Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
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Tonight's editor: ellinorianne
Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 113
And please stop by tonight's Ecoadvocates,Help Obama fight fossil fuel polluters.
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
NOAA attempts to clean up oil spill research efforts
Is there an extensive oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico or no oil plume? Are oil-eating bacteria making quick work of the spill or chomping slowly? In the nearly two months since BP capped the well and stopped the flow, conflicting reports have surfaced about the amount of lingering oil.
Now, in an attempt to clear up some of the murkiness--as well as its own mixed reviews on the issue-- NOAA is organizing a long-term monitoring effort in the Gulf.
“One of the most important things we are doing now is getting information from research institutions to better understand what is happening in the sediment and on the seafloor,” NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a press briefing today.
And National Geographic is covering this topic as well, Why the Gulf Oil Spill Isn't Going Away...
But the discovery of widespread oil on the seafloor and studies of remnant undersea oil plumes suggests that the debate over the ecological impact and ultimate fate of the Gulf oil spill—which released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude—is just warming up. (One barrel equals 42 gallons, or 159 liters.)
In early August, a high-level U.S. government official asserted that more than three-quarters of the oil from the Gulf spill was "gone"—based on preliminary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates. Since then a fiery backlash has erupted from independent scientists who have been tracking and studying the spill.
"The oil budget NOAA came out with was just a joke, a fairy tale scenario," said Samantha Joye, a marine biogeochemist from the University of Georgia and one of the first researchers to detect and measure the deep plumes of oil.
"I understand why people want it to disappear, but who in their right mind would believe that? It makes absolutely no sense."
Gulf Oil Buried in Seafloor
Joye, who has been taking sediment cores in the Gulf aboard the research vessel Oceanus for the past month. So far she's discovered layers of oil in ten sediment cores taken around a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep and up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of the well.
And they have a cover story for their October issue entitled, Is Another Deepwater Disaster Inevitable? The largest U.S. oil discoveries in decades lie in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico—one of the most dangerous places to drill on the planet.
Fish kill whodunnit in Gulf: Is Big Ag or Big Oil the perp?
Our dependence on fossil fuels and cheap food seem to be the two biggest culprits when it comes to our pollution issues, health issues and sometimes, it is hard to tell who is to blame for what. Either way, we need to address both if we're going to change the course of our very existence.
A waterway that drains into the Gulf of Mexico has become literally blanketed at the surface with the dead bodies of pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp, and freshwater eel, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
What killed the fish? There are two major suspects. The crime scene -- Louisiana's coastal Plaquemines Parish -- lies at a crossroads frequented by two confirmed eco-thugs: Big Ag and Big Oil. Its coasts were damaged by the BP oil disaster, the Picayune reports. But the area is also plagued regularly by oxygen-depleting algae blooms, fed by fertilizer runoff from Midwestern farm fields, which produce aquatic dead zones -- swaths of water that can't support sea life. Indeed, a recent fish kill in nearby St. Bernard Parish "was attributed to low oxygen levels in the water," the Picayune adds.
According to Yahoo News, fish kills from low oxygen are a regular annual occurrence in the area, but "those kills tend to be limited to a single species of fish, rather than the broad sort of die-off involved in this kill."
At this point, it's impossible to tell whether hypoxia (low oxygen) from Big Ag's fertilizer runoff (more about that here) or toxins from BP's oil and dispersants killed the fish, or if some unholy conspiracy between the two performed the deed.
The U.S. Clean Air Act is 40! Happy Birthday!
According to an EPA analysis, the first 20 years of Clean Air Act programs, from 1970 - 1990, has prevented:
-205,000 premature deaths
-672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis
-21,000 cases of heart disease
-843,000 asthma attacks
-189,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations
-10.4 million lost I.Q. points in children, from lead reductions
-18 million child respiratory illnesses
Green Jobs: a Powerful Engine for Employment for Workers at the Top, Bottom and in Between
Fourteen months of an unemployment rate at or near 10% clearly calls for the federal government to take a lead role in job creation. The White House should push its clean-energy agenda as a jobs program but steer clear of all the hype about “green-collar” jobs. Green-collar jobs are widely perceived as job opportunities accessible only to an elite segment of the U.S. workforce -- those with advanced degrees, such as environmental engineers, lab technicians, and research scientists. Such jobs are inaccessible to the 52% of unemployed workers with no college experience. The truth is, however, that clean-energy investments could serve as a powerful engine for job growth for a wide swath of the U.S. workforce.
