A Tactile Dinner

Big Bear Cafe
1700 1st Street NW, Washington, D.C.
10-course “sensory” vegetarian [yay!] menu for $25 (plus $5 suggested gratuity)
Tonight and tomorrow’s shows are sold-out, but tickets are still available for Saturday, May 15 at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

or

Long View Gallery
1234 9th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
This version of the event includes an aperitivo plus 15 omnivore courses for $45.
Tickets are available for Sunday, May 16 at 5 and 7:30 p.m. and Monday, May 17 at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

via DCist

See last year’s Tactile Dinner

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No one looks very convinced this is a good bill.

There are many varied reactions so far  to the American Power Act, the new energy bill presented on May 12. Analysis of it has also been pouring forth.   This bill is the Senate’s version of the Waxman-Markey energy/climate bill.  Everyone in the Obama administration and associated with the Obama administration is praising it, but many people outside it are not.   In a statement released by Kerry’s office, it was also disturbing to me just exactly who is backing this so-called climate bill:  General Electric; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, T. Boone Pickens (tar sands developer and oil man); and others who aren’t exactly well-known  environmentalists.  According to Senator Kerry, oil industry executives like it too.  That should give anyone a few moments of worry.

Listening to the 31-minute clip of the announcement of this bill on CSPAN, I was not impressed.  I was more impressed with the hour-long version containing lots of testimonials and optimistic outlooks that I heard in the entire video, which I’ll be putting in a podcast soon so others can hear it (without downloading the 800 MB video on Sen. Kerry’s site).

Environmental groups that I respect the most are not impressed with this bill.  You can read many of these reactions here. Greenpeace’s reaction was this:

“We cannot support this bill unless the following elements change:
Inadequate Emissions Targets: The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown that to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, the United States and other developed nations must achieve emissions cuts of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95 percent by 2050. But this legislation only sets the goal of reducing emissions by some 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Rapid reductions in the short-term are critical to avoiding catastrophic impacts from global warming. With this weak start, it is clear that achieving the needed reductions would be impossible

Weakens the Clean Air Act: The bill strips authorities that the Environmental Protection Agency has to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act and the states’ authority to set tougher emissions standards than the federal government. Money for Dirty technology: The bill includes financial incentives for, among other things, nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and coal fired energy. This includes billions for “clean coal” technology development, as well as free permits for heavy emitters like manufacturers, oil refiners, and merchant coal generators.

I agree with all but the inclusion of nuclear power, which is not dirty energy.  Natural gas emits CO2,  though.   350.org writes their  reaction to the bill, in part:

1) 350.org continues to focus on what’s scientifically required [that's what Obama promised us too, if you will remember]– The
American Power Act doesn’t meet the test of atmospheric science since thetargets are very weak, and the offsets mean even they won’t be met in time to prevent climate catastrophe.

2) If this is the best bill [...]

This whistleblower oil worker from Alaska, Mike Mason, exposes the fact that BP’s BOP (blowout preventer) tests aren’t done correctly, if they are done at all.   If they take shortcuts like this “to cut corners”, what’s the point of these safety measures?

BP is not a company that needs to save money on testing, and the state inspectors are only present half the time. This is like a drunk driver who only gets fined an amount they can afford, versus going to jail — they will likely be repeat offenders. The oil companies will just keep “cutting corners” until some law that is backed up with some very heavy fines is put into effect.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are doing what they can to protect BP, according to MSNBC. They are determined to defeat any legislation that raises the amount that BP and Transocean are liable for in this disaster. Senator Lisa Murkowski, campaign recipient of more than $400,000 in donations, argued during senate hearings that “mom and pop” oil drillers would be hurt by new laws that would protect the environment, the ocean, and all people on earth. Who are “mom and pop” oil drillers? I’m aware of some of them in 3rd world countries, but they aren’t drilling off the shores of the United States.

Causing the disaster: A dead battery, a loose fitting, and modifications that disabled a key portion of the blowout protector. Regulators at a hearing today testified that the BOP was designed, manufactured and installed without any government oversight whatsoever. None of this is even remotely acceptable, but I found something else even more disturbing when I was watching the Congressional hearings on CSPAN, from yesterday. According to what was said by our members of Congress at this hearing, there is no political or other intention to stop using oil and gas, ever, within the U.S. government that is evidence anywhere. We will use dirty, damaging, polluting fossil fuels until they are  gone, if we survive climate change that long.

