Joe Romm at Climate Progress writes:
Where did all the snow go?
I mean, it was here just a minute ago, uber-fodder for the anti-science crowd ...or an opportunity for the media to blow the extreme weather story (again)...
Sure the global cooling myth died a while ago, and we saw the Hottest March and hottest Jan-Feb-March on record. And sure the Weather Channel asked, "July in April?" because "in the seven-day period from March 29 through April 4, over 1100 daily record highs were either tied or broken in the nation!" But that’s all just a big coincidence, no?
Anyway, even though the record snow storms made headlines around the country for weeks, the amazing factoids headlined above were buried in the monthly "State of the Climate" report from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, under the category "Other Items of Note":
According to the Rutgers Snow Lab, North American snow cover for April 2010 was the smallest on record (since 1966). Moreover, the anomaly was the largest of any of the 520 months on record.
The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
Eddie C gave us a beautiful Mother's Day View of Van Cortlandt Park: "Sadly after a harsh winter there are many trees missing from my favorite walk. But my favorite for photos and probably the most abused tree in the park still stands. This is Van Cortlandt Park (last stop on the Broadway local) in transition from spring to summer." He also posted a Friday Evening Sunset.
Patric Juillet explained how Speculators Are Behind Incoming Global Surge in Food Prices: "Back in 2008 I wrote two little noticed diaries about speculative buying that helped to drive food prices higher (here and here), and surprise, surprise, our friends from Goldman Sachs are well represented in this mix of global finance companies. Two years later, the world food market is still seriously exposed to speculators artificially driving up prices and worsening the risks of malnutrition, and according to one of the world's leading agricultural researchers, Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute (von Brown was one of the first to write about flawed regulatory regimes in banking and finance driving up food prices) an even bigger food crisis is looming, exacerbated as well by climate change. A visit to his site is well worth your time as he speaks eloquently about food and water."
[Green Diary Rescue appears on Sundays and Thursdays. Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.]
Animals
Ellinorianne told the sad story of the Florida Panther Struggling to Survive: "It was just a few days ago that this sixth month old Panther kitten was found by the side of the road, barely 35 pounds and not yet separated from her mother. Another victim of the intersecting needs of a growing population of people and a shrinking population of an endangered animal struggling to survive among human beings encroaching upon their habitat. Unfortunately, this is the fifth panther killed this year because of road strikes. Last year was the highest year for fatalities, 17 panthers killed. And with an estimated population of only 110-120 panthers left, that's a huge dent for their numbers."
Hill Jill alerted us to National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day: "Today is National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day. The pictures and stories of lost pets during Katrina broke my heart. Currently we are seeing the effects of the flooding in Nashville and some people have, tragically, lost their pets. If you were faced with an unexpected disaster, would you be ready to care for your pets? I thought I was ready until I read some information that revealed a huge gap in my pet prep."
Fishing the oceans empty is another stupid and ongoing practice, wrote DWG: "Humans have devised a fiendishly clever plan to destroy the oceans. First, we dump trash, biological wastes, and toxic chemicals in the waters to create the world's largest cesspool. Next, we dump ridiculous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air causing the oceans to acidify as the waters absorb some of that excess carbon dioxide. And just for good measure, we empty the oceans of fish. More evidence of our destructive harvesting of the oceans appeared this week in a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. It documents the collapse of fish populations around the United Kingdom over the past 120 years."
KAMuston wrote about nature GIVING HUMANS THE BIRD: "Some idiot released a couple of Northern Pike into the small and until then very placid Lake Davis back in 1991, because they thought Pike would be fun to catch. Unfortunately Lake Davis already had a stocked population of game fish, Rainbow Trout, which are not only a popular game fish amongst tourists but are also an easy meal for the voracious Northern Pike."
lineatus was out for another Dawn Chorus Birdblog: Untroubled Waters: "Two weekends ago, my husband was in Marshall, CA to help out with a program sponsored by the Maritime Radio Historical Society. I had the opportunity to stay there with him - two nights along Tomales Bay at the peak of spring migration? Okay. It turned out that the first ever Pt. Reyes Birding Festival took place that weekend; I didn't sign up for any events, but I encountered a few field trips. Perhaps in a future year...And there were birds... lots of them. Without much storytelling, here are just a few of the beauties I encountered."
