The Social Poets: Funny Friday Lite: Colbert Addresses The Politically Tone Deaf

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The Social Poets: Funny Friday Lite: Colbert Addresses The Politically Tone Deaf: "So, today Colbert talks about one of our five senses: hearing. Did I mention that I've dedicated this funny video to all the tone deaf politicians currently occupying the halls of Congress? Don't get too comfortable, guys, you are about to lose your jobs."

The Social Poets: BP Oil Spill Disaster: One Year Later Economy Slammed, Recovered At 30 Percent

The Social Poets: BP Oil Spill Disaster: One Year Later Economy Slammed, Recovered At 30 Percent: "Currently, BP pays the fawning scumbag attorney, Ken Feinberg, an astounding $1 million a month to administer the so-called BP Claims Fund. Feinberg is out doing the usual political damage control by going on all the media outlets for lying interviews. He justifies his pay from BP by claiming a Bush official signed off on it as a fair price."

BP Oil Spill Coverage - News Headlines 3 May 2010

From Denny: I thought I'd collect the various headlines about this monumental environmental oil spill disaster that is still unfolding. No one still can predict the impact of this oil spill on the environment and the American economy until after the oil well is capped - and that could take another three months to drill that relief well.


Tracking the Oil Spill AP Graphic

Environmental Impact AP Graphic

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

16 May - BP says siphon tube is working HAMMOND, La. (AP) -- In the first step in nearly a month toward stopping a massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak, BP said a mile-long tube was siphoning most of the crude from a blown well to a tanker ship after three days of wrestling to get the stopgap measure into place on the seafloor.

BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the contraption was hooked up successfully and sucking most of the oil from the leak. Engineers remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to place the tube into a 21-inch pipe nearly a mile below the sea.

Previous attempts to use emergency valves and a 100-ton container had failed to stop the leak that has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, threatening sea life, commercial fishing and the coastal tourist industry from Louisiana to Florida. BP PLC has also been burning small amounts of floating oil and spraying chemical dispersants above and below the surface.

Researchers, meanwhile, warned Sunday that miles-long underwater plumes of oil from the spill could poison and suffocate sea life across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade or more.

Researchers have found more underwater plumes of oil than they can count from the blown-out well, said Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. She said careful measurements taken of one plume showed it stretching for 10 miles, with a 3-mile width.

The hazardous effects of the plume are twofold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish swimming in the sea, while vast amount of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.

"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems here," said Joye, who's working with a group of scientists who discovered the underwater plumes in a recent boat expedition to the Gulf. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales, dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."

She said it could take years or even decades for the ecosystem to recover...






15 May - BP: Tube idea tough at depth Placing a smaller tube into a pipe almost a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico to siphon off an oil leak and then send the oil to a tanker ship is a simple idea but hard to execute at that depth of water, said a BP executive Friday.

“It’s never been done before in water that deep,” said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for the company, during a news conference Friday. “The challenge is to deploy it.”

A fleet of about 12 remotely operated vehicles were continuing Friday to position the 6-inch riser insertion tube inside the 21-inch-diameter riser pipe leaking on the bottom of the Gulf.

The tube will be inserted far enough inside the pipe where sea water has not yet reached the oil, Suttles said. A rubber stopper rings the insertion tube and, Suttles said, that should stop sea water from flowing into the pipe and oil from leaking out. The tube is connected to pipe that will take the oil to a waiting tanker ship, he said.

Suttles said he hoped the riser insertion tube would be working by Friday night.

Beyond difficulties in inserting the tube in deep water, BP engineers are also concerned about the formation of gas hydrates — crystals that form when natural gases and water are present at high pressure and low temperatures, BP engineers said.

BP’s first effort to contain the leak failed last weekend after a four-story, 100-ton containment dome reached the seabed and became plugged with hydrates, which can have the consistency of slush, BP engineers have said.

Sitting off to the side of the activity on the seabed is the “top hat,” a 5-foot-tall containment dome that will only be used if the insertion tube fails, Suttles said.

Last weekend, Suttles said the top hat was going to be the method BP used as a second try at containing the leak. But on Wednesday, he changed course and announced the insertion tube would be used first.

Even if BP successfully plugs the leak, they still plan to use a “junk shot” to close up the blowout preventer that sits on top of the well head. Pieces of tire, golf balls and knotted rope will be shot into the blowout preventer to plug up the well. BP is still waiting for the Minerals Management Service to approve the method...


15 May - Dispersant concerns discussed


DULAC, LA. — At a town hall meeting in this bayou town Thursday night, residents were particularly concerned with the mass use of chemical dispersants to rein in the estimated 4 million gallons of oil unleashed by a broken underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crews responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have used more than 517,000 gallons of chemical dispersant to break up oil on the surface of the Gulf and at the source of the spill on the seabed 5,000 feet below.

