Make some noise!

Why the BP Spill Hasn't Invigorated Environmentalism

In 1969, an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California released a few million gallons of oil into marine ecosystems -- eight months later, it was among the primary catalysts for the biggest pro-environmental movement in the nation's history, starting with the first Earth Day. That 'national teach-in' day in turn lead to some of the strongest and most effective environmental laws and regulations ever created, it yielded the founding of the EPA. Fast forward to 2010, where we're still in the midst of the biggest oil catastrophe in our history, with an incomparable 100-180 million gallons of oil fouling the water. And yet, there's no sense of focused national outrage (discontent is probably a better word), no movement gaining momentum to address the roots of the problem that lead to the BP spill, and the government has shown that it feels no pressure to take significant action on behalf of the environment. What gives? ...
But I wonder. The cynic in me says we're unlikely to see anything near the public outpouring of support for the environment we did 40 years ago, for a few simple reasons. Primarily, the sentiment behind the movement then was new, it was bold, pioneering -- participating in the movement was exhilarating. Knowledge of the extent by which American industry was destroying our natural habitats and resources was just then bubbling to the surface of the public consciousness. Joining the green movement was sort of like Beatlemania -- few had seen, heard, or done anything like that before. And just like we're unlikely to see a pop act command that kind of attention again, I think the same goes for an environmental movement encompassing many of the same ideals.

Also contributing is the fact that corporations were far less prepared to cope with the charges leveled at them -- they had little course of action but to complain how insignificant the environment was in comparison to businesses' contribution to society. Now, every self-respecting oil company channels money into front groups, lobbying campaigns, and PR efforts, not just during a spill, but all the time to keep public opinion in check, and to hedge against such disasters.

Finally, the culture of special interests has grown so pervasive that many Americans feel like it's a hopeless situation in Congress -- there's a sense that it's impossible for the common man to get heard through the thicket of lobbyists and campaign financiers. A perfect example of this is the recently deceased climate legislation -- polls found majorities supported climate and clean energy action time and again, and yet the Senate had no qualms giving it up because it's too touchy a subject for an election year. The gulf has widened between civilians and our elected officials to the point that few expect much from them at all.

One another all-important reason is not mentioned - so many are more interested in Lohan's jail stint, what Snooks is wearing, which party they are going to....That is the real reason. Too hung up on entertainment, more interested in the cult of personality...

Follow the Money

Obama Will Appeal Judge's Ruling Against Drilling Moratorium

The Obama administration will appeal a ruling from a New Orleans' federal courthouse that its six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling is illegal.

"We will immediately appeal to the 5th circuit the president strongly believes as the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice argued yesterday that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and... potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now," said spokesman Robert Gibbs during Tuesday's briefing.

The comment from Gibbs came just moments after a U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman ordered an end to the temporary halt in drilling, which had been put in place by the Obama administration order to conduct safety checks on other wells in the Gulf.

Why in spite of the biggest environmental disaster threatening Earth? Maybe because...
Judge Who Lifted Moratorium Tied To Offshore Drilling Companies

The federal judge who lifted Obama's six-month drilling moratorium had interests in Transocean and a number of other offshore energy companies, according to financial disclosure forms from 2008.

Martin Feldman, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, held energy stocks in Transocean and Halliburton, as well as two of BP's largest U.S. private shareholders -- BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase. The law Feldman overturned would have halted the approval of any new permits and suspended deepwater drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf, four of which are BP rigs.

Guess he never heard of recusing himself.

Be the change

We All Have Oil on Our Hands

At first I resisted commenting on the oil spill in the Gulf. What more could I add to what has already been said. But then I realized that as disturbing as it is, this disaster provides us with an opportunity for something good, perhaps even a turning point that invokes sustainable change in our lives and for the environment.

I know that I will be seen as a radical when I say that this isn't the fault of BP or Transocean. It's not the fault of the government or bi-partisan politics. It is not the fault of oil executives and big corporations.

It is my fault.
It is your fault.
It is our fault.

This is the universe's way of waking us up, of letting us know that it is time that we take personal responsibility for the havoc that our collective greed has had on our planet. It is known that thoughts and actions create energy. Whether or not you believe in Karma you can at least accept what physicists say that consciousness determines reality. If this is our reality what is our consciousness saying?

This disaster is the most recent effect, in a long line of effects -- from Madoff to the War in Iraq -- that stem from putting our heads in the sand and refusing to face the reality that our consciousness, our desires, our thoughts, our actions and even our solutions are based on short term and selfish thinking.

Our dependence on the pollutants of this earth have always, and will continue to have far-reaching consequences to our eco-systems, biosystems, geosystems and our race's natural evolution.

