From NBC News

Will it work?  No one knows yet whether the “top kill” procedure has succeeded (as I write this) but they are currently suspending whatever it is they are doing in order to “assess their progress.”  ScienceMag calls it “How to Kill a Well with Gravity“.

Oil giant BP has a very long straw stuck 3048 meters into the Gulf of Mexico sea floor with oil and gas spouting out the top at several thousand pascals. How do BP engineers stop the flow when none of the control valves at the top is working and there’s no way to put a stopper in the straw’s end? The only option is using gravity, notes petroleum engineer Paul Bommer of the University of Texas, Austin. To get gravity on their side, engineers yesterday started trying to quiet down the well by pumping drilling “mud” into the side of the leaky straw as hard as they could. “If they get it quiet,” says Bommer, “gravity will take over.”

If all goes well, the stopper that holds in the oil and gas will be 3048 meters of drilling mud—a colloid of water, clay, and other solids—filling the well. Twice as dense as water and far more dense than the hydrocarbons coming up the well, the weight of a well full of drilling mud would more than balance the force of fluids trying to rise from the well bottom. This is the way drillers normally control well pressures. . . . . But if that resistance erodes under the higher pressure and faster flow escaping the wellhead, it could be time for a “junk shot.” That’s the injection of large particles of, um, … stuff intended to clog leaks and let the backpressure rise again. No word on what sort of stuff might be used, but shredded tires and golf balls have come up.”

Wonderful.  President Obama gave a tough public speech today, frowning a lot, looking serious,  telling us all he’s on top of this disaster and this is his number one priority.    I believe that like I believe the earth is flat.  Then again, for political reasons, maybe he’s telling us part of the  truth.  (This could very well affect the mid-term elections.)  Is this Obama’s Katrina?  Well it’s not the same of course, since about 2,000 people died in Katrina, but it’s hard not to argue that this is a bigger mess overall, and Obama seemingly ignored it much longer than Bush ignored New Orleans.    Of course we don’t know all that Obama has been doing behind the scenes since the blowout occurred. He claims it has been a huge priority since [...]

“Viscount” “Lord” etc. are words that mean little to Americans.   But “Viscount” “Lord” Monckton is a serious matter and we need to pay attention to what he represents.   He’s a pompous, arrogant,  shady, sneaky man, funded by big fossil fuel companies and think tanks, one of those at the forefront of the world-wide denier movement.   At the moment he’s a bit of a pop-eyed rock star (like BP used to be) to people in the anti-science movement,  like people in Colorado.  In Colorado, some people want to teach the “other side” of climate change — you know, the false side, the point of view that says it’s not happening.  Monckton wants to do the same, and he is quite successful and rich because of it.  Lying is a lucrative business for some people.

Monckton’s  testimony to Congress, partially seen in that video, was quite interesting.    For some reason known only to Republicans, he was chosen as their lone representative to talk about the science of climate change at a recent Congressional hearing, though all he really was there for was to present the politics of his viewpoint.    It’s also a reflection on the pathetic anti-science ideology of the national Republican party.  No actual science supports their denials about climate change, but their politics sure support it.

Now,  a scientist and professor from St. John’s University in Minnesota, (just a couple of miles from here) has completely eviscerated all of “Lord” Monckton’s false anti-science arguments.  Mister Monckton is not a real Lord to begin with, and even if he was, his status would be meaningless  in terms of adding credibility to his claims.  He is not allowed to serve in Parliament or even to sit in on it, he is not a scientist, he has never written a peer-reviewed paper, and he’s not really an expert on anything.  He once worked for the government of Margaret Thatcher, which seems slightly impressive, but it proves nothing about his character.  As another example, Oliver North once worked for the government of Ronald Reagan,  and he’s a liar and a convicted felon who lied to Congress.  So just because someone once worked for someone famous and powerful, it does not mean that person is necessarily honest or particularly intelligent.  People should not get too excited, either, that Mister Monckton puts a pink crown seal-thing on his slides, and correspondence, suggesting that he is something he is not.  It’s just a cute little picture.

The Minnesota professor’s name is John Abraham, an engineering professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN.   Climate Progress reported that,

“. . . . few people are willing to put in the time and effort that Prof. Abraham has — not merely looking up just about every reference TVMOB uses but actually e-mailing the authors of those scientific papers and asking them if TVMOB has accurately represented their work.”

And “The number of errors Chris Monckton makes is so enormous [...]

David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune. Members of the Louisiana National Guard place boom on the beaches at Grand Isle, Wednesday May 26, 2010.

In the midst of all the bad, there is some good news about renewable energy — specifically wind energy. There is also good news about transportation, because 2010 is the year that the EV (electric vehicle) is going to make an appearance, again, on public roads.   It seems like every car company  is developing an electric car.  CleanTechnica reports that:

If the Western US generated 30% of its electricity with wind power, costs would drop 40%, the NREL reveals in The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study. Under various integration scenarios exhaustively considered in great detail in a “what-if” and “how-to” analysis for the WestConnect group of utilities, there would also be a reduction  in carbon dioxide emissions of at least 25% and as much as 45%.