My colleagues at the Political Economy Research Institute and I examined a clean-energy program that includes making buildings more energy efficient, expanding and improving mass transit, updating the national electric grid, and developing each of three types of renewable energy sources: wind, solar, and biomass fuels. Here’s what we found.
Go read the article and be sure to follow all the great work our diarists are doing regarding Prop 23, we can't let it destroy California's future green jobs, it's where the rest of the Country can see that protecting the environment is not a job killer if done correctly!
Oh wait, speaking of! Van Jones wrote a great piece on the subject...
No on California Prop 23: Halting Climate Policy Is the Real Job Killer
Defenders of dirty energy like to pretend that having smarter climate policies (and more support for clean energy) would cost Americans jobs. Not only are they wrong, but – according to prominent business leaders this week [and a new study] – their “deny and delay” tactics are now turning out to be the true job killers.
Business leaders appearing in a town hall style panel this week at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada said that they don’t fear new rules to better control carbon pollution. What they fear is uncertainty about what those rules will be. President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, was joined by billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and John Podesta, the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress. One word was repeated the most throughout the entire afternoon session: certainty.
Yep, go read that one too!
Help Pakistan
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) group to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
From their page about the flooding:
HDF is committed to work towards relief and reconstruction efforts in flood affected HDF program areas including Mardan and Tandoo Muhammad Khan. HDF already has the existing infrastructure and a team of trained employees and volunteers in place. Currently there is need for basic necessities like tents, blankets, cooking sets, utility containers, soap and bedding as well as, basic healthcare.
More details and videos at their site and their YouTube channel.
• • • • • •
Other groups that deserve support as well.
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
The Red Cross:
DONATE
OXFAM:
OXFAM's Pakistan page:
With an estimated 6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, I am concerned that so far the international community hasn’t responded with the speed or on the scale warranted by a disaster of this magnitude.
DONATE
• • • • • •
From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "SWAT" to 50555; $10 goes to fund for flood victims
(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Wednesday, September 15, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Help Obama fight fossil fuel polluters. | rb137 | 20:00:55 | EcoAdvocates, Proposition 23, EcoJustice, Environmental Racism, EPA |
Alaska's Craziest Catch to America's Craziest Catches? | A Siegel | 14:48:59 | ak-sen, joe miller, scott mcadams, climate zombies, election |
NtP TV: Acting it Out for Advocacy | NourishingthePlanet | 14:39:39 | Africa, Agriculture, ekos, Education, Entertainment |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 113 | Gulf Watchers | 06:00:26 | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
eKos diaries from Tuesday, September 14, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
More Gardening Diary, With Photos, Including Scary Bug | Miep | 20:19:37 | gardens, bugs, photo, vinegaroons, ekos |
Thousands of Walruses Mass on Beaches: Arctic Sea Ice Gone | FishOutofWater | 17:23:40 | Recommended, ekos, walrus, Pacific walrus, climate change |
Nissan's LEAF Advertising Sets An Example | A Siegel | 16:59:00 | Recommended, ekos, nissan leaf, electricity |
New Coal Ash Video and Facebook App Aim to Educate, Engage | Bruce Nilles | 13:38:30 | eKos, coal ash, EPA, Sierra Club, coal |
Stupid Goes Viral: Deep in the Heart of Climate Zombieland | RLMiller | 12:44:17 | Recommended, ekos, climate change, global warming, Texas |
Blight at the Museum: The Smithsonian Clouds Climate Science | Target Global Warming | 11:22:43 | environment, Smithsonian, David Koch, climate, global warming |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 112 | Gulf Watchers | 06:00:03 | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
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