While BP and government officials estimate that 5,000 barrels of oil are being released into the Gulf each day, independent assessments using satellite imagery and videotape of the seafloor gusher have placed the amount at potentially as high as 70,000 barrels a day.

Dispersants, which help break up the oil by binding it to water molecules, have been sprayed from airplanes onto the Gulf surface, and injected with tubes at the site of the broken well on the seafloor.

Yet despite the mass deployment of the chemical — and BP’s desire to use more underwater — scientists know little about the potential ecological dangers and health risks posed by prolonged use of dispersants, particularly underwater.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency have authorized BP to use dispersant on the surface of the Gulf, but the oil company has been required to conduct tests for using the chemical underwater at the source of the leak. EPA approved use of dispersants underwater on a temporary basis Friday, despite the state of Louisiana’s objections.

A final decision is expected this weekend on whether dispersants can continue to be used underwater to help break up the oil...



7 May - Oil Leak Container Touches Down on Seafloor (CBS)

Robot Submarines Used to Position 100-Ton Structure; Contraption Needs 12 Hours Minimum to Settle


A BP-chartered vessel lowered a 100-ton concrete-and-steel vault onto a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, an important step in a delicate and unprecedented attempt to stop most of the gushing crude fouling the sea.

Underwater robots guided the 40-foot-tall box into place. Now that the contraption is on the seafloor, workers will need at least 12 hours to let it settle and make sure it's stable before the robots can hook up a pipe and hose that will funnel the oil up to a tanker...


6 May - Oil Washing Ashore at Island Off Louisiana Coast (CBS)

Sands on Marshland Have Pinkish Oily Substance Washing Ashore in Confirmed Oil Sighting


Oil is washing up on the shores of New Harbor Island off the coast of Louisiana.

An Associated Press reporter saw a pinkish oily substance washing up Thursday on the sands and into the marshland at this part of the Chandeleur barrier islands chain.

It was at least the second time the AP has confirmed oil coming ashore. Oil was seen washing up at the mouth of the Mississippi last week.

On New Harbor island, birds are diving into the oily waters, but they didn't seem to be in any distress. It's nesting time for sea gulls and pelicans and the danger is they may be taking contaminated food or oil on feathers to their young.

There are also numerous dead jellyfish, including some that have washed up on the beach.

A rapid response team will investigate reports that oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana's coast.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson says the response team will deploy Thursday to assess the situation.



6 May - Marine Food Chain Seen at Risk After Oil Spill (CBS)

Scientists Already See Threat to Links in Ocean Food Chain


As Americans anxiously wait for a slick in the Gulf of Mexico to wash up along the coast, globules of oil are already falling to the bottom of the sea, where they threaten virtually every link in the ocean food chain, from plankton to fish on dinner tables everywhere.

Meanwhile, a giant concrete-and-steel box seen as the best short-term solution to bottling up the disastrous oil was loaded onto a boat Wednesday and the 100-ton (90-metric ton) contraption began its journey to the leak site about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast.

Oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of at least 200,000 gallons (755,000 liters) a day since an offshore drilling rig exploded last month and killed 11 people. Officials hope to lower the concrete-and-steel box the size of a four-story building to the bottom of the sea by week's end to capture some of the oil.

For marine life, though, the damage is already done, experts said.

"The threat to the deep-sea habitat is already a done deal it is happening now," said Paul Montagna, a marine scientist at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Hail-size gobs of oil the consistency of tar or asphalt will roll around the sea's bottom, while other bits will get trapped hundreds of feet (meters) below the surface and move with the current, said Robert S. Carney, a Louisiana State University oceanographer...



4 May - Paranoia, anxiety grow over Gulf Coast oil spill (AP) People along the Gulf Coast have spent weeks living with uncertainty, wondering where and when a huge slick of oil might come ashore, ruining their beaches — and their livelihoods...


30 April - Oil from massive Gulf spill reaching La. coast (NBC)
Faint fingers of oily sheen have reached the mouth of Mississippi River

An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Faint fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling..."

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Cameron Cardow - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

29 April - Gulf of Mexico Oil Hits Coast; White House Calls Spill Event of 'National Significance' (ABC) Shrimpers File Lawsuit Against BP

Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico began to wash ashore along the Gulf Coast this evening after BP asked the U.S. government for help cleaning up the mess.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said during the White House briefing that designating the spill as one of "national significance" means that "we can now draw down assets from across the country" to assist with cleanup.

She said 1,100 people are working on the cleanup effort, which so far has collected 685,000 gallons of oil and water from the polluted Gulf.

Earlier this afternoon, the Coast Guard had predicted that oil could begin to hit the Louisiana coastline as early as tonight. At the time, the floating oil slick was just 3 miles from land and 25 miles from the nearest populated area.