Climate Change
The bad news is from Lord Monckton, who says CO2 warming twice the rate we thought not 3 months ago, according to Unenergy. And there's no good news attached: "Having witnessed Lord Monckton's claims during his trip around Australia, I was shocked to hear at this hearing that he now believes that CO2 has twice the warming effect on the climate than it did only 3 months ago on February 12th."
In what must have been the longest time an eco-diary has ever remained on the Rec List, A Siegel urged everyone to read Scientists issue powerful statement: "Scientists are under attack ...Scientists are beginning to fight back."
DarkSyde also discussed the new willingness of Climate Scientists to Fire Back: "Fed up with intimidation, faux media balance, and attacks by industry funded apologists and opportunistic lawmakers, a group of 250 scientists have written and signed an open letter calling for an end to the underhanded tactics and open threats."
A Siegel also wrote WashPost editorial board calls out Kook-inelli: "The editorial rightly calls out Cuccinelli for taking "his ongoing campaign to wish away human-induced climate change" to a new level with use of his office's resources and powers to attack a specific scientist who has already been vindicated by multiple investigations by other scientists and by review panels."
QuestionAuthority pointed us toward a Pentagon document, The Joint Operations Environment 2010: "The Joint Operating Environment is intended to inform joint concept development and experimentation throughout the Department of Defense. It provides a perspective on future trends, shocks, contexts, and implications for future joint force commanders and other leaders and professionals in the national security field. This document is speculative in nature and does not suppose to predict what will happen in the next twenty-five years. Rather, it is intended to serve as a starting point for discussions about the future security environment at the operational level of war."
And Old Redneck took up that subject as well in US military study says peak oil is here ... and the Fourth Horseman follows: "The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact."
don mikulecky wonderedHow much do we really know about the planet and its atmosphere?: "I ask this as part of my attempt to convince us that we are often somewhat arrogant about science and technology. I am especially aiming at those who believe we have a technological fix for every problem and also those who believe we know what to do to correct the mess we have made."
Agriculture, Food, Gardening
Assaf gave us the good news about the First Biodigester Unit at Work in Palestinian Susiya: "Following the success of the Villages Group's first environmental initiative - the renewable energy project, which has been now running independently for about a year under the banner Comet-ME - the Villages Group is now launching a second environmental initiative: Biodigester units for shepherd families' use. These systems turn the family herd's manure into bio-gas for the family's cooking needs."
Frankenoid wrote another in the longest-running eco-dairy series at Daily Kos, Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 6.11: " As for 'Mother’s Day' being the start of the warm-weather planting season? Fuhgedaboutit. The combination of an early Mother’s Day and a late spring warm-up means I’ll likely delay planting out warm-weather crops until the end of the month."
Deep Harm delved into food safety in If oil spills were treated like E.coli contamination: "My diary today comes, with permission, from John Munsell, a respected friend of mine who knows a lot about the safety and regulation of meat processing. That's because he once operated a small meat packing plant in Montana. But, now he manages the Foundation for Accountability in Regulatory Enforcement (FARE). Why? Because the Food Safety and Inspection Service promotes policies that leave honest small operators holding the bag for dangerous practices of the big guys."
Cranking up the wayback machine, nwgates took a look at Wisdom vs. Progress in Agriculture: "This vintage interview, circa 1973, just came whizzing through my RSS feed from Mother Earth News. It's with Wendell Berry, the Port Royal, Kentucky author, farmer, and activist. I am not as familiar with Berry's work as I should be- I say that based on both his reputation and the few items he's written that I have had the opportunity to enjoy. The interview itself is quite remarkable, and touches on some themes that I found noteworthy enough to comment on here."
wide eyed lib went hunting for nutrition in Free Food: Foraging to Combat the Poisonous Plant Fable: "One fable that every forager hears is the Poisonous Plant Fable. It generally goes something like this: person learns about wild plants, person eats wild plants, person eventually (sometimes after many years of eating the correct plant) eats wrong wild plant and dies. To this day some people still believe that Euell Gibbons died from eating a poisonous plant, when in truth he died of an aneurysm."
