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Tonight's editor: boatsie
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Fake News Paper4 by SAITOH
WIPEOUT! BPs Blacktide Whitewash? Less than 2 degrees of separation?
So yesterday Sam Stein breaks a HuffPo story Gulf Coast Restoration Group With Oil Industry Ties Defends Itself From Critics calling out America's WETLAND foundation and Women of the Storm for their suggestion that U.S. taxpayers pay for the damage caused by BP to Gulf Coast wetlands. It's eerily similar to the hocus pocus that went down post Katrina when James L. Barksdale of the DC lobbying firm Capital Resources LCC (with clients in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama) is hired by Gov. Barbor to tackle handling the $96 billion in damages.
After the storm, Haley Barbour formed the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, appointing former Netscape Communications Corp. Chief Executive Officer James Barksdale as chairman and Henry Barbour as its unpaid executive director. The panel met from September through December of that year; in an e-mail, Henry Barbour says he took ``a leave of absence'' from lobbying while volunteering on the commission.
Government Consultants paid $65,000 for Henry Barbour's lobbying from July 2005 through 2006, a period that included his work on the governor's commission, state records show. Principals in the firm also gave at least $27,500 to Haley Barbour's re-election campaign in 2006; Henry Barbour is the campaign's treasurer.
Among the commission's recommendations was the sale of bonds to finance the Katrina recovery. According to state reports and figures provided by Government Consultants, the firm landed about $2.4 million in Mississippi bond fees in 2006, including at least $400,000 from Katrina-related issues. Its fees were up 3.3 percent from 2005, the first year Barbour lobbied for the company, and 125 percent from 2004, the year before it hired him. Link
Fast forward to yesterday, when Time Magazine publishes The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated? which has CCNs (owned by Time Warner) AC360 furiously backpeddaling last night in AC's relentless commitment to "keeping 'em honest" despite his live coverage for 80 plus days from Grande Isle. And then we have Mr. Barksdale's name popping up again, not only from his seat on the Times Warner Board of Directors but also, after some investigation, as representing the recently launched venture ... Gulf Coast Services Group, whose website as of 6:30 PST tonight was virtually a blank.
Hmmm. So lets put Jack Hidary's two degrees of separation concept to work here. Here's the Times' board members, including Jessica Einhorn, dean of Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University (now home for Hank Paulson and the same fine school which brought us Tim Geithner and Paul Wolfowitz) who also sits on the board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, (also peopled by Geithner and Lawrence Summers, Chevron's David O'Reilly AND vice-chairman of the Peterson Institute George David who just so happens to sit on the board of ... you got it, BP.
Maybe it's just me. But methinks "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
Why the Fight for the Gulf is Also in Borneo
350's Jamie Henn writes a powerfully personal piece for YES! magazine on a coal plant currently proposed in Malaysia:
What makes the devastation in the Gulf feel so personal?
For me, it’s the stories of families that have lost everything, shrimpers and fisherman whose livelihoods may never recover. It’s the photos of oil-drenched pelicans, the same birds I remember seeing down in Florida as a kid. It’s watching our political system unable to muster the proper response to the crisis: a full out clean energy mobilization that could finally break our addiction to fossil fuels.recounting
(snip)
For the last two months, I’ve been emailing and Skype-ing with Cynthia Ong, one of the leaders of Green SURF, a coalition of organizations in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Cynthia and her allies are working to stop a coal fired power plant that could have a devastating effect on the environment and community of the island.
The people of Borneo need the support of the international community to stop the plant. With most of the paperwork already approved and construction ready to begin this August, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, is one of the few people left with enough power to still pull the plug.
Photo Sunset Salute. Malaysia by Angela Sevin
The World on Trial: COP15 Protestors trial begins soon
United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP15 - Copenhagen, Denmark
By kk+’s photostream
In some days the first trial against spokespersons for the Reclaim Power action on December 16 will start. On March 16 Natacha Verco and Noah Weiss are faced with charges for having been leaders of an action that is claimed to be a violent threat towards the police. They were detained for three weeks and are now charged on grounds that can result in prison terms for several years and expulsion from Denmark. Five more spokespersons are accused of a variety of crimes but all share the charge of planning to disrupt public order and planning to commit violence against the police.