Change is inevitable. Things absolutely cannot stay the same. The type of change we invoke is up to each and every one of us. If we each take responsibility in shifting our own behavior, we can trigger the type of change that is necessary to achieve sustainability for our race or this planet.

We change our planet, our environment, our humanity every day, every year, every decade, and every millennia.

It is critical that we believe that you and me can actually make a difference. If we neglect our power and let things just happen, then we are merely contributing to future oil spills and other impending disasters.

As with every revolution or movement of change, a critical mass must be achieved. A tipping point where one person, one event, one incident galvanizes society into action. This disaster could be it. The power of one is key to our success. The power that you, me, our family, our friends, our spheres of influence, and our full extensions, can invoke positive changes that alters the course of human history. We have reached a critical juncture in our existence on this planet. All of us can do one thing differently towards change. All of us can alter one aspect of our behavior. For each of us, it is a different change in our routine. For some, it might be walking or biking to the market instead of driving. For others, it might be car-pooling or even drinking from re-usable bottles instead of discarding plastic bottles. For others it can be not slamming the car door that will cause a tornado on the other side of the world - Google butterfly effect and read about the power of a single action.

Trends are made up of individuals wishing to make a change. How incredible would it be if you would be the actual person to bring on the tipping point. How awesome would it be if you and me, our friends, our family, our society, were responsible for the changes that can positively impact our environment and our planet. Personal responsibility is not only recognizing the errors of our ways. Personal responsibility lies in our willingness and ability to correct those errors individually and collectively.

It all starts with you and me!

BP Knew?

BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion

BP was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.

The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.

The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.

As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”

At today's hearing it took a numberr of police to arrest one female protester with an oil-like substance on her hands and face. With this report, maybe those police should be arresting some BP bigwigs.

Conspiracy Theories Grow

Gulf Coast Evacuation Scenario Summer/Fall 2010

Editor’s note: There is no definitive evidence the government plans mass evacuation at this point. In fact, the government refuses to admit gases in the Gulf exist or pose a health issue. All of this may change as the problem worsens.

SoCal Martial Law Alerts (SCMLA) has been in existence for a year and a half and this is our first MARTIAL LAW ALERT.

We have withheld putting out information on the Gulf oil spill for a variety of reasons, but there is now enough evidence for us to put together a fairly clear picture of what really happened, what may result and to warn people who live in the area.

THE SITUATION:

Due to toxic gases from the fractured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the possible off-gassing of the highly-toxic Corexit 9500 (the chemical dispersant used by BP in the oil spill clean-up), acid rain and various as-yet-unknown forms of environmental damage, we believe that the government will have no choice but to relocate millions of people away from the Gulf Coast. Those living in Florida are presently at the highest risk, but the danger also appears likely to spread to all Gulf Coast states east of Louisiana and possibly even to the entire Eastern half of the United States once hurricane season begins.

Some have also suggested that if a hurricane were to occur over the oil spill area itself, lightning might possibly ignite volatile organic compounds, not to mention the acid rain clouds that could form and be carried inland (i.e. acid rain could pollute the water table, destroy crops, kill wildlife and pose significant health risks to humans in the southern and eastern states.)

Possible? Probable? The way things are going - anything is possible!

We are all guilty

Matthew Modine:Sucking Big Oil's Tit

Our nation is the biggest consumer of oil on the planet. The oil spill in the Gulf is our collective fault. Period. Every animal that dies, every job that is lost, every beach that becomes tarred with clumps of smelly black crude oil is on our hands. We are all complicit because of our unwillingness to move away from, and curtail our addiction, to oil. So before we look for someone else to blame, before we start the lawsuits, have a good, long look in your rearview mirror, America. What do you see? Look around as you sit in your car, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic -- do you notice that there is one passenger in 80% of the cars? When you raise your bottled water to your lips, do you consider the carbon footprint the water bottle has made from distillery to your hand? Or that the plastic bottle is made from oil? If you're a supporter of motor sports you're extra guilty. Indy 500? NASCAR? Guilty. Motorcycle races? Monster truck races? Tractor pulls? Guilty. Internal combustion engines burn gasoline made from oil and that is why we turned away, turned a blind eye to, and complicity allowed companies like BP to "drill, baby drill" in a mile deep of water. Period.

Read the entire article. This actor is so eloquent in telling us the truth.

We have to act now.