The study comes at a welcome time, because this is the year that electric cars are finally poised to appear on the US market, creating a real alternative to the oil-powered commute, since EVs could be charged with clean energy like solar and wind power, and the gulf disaster shows us clearly what the alternative is. . . . .

The NREL published a corresponding study for the Eastern states in January. A related update of overall wind power potential by the NREL found that the US could produce 37 million Gigawatt-hours of electricity from wind every year, far more than currently required (only 3 million Gigawatt-hours annually).

We have been told by scientists and policy makers that renewable sources of energy just can not provide all the power we will need in the future.  Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not.  What we have learned in the last 3 weeks is that hearing numbers and pronouncements from the government, or from certain groups, are not necessarily accurate.  When we are told that baseload electricity from wind and solar is just never going to happen because the gigawatts aren’t there, those assertions should be considered challenges, not the final word on what is possible.

The other major thing we have learned in the last 3 weeks is that oil has to replaced.  It’s not just the Gulf of Mexico, it’s also the immense wasteland that is being created in Canada from the bitumen of the tar sands.

The Alberta clipper oil pipeline and others are going to carry the world’s dirtiest foreign oil through the upper U.S. and down to refineries in the midwest.  This is the world’s worst oil, the most toxic and polluting, the most carcinogenic, and the most damaging to wildlife  (until the Gulf catastrophe came along) of all oil,  and companies are investing heavily in it.  Even T. Boone Pickens and oil companies [...]

Below is President Obama on Thursday morning, telling us the oil leak is his biggest priority, and answering various questions. The White House site, with the questions he was asked listed, is here. As I write this now, BP has restarted their mud-plugging operation and by sometime on Friday we should have a better feeling of whether it has adequately worked or not.

Obama has announced a six-month moratorium on new offshore oil drilling, which is bad news for Shell Oil, who planned to begin drilling off the coast of Alaska soon — but it’s good news for everyone else on earth.

The sooner we get off our addiction to oil the better. Obama is no longer promoting offshore drilling, but he hasn’t said it will ever end either and this would be his big chance to do that. Will another terrible opportunity like this ever present itself? We have to hope it doesn’t, so we have to change his mind as soon as possible.

Keep in mind, another leak a lot like this could happen at any time in the Gulf, and no other country allows an oil company to stage a disaster like this anywhere. The U.S. stands alone in its blatant favoritism towards oil corporations, its deference to the way they want to do things, and this favoritism has crossed at least 3 presidential administrations so far. Two of them were led by Democratic presidents.

Dan Froomkin writes:

“The press conference was a powerful rhetorical rejoinder to the growing perception that Obama has been personally disengaged from the disaster in the Gulf.

But there was very little there for those who are more concerned with what’s actually happening on the ground and in the water than with presidential optics.

And to those unhappy with the speed or the extent of the government response, to those scientists who question some of the decisions that have been made, and to those Louisiana residents who think not enough is being done, he didn’t actually announce any changes. There is no new plan. He just tried to redefine what is.

Obama praised the government’s response so far. “I’m confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis,” he said.

But his confidence doesn’t seem justified.”

That’s an understatement.

There is a lot of good writing being done on the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.  I can’t be down there right now, so below is a story from someone who is there, someone who is also using twitter to spread the news of the situation there.  Mac McLelland writes for Mother Jones.  This was a Twitter message from today:

“That’s it. Grand Isle is totally enveloped in gas fumes. The smell is completely nauseating and inescapable.” (2 hrs. ago) I’ve copy/pasted several tweets from the last 3 days (on comment page) for those not on Twitter.”

BP’s oil is destroying everything in its path.

BP has become an obstructing, criminal organization that does not believe the people of the United States deserve the truth about how bad the oil leak is, and continues to be.  Their CEO said the other day that he thinks the environmental damage will be moderate.  He could not be more wrong or maybe he’s being dishonest on purpose.   So, that’s  why I’ll be reprinting some eye witness reports from the Gulf region about the leak in the next few days.  The ‘top kill’  procedure began today, and they won’t know for a day or two whether it worked.  Divers did diagnostic tests before the procedure began and if there is a weak spot in the blowout preventor, the weak spot could blow, causing a new leak. The mud being used could also tear a new hole in the leaking well pipe, according to reports today.  There is no guarantee this won’t make the situation worse.

If this doesn’t work, BP has other ideas to stop up their leaking oil volcano, but none of them are tested methods, and none of them are guaranteed to work. We might be experiencing an oil gusher for months, even years.  This situation is beyond a catastrophe. Adding to the oil are hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic dispersants, which are designed to hide the amount of oil that has been spilled.   The U.S. government has had planes spraying this stuff in the water for weeks and only in the last two-3 days it has quit doing this.