Interestingly there are many spokespersons for the Reclaim power action that have not been arrested and that are those representing large popular movements. Among them were Henry Saragih, general secretary of Via Campesina, an organisation with some 200 million members world wide and the biggest of all global popular movements. There were also Judy Nacpil from Via Campesina, Wahu Kaara from People’s Movement on Climate Change and Kenya Debt Relief Network, Jihan Gearon from Indigenous Environmental Network and others.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson loud and clear for Climate Change
CALCUTTA - The Monsoon. Heavy rains flooded large areas of East India and Bangladesh by BoazImages
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected 10 petitions challenging its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, declaring that human activities are warming the planet and that, despite rising criticism from skeptics, "climate science is credible, compelling and growing stronger." In a strongly worded letter, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she disagreed with the contention that recent high-profile controversies over climate science — including errors in the latest report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the leaked "Climategate" emails — have undermined the credibility of climate science. The criticisms, which she said are rooted in "selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy," have not given the EPA reason to reconsider its 2009 determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and should be regulated. Jackson's letter gave no indication that she intends to back down from her pledge to regulate CO2 emissions from major sources, such as coal-fired power plants. Unilateral action by the EPA has taken on increased importance following failed efforts to pass a climate bill in the U.S. Senate. Several petitioners, including the states of Texas and Virginia and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have challenged the proposed EPA regulations, citing recent controversies as evidence of flaws in climate science and a conspiracy among mainstream scientists to shut out dissenting views.
Changing lives through sustainability: 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prizes
Why the Fight for the Gulf is Also in Borneo
Cooking and water heating with the rocket stove fuelled by corn cobs : faire la cuisine et chauffe l'eau avec des raffles de mais
"I reduced seven kilos of tomatoes with one bucket of corn husks and had enough water for a bath afterwards!" by HWH hardworkinghippy
Co-Laureates announced the award of $200,000 prizes for 2009/10 to two projects which are intrdocuing green stoves and clean lighting to remote areas of East Africa, Inida, and Latin America. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the winners as Nuru Design, a company bringing rechargeable lights to villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an organization that collaborates with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti.
The UNEP Sasakawa Prize, worth $200,000, is given out each year to sustainable and replicable grassroots projects around the planet. The winners will receive their prestigious Prize at an Award Ceremony in Bali attended by dozens of Environment Ministers during the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council.
In a year that saw global leaders meet in Copenhagen for the crucial climate conference, the 2009 theme for the Prize is 'Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change'. The winners, who were selected by a panel of four people including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai, will receive $100,000 each in order to expand and develop their grassroots projects.
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. And be sure to steal his stuff!
From his blog:
29 Jul 2010, 10:39pm
Politics environment: climate bill filibuster Harry Reid
by Warren
Too tired tonight to find a newspaper to yell at; not enough time available to write a short letter. So I thought I’d just let Harry Reid know that we really really really really need to change the Senate rules on the filibuster.
Dear Senator Reid —
It’s been a bad year for citizens who are aware of the enormous threat posed by climate change. The Senate’s abandonment of a climate bill during this Congress is a bitter disappointment; more than that, it may mark the final closing of the window of opportunity. The signs are all there, pointing toward an unimaginably bleak and difficult future for our children and their children in turn.
A recent study sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council points out the impending desertification of huge swaths of the American West and Southwest; one analyst refers to it as a "permanent dust bowl." This trend can be slowed and perhaps stopped, but not if we continue "business as usual." That means that strong measures have to be put into place to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, and to transform our country’s energy economy.
Which, in turn, means that Senate Democrats must reform the filibuster, for this currently places effective veto power over meaningful legislation in the hands of people who are ideologically driven, pathologically short-sighted, and unable to act for the greater good.
Some of the time I sympathize with you; it must be unbearably difficult to be the de facto leader of an essentially dysfunctional organization. And some of the time I’m simply furious, because I am convinced you could have done more to make your Democratic colleagues maintain party unity on cloture votes.