Eco-Philosophy, Eco-Justice & Eco-Policy
The earth, via buhdydharma sent us a card and a note signed From Your Mother: "Go, go on without me if you don't think you need your poor old mother. Drive your Hummers to brunch, what do I care? Destroy what's left of my atmosphere...and make sure you laugh while you do it, you kids need to have fun. Even if it kills your poor old mother. Eat, laugh, destroy, think only of your selves! I'll be fine!"
rb137 urged us to take action to save lives in Your cellphone is killing people!: "I want to draw your attention to coltan, which is the ore that contains tantalum. From an engineering perspective, tantalum is a sweetheart metal. It has ideal mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. It can be heated to very high temperatures, it is stable in corrosive environments, and it machines well. It also maintains these properties after heating; tungsten, for example, becomes extremely brittle and fragile once it's heated, which is why incandescent light bulb filaments break so easily. This is not so with tantalum, which can be re-machined after heating to high temperatures. Alloys of tantalum behave nicely, as well. ... We can take steps to regulate tantalum and other conflict metals, much like the blood diamonds of Sierra Leone."
BigAlinWashSt You Can't Get There From Here: "Progressives are concerned with climate change and many believe it the crucial issue of our time. Calls for major efforts to develop renewable energy sources meet tepid response from the corporate controlled governments. All while the global resource wars continue. Research and development money and effort is put into finding more efficient and impersonal methods to kill human beings instead of sustainable ways to inhabit the planet. The most significant manufacturing and trade program on earth is for weapons."
Round-ups, Wrap-ups & Digests
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse: Paper Solar Cells, Bladeless Wind Farms & BP News: "A 'bladeless' wind turbine that has been designed .... circumvents many of the objections to the traditional three-bladed wind turbine by reducing noise levels and avoiding any form of radar interference or injuries to wildlife."
eKos: eKos Earthship Sunday (an eco-diary roundup and open thread).
eKos: eKos Earthship Friday: Status Report.
mark louis: Alternative Energy Round-Up.
Politicians
Southernlib was astonished by the Changing Tide on Offshore Support in Florida: " A new Mason-Dixon poll shows a mere 35 percent of Florida voters now support offshore drilling. These are the "We'll Never Learn" voting bloc that Marco Rubio is trying to woo. The new poll numbers are impressive considering a Palm Beach Post poll right before the Deepwater Horizon disaster showed 64 percent in support. Granted, comparing different polls is like checking your weight on different scales, but this drastic a drop is something well outside margins of error. The question now is how this will translate at the polls."
Avenging Angel pointed to how AP Reverses Course, Refutes 'Obama's Katrina' Talking Point: "As oil was spreading across the Gulf on April 29, AP reporter Calvin Woodward did some spreading of his own. Amplifying the predictable Republican talking point, Woodward asked, 'Will this be Obama's Katrina?' Now a week later, his AP colleagues H. Josef Hebert and Erica Werner have responded with an emphatic no in an article titled, 'Obama oil response: aggressive as crisis unfolded.'"
In another of her SeaScum series, RLMiller gave the award to a well-known Republican in SeaScum Silly Sen. Graham Sells Seaspills by the Seaboard: "Today's SeaScum award, given to the dumbest statements made on Oilpocalypse, goes to a Senator trying to hang on to his fading relevance. The nation could have experienced the photo opportunity of a smiling British Petroleum executive standing next to Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham on April 26 as they rolled out their long-awaited climate bill. Instead, thanks to well-publicized pouting over immigration, Senator Graham may have stopped mattering."
Pollution & Other Eco-Hazards
Debuting a first diary, translatorpro discussed a report, "Chemicals Threaten Our Bodies": "In particular, the report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: "to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’ "
Dana Ginn Paredes, writing as RH Reality Check, had praise for What Chemical Reform Can Do For Workers: "'America's system for regulating industrial chemicals is broken,' Senator Frank Lautenberg said when he introduced the Safe Chemicals Act last week. 'Parents are afraid because hundreds of untested chemicals are found in their children's bodies. EPA does not have the tools to act on dangerous chemicals, and the chemical industry has asked for stronger laws so that their customers are assured their products are safe.'"