Read the following for an example of how BP is trying to remain in control, hide the truth about how bad it is, and push reporters and even the U.S. government away while it continues to screw up and fumble around for solutions.  They need to get out of the way, at this point.

“It’s BP’s Oil” — by Mac McLelland

Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are “so big you could park a car on them.”

It’s Saturday, May 22nd, a month [...]

This week the media reported seeing dolphins swimming in oil-filled water. This is a beautiful video reminding us of the peace and love of life that is present in the life in the seas.

“Join people from all around the world, consciously igniting a new global vision for clean, clear, peaceful waters with whales, dolphins and all vital marine life swimming free. This is the mission of Peace in the Water (http://peaceinthewater.com). Welcome to the pod.”

The video is not directly related to the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico (but might be inspired by it) and comes from the new  Peace in the Water website.  Check it out.

At least the corporate media is finally reporting on the oil leak every day, and wondering, at this late date, where is the all-out effort to stop the oil volcano a mile under the surface.  There should have been a demand by the public and the U.S. government for an immediate solution to this on-going leak the first week it happened.  BP is clearly clueless, experimenting with ideas as it goes, and the U.S. government is claiming to be doing all it can. That can’t possibly be the case. Even Iran has offered to help deal with the leaking oil, and has in fact offered twice, and the U.S. government, which is “doing all it can” has not even answered their offer.

“Mehran Alinejad, the director of drilling operations at the National Iranian Drilling Co., said Iranian companies had experience controlling vast oil spills in the region. He told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that technical teams in Iran had “major achievements in oil well capping.”

“There is, at any rate, an ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and its negative consequences will affect everyone,” he added. “That is why if we receive a suitable response from relevant (U.S.) officials we can examine the issue and contribute to its resolution.”

NIDC officials said in early May that Iran was ready to overlook the U.S. push for new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council as there is an urgent need for action in the southern coastal regions.”

Source:  UPI

Can our government find a way to accept their offer?

I wouldn’t count on it. Everything is about politics and posturing these days. Meanwhile, today it was confirmed that oil super tankers are sitting, full of oil and therefore unable to help, while they wait for the market to increase the price of oil to maximize profits for someone, somewhere, who doesn’t care if the ocean waters off our coast are dead or alive.  This has now been going on for five weeks.

“Where is the fierce urgency of now?” — Donna Brazil, Democratic leader, May 2010, on the BP oil leak.

Eric Gay, AP A shrimp boat collects oil with booms in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, La., on May 5.

Donna Brazil was wondering why President Obama has not taken charge of the BP oil spill, and not just overseeing events, but taking control of the situation.  This is affecting the United States, no other country. Does oil have to cover Washington D.C. itself before the Obama administration takes charge of this immense disaster?

The lack of direct, total engagement by the White House on this catastrophe is beyond baffling.  This leak should have been Obama’s #1 priority the day it happened.  BP should not be in charge of dealing with their oil leak that is destroying much of the Gulf of Mexico, and even the mainstream media is finally wondering why they’re still in charge. Their relief drilling plan will not be put into effect until August, and relief drilling is the only proven method of stopping a deep underwater drilling leak like this.  The EPA told BP to stop using the toxic dispersants in the water and BP said no, we’re going to continue to use them.  So the EPA begged them to not use as much, then. Even the EPA seems to have no authority in our own sovereign waters off our coast.

BP is not even trying to mop up the oil that is currently floating on and near the top of the water, as has been done before.  They are pouring hundreds of gallons of chemicals into the water to try to break up the oil, instead. Dispersing the oil doesn’t get rid of it, but dispersing it makes it look less bad, and eventually helps in the biological breakdown of it. People have the capability of getting much of the oil out of the water.  There was a “secret” major oil spill in the Middle East in 1993.  Saudi Aramco responded by sucking up the oil with super tankers, and   it was quite effective.

BP also has super tankers but they are not using them.  Instead, shrimp boats from Louisiana are attempting to corral some of the oil from the water, but it’s a losing battle.  According to Mike Pappantonio, the super tankers are currently full of oil, and they are sitting around waiting for the price of oil to go up so they can maximize their profits.  Obama has the power to call on the world to help us get the oil out of the water, and he’s not doing it. This is inexcusable. Here is Mike Pappantonio, environmental attorney and activist and radio show host, on the MSNBC show Hardball, this afternoon, May 24.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Something much more has to be done about this immediately. President [...]

Odd, sad news on the climate front.  Greenland is rising as the ice continues to melt.

ScienceDaily — Greenland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast of Canada. It has stunning fjords on its rocky coast formed by moving glaciers, and a dense icecap up to 2 km thick that covers much of the island–pressing down the land beneath and lowering its elevation. Now, scientists at the University of Miami say Greenland’s ice is melting so quickly that the land underneath is rising at an accelerated pace.