BP has a criminal record for many things described on this video at MSNBC. Why have any cap at all on their criminal activities?

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

This hearing took place on May 6th and was intended to focus on climate science. The hearing was arranged by Rep. Ed Markey, and was designed to educate the public on climate science and reiterate that the earth’s climate is still in crisis, now more than ever, and none of the faux little “scandals” involving hacked emails has changed the facts. Several highly reputable climate scientists attended and testified at this hearing. See more here. The republicans were allowed to call a witness of their own for this “debate” and they chose a partisan journalist, the anti-science Christopher Monckton, who calls himself “Lord Monckton”. Above is the video of the portion where Rep. Jay Inslee lets Mr. Monckton know what he thinks of him, his fake title and lack of knowledge about climate science. Monckton is a professional climate science denier.

The entire hearing was useful and interesting. You can hear the whole hearing in podcast form (audio only) at Climate Files Radio.

To see the video of the entire hearing, visit the Congressional hearing site for the committee on global warming. Real Climate has thoroughly debunked Lord Monckton’s ridiculous claims about climate change, a subject he knows nearly nothing about. His specialty is economics and public policy, so it’s odd that he would be chosen as the GOP’s “expert” on climate change for an official congressional hearing on the science of climate change. But it’s also typical. Republican members of Congress, like Michele Bachmann and many others, have expressed extreme partisanship on the subject of climate change, and little to no knowledge of the science involved in the issue.

Congressional review on the oil leak (that is still happening) began today.

The oil leak was called a “cascade of failures”.  That may be true, but there was basic science at work here involving temperature of the ocean water, gas expands when released at that temperature to a warmer temperature, and at what force, a mile below the ocean’s surface — basic science that should have been studied by BP and the owners of the oil rig.  What happened should not have been the big surprise they are claiming it was.  The only way to prevent this from happening again is to stop offshore oil drilling. Onshore oil drilling should also end, but offshore drilling is a no-brainer. One good point recently made by a writer, Dan Froomkin, is that this is what fossil fuels do to the planet every single day. If this oil hadn’t spilled into the ocean, it would have been processed, moved, sold and burned, pumping tons of CO2 into our skies, instead of into the Gulf of Mexico. Anyway you look at this oil, where ever it ended up it would have done, and is doing, enormous damage to our world and the people who live in it.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to spill.  For more information, here is the official government  website of the US government’s response to this catastrophe.   My main question: Why hasn’t the U.S. government pulled out all the stops to do everything possible to stop this leak?  The latest action seems to have been to call for more ideas and to approve of BP’s plans for the smaller cap.  Yes it’s BP’s, and Transocean’s  and Halliburton’s fault and they will pay for it, but they don’t seem to really know how best to plug the leak.  They had no real plan and no backup plan for this type of disaster.  (What does that indicate about the other Big Oil companies and their drilling operations?)   If President Obama doesn’t want this to be his “Katrina” he better stop whatever it is he’s doing and stop this leak, which should be his main priority at this point.

This is paraphrased from Legal Planet: – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings today on economic and environmental impacts of the oil spill .   Witnesses included representatives of the three companies, and representatives of fishing, tourism, and state interests. An environmental law perspective will be provided by Meg Caldwell of Stanford’s Law School and Center for Ocean Solutions.

These hearings are only the first of what will be several Congressional hearings on the Deepwater Horizon disaster. They opened today in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning.   Witnesses included Elmer Danenberger, described on the Committee’s web site as “Former Chief, Offshore Regulatory Program, Minerals Management Service.” Based on MMS’s web site, Mr. Danenberger was in charge of the agency’s [...]

Oil spill news video: Bob Marshall of the Times-Picayune gives the latest update on the Gulf Oil Spill.

May 12–Times-Picayune Outdoors editor Bob Marshall gives the latest update on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in this video. It includes actual video of the leak.

Oil Spill Video: Bob Marshall gives Wednesday update

You can do better than this. Try again.

UPDATE: Here is the bill’s website where you can download summaries and the entire bill.

The new energy/climate bill, called The American Power Act,  is now live on Senator Kerry’s website. Don’t get excited, it’s not going to stop climate change. But it might pass and if so, it might set up a structure to get a much-needed price on carbon. Here is the scoop earlier today from the Huffington Post, via the Wonk Room, via the AP . . . .