Landrieu on the Crazy Train

Crank up the offshore drilling rigs

Sen. Mary Landrieu went on ABC's "Good Morning America" today to advocate for lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf, this despite the fact that worst oil spill in American history continues. Landrieu, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry over her career, said that the oil companies "employ, directly, hundreds of people and indirectly thousands." The BP oil rig disaster killed 11 rig workers.

Crazy is as crazy does!

Don't be fooled

Gulf Oil Disaster Doesn't Make the Tar Sands Green

It's funny how it's taken the worst ecological disaster in US history to suddenly make other forms of oil extraction and processing look green. Only months ago, the carbon trail from the massive planned expansion of tar sands production made Canada a pariah at the world environmental summit in Copenhagen. But now tar sands producers and others are promoting tar sands oil as an ecologically friendly alternative to the environmental risks of another deep-water oil spill.

How low the bar has fallen.

There's nothing clean about the production of synthetic oil from tar sands. The production of a single barrel of synthetic oil pollutes some 125 gallons of fresh water and emits over 200 pounds of carbon dioxide, principally as a result of the combustion of the natural gas, over 1,000 cubic feet of it, needed to generate the heat to separate the oil from the sand and then process it.

The solution is not finding alternative ways to get oil - it is how to wean ourselves off our oil addiction.

Some good news from the Gulf?

Phew! US Has No Plans to Use Nuclear Weapons to Stop the Gulf Gusher

You've probably heard the lunatic proposition floating around the web that the last resort option in stopping the oil gushing out of the the sunken Deepwater Horizon is to deploy some variety of nuclear weapon to blast the leak out of existence. Thankfully, according to a New York Times report, the US government has no plans to act on what one senior official described as a "crazy" plan:

Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said that neither Energy Secretary Steven Chu nor anyone else was thinking about a nuclear blast under the gulf. The nuclear option was not -- and never had been -- on the table, federal officials said.

There were others thinking it! Let's hope it is the last time we hear of the nuke option.

It's a gusher

Gulf Oil SPILL: What a Lie

Spill? The corporate media continues to call the volcano of continuous gushing oil, in the Gulf, a spill. How insulting. A volcano that shoots out a million gallons of crude oil a day, or a week, is hardly a spill.

The common definition of a spill is the liquid that fell out of a container, a one time occurrence, not a massive flow that has no known end. An oil tanker can spill oil; but not Mother Earth, who has been, and still is, continuously gushing oil from 35,000 feet from within her bowels.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill, of about 10.8 million gallons of crude, on the 24th of March 1989, in the Prince William Sound of Alaska, is considered by many to be the most devastating humanly-caused environmental disaster ever to occur in history.

Currently, the oil gusher in the Gulf produces an Exxon Valdez disaster about every four days to a week.

Spill or Gusher? No matter which word you use - it is still devastating!

Oil money in her pocket

Big Oil Keeps Its Bailout -- For Now

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski moved today to guarantee a bailout of BP and other parties responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe. Senator Robert Menendez had introduced legislation, (The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act) that would have ensured BP can't hide behind the $75 million liability cap that the oil industry had previously lobbied and obtained from Congress for damages from an oil spill.

But Murkowski, once again using the Senate's "Polish rules" by which a single senator can prevent the majority from legislating in a crisis, blocked consideration of the bill. By objecting to proceeding with the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, Murkowski did a huge favor for her allies and financial supporters in the oil industry. That's because Menendez's bill not only would have protected fishermen and communities in the Gulf of Mexico from being stuck with the bill for Big Oil's recklessness at Deepwater Horizon -- it would also have ensured that, as the oil industry moves into even more-dangerous Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, it would be held accountable for future catastrophes.

Pissed at Lisa for two reasons. One because she bowed down to the mighty oil dollar. And two - having Polish heritage - am appalled that a tactic called "Polish rules" will benefit Big Oil.

They didn't learn

Shell Arctic Drilling Plan Gets Court Approval

A federal appeals court Thursday removed a legal challenge standing in the way of Shell Oil's plans to drill wells off Alaska's shore this summer.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a case that challenged federal approval of Shell's exploratory drilling plans in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

I guess those three judges aren't watching BP's little problem.

Oil is everywhere

Scientist Doesn't See a Way for Preventing Oil From Reaching Florida Keys, Eastern Seaboard

Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what's called the Loop Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and into the Florida Keys.

Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream.

Shay says the oil could affect Florida's beaches, coral reefs, fisheries and ecosystem within a week.

He described the Loop Current as similar to a "conveyor belt," sweeping around the Gulf, through the Keys and right up the East Coast.

Shay says he cannot think of any scenario where the oil doesn't eventually reach the Florida Keys.

Thanks BP. We are all in deep oily doo-doo! That's the oil scientists' term for Deep Shit!