According to the study, some coastal areas are going up by nearly one inch per year and if current trends continue, that number could accelerate to as much as two inches per year by 2025, explains Tim Dixon, professor of geophysics at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) and principal investigator of the study.

“It’s been known for several years that climate change is contributing to the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet,” Dixon says. “What’s surprising, and a bit worrisome, is that the ice is melting so fast that we can actually see the land uplift in response,” he says. “Even more surprising, the rise seems to be accelerating, implying that melting is accelerating.”

Read more here.

Oceans’ Fish Could Disappear by 2050

Without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, our oceans could become barren deserts.  The Gulf Oil leak is adding to the problem.

“The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, UN experts said Monday.

“If the various estimates we have received… come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish,” Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program’s green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.  A Green Economy report due later this year by UNEP and outside experts argues this disaster can be avoided if subsidies to fishing fleets are slashed and fish are given protected zones — ultimately resulting in a thriving industry.  The report, which was opened to preview Monday, also assesses how surging global demand in other key areas including energy and fresh water can be met while preventing ecological destruction around the planet.

UNEP director Achim Steiner said the world was “drawing down to the very capital” on which it relies.  However, “our institutions, our governments are perfectly capable of changing course, as we have seen with the extraordinary uptake of interest. Around, I think it is almost 30 countries now have engaged with us directly, and there are many others revising the policies on the green economy,” he said.

Collapse of fish stocks is not only an environmental matter.  One billion people, mostly from poorer countries, rely on fish as their main animal protein source, according to the UN.  The Green Economy report estimates there are 35 million people fishing around the world on 20 million boats. About 170 million jobs [...]

PHOTO BY TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE An oily mess inundates the Roseau Grasses that mark the coastline of Southeast Louisiana at Pass a Loutre at the mouth of the Mississippi River. . . . . especially on the western side of South Pass, Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

The EPA is running out of patience with BP.  On Thursday they told the EPA to stop using the dispersant its using, to use one less toxic and that is on a list of approved chemicals.  In another letter they told BP that they don’t feel BP is telling us everything. They were told to divulge everything about everything having to do with this leak . . . far too late to be telling BP this, but better late than never.  It’s been about a month since this disaster, and about 70,000 gallons of dirty oil is pouring out of one of two leaks.  Talk radio can frame this hwever they want, but anyone who has seen the videos of the oil leak and the oil washing up in the marshes right now, not at some imagined point in the future, knows this is an epic disaster.

May 20 — WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a directive requiring BP to identify and use a less toxic and more effective dispersant from the list of EPA authorized dispersants. Dispersants are a chemical used to break up oil into small droplets so that they are more easily degraded.

The directive requires BP to identify a less toxic alternative – to be used both on the surface and under the water at the source of the oil leak – within 24 hours and to begin using the less toxic dispersant within 72 hours of submitting the alternative.  

If BP is unable to identify available alternative dispersant products, BP must provide the Coast Guard and EPA with a detailed description of the alternative dispersants investigated, and the reason they believe those products did not meet the required standards.  

EPA’s directive to BP can be found here.

While the dispersant BP has been using is on the agency’s approved list, BP is using this dispersant in unprecedented volumes and, last week, began using it underwater at the source of the leak – a procedure that has never been tried before. Because of its use in unprecedented volumes and because much is unknown about the underwater use of dispersants, EPA wants to ensure BP is using the least toxic product authorized for use. We reserve the right to discontinue the use of this dispersant method if any negative impacts on the environment outweigh the benefits.

On May 15, EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard authorized BP to use dispersants underwater at the source of the Deepwater Horizon leak. As the dispersant is used underwater, BP is required to do constant, scientifically rigorous monitoring so EPA scientists may determine the dispersant’s effectiveness and impact on the [...]

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE A hermit crab scuttles through clumps of oil from the spill in a tidal pool near a breakwater in Grand Isle on Friday, May 21, 2010.

What is BP doing to the ocean off the coast of the U.S.?  You could see for yourself at the BP live spill feeds.    The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is hosting the live video feed of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  (Unfortunately, at the moment none of the live feeds seem to be working).

On May 22, BP Responded to the EPA’s Directive on Dispersants.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released BP’s response to EPA’s directive on dispersants. EPA’s directive to BP required them to evaluate available, pre-approved dispersants for toxicity and effectiveness and report back to EPA within 24 hours. After receiving their response late Thursday night, EPA immediately called a meeting with BP to discuss the issue on Friday, May 21. EPA will continue to work over the next 48 hours to ensure BP is complying with the directive.

BP’s response to EPA’s directive, as well as the directive itself, can be found here.

Basically, BP cannot give the EPA an answer as to toxicity, biodegradability and how long the chemicals will persist in the environment, because the ingredients of the chemical mixtures are “proprietary” — secret.