“We obtained this document from Think Progress’ The Wonk Room.

The AP has summarized some of the key points to the bill:

The legislation aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and more than 80 percent by 2050.

For the first time it would set a price on carbon emissions for large polluters such as coal-fired power plants. Rates initially would range from $12 per ton of carbon emissions to $25 per ton, depending on market prices. Restrictions would not take effect until 2013 for power plants and transportation fuels, and 2016 for manufacturers.

Allowances would be granted to local electricity companies, which would be required to use them to help rate payers. In addition, a separate consumer relief provision would provide rebates to eligible families.

Kerry and Lieberman said the bill would exempt farms and most small and medium-sized businesses, concentrating efforts on the largest polluters.”

Read the full AP summary here.

The AP also notes that the bill contains a provision that will allow neighboring states to veto offshore drilling leases.

Oh come on, that’s not enough. There are going to be parts of this bill that most people will hate, and other parts that I like that others will not. I don’t like encouraging the use of natural gas,  and I like the money for nuclear power.    But this part of it should be universally hated, in my opinion:

“Ensuring Coal’s Future

* We empower the U.S. to lead the world in the deployment of clean coal technologies through annual incentives of $2 billion per year for researching and developing effective carbon capture and sequestration methods and devices.
* We also provide significant incentives for the commercial deployment of 72 GW of carbon capture and sequestration.”

Horrifying!!  This bill needs to be totally re-thought.  What is the purpose here, to keep using all fossil fuels until they are gone? To spend all our money on doing that rather than the obvious turn towards the future, towards solar and wind power?

Let’s be blunt:  These old men in the Senate are taking us backwards yet again, by slapping new technology onto old.   Finding new ways to do something dangerous and damaging to lessen the impact a little does not work.  [...]

*Video: best and worst case scenarios from homeland security secretary janet napolitano in biloxi, miss., last week.

In this video, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano discusses worst and best case scenarios while in Biloxi, Miss., last week. McClatchy media has uncovered an astounding bit of information, given the devastation that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.   There should, right now, be a moratorium on new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico, or at least that is what we have been led to believe.   It’s not the truth, though. Exemptions for new drilling are being granted dirty oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, even while the current disaster is still unfolding.*

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling

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.

“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions. “Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed.”

MMS officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they do not represent final drilling approval.”

Or, we are not being told the truth about what the U.S. government is really doing or intending to do about offshore drilling.  Now that we know President Obama doesn’t appear to be serious about fighting climate change, he was probably never serious about a “clean green economy” either.  Oil and gas and coal run the U.S. economy, they control our Congress, and it appears that they also control all facets of our government. We are a corporation controlled economy, and this is led by big fossil fuel companies and giant banks. It’s time for some real reform in the U.S.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/93761/despite-spill-feds-still-giving.html#none#ixzz0nhnSvVUY

Could our government’s plan be to completely trash the Atlantic Ocean? That’s what it looks like. We now know without a doubt that big corporations like Transocean, Halliburton, and BP don’t care anything about our environment. Their product is dirty and polluting, from the moment it’s pumped out [...]

Above is a political cartoon about energy, from 2008.  In his latest email Bill McKibben of 350.org says,

“Most of us like what President Obama campaigned for. But after taking office, he has not acted courageously on climate and energy issues. In fact, just a month ago he ended a longstanding moratorium on new offshore oil drilling. He told Americans it was safe. Hopefully this tragedy will be a wake up call that can help President Obama see that he was wrong.”

It is unlikely that President Obama will ‘wake up’ and see he was wrong about anything having to do with drilling for oil.   There is ample evidence that President Obama intends for the use of fossil fuels to grow a lot in the next few years.   There is little  indication that he feels drilling for oil in the oceans around the United States is something we should not do, even after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank and now is gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

To say this is disappointing is an understatement.   ‘Business as usual’ is not really what we expected from President Obama.  The reason I finally ended up supporting President Obama (after supporting several other people) was because he said we have to fight climate change with the equivalent of an “Apollo program”.  By November 2008,  I believed it was realistic to think that he would, as a Democrat, fight climate change seriously,  and work to end our dependence on fossil fuels.  His campaign rhetoric on climate change and energy was the main reason many environmentally-aware people voted for him.  But now, at this point, I don’t believe Obama ever intended to fight climate change seriously,  and that it was all just a lot of campaign-speak.   It’s seems to me now that his campaign promises to  “environmental types” was just to placate us and get us to vote for him.   President Obama is our first Greenwash President.