Bare Left gave us Part II of Bickering while Rome Burns: Cancer, coal ash and more environmental havoc: "Do lobbyists, polluters, Wall Street bankers, and corrupt, incompetent government officials imagine life as some sort of game? If not, then what psychological mechanism prevents them from understanding that their policies and actions harm, and in many cases, cause the deaths of many actual human beings?"
Miscellany
mwmwm discussed a bit of green music in New Northwest Passage: eco-lyrics on Stan Rogers: "Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage -- an achingly beautiful song about striving and glory and loss -- is nearly anthemic to Canadians. If you're American, you may have heard it as well.If you haven't, a great rendition of it is available on Youtube. Without a passing knowledge of the tune, the new eco-lyrics below may not be as 'hearable' to you."
Energy & Transportation
BruceMcF discussed Sunday Train: Working on the Railroad for Energy Independence: "I would admit that I have a big model train set in the basement - except its not mine, its my stepfather's. For me, trains are transport, a way to get from Point A to Point B. Indeed, the mode of transport that has a special place in my heart over and above their functional utility is not trains so much as bikes (and living in NE Ohio, I must hasten to explain "Bikes like Schwinn's are Bikes, not Bikes like Harley's are Bikes"). No, this is why trains. We consume 28% of our energy in the transportation sector. If we are going to reduce our oil consumption by 5% a year each year for the next 20 years, that means we have to consume the consumption of petroleum by transport by 5% a year, each year for the next 20 years."
wjhamilton29464 told the story about a bike co-op that will soon open to Build Frankenbikes: "Charleston, SC- The Holy City Bike Coop's workshop fills the industrial loft above a garage off King Street where the pedicabs operate from. Outside a worn courtyard and bumpy alley lead to the street. Far from the Cyling meccas of Portland and Boulder, people are putting together new options for transportation."
Keith Pickering explained Fusion progress in Dense Plasma Focus experiments: "Recently a small, underfunded startup company in New Jersey, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) has made significant progress using a technology that is orders of magnitude smaller, cheaper, and simpler than the Big Science approaches: the dense plasma focus, or DPF."
Edger told the story of Leonardo da Vinci, Good Vibes, Unlimited Power, & Who Needs Big Oil?: "The executive summary of the final report published on June 30, 2006 by the U.S. Department of Energy of a study headed by Project Director & Principal Investigator Michael M. Bernitsas, PhD, titled Low Head, Vortex Induced Vibrations River Energy Converter (.pdf) states that: Vortex Induced Vibrations Aquatic Clean Energy (VIVACE) is a novel, demonstrated approach to extracting energy from water currents. This invention is based on a phenomenon called Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV), which was first observed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1504AD. He called it 'Aeolian Tones.'"
droogie6655321 wrote Let's talk energy..
Unenergy lamented coal's latest casualties in Russian Coal Mine Blast kills 11, 64 missing: " We have the technologies to phase out the need to send Americans, Russians and Chinese, in fact any person into harms way in an extractive resource industry to mine or drill for raw materials we burn, so why aren't we doing it?"
jpmassar penned A Republican Energy Manifesto: Snark.
Gulf Gusher
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse: BP's 3 strikes = jail time now?: "BP says that it accepts responsibility for this underwater oil volcano. In this case, responsibility needs to mean more than slapping monetary fines and/or probation on a company that now has a record of criminal convictions for environmental crimes for which it remains on probation. Convictions for environmental crimes, monetary fines, and probationary status have not caused BP to stop its pattern and practice of profits trumping human life and environment."
geodemographics: Did BP executives lie to Congress?: " It certainly looks that way, and no one in the traditional media has said a word about it."
jamess: MMS rubber-stamped BP's drilling plan & Assurance of No Eco Risk: "You know what they say, it's not the crime, it's the cover up, that's the problem -- well maybe this time it's BOTH! US oil regulator 'gave in to BP' over rig safety Firm allowed to drill without devising plan to cope with blow-out."
MeMeMeMeMe: BP Execs Partied on Rig During Explosion: " A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project's safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well."
FishOutofWaterBig Oil Gets 27 Gulf Fed Waivers Since Spill, Oil Hits Marshes: " Since the BP oil blowout began the Minerals and Management Service (MMS) has given oil and gas companies at least 27 environmental impact study waivers for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, oil streaming from the wrecked well is moving west into the most environmentally sensitive areas of the delta. The exemptions, known as "categorical exclusions," were granted by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a BP exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet."
