BP Spells Big Problems

If a picture says a thousand words, then a video must say a million. This latest Gulf of Mexico fiasco may spell big problems for President Obama by the end of his first term. When certain media and rightwing pundits first begin criticizing the President and comparing his response to the oil spill in the gulf, with that of President Bush’s to Katrina, I dismissed it as mere politics. However, as the oil spill becomes increasingly more devastating by the day, I am starting to believe that this may very well be Obama’s dark cloud that looms over him, throughout the remainder of his first term in office.

This is a stark presumption, I know, but it’s one that I conceded to only after hearing Purdue Professor Steve Wereley reveal a more damning estimate on the amount of oil that he believes is spewing into the gulf each day. Using a technique called particle image velocimetry, Wereley and other scientific minds have been able to analyze a tape that BP released on Tuesday, and calculated, what they claim is a more precise projection of oil leaked in the gulf per day. Initially, the US Coast Guard had estimated that the compromised rig was leaking up to 5,000 barrels per day, but estimates using the aforementioned practice upped that number to around 70,000 barrels, and that’s modestly speaking. This is a startling realization if it is true, and more than likely it is, being that the scientist say that this technique has a 99% rate of accuracy (when conducted properly).

Obama, oh boy, I foresee many forthcoming problems on your hand. While some may argue that the President has done his best to manage the situation. I respond by saying that sometimes a little more than our best is required. I mean, why in heavens name is the federal government still allowing BP to call the shots, when it comes to this oil spill? It makes no sense. Yes, I agree that this conglomerate should be made to clean up their own mess, but since they’re clearly not capable of doing so in a timely manner, I for one believe that our government should act with all deliberate speed to use whatever resources we can to resolve the problem, and that we should just stick BP with the bill at the end of the day. I’m sure that a company that profited a little more than two and half billion dollars in recent quarters can pick up the tab, and that they can definitely do more than what’s being asked of them to do now.

Check out the disturbing video after the jump!

… Continue Reading

Posted by:

Jabari Paul

If You Want to Help Out in the Gulf of Mexico, Cut Your Hair?

That’s right women, you saw it here! If you want to help with the Gulf, cut your hair. Now I know that seems outrageous but apparently, just as hair has the ability to absorb the oils released from our skin it can do the same for the oil in the ocean. Check out this link for more details!

Posted by:

Kirin Kennedy

Now Is The Appointed Time

Hey all,

So I figure that this is something that’s really interesting! I have given a lot of thought about the 3 fossil fuel disasters over the past 2 weeks and what is really interesting is that these came at a time when climate legislation is supposed to be the top of the list of priorities for the Senate! I think it is now the appointed time for the environmental movement to stand up and really fight for what is needed: One, safer working conditions and two, climate legislation that does not include off shore drilling, coal or natural gas! Especially since the companies can’t even keep their workers safe! Well, I hope everyone is now calling their senators and telling them that they need to pass a strong climate bill without “clean” coal, drilling and natural gas!  Let’s also keep the families of the 11 lost on the oil rig in our thoughts and prayers as it is a shame that we have to lose valuable lives in order to truly understand the need to kick the dirty energy habit!

Posted by:

Kirin Kennedy

What Obama Should Really Do!

Hey ya’ll, I caught this blog off the Checktheweather.net site! If you really want know what Obama should do check out Kari Fulton’s Thoughts on checktheweather.net and read the BP Press Release. You’d be shocked at their arrogance!!!!

Posted by:

Kirin Kennedy

Why Do Anti-Environmentalists Fear the Earth Will Be Overrun by Cows?

In ten years of environmentally-motivated vegetarianism, I’ve had a lot of conversations about my choice with a wide range of non-vegetarians, some with valid arguments against it and some whose views are not so impressive (and plenty who just really, really like bacon). A common argument among the less, er, “bright” anti-vegetarians has been “if everyone stopped eating meat, what would happen to all the domesticated cows?”

I expect this sort of argument from the riff raff , but I never thought someone with the title of “Professor” would be quite that inane. But in this month’s edition of Foreign Policy Magazine, Professor Robert Paarlberg argues that organic farming is a bad idea because “To supply enough organic fertilizer, the U.S. cattle population would have to increase roughly fivefold.”

Five times as many cows! They’ll terrorize the populace! I can’t believe I have to say this, but nobody is expecting all farms to go organic at once. The point of the slow food movement is that our food systems need to be gradually restructured in a way that makes basic, intuitive sense, so we’re no longer wasting energy and decreasing food quality by shipping our vegetables thousands of miles for no good reason. So don’t freak out about impending doom via cow attack, just keep buying local.

P.S. I realize Paarlberg’s argument is a bit more complex than that one bit of idiocy, but it’s a long article full of inaccuracies, half-truths and general misunderstanding of the slow food movement, and I haven’t got all day.

Posted by:

Rachel Bishop

Van Jones lands at Princeton

Anthony (Van) Jones, who resigned as an environmental policy adviser to the Obama administration after coming under fire from conservatives for past statements and political activities, has been named as a visiting fellow at Princeton University for the coming academic year. A statement being released by the university today says that Mr. Jones will be a distinguished visiting fellow at both its Center for African American Studies and its Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy, and that he will teach a course on race, ecology, and the environment during the spring 2011 semester. Mr. Jones, a 1993 graduate of Yale Law School and co-founder of three advocacy organizations, served as a special adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality from March to September of 2009. He left the position after being attacked for publicly using a crude insult in reference to Republicans, signing a petition that questioned whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and having past connections to a radical Bay Area group with Marxist origins.

Posted by:

The Editor

Gillian Caldwell Pushes Obama on Clean Coal

Check out Gillian Caldwell from 1Sky chopping it up with Obama about clean coal. This is an awesome exchange.

Posted by:

The Editor

Enviromental Protection Agency Getting Its Bars Up!

Just hopped off a video announcement from Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and definitely a top pick on the short list of D.C. insiders who are really taking their title/mission to heart.

On what is coincidentally (purely surely) the first day of the international COP15 summit, the EPA announces that their thorough (musta been really thorough) analysis of all the available facts leads to one simple conclusion: greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.”

There’s more:

“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Great talking point from Mrs. Jackson and my instinct thinks she’s legit. When asked on the call about the timing of the EPA’s announcement, when House reps have indicated no movement on environmnetal legislation until early Spring (months from now), Lisa Jackson said the EPA did not want to wait to get the ball rolling and hoped that Congress would “follow the ball.”

Translation: watch out, world. Apparently it’s not a pre-requisite of American political power to actually lose total touch with the land and your people!

Keep it up, Mrs. Jackson.

Posted by:

Sam Patton