The reasons I no longer trust Obama will do the right thing on climate are many:  he wants to give billions in government money to “clean coal” technology, which is like throwing money down the toilet.  Coal will never be clean.  Surely he knows that.   He wants to give coal and other fossil fuel companies big allowances in the future energy and “climate” cap and trade bill — a bill that has been endorsed by anti-environmentalists and by big oil companies.  He wants us to start drilling offshore for oil again, in deep pockets of oil miles under the ocean surface.  (To what end?  It will still run out.)  And he never intended for the U.S. to stop using oil, until it was all gone.  He never intended for us to stop using coal and he has even called natural gas “clean”.  It is clear the President Obama feels oil and coal will be a part of our energy sources until at least 2035, (despite the problem of peak oil having [...]

M²: Mayakovsky and Marinetti

May 14 – 23, 2010
Open Eye Figure Theatre, Minneapolis

Presented by Theatre Novi Most:

In the first decades of the 20th century, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Filippo Marinetti were among the rebellious few who saw, in the automobile and modern warfare, the pinnacles of human creativity and ingenuity. They were the naughty, foolish, self-crowned kings of Futurism — and they agreed on virtually nothing. Set in our near future, M(2) sees these two magnetic personalities meet again to relive the past and finish unfinished arguments. Based on historical letters, poems and texts by Mayakovsky and Marinetti.

Written by Vladimir Rovinsky with Felip Costaglioli
Directed by Lisa Channer & Vladimir Rovinsky

CAST
Vladimir Rovinsky
Stephen Pearce
Sasha Gibbs
Billy Mullaney
Julianna Drajko

DESIGNERS
MULTIMEDIA David Steinman
SOUND Dan Dukich
LIGHTS Robert Perry
COSTUMES Amanda McGee

Presented at Open Eye Figure Theatre
506 E. 24th St., Minneapolis, MN 55404

General admission tickets are $12.
Student tickets are $10.
For tickets, please visit http://www.theatrenovimost.org

more info

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More false claims from a right-wing organization called the Heartland Institute, advertising their latest conference for global warming denialism and celebrating their ignorance of facts:yet

“The theme for ICCC-4 will be “Reconsidering the Science and Economics.”  New scientific discoveries are casting doubt on how much of the warming of the twentieth century was natural and how much was man-made, [false] and governments around the world are beginning to confront the astronomical cost of reducing emissions. Economists, meanwhile, are calculating that the cost of slowing or stopping global warming exceeds the social benefits. The purpose of ICCC-4 is the same as it was for the first three events: to build momentum and public awareness of the global warming “realism” movement, a network of scientists, economists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who believe sound science and economics, rather than exaggeration and hype, ought to determine what actions, if any, are taken to address the problem of climate change.”

The denialism movement and right-wing think tanks are not using science to determine actions on climate change at all, but they are using the second thing they mentioned, the driver of all right-wing ideology — economics, and economists.  They are also using politics, but they are certainly not using science.  By economics is how they make all their policy decisions, including decisions on scientific subjects like climate.  What good is the climate going to be to anyone once it’s been declared expendable by economists?  Calling the climate expendable and negotiable is the same as declaring the human race expendable.  We will go extinct with this type of thinking.

Most scientists believe that the evidence of global warming is unequivocal and they find themselves having to state this over and over again, mainly due to these deniers and their movement against reality.  The effects of the denialism movement are serious enough that scientists had to recently re-state the science on climate change and defend their work from this denialist group — most of them funded by big oil and big coal.

Scientists defend climate research, condemn ‘McCarthy-like threats’

Text of an open letter published in May 7 issue of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Prize winners.

We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything. When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action. For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our planet.

Scientific conclusions derive from an understanding of basic laws supported by laboratory [...]