BP and several of the dispersant manufacturers have claimed some sections of BP’s response contain confidential business information (CBI). By law, CBI cannot be immediately made public except with the company’s permission. EPA challenged these companies to make more information public and, as a result, several portions of the letter can now be made public. EPA is currently evaluating all legal options to ensure that the remaining redacted information is released to the public. EPA continues to strongly urge these companies to voluntarily make this information public so Americans can get a full picture of the potential environmental impact of these alternative dispersants.

The EPA’s (unhelpful and not informative) website on the on-going Gulf Leak is here. You can probably get more information from the New Orlean’s NOLA website.  They sum it up here.

“BP replied that it was concerned that Sea Brat No. 4, the only other federally approved dispersant available in sufficient quantity, “contains a small amount of a chemical that may degrade to a nonylphenol,” one of a group of chemicals that “have been identified by various government agencies as potential endocrine disruptors, and as chemicals that may persist in the environment for a period of years.”

BP is dumping from 70,000 – 50,000 gallons of various “proprietary” chemicals in the ocean per day. This can’t possibly be good for sea life, or a good way to deal with the leak, but at the moment it’s about all they are doing.  When is the U.S. government going to actually take control of this [...]

There is a whole other world beneath the surface of the ocean.  An ocean is not a big reservoir of empty water, of course; it’s swarming with life, and  some people who have never seen it have a hard time imagining how much.   Snorkeling or diving near any barrier reef or off the coast of an island reveals a huge amount of fascinating life.   The first time I went snorkeling in a marine reserve (off the coast of Belize, seen in the video above) I was stunned at what was down there.   It was filled with color and motion and so many varieties of creatures and it seemed endless; truly like being in an alternate universe.  Now imagine that vibrant  alternative universe filled with the dark murkiness of oil.

Endangered sea turtles are washing up dead on the beach in the Gulf. 

“At least 150 sea turtles have washed up dead or dying along the U.S. Gulf Coast since the giant oil spill off Louisiana, a higher number than normal for this time of year, a leading wildlife expert said on Monday.” Read more here.

Below is a report from Wallace J. Nichols, a marine scientist and oceans conservationist who in 1998 founded the Grupo Tortuguero. See more on him here.

My brave friend Leilani Munter called from the field to report that the National Wildlife Federation and CNN had documented the first sea turtle caught in a slick at sea, gasping for air through an iridescent sheen. Tragically, just as nesting season for a number of the Gulf of Mexico’s sea turtle species is set to begin, these highly endangered animals become the poster species of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Soon, if not already, adult male and female turtles will gather in shallow coastal waters, mate and prepare to nest, precisely where oil is accumulating. The pregnant females will scuttle across beaches at night to lay eggs, just as they’ve done for millions of years, but these beaches will be different—they will be blacked with oil. In a few short weeks, a new generation of hatchlings will emerge from the sand and make their way across oily beaches to an oily sea where tar balls and slicks will make their already-long odds of survival even longer. As they mature, they will have to rise through oil slicks to breathe and survive by eating oil-coated animals, algae and seagrass. While sea turtle will be among the most recognizable victims, they won’t be alone. Many species of birds, fish, invertebrates and plants will fare just as badly.

Even before the spill, sea turtles had it tough. US and Mexican trawlers drag nets across the sea floor in search of shrimp, but catch thousands of turtles by “accident.” Bright beach [...]

Umberto di Lazzaro, Crociera aerea del Decennale, 1933, Litografia su carta, 300 x 200 cm

Lo Spirito Futurista nella Pubblicità Italiana [El Espíritu Futurista en la Publicidad Italiana]
selections from the Massimo and Sonia Criulli Archive, New York

May 18 – October 12, 2010
Museu Valencià de la Il·lustració i de la Modernitat – MUVIM
Curated by Luigi Cavadini

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NOAA: Warmest April Global Temperature on Record

Last month was the warmest April on record.  This finding was already published here, but we need to highlight it because the deniers are still repeating the ridiculous claim that the oceans are not warming and neither is the climate.   That misinformation is still popping up everywhere, recently by a man who calls himself Lord Monckton in his testimony to Congress.   Last weekend there was another fake-science conference, sponsored by the Heartland Foundation (a right-wing fringe organization), advertised as being about the “reality” of global warming.   But like Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s fake forum on global warming last spring (that I attended), it was actually just a big meeting for the purpose of trying to disprove climate change and encourage the U.S. government and business to do nothing about it. This is the official plan of the Republicans. Do Nothing About It. You can shorten that to “do nothing” which is the ongoing mantra of the Republican Party for every issue.

That is why every bit of proof and data of climate change is important.  The conservatives, at their little right-wing conference, presented misleading charts and graphs, creatively using dates and numbers that fit their anti-science arguments, so that the public will be more likely to believe them. Most people know and understand that the oceans are warming and global warming is continuing, but planting doubt, as conservatives do, prevents action on this crisis.   Lack of action will ensure that companies like British Petroleum and Exxon and Massey Energy won’t have to change their ways and that protects shareholders and people invested in these multi-billion-dollar companies. But most people with a functioning mind and BS radar know the drill, there is no need to go into all that in detail.  With conservatives, it’s all about protecting their bank accounts, not the planet.