The White House said 174,060 feet of flotation booms had been deployed to corral the floating oil. It said an additional 243,260 feet is available and 265,460 feet has been ordered.

It said 76 tugs, barges and skimmers were on scene to help in containment and cleanup, along with six fixed-wing aircraft, 11 helicopters, 10 remotely operated vehicles, and two mobile offshore drilling units...

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Mike Keefe - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

27 April - Gulf of Mexico oil spill creates environmental and political dilemmas (Washington Post)

The ripple effects of last week's offshore drilling rig explosion widened Monday as crude oil continued to spill into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of about a thousand barrels a day and oil company officials said it would take at least two to four weeks to get it under control.

The growing spill also threatened to churn political waters as lawmakers weigh what buffer zones to establish between rigs and shorelines in the wake of President Obama's decision to open up new regions to offshore drilling. It could also alter details of a climate bill that three leading senators were trying to restart after postponing plans for a rollout that would have featured leading oil company executives.

The Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean and leased to BP, caught fire April 20 after an explosion and sank. Eleven oil rig workers are missing and presumed dead. The rig, with a platform bigger than a football field and insured for $560 million, was one of the most modern and was drilling in 5,000 feet of water...


27 April - Containing The Gulf Coast Oil Spill (NPR)

Doug Helton, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's emergency response division, talks to Melissa Block about the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. The two discuss the ongoing efforts to stop the underwater spill, and what is being done to clean it up.



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Posts Roundup This Week at Dennys Blogs 2 May 2010

Photo by Victor Bezrukov @ flickr

From Denny: When I started these blogs they were to help get back my brain functioning after a car accident that took three years to fully heal. It seems the more I pushed a healing brain the more it responded favorably! Who knew? Life sure takes some twists and turns, doesn't it?

What I was most concerned about was what if my brain might shut down again and the knowledge and understanding gained from a lot of life testing would be lost without a voice. So, I started yet another blog, Beautiful Illustrated Quotations, to record some of my spiritual thoughts. I've always enjoyed quotes as a writing prompt, especially spiritual ones. And then, all of a sudden, this year that blog took off with thousands of views per post. Again, who knew? What started as the weakest blog, that I just figured was a very small niche market, ended up getting well read compared to all the others - other than the crazy photo blog that took off as well on the same level. I guess people like to go on visual coffee breaks with me when I go tripping through the Flickr database for interesting photos for a post. :)

So, thank you, everyone, all of you have been just great to support these blogs. I never know what I will write about, report on or share each day in every post yet there is always something interesting to discover in this world - and I do like to share. Sharing is a way to give back in this world, pay it forward, say thank you, make them laugh or help ease someone else's burden when they are stressed. In this posts roundup I included many of your favorite popular posts in the past couple of weeks from several of the blogs.





The Social Poets:

Whats Happening in America This Week: Wall Street Political Cartoons 1 May 2010

Big Business to Employees: Get Fired If Get Operation to Prevent Breast Cancer

Funny Mothers Day Quotes and Trivia - Cheeky Quote Day 28 Apr 2010

April is Poetry Month: What Being a Poet Means to William Wordsworth

Colbert Lampoons Immigration and Pot Smokers - Roundup of Late Nite Comedy 26 Apr 2010

Posts Roundup This Week at Dennys Blogs 25 Apr 2010

Whats Happening in America This Week - Political Cartoons 24 Apr 2010

Posts Roundup This Week at Dennys Blogs - 18 Apr 2010

Pollen Storms poem

The Smallest Earth Day Poem

Top 15 Bestsellers of What America is Reading

Funny Tax Quotes - Cheeky Quote Day 14 Apr 2010

Funny Tax Man Cartoons

Roundup of Late Night Comedy 13 Apr 2010

Funny Allergy Quotes - Cheeky Quote Day 7 Apr 2010

How to Survive Allergy and Pollen Season








This photographer often captures the humor in real life. Make up your mind already - is it Yes or No? by P/\UL @ flickr



Dennys Global Politics:


Roundup of Political Cartoons This Weeks Funny Opinion 1 May 2010

BP Oil Spill Gulf Coast Disaster, Employers New Tactics to Fire Employees, Travel Smarter, New PTSD Treatment - News Headlines 30 Apr 2010

America Boycotts Arizona, BP Oil Spill Impacts Wildlife, Enraged Wall Street Protestors, Strange News Stories - News Headlines 29 Apr 2010

Those Funny Mothers Day Quotes and Trivia

Voters Moon American Politics Polls Say, Bush Years Bad Air Report Released, Throwing Eggs at Ukrainian Politicians - News Headlines 28 Apr 2010