Oil and coal are deadly,  as we have witnessed in recent fossil fuel energy accidents.  The Massey Coal mine disaster in April killed 29 miners who thought they had a “good job”.  They were people who trusted their employer, but their employer was risking their lives to make themselves millions of dollars.   It’s the same with the oil industry.  So far in 2010, BP has made about  $ 5.6 billion in profits. “The energy giant reported profits of $5.6bn (£3.6bn) in the first three months of 2010, up from $2.4bn a year ago. “ The oil rig leak is proving to be an unimaginable environmental catastrophe, even if they can get it capped very soon, and if the cap stays on.  We may be witnessing the death of the Gulf of Mexico. More on that from Climate Progress/Wonk Room.

“Gulf Coast marine scientists agree that the unfolding oil disaster could mean devastation beyond human comprehension.  Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has the story in this repost.

In an exclusive interview with the Wonk Room, a team of scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, MS, discussed the ecological impacts of a three-month blowout from the BP-Halliburton Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig, described as the expected timeline for “ultimate relief” of the leak by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. None of the scientists even wanted to attempt to imagine the coming devastation, because, as ichthyologist Jeff Hoffmayer said, “oil is bad for everything” that lives in the ocean. If the leak continues for three months, about 100 million gallons of oil will have flooded into the Gulf during the peak spawning season of the region and the start of the hurricane season. Dr. Bill Hawkins, director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, summarized the scenario starkly:

“All bets are off.”

“Guys burning … like a warzone.” The scene aboard the BP oil rig as it exploded and burned is emerging, even though the media is having a tough time finding and interviewing the oil rig workers who survived.   There was also a demand by BP lawyers that the survivors sign waivers and statements.   From NPR:

“Lawyers for the oil rig’s owner, Transocean, requested that workers who had survived the blast sign the form in the wake of the April 20 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon. This was hours before the workers had been allowed to see their families.

Now some of those survivors say they were coerced and that the forms are being used against them as they file lawsuits seeking compensation for psychiatric problems and other injuries from the blast.

“The form that they made them sign had, ‘I was here when it happened, I didn’t see anything.’ Or ‘I [...]

Depero (1892 – 1960), the Futurist

June 4 – August 22, 2010
The Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Curated by Gabriella Belli, Director of MART and Mariann Gergely, chief curator of the Hungarian National Gallery
Organized by the  Italian Embassy in Budapest and the Italian Institute of Culture

More info (in Hungarian!)

A joint exhibition of the Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto and the Hungarian National Gallery with the sponsorship and cooperation of the Italian Embassy in Hungary and the Italian Cultural Institute in Budapest.

The year 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of Futurism, with a number of Futurist exhibitions held in various countries. Over the past twenty years there has been growing interest in the art of versatile Futurist painter Fortunato Depero (1892-1960), an ardent follower of Marinetti’s aesthetics. The over 100 works displayed at the Budapest show are on loan from the Museo Fortunato Depero, Rovereto, an integral part of MART, where the collection of works left by the artist to the town is housed. Living in Austrian-controlled Rovereto until 1918, Depero was in fact raised in a Central European milieu. His artistic development was influenced by Symbolism and Expressionism, and also by the schools of Jugendstil and Wiener Werkstätte. During his trip to Rome he established contact with important Futurist painters such as Boccioni, Balla, Prampolini and Marinetti. His Futurist principles were summarized in the manifesto Ricostruzione futurista dell’universo (Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe), co-authored with Giacomo Balla in 1915, proclaiming the re-creation of the universe and the extension of art to all areas of life. Through his Futurist formal experiments he envisaged mobile sculptured constructions utilising the combined impact of movement and sound effects

In Rome, after making the acquaintance of Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, Depero designed costumes and stage sets for Igor Stravinsky’s Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale) and for Balli Plastici (Plastic Dances), a picto-plastic drama co-authored with Gilbert Clavel. Between 1916 and 1919, he left off his abstract art experimentations and went on to work towards a new iconography arising from the world of magic and fantasy. Populating his metaphysical and surreal visions with unique shapes brought to life in his pictures, Depero created a kind of meta-reality.