RLMiller SeaScum MSM Focuses on How, not Whether, to Drill Offshore: "Today's award for the dumbest statements made on Oilpocalypse goes to publishers of smart people writing well researched, accurate articles on the culture of corruption at the Minerals Management Service. They're absolutely right that the MMS needs to be reformed. It's with some regret that they're getting the SeaScum of the Day award, and only because they're not -- yet -- seeing the bigger picture."
Edger: The BP Spin: "BP Lies. BP Prevaricates, BP Fabricates and BP Obfuscates.".
Unenergy: BP's Gulf Gusher, 'I've seen this movie before', 8 months ago: "Greg Palast writes above about a failure to contain the leaking oil from the Exxon Valdez, however we have also seen the movie of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe before. Similar conditions leading up to what caused the leak at Deepwater Horizon happened not 8 months ago in Australian waters."
jimstaro: No Alarm Sounded Before Blast: "Survivors of last week's massive oil rig explosion have told ABC News that alarms meant to warn them of an imminent blast never sounded, and oil industry experts now agree that a critical failsafe needed to prevent the blast and the subsequent spill didn't work."
Translator: Pique the Geek 20100509: 1.5 Million Gallons Later: "I maintain that the damage in the Gulf of Mexico likely will by much worse environmentally because of the difference in temperature of the surface water and the land. In Alaska, with a much lower average temperature, the oil tends to stay in place. In addition, Alaskan oil tends to be heavy and gulf oil much lighter, so gulf oil will tend to float rather than sink. This means that gulf crude will also evaporate faster than Alaskan crude, especially in the temperatures in the gulf region."
Stranded Wind: America's Oily Chernobyl: DoJ Is Involved: "Today's failure of the containment dome on the massive Deepwater Horizon oil leak is another eerie signpost on the road to America's crash and probable dissolution. Our economy flies to bits without cheap oil, as we proved in 2008, when criminal mischief drove the price to $147/barrel. We've just received our second Pearl Harbor like notification that we need to reconsider our place in the world. Let's not blow this one like we did the warning of 9/11/2001."
innereye: Im Calling it Chernoil: "If this oil spill isn't stopped in the next 30 days it will be as bad economically to the U.S. as Chernyobl was for the USSR. If it continues for the next 6 months and begins to flow at higher rates of 60,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil per day, the environmental effect will rival anything that has occurred in human history."
ericlewis0 : BP Oil Spill Solution: The Permeable Cone Stocking: "I came up with an idea to stanch the BP oil spill and emailed it to careline@bp.com."
Richieville: BP Plans New "Pipeline" As Fix For Spill: Snark.
Crashing Vor: West of Venice: " Between the lowest reaches of the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche to the west lies the rich and complex estuary known as Barataria Basin, a system of large freshwater outflow lakes, as well as tidally affected mixed marshes, sheltered from the seas strongest movements by a chain of barrier islands. A vast kaleidoscope of aquatic environments, the region has been noted for centuries as Poseidon's larder and a great place to hang out. Or hide out."
Crashing Vor: On the Horizon: "As the spill spreads into Louisiana's western waters, make that tens of thousands of jobs. Just counting the fishers and the packers. Then add jobbers, drivers, distributors, retailers and restaurant workers and the seafood crash alone is going to drastically depress the state's economy. The ripples will keep expanding. Vacation rentals are collapsing in Alabama and Florida, which threatens more than just perky agents in time-share rental offices. Charter fishing captains are already alarmed, and restaurants, nightclubs and retail outlets from Bay St. Louis to Appalachacola will soon have to cut staffs."
Thea VA: Can we harvest the methane hydrate on the ocean floor?.