Goldman Sh--ty Deal Testifies Loud and Clear, Drug Company Pays $500 Billion Fine, How to Detect Liars - News Headlines 27 Apr 2010

Roundup of Late Nite Funnies: Colbert Lampoons Arizona Immigration Law

Scumbag Walmart Lawsuit Caught, Scumbag Goldman Sachs Email Guilty, Scumbag GOP Denies Scumbag Reform - News Headlines 26 Apr 2010

Greedy Opportunistic Wall Street: Political Cartoons, Opinion Post

Cool Earth Day Links, Message From Our Prez

Prez Clinton Versus Violent Wingnuts and Blowhard Limbaugh

Prez Clinton Interviews, Slamming Wall Street, Tea Party Spat With Fox, Volcano Effect - News Headlines 19 Apr 2010





Spring roll for Bill the cat by Miss Claeson @ flickr



The Healing Waters and The Soul Calendar:


Want Your Man to Better Understand You? Try Empathy Nasal Spray

Roundup of Political Cartoons This Weeks Funny Opinion 1 May 2010

Good News: Rolling School Bus Library on Ride Home From School

Gulf Coast Oil Rig Disaster Slammed: Political Cartoons 1 May 2010



Beautiful Quotes:


4 Special Quotes to Anchor Your Dreams

How Is Your Relationship With Your Inspiration Muse?

What Spiritual Tests Develop Good Character And Our Talents? - with over 12,700 views the first day that sure was a happy surprise. Thank You!

Your Dreams: 5 Common Characteristics

Does Your Life Feel Like a Disaster?

3 Quotes About Facing Tough Times

Uplifting Soul Quote: What is Your Power in the World?

Spiritual Energy: Can Simple Words Add to Our Quality of Life?






Humor Blogs:


American Culture of Oprah, The Mob, Sex Talks, Morality, Free Speech and Diet: Political Cartoons 1 May 2010

Very Funny Mothers Day Quotes

Obnoxious Silly Mother in Law Jokes Just in Time 4 Mothers Day

College Grads Chances of Finding Jobs: Political Cartoons

Crazy Arizona Style Immigration: Political Cartoons - 1 May 2010

Cartoonists Latest Funnies 4 Mothers Day

Hilarious Egg Pelting Politics Ukrainian Style







Here's a version of the pie I found over at flickr and it was so beautiful and creative I just had to share it with you! Chocolate pecan derby pie with caramel bourbon sauce, berry-ginger coulis by Greencolander @ flickr


Food Blogs:


Chocolate Wonders: Kentucky Derby Pie, Make-ahead Chocolate Soufflé

Easy Moist Chocolate Mayo Cake From Bon Appetit

Gorgeous Whiskey Chocolate Brownies

Moistest Low Cal Chocolate Cake, Pesto Veggie Lasagna, Quick Salad

Easy Rich Yellow Loaf Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Flourless Passover Chocolate Cake

Tradtional Sandwiches Updated: California Tuna Melt, Egg Salad



Video: Louisiana Chef Makes Crawfish Etouffee

5 Easy Recipes 4 Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

2 Crowd Pleasing Easy Casseroles: Mexican Lasagna, Turkey Tetrazzini

Awesome Cajun Barbecued Shrimp — New Orleans Style

Yummy Homemade Coconut Cream Pie

Awesome Sauces 4 Louisiana Seafood

Spring Into Grill Season: Mouthwatering Steaks

Chef Rocco Dispiritos Cheap Yet Healthy Comfort Food

Kid Friendly Recipes: Chocolate Quesadillas, Very Best Fudge







Visual Insights - photos:


Dennys Photo Gallery: Life is Just Plain Funny

Happy Birthday to Our Humanitarian Friend Peter

Dennys Photo Gallery: How to Know Its Spring

Funny Odd Couples: Cats and Their Weirdo Friends

Dennys Photo Gallery: Spectacular Sunrises

Dennys Photo Gallery: Beautiful Blues in Our World

Photography, Beautiful Metaphor for Life: 17 Boats

Only White Theme: 26 Photos

Photo History: 1st Lady Gowns, Michelle Obama Donates Hers


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Catch Up on Posts at Dennys Global Politics 13 Dec 2009

Christmas tree in Portugal photo by Rui Omelas @ flickr

From Denny: The holiday season is a busy one, including the news!

Funny Political Cartoons Sampler 12 Dec 2009

Trudging Uphill on American Jobs Creation

Unlikely Places to Find Jobs in America

Alien Spiral in Norway's Nite Sky?