In the autumn of 1919 he opened his studio-workshop called Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero in Rovereto, where, based on his designs, particularly impressive, decorative tapestries, textiles, furniture, toys and graphic design works were produced. In 1929 he founded another Futurist House in New York where he continued his career as a designer. He undertook significant design commissions for the Italian company Campary, the magazines Vanity Fair and Vogue, and Roxy Theater (advertisement and stage sets). He returned to Italy in October 1930. The paintings he did in that period were inpsired by his American experience, featuring urban motifs, skyscrapers, subways, and mechanical parts as visual elements. After the war he lived in the United States for a while again, but received no more commissions. In 1959 he designed and built the first museum of Italian Futurism, the Museo Fortunato Depero which, completely refurbished as one of MART’s venues, was reopened to celebrate the centenary of Futurism. Depero died in 1960. He left all his works to the town of Rovereto.

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FriendsoftheEarthUS — May 05, 2010 — We have better energy choices. It’s time to stop offshore drilling. An ad released by Friends of the Earth US.

Let’s get real. The people in the United States who do not want us to have a better energy policy, one that emphasizes renewable energy, are the Republicans and the DINOs. We need to get them out of office. They have done more than enough damage to the country and now they are standing in the way of energy and climate change legislation.

The re-focus of our energy on fossil fuels began in earnest with the Bush administration. Vice President Cheney held closed-door energy policy meetings with Big Coal and Big Oil. What went on in those meetings is still not known, but FOIA requests have been filed for years. One day we will find out what sort of deals were made in the last administration. We already know we have to never allow this type of favoritism for fossil fuel energy companies again. We will not have a bi-partisan energy and climate bill this year because of Republicans.

The reality is, Republicans do not want us off fossil fuels. Their policies are the reasons we use so much dinosaur fuel in the 21st century. Their policies are the reasons we have coal mine and oil rig disasters. Their unwillingness to give up the massive donations they get, and money they make personally from fossil fuel companies, are the reasons we still use fossil fuels, long after it has been known that we have clean alternatives. Are you fed up with all of this yet? Call Congress and tell them we are tired of waiting for them to make the laws on energy and climate change that we need. We do not have to tolerate any more oil rig or coal mine disasters and we can’t afford to wait until they have figured out immigration reform, to work on the climate and energy bill we need right NOW.

This animation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was created using actual overflight information and forecast models from the NOAA and Unified Command.

The red dot is the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, which exploded on April 20, releasing oil into the Gulf near the Louisiana coast that has yet to be contained. Eleven rig workers are missing and are presumed to have died in the explosion.

The animation begins April 22, the day the first image of the spill via flyover was released.

From Nola.com “A containment boom staged at the Breton National Wildlife Refuge Thursday. The spill, a slick more than 130 miles long and 70 miles wide, threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, including birds, dolphins and the fish, shrimp, oysters and crabs that make the Gulf Coast one of the nation’s most abundant sources of seafood.”

I found a page of great resources. The news changes on this every hour, so here is a list where you can find the latest information.

Thanks to Mary McCurnin of Firedog Lake. She writes:

We are all the Oil Industry and we need to take responsibility for changing our lives now.

Here are links for May2, 2010 to news, wildlife rescue, state and federal sites, volunteer sites and others. I will update them as the information becomes available. Any information or links are appreciated. Thanks to everyone who provided links. Please keep them coming. There is some overlap between the catagories.

Today is was harder to find specific information. Seems that organizations are overwhelmed or out in the field.

News Updates:

Skytruth
Time Picayune New Orleans Daily Newspaper
NOLA.com
http://www.pnj.com Pensacola FL
http://www.sunherald.com Biloxi/Gulfport MS
http://www.al.com/press-register/ Mobile AL
Reuters
New York Times

MSNBC

Links to Volunteer or Work:

Basic Safety and Health Training will be held at The Mary C. in Ocean Springs, MS at 9:00, 10:00, 4:00, and 5:00. No reservations are required, just show up. Volunteers doing outdoor work with BP are required to undergo a 20-minute health and safety training course.

Links to Help Rescue Wildlife:

Oiled Wildlife Care Network Blog-U.C. Davis This is information from the front lines in LA.
Tri State Bird Rescue and Research
IBRRC International Bird Rescue Research Center
Facebook/Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries
California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response
Wildlife Health Center, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
Discovery News

(Nothing about the oil spill at all on the Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia department of wildlife and fisheries websites or facebook pages.)

Federal, State, Information, Fact, Sites:
Deepwater Horzon Incident Site
NOAA
NOAA Environmental Modeling Center
Environmental Economics Blog
Environmental and Urban Economics Blog
Twitter Oil Spill
EPA

Others:
British Petroleum Site (cringe)

BP, We Have a Problem . . . .