Climate change is the greatest existential threat we face in the world today; if we fail to address it with sufficient clarity and resolve, no other issue will matter. The results of failure are unthinkable — but the roadblock in the way of action is the U.S. Senate.
Let’s get filibuster reform accomplished, so we can get something done. Time is running out.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
The Workhouse by Arcus Brodie
Annoucements
Read Jill Richardson’s latest in a series of diaries, "Sometimes We Eat, Sometimes We Don't", a heart wrenching and highly enlightening series of reports at La Vida Lacavore from her recent trip to visit subsistence farmers in Mexico.
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(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from 07/30/2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
LF 0001: The Put It Back Exactly How It Was Act. | LaFeminista | 7/30/2010 04:36:12 | Mining, regulations, ekos |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 66 | Gulf Watchers | 7/30/2010 06:00:03 | Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Renew The Child Nutrition Act - The Senate Needs Help | Ellinorianne | 7/30/2010 13:09:53 | Farm Bill, Child Nutrition Act, Slow Food, Food Revolution, Obesity |
On (Not) Making it in America | Congressman John Garamendi | 7/30/2010 13:51:28 | ca-10, john garamendi, congress, house of representatives, arra |
Toxicologists Ask: Who Pays for Gulf Evacuations? | War on Error | 7/30/2010 15:41:32 | ekos, Corexit toxicity, gulf leaks, Huxley, Orwell |
GOP stomps EPA study and FRAC act! | carolh11 | 7/30/2010 17:00:14 | Natural Gas, Clean Energy, Water, EPA, FRAC Act |
Energy HOME: Steps toward a solar life ... | A Siegel | 7/30/2010 17:13:33 | Recommended, ekos, energy home, energy, solar energy |
eKos diaries from 07/29/2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Good news about Utah tar sands boondoggle {Earthship Wednesday} | eKos | 7/29/2010 00:50:58 | eKos, Climate Change, Global Warming, coal, tar sands |
Global Warming: Are you f***ing scared yet? | LaFeminista | 7/29/2010 03:47:08 | Phytoplankton, species extinction, global warming, climate change, ekos |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 65 | Gulf Watchers | 7/29/2010 06:29:06 | Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Clean up gas drilling, support FRAC act | carolh11 | 7/29/2010 08:11:30 | Natural Gas, Clean Energy, Water, EPA, FRAC Act |
Global Warming: Effing Scary! Complex! Easy! | A Siegel | 7/29/2010 08:30:39 | Recommended, ekos, climate change, global warming, energy |
UPDATE x5: Dam NOT breached?? Tony the Tiger still dead. | Brainwrap | 7/29/2010 09:32:24 | Recommended, Oil Spill, Michigan, eKos, Fossil Fuels |
Future? What Future? | Edger | 7/29/2010 14:44:23 | eKos, BP, British Petroleum, Chemical Dispersants, Climate Change |
Bikes in Istanbul? | citisven | 7/29/2010 15:09:16 | eKos, bicycle, Istanbul, Murat Suyabatmaz, urban planning |
An Ecosystem View of Climate Change | matching mole | 7/29/2010 16:39:07 | eKos, ecosystems, carbon cycle, climate change, rescued |
Dalian, China: Pipeline Explosion, A Yellow Sea of Oil | War on Error | 7/29/2010 17:24:40 | Go Green, End Carbon Fuels, pipeline explosion, gas line explosion, eKos |
Rand Paul: Mountaintop removal IMPROVES the land | Eclectablog | 7/29/2010 17:50:51 | Rand Paul, eKos, mountaintop removal, Kentucky, KY-Sen |
eKos: The Permanent Dust Bowl | FishOutofWater | 7/29/2010 18:43:15 | ekos, water, water supplies, climate change, energy |
Project Gulf Impact - Telling Their Stories | Ellinorianne | 7/29/2010 21:50:59 | Gulf, Oil Spill, Dispersants, Projects Gulf Impact, Riki Ott |
Keystone XL Pipeline: A Failure of Environmental Security | RLMiller | 7/29/2010 23:38:22 | eKos, climate change, global warming, Keystone XL pipeline, oil |
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