Indonesias Obama Boy Statue Decked in Peace Prize

Prez Obamas Doctrine, Full Text of Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Replacing Political Legend and Lion of the Senate: Ted Kennedy

Obama Fulfills Wish to Little Girl From Make a Wish Foundation

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell Honored with State Dept. oil portrait

Irans National Student Day Anti-Government Protests

Denmarks Climate Change Summit Hoping to Rein in Biggest Polluters



At other blogs:

Editorial Cartoons 12 Dec 2009

Gifts From The Heart, A Christmas Poem - Libations Friday! 11 Dec 2009

Good News: Caring About People Actually Costs Less Money to Society than Jail, See How

Fun and Quirky Time Wasters - Cheeky Quote Day! 9 Dec 2009

Obama Honors Kennedy Center Honorees like The Boss

Roundup of Late Night Funnies 7 Dec 2009

How to Tie Your Winter Scarf, Fun Fashion Trends Advice

Funny Political Cartoons Sampler 12 Dec 2009

Unexpected Side Benefits: Avoiding Cancer Thru Bone Meds

Wanna Melt Body Fat? Cold Melts Fat, Go Green

Winterize Your Skin AND Your Wardrobe on a Budget

Good News: Healing From Cancer Improving Dramatically

Good News: Zoo Animal TV Comforts, Helps Heal Hospital Children

Good News: Building Low Cost Homes AND Reducing Trash Footprint

Funny Christmas and Santa Cartoons

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Denmarks Climate Change Summit Hoping to Rein in Biggest Polluters

From Denny: Well, the race is on to entice the biggest polluters in the world to dial down their emissions and soon. India, China and America are the biggest problem children in the world when it comes to dirtying the global playground. It's time we all quit squabbling and complaining and get serious about cleaning up our own houses and back yards.

What appears to be different about this particular summit is the carrot on the stick for these big populations and suffering economies: the possibility of growing their economies by reducing their carbon footprints. Denmark has already led the way to a cleaner country and a fatter wallet. Denmark has succeeded in reducing their emissions by 19% and yet growing their economy by 45%. Now that's an incentive for everyone in this depressed global economy to sit up and take notice! :) Kudos go to Denmark.

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

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Entitlement

Puzzle me this: Why is it that the same people who bitch about workers sense of entitlement (you know, workers wanting decent treatment and wages) themselves feel entitled to free plastic bags? (It's true)

I think its a marvelous success so far: Toronto's new 5 cent plastic bag law has reduced the use of plastic shopping bags by something like 75%.

ACTION ALERT: Keep Terminator Seed out of Canada

Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.

What is Terminator? Terminator Technology genetically engineers plants to produce sterile seeds at harvest. It was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the US government to prevent farmers from re-planting harvested seed and force farmers to buy seed each season instead. Terminator seeds have not yet been field-tested or commercialized. In 2006, Monsanto bought the company (Delta & Pine Land) that owned Terminator. Terminator is sometimes called Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) - the broad term that refers to the use of an external chemical inducer to control the expression of a plant's genetic traits.

Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.

Actions you can take:
1. Send an instant email at http://www.cban.ca/terminatoraction.
2. Organizations can endorse the call for a ban: go to http://www.banterminator.org/endorse
3. Write a personalized letter. Remember: postage is free to your elected officials! You can use your postal code to search for your MP at http://www.parl.gc.ca (Note: The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois already support a Ban on Terminator in Canada.) For more information see http://www.cban.ca/terminator
4. Distribute Ban Terminator postcards in your community! To order postcards email btpostcards@usc-canada.org
5. Donate to support the campaign -- the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network implements the Canadian strategy of the International Ban Terminator Campaign http://www.cban.ca/donate
6. Sign up to Ban Terminator news http://www.banterminator.org/subscribe

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext.5
coordinator@cban.ca, www.cban.ca

Learn more about Terminator Technology here

Via Everdale

The Power of Poetry

A while back, I posted a poem written by Drew Dillinger. It begins:

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

Words have power. And these are powerful words.

I am not the only one who think so. Recently a congresswoman quoted the poem during Congressional hearings on climate change legislation.


DellingerPoem_Congress from drew dellinger on Vimeo.

The Art of Don Simon

Don Simon, The Herd 2
This is from a series called Unnaturalism, which he describes:

Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to our cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce, and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems.

This series of triptychs depicts scenes resulting from our tragic indifference. They are rendered in a beautiful and natural way, highlighting the idea that we find this acceptable. We are numb to the damage -- and so, the unnatural becomes natural to us. This may be the saddest commentary of all.

Strangely beautiful and peaceful. View more of his art or watch a video

Blinky's got competition

No longer can Blinky claim to be the most famous mutant fish. At least not in Alberta.

Mutated fish alarms delegates at northern Alberta water gathering

Days before a conference on water quality began in Fort Chipewyan, Alta., last week, residents say a strange fish with two mouths was found at the nearby lake.

The deformed fish, which residents say children had caught off the dock at Lake Athabasca, has since been turned over to park wardens at Wood Buffalo National Park. Some residents, including officials from the Mikisew Cree First Nation, took photographs of the fish over the weekend.