8ackgr0und N015e : Can we stop humoring idiots before they kill us all?: "I'm sick and tired of the media pretending idiots have something useful to say. Life isn't a reality teevee show. Details matter and the laws of physics are strictly enforced; ask Sonny Bono if you don't believe me. Now, let's talk about the "shock" of the day "that no one could have predicted." I'm talking about gas hydrates. These are crystals of water and methane. They aren't a new discovery. They aren't even esoteric. Especially to folks in the oil industry. Surprised? You shouldn't be."
enthusiast: Suggested alternative to the failed BP oil dome!.
tomc112: Call to Action Now: "To start with I have the solution to the Offshore drilling and it needs to be done now by all of you. You each need to contact you congress person and propose a national biofuels mandate. This will create 10s of thousands of jobs and we will no longer need the offshore drilling."
the girl: Address to send HAIR to help the Gulf: "In a nutshell, they are gathering human, animal fur and hair and stuffing the legs of ladies' pantyhose with it and dragging it over the oil and it is picking it up successfully.They need your hair and pantyhose - and $$ donations if you can spare them."
Adept2u: Breaking: The Dome Did Not Work: "According to Doug Suttles BP Director of Operations the containment dome did not work because of gas hydrate crystal formation which apparently caused two problems with the apparatus. the crystals changed the boyancy of the device, and the crystals caused the plumbing for funneling the oil up to the capture ships to fail."
Texas Sierra Club: Rally for the Gulf Coast - New Orleans, LA: " The Texas Sierra Club has joined up with our neighbors from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to mobilize our supporters to join the relief efforts and also call for a moratorium to oil drilling. This BP oil disaster has wrecked havoc on the entire Gulf Coast community, and we need to join together to make sure this never happens again. The local fishing and tourism economy is already suffering, and it will take years for the environment to recover. Please sign up and join the Sierra Club's efforts."
kanuk: Organizing against Offshore Drilling: Details for a "National Day of Action" on May 14.
GreyHawk: Dark Skies and Burning Waters.
cenacle: BP Oil Spill Disaster in Gulf of Mexico: "Black oil, millions of years old, gushes out of a gash in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the world's largest companies, BP, formerly British Petroleum says it's 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000. Satellite photos suggest 25,000 a day. In a closed session, BP admits they don't know - it could be 40 to 60,000. The Governor of Louisiana prepares for 100,000 barrels daily. The "spill" is really a man-made underwater volcano of oil."
kanuk: A Powerful video on offshore drilling, Join the movement!!
the girl: BOOM goes the oil spill - a Way for Anyone, Anywhere to Help: "I want to take a fresh look at this, and see what we can do to maybe get more organized. I've been very depressed about this oil disaster for days now, feeling helpless and miserable. I came across this today though, and thought maybe there is a way for me to help, even though I am not anywhere near the Gulf. Kids can help with this, we all can."
newusername: Shell about to drill in the arctic: "Shell gained conditional approval for drilling in the Beaufort Sea last October, and are gearing up to begin this summer.A federal appeals court has yet to rule on a challenge by a number of environmental and other groups."
khowell: It looked right - but smelled wrong: The Mississippi Gulf Coast: "During my flying trip to New Orleans for the second Saturday of Jazz Fest, I couldn't think of anything but my beloved estuarine habitats and what was coming. So I called and cajoled my way into three additional days "down home" so I could pick up trash on beaches and in the marshes around the Mississippi Sound. I found myself awash in memories and in a kind of pre-emptive mourning for the coast I've loved so long."
Miep: What To Call The Event In The Gulf: " I suggest we call it the "BP Gulf Rupture Event." I like this because it addresses a variety of important questions."
myles spicer: Gulf drilling has high risk with too little reward: "...there are currently 115 oil rigs (plus many more static platforms) operating in the Gulf of Mexico – and each provides an opportunity and exposure for another mishap and major crisis. Many are doing exactly the kind of extreme deep water drilling the BP platform was doing – and extending technology into areas not entirely understood or well managed by the oil industry (as is the BP situation proves). More importantly, there are about 500 offshore drilling rigs operating worldwide, and they have been far from safe."
pollwatcher: NO! BP hits and drilling bans are NOT enough!: "We must not settle for anything less than a fully funded and legislated commitment to a Manhattan project approach to transition our nation from a fossil fuel economy to a completely renewable/sustainable economy. The military says we have about 2 years to reach Peak Cheap Oil. Dr. James Hansen, and many other climate scientists say we are at a tipping point of irreversible damage to our climate and a human population crash."
monkeybrainpolitics: Clean up questions.