Something occurred to me today:  why is a British company allowed to drill offshore in the Gulf of Mexico where any spill would impact American coastline — not, obviously, British coastline?  No environmental ramifications for the home country of the oil giant whatsoever.

Two Stories From ProPublica address the latest oil catastrophe.

BP, the global oil giant responsible for the fast-spreading spill in the Gulf of Mexico that will soon make landfall, is no stranger to major accidents.

In fact, the company has found itself at the center of several of the nation’s worst oil and gas–related disasters in the last five years.

In March 2005, a massive explosion ripped through a tower at BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring 170 others. Investigators later determined that the company had ignored its own protocols on operating the tower, which was filled with gasoline, and that a warning system had been disabled.

The company pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was fined more than $50 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Almost a year after the refinery explosion, technicians discovered that some 4,800 barrels of oil had spread into the Alaskan snow through a tiny hole in the company’s pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. BP had been warned [1] to check the pipeline in 2002, but hadn’t, according to a report in Fortune. When it did inspect it, four years later, it found that a six-mile length of pipeline was corroded. The company temporarily shut down its operations in Prudhoe Bay, causing one of the largest disruptions in U.S. oil supply in recent history.

BP faced $12 million in fines for a misdemeanor violation of the federal Water Pollution Control Act. A congressional committee determined that BP had ignored opportunities to prevent the spill and that “draconian” cost-saving measures had led to shortcuts in its operation.

Other problems followed. There were more spills in Alaska. And BP was charged with manipulating the market price of propane. In that case, it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice and agreed to pay more than $300 million in fines.

At each step along the way, the company’s executives were contrite.”

Read more at ProPublica.

Now, BP is using chemicals to disperse the oil that might also have a bad environmental impact themselves.

“The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems.

Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world’s supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out.

On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, [...]

How long will our mainstream media play politics with our climate and our ability to live on this planet? The New York Times is sedating its readers. MSNBC is sedating its audience too. They all are. We have seen this before — the mainstream media exists to make money by entertaining us and selling advertising. That is their purpose. They do this by keeping people in a state of curiosity and interest, but don’t necessarily give us factual information. The way they do that is to placate us when things seem too scary, or scare us when things seem too placid. Confuse us when things seem clear. Distract us with dumb interviews or outrageous speculations, like the ones above. They create controversy to keep everyone interested, by presenting more than one side of a situation that doesn’t have more than one side. They do that by presenting arguments that say misleading and false things. We know what is causing climate change, for example, and it’s mainly caused by man’s activities — but that’s an inconvenient fact that the media would rather ignore. They would rather have people argue about the cause and even whether climate change exists, even after well-established science has arrived at a conclusion over 20 years ago. There is little controversy in facts, and controversy is what keeps the uneducated people tuning in. Unfortunately this approach is keeping people in the U.S. ignorant and we are falling behind other countries in every aspect of renewable energy.

Glenn Beck, Rush, FOX News commentators, columnists in large newspapers, and other nuts are supposing that President Obama planned the oil rig explosion in order to destroy the coal industry, or maybe the oil industry. It’s complete nonsense to imagine that someone caused this oil rig explosion on purpose. Oil rig workers have been talking about the cause of this explosion but few people are listening, but it’s so much more fun to think this was done on purpose. You can hear an oil rig explosion survivor on the most recent Climate Files podcast describe exactly what happened. Of course it wasn’t done on purpose. See “Heckofajob Brownie” on Chris Matthews’ show yesterday (above), for the most paranoid in the latest right-wing nutso theories.

The media in the U.S. does not seem to care that we know how bad the oil leak in the Gulf is. They talk about fixing it, as if that is even possible. They don’t talk about how damaging to the environment this is. They would rather we blame it all on politics, and ponder that this might have been something Democrats or Obama did. It’s absolutely ridiculous how our media is treating this oil leak. There is no excuse for deliberately interviewing idiots like the man above on a national cable news show. (If I see the know-nothing Sarah Palin [...]

Mendini > Depero

May 8 – October 17, 2010
*Vernissage May 7 at 5pm
Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero (Rovereto)
Curated by Gabriella Belli and Nicoletta Boschiero

press release

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PHOTO BY TED JACKSON The M/V Joe Griffin leaves from the Martin Terminal, Port Fouchon loaded with the first of two oil containment cofferdams, headed to sea for a projected 12 hour trip to the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Wednesday, May 5, 2010.