It was found just days before the Keepers of the Water conference began Friday in Fort Chipewyan. The conference wrapped up on Sunday.

The event brought together western and northern Canadian aboriginal leaders and environmental activists, all of whom expressed concern with the quality of water in the Athabasca River, downstream from oilsands development in Fort McMurray.

"It's already mutating the animals, the pollution that they're causing. We need to do something quickly," Shaylene Wiley, a 16-year-old Mikisew Cree delegate, told CBC News during the weekend gathering.

"It's scary when you think about it," delegate Lionel Lepine added.

"For me, personally, it does piss me off, you know, knowing that it's not under my control right now. It's the Government of Canada that has the control over it; they have monopoly over our land. But industry … somehow they got the licence to pollute."

Said one commenter: 'That's one political fish! One blind eye to ignore the reality of the tar sands and two mouths to talk like politicians from Alberta when they defend the oil industry.' --HuntingTheSnark

Conserving Racism: The Greening of Hate at Home and Abroad

This is a very interesting piece:

Conserving Racism: The Greening of Hate at Home and Abroad

By Betsy Hartmann

The greening of hate - blaming environmental degradation on poor populations of color - is once again on the rise, both in the U.S. and overseas. In the U.S., its illogic runs like this: immigrants are the main cause of overpopulation, and overpopulation in turn causes urban sprawl, the destruction of wilderness, pollution, and so forth.

Internationally, it draws on narratives that blame expanding populations of peasants and herders for encroaching on pristine nature.

This is part of what is at play whenever people in the rich countries bemoan the high birth rates of many poor countries. Once again, those with the least power (poor women of colour from the global south, in particular) make a convenient scapegoat for all manner of problems that we do not want to take responsibility for. There's also a certain paternalistic bourgeois white supremacy when we see Them as the problem and Us as the solution to all the world's problems. We just have to figure out what to do about Them before They wreck our Nature.

For example, the rush to blame China and India for the high cost of gas, food prices, and global warming. See, China is closing in on the USA as the biggest fossil fuel consumer and greenhouse gas producer. Still, the average Chinese person has around 19% of the impact of the average American. Not to mention the emissions in China have little to do with people's individual lifestyles and much to do with industrial manufacturing... mostly of crap to be consumed by Americans, Canadians and members of other wealthy nations. Not that China is a saint, but I find it interesting how we love to blame them.

The article documents the involvement of some environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Conservation International (CI) with some pretty right wing campaigns. For example:

With USAID assistance, CI and the World Wildlife Fund are promoting a conservation campaign in the region focused on identifying illegal settlements -- often Zapatista communities -- which are then forcibly removed by the Mexican army. These efforts are complemented by the government's aggressive female sterilization campaign in the region. CI's close ties to bio-prospecting corporations raise questions of just who the forest is being preserved for.

She puts this in perspective:

Coercive conservation measures, of course, are nothing new. From colonial times onwards, wildlife conservation efforts have often involved the violent exclusion of local people from their land by game rangers drawn from the ranks of the police, military and prison guards. To legitimize this exclusion, government officials, conservation agencies and aid donors have frequently invoked narratives of expanding human populations destroying pristine landscapes, obscuring the role of resource extraction by state and corporate interests.

This is so true. For example, I was recently studying how in South Africa (but not only there!) the creation of national parks caused significant dispossession of indigenous peoples' land. The racialist ideas around pollution were often driving conservation movements.

Hartmann continues by outlining several myths that help to drive this coercive conservation: man versus nature, the wilderness ethic, the degradation narrative, and scarcity. For example, the myth of the romantic and nostalgic wilderness ethic:

The ways in which wilderness is constructed have a number of problematic outcomes. The ahistorical myth of wilderness as "virgin" land obscures the systematic forced migration and genocide of its original Native American inhabitants.

By locating nature in the far-off wild, it allows people to evade responsibility for environmental protection closer to their homes. And it is geographically parochial, blinding many Americans to the complex ways in which people relate to the land in other countries and cultures. Critiquing the wilderness ethic does not mean one is opposed to national parks and nature protection - rather, it calls for equitable and democratic processes to ensure local communities are not pushed off their lands and robbed of their livelihoods.

Also popular is the degradation narrative in which

...population pressure-induced poverty makes Third World peasants degrade their environments by over-farming marginal lands. The ensuing soil depletion and desertification then lead them to migrate elsewhere as "environmental refugees," either to ecologically vulnerable rural areas where the vicious cycle is once again set in motion or to cities where they become a primary source of political instability.
[...]
It blames poverty on population pressure, and not, for example, on lack of land reform or off-farm employment opportunities; it blames peasants for land degradation, obscuring the role of commercial agriculture and extractive industries; and it targets migration both as an environmental and security threat. It is a way of homogenizing all rural people in the Global South into one big destructive force, reinforcing simplistic Us vs. Them, West vs. the Rest dichotomies.