Below are more global warming facts from Dotearth.  This is more help in being armed with global warming facts, are because the deniers are ramping up their efforts. There is a slight possibility that an energy bill might pass this year, and they are going to do everything they can to stop it.  So, they will lie, and make things up, which is the general MO for the Republicans opposing legislation on energy and climate change. NOAA doesn’t make things up.

NOAA: Warmest April Global Temperature on Record

Also Warmest January-April

May 17, 2010 — The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for both April and for the period from January-April, according to NOAA. Additionally, last month’s average ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for any April, and the global land surface temperature was the third warmest on record.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of [...]

“BP is burying its head in the sand on these underwater threats,” said Democratic congressman Ed Markey.  “These huge plumes of oil are like hidden mushroom clouds that indicate a larger spill than originally thought and portend more dangerous long-term fallout for the Gulf of Mexico’s wildlife and economy.”

Black waves of oil and brown whitecaps are seen last week in the Gulf of Mexico / Joe Griffin, AP

Finally, British Petroleum is siphoning off a small amount of the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, (about 20%) onto a tanker.  But the leak still needs to be stopped as soon as possible.  The U.S. government, after over 3 weeks, has finally announced it is pulling out all the stops to find a way stop the leak.  It’s hard to believe they left this mostly in BP’s hands this long.  Obama is reportedly sending bomb experts and a MARS expert to try to fix the oil spill, according to Bloomberg. Up to 70,000 barrels of oil have been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico since the oil rig sank on April 20th.   None of this fills me with much confidence, since we are now finding out the oil spill is huge and they are discovering enormous “oil plumes” under water.  The story from Bloomberg is below.

“May 14 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu signaled his lack of confidence in the industry experts trying to control BP Plc’s leaking oil well by hand-picking a team of scientists with reputations for creative problem solving.

Dispatched to Houston by President Barack Obama to deal with the crisis, Chu said Wednesday that five “extraordinarily intelligent” scientists from around the country will help BP and industry experts think of back-up plans to cut off oil from the well, leaking 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below sea-level.

Members of the Chu team are credited with accomplishments including designing the first hydrogen bomb, inventing techniques for mining on Mars and finding a way to precisely position biomedical needles.

“I don’t think there is a lot of confidence in BP in Washington right now,” David Pursell, a managing director at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. LLC in Houston, said by phone.  [Are you kidding me?  It took them 3 weeks to get to this point?] . . . . Chu said he’s tasked his team to develop “plan B, C, D, E and F” in addition to finding a way to stop the oil leak.

“Things are looking up, and things are getting much more optimistic,” the Nobel-prize winning physicist said after meeting with the scientists and BP in Houston Wednesday.

BP CEO Meeting — The group convened at BP’s command center in Houston yesterday, where they met with BP leadership, including Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward, the Energy Department said. BP is using more than 500 specialists from almost 100 organizations and welcomes additional help, Jon Pack, [...]

Wind turbines in southern Minnesota. Photo by Futurism Now.

There is a strange backlash against wind energy all across the country, which is why a lot of financial support for it in any climate bill needs to be there.  In my area, which is quite “conservative” (by which I mean, anti-science and just flat-out obsessed with taxes) one nearby city has preemptively banned wind turbines.   I wish that was a joke, but it’s not.  The article about it in a local newspaper quoted city officials  saying wind was banned  because they were worried people would try to install wind turbines in the future. They have been preemptively banned because they were deemed “unsuitable” for an urban area (“urban” is not how I would describe this small city) and they might tip over.  Yes, wind turbines have been banned in central Minnesota because some people are afraid they might tip over.  By that logic we should ban oil rigs because they might blow up and sink. (Except wait — they actually do that.) (Here’s the story).  It may not be a coincidence that this is Rep. Michele Bachmann’s district.

According to NASA and Climate Progress,  it was the hottest April on record according to NASA data.  They also predicted that this will be a record-setting year for heat.

More significantly, following fast on the heels of the hottest March and hottest Jan-Feb-March on record, it’s also the hottest Jan-Feb-March-April on record. . . .   The record temperatures we’re seeing now are especially impressive because we’ve been in “the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.” It now appears to be over. It’s just hard to stop the march of manmade global warming, well, other than by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that is.
Most significantly, NASA’s March prediction has come true:  “It is nearly certain that a new record 12-month global temperature will be set in 2010.?

What is Washington DC doing about this?  Not nearly enough!

