be harder and harder to extract. As the recent revelations about major oil companies’ complete and pathetic lack of disaster preparations shows us, there are no effective strategies for coping with events of the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
With our explosive growth in carbon emissions already beginning to radically transform the planet into a place much less hospitable to humans, do we really want to continue the destructive behaviors that have brought us to this pass? To continue burning ever more oil in heedless consumption puts us in the position of a heart patient who continues to smoke heavily.
Our nation and the world can no longer afford it. Looking at an oil-soaked pelican, a drowned dolphin, or a burned sea turtle in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s evident: oil is the most expensive fuel of all.
Yours Sincerely,
WarrenS
Environment & mental pollution & protection, Image Retouching, Taipei, Taiwan by Sunshine Junior
"Abandoned bicycle was stayed lonely together with the fallen leaves at the corner of the park.
"There are more and more natural disasters occured at all aspects from the climates down to earthquakes in recent years, which become the warn sign to people all over the world. Some of them are due to human bening's industries revolution & over consumption issue in life for the centuries, which brought us the pollution from the air till our mind in depth. The environment we lives in physical and we think in mind was polluted more or more. All kinds of words, sound, symbols related to the racial, the gender , the social status, and the country discrimination etc we created annoyed our soul & mind and caused more or more wars conflict from the people around the the world. All kinds of the air, water, food pollutions from all kinds of electronic & medical industries & instruments bring huge impact to our life & enfluence to our health.
"Here I try to utilze & combine some different elements such as the leaves, the flowers, the sky, the mountain, the fog , rain & wind from the nature, and the railway station, the light, graffitti from the artifical world , and create the image which like the symbol or metaphor about what we breathe, we listen, we saw and we live together now in daily life .
"With all these messy stuffs we got from the life and the world day by day , and it become the disturbance to our mind , and hard to seek the beauty of the clarity & the simplicity of the world we live and the mind we used to own. Let's try our best not only decrease the air pollution from the nature, but also simpify ourself from thoughts to mind if posssible from now on . And hope we can enjoy the happiness of simplicity & keep the longlasting of earth moving forwards." Sunshine Junior
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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!)
Today's eKos diaries:
Author | Diary | Time | Tags |
---|
Meteor Blades | Green diary rescue & open thread | 07/02/10 12:09AM Eastern | open thread, green diary rescue, eKos |
Phil Rockstroh | A Day In A Dying Empire: An intimate fable on current events | 07/02/10 04:41AM Eastern | Empire, despair and hope, media distraction, poetry, eKos |
Gulf watchers | BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 38 | 07/02/10 06:00AM Eastern | Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
juliewolf | Scenes from a whale watch | 07/02/10 07:41AM Eastern | birds, birding, ocean, gulf oil spill, photos |
Nuisance Industry | Introducing the Sustainability Studies blog. | 07/02/10 09:08AM Eastern | sustainability, education, environmental news, Illinois, Chicago |
thinkingblue | A Fracking Mess! | 07/02/10 11:01AM Eastern | Gasland, natural gas, corporaations, politics, polution |
RogerShuler | Creator of Oil-Spill Videos Makes Us Proud to be from Alabama | 07/02/10 11:06AM Eastern | John Wathen, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, Keith Olbermann, eKos |
Phil Radford II Greenpeace | After 11 Weeks of Distaster, Time for Freedom From Oil (PHOTOS) | 07/02/10 11:59AM Eastern | bp, oil, oil spill, green, environment |
worldforallpeopleorg | Event Horizon: Mining copper & gold under the Deep Blue Sea | 07/02/10 01:26PM Eastern | environment, oceans, ekos |
Yesterday's eKos diaries:
Author | Diary | Time | Tags |
---|
Richard Cranium | I am so sad... | 07/01/10 09:24PM Eastern | meta, bp, unemployment, gop, compassion |
FishOutofWater | Oil Enters Food Chain & Deep Dead Zones Grow in Gulf | 07/01/10 09:39PM Eastern | Recommended, BP oil spill, DK Greenroots, eKos, Gulf Coast |
palantir | Overnight News Digest -- Sci Tech | 07/01/10 11:59PM Eastern | Overnight News Digest, OND, group diary, community, science |
GrumpyOldGeek | Build a backyard gusher then plug the d*mn leak with a relief well | 07/01/10 05:48AM Eastern | BP, British Petroleum, Gulf of Mexico, Climate Change, eKos |
Gulf watchers | BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 37 | 07/01/10 06:00AM Eastern | Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Bruce Nilles | Senator Robert Byrd: An Appreciation | 07/01/10 12:36PM Eastern | eKos, Robert Byrd, coal, West Virginia, Sierra Club |
Jed Lewison | Landrieu demands equal role for big oil in spill inquiry | 07/01/10 01:00PM Eastern | Mary Landrieu, oil, eKos, Jim DeMint |
Free Chicken and Beer | (UPDATED) Facepalming in Biloxi (A Photo Diary) | 07/01/10 01:41PM Eastern | Recommended, oil, oil spill, gulf of mexico, gulf coast |
Steven D | What Sick BP Oil Spill Workers? | 07/01/10 03:13PM Eastern | eKos, BP, Gulf Oil Spill, BP Cover-up, Oil Spill Health Risks |
mole333 | BP Fined for Lying (not Gulf related) | 07/01/10 04:39PM Eastern | BP, oil production, Southern Ute tribal lands, gas stations, eKos |
Jed Lewison | Bobby Jindal seals all state records related to oil spill | 07/01/10 05:55PM Eastern | Bobby Jindal, Oil spill, BP, eKos, Gulf Coast |
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