You should probably just go read the whole thing. H/T Lisa, commenting on Feministe

How Walkable is Your Neighbourhood?

To answer that question, you could go outside and try walking around and see how well it goes, or for those who prefer the virtual to the physical, go to Walkscore.com and type in your address. Based on things like density and proximity to shops and services, the software will give a ranking. It works for the US, Canada and the UK.

Of course, the really cool thing is seeing how walkable other cities and neighbourhoods are - you know, the ones you can't access by stepping outside your door. Unsurprisingly, San Francisco and New York City and Boston are the most walkable cities in the USA.

They don't have rankings of the most walkable cities in Canada, but you can search for addresses to get a score. Toronto didn't fare too badly, but it depends on where you live, really.

What does this all mean? They explain:

Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stumble home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car—or you don't own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors.

(Screenshot found here)

Walk Score admits there are many features currently overlooked by the software - like weather, design, safety, or topography, but it is still a pretty cool tool. Via Grist.

Interested in becoming more self-sufficient

but live in an apartment? or don't have time to make that commitment? How about trying self-sufficientish living?

The idea behind self-sufficientish-ism is although many of us would love to live on a farm, grow all our own food, brew pea pod wine, live the 'Good-Life'. Not all of us have the means the space or are perhaps unwilling to give it all up and suffer the highs and lows of going it alone on a smallholding.

Although total self-sufficiency is appealing the thought of giving up the little luxuries in life may not be. I grow a lot of my own food eat wild foods and when I have the money buy organic fruit and vegetables but I still enjoy beer in a pub and like to go to the cinema or eat out occasionally.

Self Sufficientish-ism was created for these reasons. It is for all those who have limited time, space or money but would like to have a go at growing their own food or brewing their own alcohol or want to know which wild foods are good to eat. We also aim to offer advice on a whole host of other subjects from a low-ecological impact perspective.

Benefits include saving money, sustainability, good healthy eating, a chance to play farmer in the city, and it's kinda fun!

You'll find tips like 66 uses for a bread bag, natural pest control, flat dwellers guide to being self-sufficientish, lots of recipes, and how to brew. I want to try making sage and seed bread. mmmm

Via eco worrier

Flat screen TVs really really bad for the environment

...not to mention our brains...

If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it. ~Jerome Singer

The rising demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist warned yesterday.

Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes.<Guardian>

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. ~Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun

The gas, nitrogen trifluoride, is 17,000 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
...
If all this year's production was released into the atmosphere it would have a warming effect equivalent to 67 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - roughly equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of Austria. <TPA>

Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover. ~Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

TV makes us fat, stupid, selfish, unhappy, asocial, mindless consumers... and destroys our climate (not to mention fuels the class war)... but, well, there's just so many darn good shows on.

Via Grist

What's New on the Green Scene?

"We have reached a point of planetary emergency," says climatologist James Hansen. It seems the earth is near a tipping point.

Busy doing the most tipping are the richest Canadians, the tar sands, and businesses.

Imagine the whole human family squabbling about whose turn it is to scrub the atmosphere.

So what is a regular Joe or Jane to do?

Well, this summer, you could green your travel, or avoid the whole thing with a staycation.

Or, put your girls to work with a chest charger.

The Story of Stuff

I realize this is a few months old, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet, The Story of Stuff is worth watching. It is a free 20 minute online video that connects the various aspects of all the stuff we consume, in a cute and simple way. Questions of environment, politics, social justice, health, and equity are raised. Although somewhat simplistic it is tightly presented, and I have to say I learned some new things. Plus there's more information on the site to follow up with. Check it out at www.storyofstuff.com

Carfree Times issue #50 is up

This month has some good stuff on offer. Aside from beautiful photographs of carfree places, you'll find interesting articles about carfree living like:

Expensive Gas Drives Down Suburban Housing Values
Buy a McMansion? Bad idea. But they are cheap. And probably getting cheaper. Housing prices are probably nowhere near their bottom. (There's a scary thought.) But some neighborhoods are holding value. And it's no surprise which neighborhoods. It's the ones that aren't 40 miles from work.
[...]Near the city center, people are still buying and new listings attract plenty of interest. In the city proper, prices are actually up 3.5% over the past year. Good access to public transport is especially important to buyers.

Simply put, the longer the commute, the steeper the drop in prices.

In addition to the 10 or so articles, there's an interesting interview towards the bottom - "Cars Are Driving Us Nuts: We drive ever longer distances in order to satisfy the same needs".

Check it out.

Too Many People?