American Power Act Contains Little Direct Support for Renewables
Bill introduced by Sens. Kerry and Lieberman lacks a renewable portfolio standard.
Published: May 13, 2010

Washington, D.C., United States — On Wednesday, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) released the details of their energy and climate change legislation. The bill includes few provisions designed to directly support renewable energy. These provisions include a statement from Congress on the importance of large-scale deployment and accelerated progress in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, direction for how the allowances distributed to states and Indian tribes should be used for the purposes of promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, and a statement supporting voluntary renewable energy markets.  Noticeably absent from the package was either a renewable portfolio standard, or renewable electricity standard, which the industry has been lobbying for over the course of the last year.

“The wind energy [...]

This oil leak is a disaster that has already killed 11 people.  Today it was reported that the Gulf’s loop currents are going to carry it around Florida.  Gooey, red oil has come ashore, past the booms that were used to try to stop it.  New BP video, as reported by NBC, reveals that most likely,  double the amount of 70,000 gallons of oil per day are pouring into the ocean. Most of us have no concept of what damage this oil will do.  Criminal charges are probably next.  So let’s determine blame.  Should BP pay for this mess, or Halliburton, or Transocean?

It would be convenient to have several large corporations to choose from when pointing the finger of blame for this disaster, but we need to look at who is at the root of all this.  That would be us.

The American people should be on trial. We should pay damages and we should pay for this at the gas pump.  We are the ones with the oil addiction.  We have an automobile culture that we are not willing to give up or even alter.  That mind-set is now destroying the Gulf coast.  We have supported the need for dangerous drilling with our 1) unwavering support for offshore drilling and our 2) insatiable “need” and use of gas and oil.   Have any of us stopped driving our cars, or stopped doing anything that uses gas and oil,  since this oil leak happened?  Have the drug addicts stopped using the drug, or are we just upset that our habit is causing such damage and pollution? So far, Americans seem really upset with ourselves but want to blame someone else.  Sure, BP is legally responsible, but who is ethically responsible?  No one forces us to use the massive amounts of gas and oil that we use.  Americans  buy millions of dollars worth of gasoline and oil a year and we are obsessed with the price of it, not the use of it.  By now, most Americans feel that it’s our birthright to use as much gasoline and oil as we want to. Who has ever tried to stop us?

Our whole economy is based on fossil fuels and the obtaining of them, whether through drilling, digging, exploding tops off mountains,  or waging wars.  Oil, gas and coal keep capitalism and never-ending growth humming along, and Americans accept that as the way things ought to be.

The price of fossil fuels we use also includes the climate damage, ocean damage, and climate change burning these fuels causes.   Climate change in the sky or oil-soaked coastlines down on earth;   it’s all bad.   It’s very bad.  It’s going to end up destroying our civilization, but that’s too hard to think about, so most people don’t.  Like most addicts, we are in deep denial.

We are oil addicts by choice, though, and as addicts we should pay for our expensive, dirty, damaging habit.  But we don’t, we blame the big fossil fuel corporations,  because they [...]

Giacomo Balla, futurismo e neofuturismo

By Giovanni Lista and Elena Gigli
Mudima, 2009
ISBN 88-86072-47-3
Italian, p. 70

p. 70

The publishing house Mudima in Milan has published Balla, futurismo e neofuturismo by Giovanni Lista and Elena Gigli. The books investigates two much discussed aspects of Balla’s work: the “compenetrazioni iridescenti” and the political ideals with the joining of Fascism.

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Below is some confused, strange chatter from FOX News on the oil leak, which will be parroted by Republicans in Congress and entertainment radio talk show hosts.  “Where’s the oil?”  FOX host Brit Hume can’t see it. This nonsense, this doubt-planting on every single environmental topic of the last 10+  years, just  spreads and spreads among conservatives with soap boxes, to the point where the American people are no longer concerned about global warming much at all.   They used to be, before the denial movement started happening, funded by big oil and big coal and driven by GOP talking points.   Now these members of the “news media” are even denying there is much oil from this oil spill, when even some British Petroleum estimates were up to 70,000 gallons a day. Is there any hope that we can get serious climate action  — ever? — with this type of propaganda and ignorance masquerading as “news” discussion?

Read more of the story here. It’s hard to believe, but this “news host”,  Brit Hume,  would have us believe that most oil in the ocean is from “seepage” and that makes this oil spill somehow less significant.   It’s no wonder that people of this political persuasion (the right-wing extremist kind) has no respect for facts, logic or science. It’s enough to infuriate anyone.   Talk to people on the coast of Florida, Mr. Hume, and tell me if they are ever concerned about “seepage”, or whether they think the ocean can just somehow absorb this oil.   The ocean is not a sponge for oil and other garbage humans dump into it.   It used to be a dependable carbon sink, but even that is changing.   This oil spill is now threatening the barrier reef off the coast of Florida, and it’s threatening the shores of Cuba, and Hume can’t  see it. So therefore, it must not be very bad.  That exemplifies FOX News about as well as anything.

The saddest thing of all is that this oil leak is not the only huge threat to the Atlantic ocean, not even to the Gulf of Mexico.  Chemicals and pesticide runoff leading to the Gulf “dead zone”, overfishing, military sonar, and ocean acidification were already threatening the oceans before the sunken oil rig was built.