The Worst Environmental Catastrophe in U.S. History

It’s hard to keep up with news on the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but here is some from today.  The oil is now washing up on islands and beaches, and according to news reports tonight, the oil is coating jellyfish and is visible in the water where dolphins were seen swimming.  It only take a tiny amount of oil to kill a bird and other animals in the oceans.  If drilling for oil is threatening life in the oceans, it’s affecting our lives too, so it makes sense to call for a moratorium on all offshore drilling. Just stop it completely.

BP significantly ups oil spill estimate

Steve Gelsi of MarketWatch reports that in a closed-door meeting with Congress, BP officials have significantly raised the estimated leakage from the Oil Spill. Although the earlier number estimated approximately 5,000 barrels of Crude Oil were spewing into the ocean, BP officials now peg the daily output around 60,000 barrels a day. Reports MarketWatch: BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel…

Reports MarketWatch: “BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel figure, which was reported by The New York Times. The official tally remains up to 5,000 barrels a day, he said.

Meanwhile the Obama administration signaled it would support a fresh push in Congress to raise the oil spill liability limit to $10 billion from $75 million, according to reports.

The existing cap on other damages is included in the Oil Pollution Act. BP has already said it is willing and expects to pay more than $74 million.

Amidst recent fears that the oil slick may even reach the coast of Florida, authorities have stepped up efforts to prevent such consequences. . . . “

From Dallas News — The Senate energy committee has summoned executives from BP and Transocean, the company contracted by BP to drill the well, as well as a number of oil industry technical experts, to a hearing next week. The next day, the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing, at which top executives of BP, Transocean and Halliburton have been asked to appear, a committee spokeswoman said.

A separate federal investigation into the explosion [...]

The Gulf Oil spill is now of epic proportions.  If you want to blame it on anyone besides BP, blame it on the Republican dislike of energy regulations, especially of the last administration.  Dick Cheney and the Bush administration had a hand in incredible disaster.  “. . . . yet another classic example of Bush/Cheney Era deregulation wreaking havoc on the planet.”    Via Daily Kos:

Mike Papantonio, an environmental lawyer on the Ed Show just now: An ‘acoustic switch’ would have prevented this catastrophe – it’s a failsafe that shuts the flow of oil off at the source – they cost only about half a million dollars each, and are required in off-shore drilling platforms in most of the world…except for the United States. This was one of the new deregulations devised by Dick Cheney during his secret meetings with the oil industry at the beginning of Bush’s first term.

Here is the link to the clip from the Ed Show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36879861#36879861

This reinforces the post below about the lack of backup safety measures on oil rigs. This lack of an acoustic switch was not an accidental oversight; it was left off oil rigs operating in and near the U.S. quite deliberately.

How bad is this oil spill?  The oil is now washing up on shore and the slick itself has tripled in size, as seen from space.  BP is already being accused of downplaying the severity of the disaster.  Watch 10 minutes of CNN today and you will see worry and anger on the faces of people in the Gulf Coast region, including the worry and anger on the face of Republican Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana.   (pictured on the right).  Jindal said this isn’t just a threat to the environment of the region, but a “threat to our way of life.”   That’s a little more serious than people like Sarah Palin can comprehend.

More on the growing oil spill, including recent photos, can be found here.

Climate Progress is calling this “Oilpocalypse”, and I don’t disagree with that title at all.

It will be the biggest energy and environmental news story for the foreseeable future.  Eleven people are already dead and if yesterday’s Wall Street Journal story, “Experts: Oil May Be Leaking at Rate of 25,000 Barrels a Day in Gulf” (subs. req’d, excerpted below) is accurate, then the scope of the environmental disaster is far beyond anything we’ve imagined.

I don’t think anyone alive today has witnessed fossil fuel-caused destruction like this before, unless you count how the burning of it is also destroying our climate and lessening the ability of all conscious life on earth — not just us — to survive in the future.

We really do need to move Beyond Petroleum, starting now.  As BP’s shares continue to dive on the stock markets, it’s time for the U.S. to seriously invest in renewable energy for the future.  Enough of this fossil fuel use.  We are smarter than [...]