You know, I get really irritated when people talk about overpopulation. So does this guy. To me it seems like a way of shifting blame. It is about blaming people who live in the global south for environmental problems that were caused by exactly not them. I think a far more pressing need is to reduce our constant striving for unlimited economic growth and overconsumption.

The places where population is growing fastest — sub-Saharan Africa, rural China and Bangladesh — have virtually no carbon emissions, and pitiful food consumption rates. The gap is so huge that to be responsible for as many gas emissions as one British person, a Cambodian woman would need to have 262 children. Can we really sit in our nice homes, with a fridge-full of food we will mostly chuck away and an SUV in the drive, and complain that she is the problem?

Of course, there's only so many people we can fit on the earth- and, you know, feed.

But if this is a problem, is there a solution that isn't abhorrent? Some people seem to reach instinctively for authoritarian answers. The government of China has bragged that its "greatest contribution" to the fight against global warming has been its policy of punishing, imprisoning or sterilising women who have more than one child. Some environmentalists — a small minority — eye this idea jealously.

There is a far better way — and it is something we should be pursuing anyway. It is called feminism. Where women have control over their own bodies — through contraception, abortion and general independence — they choose not to be perpetually pregnant. The UN Fund For Population Activities has calculated that 350 million women in the poorest countries didn’t want their last child, but didn’t have the means to prevent it. We should be helping them by building a global anti-Vatican, distributing the pill and the words of Mary Wollstonecraft.

So we do need to reduce our population growth to something manageable, but improved social justice, security, and women's rights take care of that pretty neatly. For instance here in Canada, where women can be pretty independent, with (mostly) good access to birth control, and a relatively comfortable economic situation, we have a below replacement fertility rate (1.53 per woman). Reproductive rights are a very important part of the puzzle (Unless you're China) - just one more reason we must keep fighting that fight. As I wrote previously:

Give women more choices and they won't have as many babies - they may work outside the home, delay marriage, and use contraception. Children are expensive and less of an asset in industrial, urban societies as opposed to agricultural societies. Wealthier populations tend to also be healthier, which means less infant mortality (which generally correlates with having fewer babies).

It seems that population growth is inversely proportional to the degree to which a society is egalitarian, urbanized and economically secure. You can play with this yourself using Gapminder. Just press "play" to see how the indicators change over time.
Here, correlated with total fertility rate, is Life expectancy at birth. As life expectancy increases, fertility rate decreases. This one shows under 5 mortality rate. This one relates total fertility rate to the percentage of girls who complete primary school. Again, the trend is clear. Similarly, an increased Urban population also correlates to a lower fertility rate. Finally, increased income per person means fewer babies born.

Thursday Thoughts

From Torontoist:

Tory MP Jason Kenney complained that Romeo Dallaire was overly harsh when Dallaire criticized the federal government's handling of the Omar Khadr case. Kenney is a former general who is credited with using meagre resources to save the lives of over 20,000 people during the Rwandan genocide in the face of massive indifference from the west…no, wait, sorry, that was Dallaire. Jason Kenney is a lifetime party hack who didn't finish his bachelor's degree. See, they're almost like twins!

From Paul Graham: al Naqba at 60 and the reflections of a recovered Zionist:

Looking back I am amazed at how easy it was to adopt completely contradictory political positions, for example, to cheer on American blacks in their struggle for civil rights and to be blissfully unaware of the grinding poverty and racist oppression of aboriginal people in my own community; to see the American invasion of Vietnam as a horrendous crime while cheering on the Israeli army as it triumphed in the "Six Day War" of 1967.

Young people are idealists by nature with an instinctive sympathy for underdogs of all kinds. Messages of freedom and equality resonate with youth, in part because they experience the inequality and lack of freedom that accompany parental control.

The direction their idealism takes and their ability to identify underdogs depends pretty much on what they learn, at home, at school, from the media. As the ‘60s progressed it became possible to understand the injustice and horror of the Vietnam War and the just demands of the American civil rights movement: these were on display on the evening TV news. Aboriginal people didn’t have a media voice; they were invisible. And as for Israel and my youthful Zionism, well, I blame American novelist Leon Uris. (Read the rest here)

Via illvox, Bolivian President Evo Morales' 10 commandments to save the planet:

1. In order to save the planet, the capitalist model must be eradicated and the North pay its ecological debt, rather than the countries of the South and throughout the world continuing to pay their external debts.

2. Denounce and PUT AN END to war, which only brings profits for empires, transnationals, and a few families, but not for peoples. The million and millions of dollars destined to warfare should be invested in the Earth, which has been hurt as a result of misuse and overexploitation.

3. Develop relations of coexistence, rather than domination, among countries in a world without imperialism or colonialism. Bilateral and multilateral relations are important because we belong to a culture of dialogue and social coexistence, but those relationships should not be of submission of one country to another. Read the other 7 here.