They  are just now seeing the first tar balls off the shores of Key West, but people claim they can’t be sure where they come from. Are tar balls commonly found off the shores of Key West? Of course not.  So, these must be from somewhere.  Hmmm, what just happened that might have caused them to appear?   The currents are already picking up the oil and moving it around right off the coast of Florida. This will be a catastrophe for the local and state economies, and what will all those people in the tourism industry do when they lose their jobs?

PHOTO BY TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Oil appears on beaches -- Sea birds take flight on the beach at Elmer's Island Thursday, May 13, 2010.

Seven hours of data missing from Deepwater Horizon prior to explosion
May 13, 2010, 10:35PM

A “black box” can reveal why an airplane crashed or how fast a car was going in the instant before an accident. Yet there are no records of a critical safety test supposedly performed during the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. They went down with the rig.

This is starting to look more and more like a criminal investigation.  Read more here.

If you are wondering why the cleanup and leak stopping efforts seem to be “solutions” invented on a day by day basis, that’s because they are.  BP had no workable solutions for stopping a catastrophic leak of this kind,  despite their assurances to the U.S. government before it happened that they did. That in itself should be a crime.  Read what the WSWS has to say about the mistake of leaving the fixes to BP below.

Gulf oil spill compounded by BP’s control of “cleanup”
By Tom Eley , WSWS
13 May 2010

The Obama administration’s decision to leave BP in control of its Deepwater Horizon spill site and in charge of cleanup efforts has seriously compounded the original disaster, testimony from workers, experts, and recent press accounts reveal.

Since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana, BP has commanded all cleanup efforts and exercised total control over the spill site, blocking critical information from the public. The Obama administration, which exempted BP from producing environmental impact studies and oil spill contingency plans for its Gulf drilling operations, has no organized approach for addressing the spill, which is growing at a conservatively-estimated rate of 220,000 gallons per day.

Leaving BP to monitor its own cleanup activities is in keeping with Washington’s steady deregulation of industry and finance in the US over the past three decades. The same “free market” nostrums that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster are now providing the operating principle behind the cleanup. This approach has greatly exacerbated the disaster.

The spill has continued to spread on the surface, but the damage below may be more severe. Four-inch diameter tar balls have reached the shores of eastern Alabama, just miles from the Florida border. Six dead dolphins were found washed ashore in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and more dead turtles, fish, and soiled birds have been found.

Because of BP’s “proprietary” control of the drilling site 40 miles off Louisiana’s coast, it is impossible to even estimate the size of the spill. BP refused to make available underwater footage of the oil [...]

Photo: Osman Orsal - Miners take a break in a coal mine in Turkey's Black Sea city of Zonguldak May 10, 2010.

Last Thursday, Democracy Now sponsored an interesting debate on the new energy “and climate” bill. The debate was between Phil Radford of Greenpeace USA and Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress’s blog ClimateProgress.org. The bill itself is not a climate bill just because it might have a slightly good effect on climate change if all goes well. It’s also not strictly a cap and trade bill either, because it puts a price on carbon and will return money to consumers (that’s good).   The bill makes so many allowances for many polluters (what they call “small” polluters) that make up “only” about 30% of the USA’s greenhouse gas emissions. It also doesn’t mandate that we actually do anything that will get us to 80% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but it seems to think that’s a nice  goal to shoot for anyway. You can read the transcript of the debate below after the break.

Setting an impossible goal is nothing new, but it’s unrealistic. It’s like a person saying their goal is to write a great novel, then doing nothing but scribbling sentences on Post-It Notes, then reaffirming constantly and everywhere that their goal is to write a great novel and this will lead to it. No it won’t. You can’t write a great novel by writing thoughts on Post-It Notes, and you can’t get to 80% emissions reductions by including an increase in coal and oil and natural gas use in your so-called “climate” bill while emphasizing creating jobs and increasing manufacturing. It’s nonsensical. It could only work if we could immediately reforest every parking lot and overpass in America, somehow stop rainforest cutting tomorrow, and take every energy conservation measure possible immediately, and that won’t happen. There is no political will in the United States to do what is seriously necessary to stop climate change. A real and realistic climate bill would focus on renewable, non polluting non-fossil fuels exclusively, or, set the goal date for a 100 years in the future maybe, not 40 years.

Anyway, most people in Washington know this and just play along and call it a “climate bill” to shut up the big environmentalists and the scientists, because it’s all a big game anyway. The announcement of the American Power Act was politics, and it was completely corporate. (The entire thing will be on Climate Files soon).

There are a few notes of optimism on this bill and subject from Bill McKibben. McKibben recently wrote a strange one-page advertisement/open letter to readers of The Nation. He defended himself from an attack by someone he would not name, who ‘accused’ him of supporting the American Power Act and saying we should reject the bill and push for something else that would actually work. McKibben says [...]