oil and gas industries – Page 2

American Military On Climate Change: If We Wait for 100% Certainty, Something Bad Is Going To Happen

June 28, 2010 by Christine

Last week, a group of academic and military experts representing both the U.S. and Britain gathered at a symposium at the Museum of Natural History. The symposium, Climate Change And Global Security, examined the reasons why any discussion about global warming should include a broader look at the implications for long-term global security. The moderator, Andrew Nagorski of the EastWest Institute, stated:

“What often does not come across in the discussions of climate change…is that the militaries of the U.S., the U.K., and other countries have for a long time operated on the assumption that climate change is something that you have to deal with. Whatever the causes, the consequences [of climate change], you have to factor it into your planning.”

Dennis V. McGinn, retired Vice Admiral of the U.S. Navy and member of the Center for Naval Analyses Military Advisory Board, does a good job of summing up how climate change poses a national security threat, and how it could destabilize societies around the world:

“From a military and national security expertise perspective we question ourselves, what are we doing taking about climate science, we’re collectively 400 years of time in uniform at peace and at war. Our chairman of the military advisory board General Gordon Sullivan, former Chief of Staff of the Army put it best. He said we never have 100 % certainty. If you wait for 100% certainty on the battlefield, something bad is going to happen. We never have it. So, from that conclusion about how we should approach this from a risk management proposition, what can we do to prevent, to mitigate what we can’t prevent and to adapt what we can neither prevent or mitigate, the effects of climate change. That is the challenge for us across the globe. Certainly, as a global leader that the US is we bear a special responsibility for rising to meet that challenge and to turn it into the opportunity that can make us more secure nationally and internationally and more prosperous in the future.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q2vnTuAbtw&feature=player_embedded]

Here is another video of the retired Vice Admiral speaking at a “Re-energize America” town hall meeting on the impact of America’s oil dependence on the national and economic security of the country.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFIBm6dQC8]

If the British, U.S., and other militaries are taking the threat of climate change seriously, isn’t it time our politicians did, too?

Louisiana Local Describes Media Blackout, Horrors Of BP Catastrophe

June 25, 2010 by Christine

Kindra Arnesen lives on the coast of Louisiana with her fisherman husband and two children. In this video clip from the Emergency Gulf Summit, she passionately and eloquently describes what she saw when she was given access to the front lines of the BP response to the emergency, and also the impact the oil spill is having on the health of her children and on the clean-up workers. She also describes in heart-wrenching detail the dead and dying marine life she has observed since oil started spewing from the ruptured well. As she says:

“The bottom line here is if the country does not stand up and say ‘no more’ – we must take action – we cannot sit back – if this stuff does not stop, guys, this is going to global. It will destroy one third of the world’s water. Bank on it. If they do not stop this, every ocean is connected and it will go on and on and on, as my daughter says, infinity plus two. Enough’s enough.“

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYJDI8pK9Y]

Links:

Gulf Emergency Summit.org

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “America… Should Never Be On Its Knees Before Corporate Power, No Matter How Strong”

June 21, 2010 by Christine

This is a followup to my earlier post on Senator Whitehouse’s speech on corporate corruption of the government agencies intended to oversee them. The following video is the first 7 minutes of his speech:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsjPsfHvWk8]

Thanks to Dante Ryel for sharing this link.

An American Politician Speaks Out Against Powerful Corporations Working Against The Good of the People – Finally!

June 21, 2010 by Christine

U.S. Senator for Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor last week, proposing a path to restore government agencies that have been taken over by corporate interests. Citing lax oversight and the inappropriate influence of corporations over the Minerals Management Service (MMS), Senator Whitehouse said “We can no longer wait for more catastrophes to root out improper corporate influence in our government, we have to at long last address the problem of insidious regulatory capture.”

The Senator went on to cite many examples of MMS corruption, including: MMS staff accepting money and gifts from oil and gas companies; senior executives at the agency’s Royalty in Kind office steering contracts to their own outside consulting firm; an inspector in the agency’s Lake Charles, Louisiana office conducting inspections of a company’s drilling platforms while negotiating a job with that company; and other “significant issues worthy of separate investigation, including ethical lapses, program management, and process failures.”

Senator Whitehouse then explained how these activities led to conditions ripe for disaster, and that the answer to this disaster is to “clean house” and free the government from corporate interests:

We must be able to trust our government, both in plain view in front of us, and in corners far from sight, to be serving always the public interest, not doing the secret bidding of special interests; of corporate interests, because that’s where the big money is at stake.

Have we now learned, have we now finally learned, from the financial melt-down and the Gulf disaster, the price, the terrible price, of all those quietly cut corners?

Have we now learned what price must be paid when the stealthy tentacles of corporate influence are allowed to reach into and capture our agencies of government?

I pray, let us have learned this; let us have learned that lesson. I sincerely pray we have learned our lesson, and that this will never happen again. But let’s not just pray.

In this troubled world God works through our human hands; grows a more perfect union through our human hearts; creates his beloved community through our human thoughts and ideas. So it is not enough to pray. We must act.

To read the full transcript of Senator Whitehouse’s speech and view it on video, click here to go to Daily Kos.

Here’s a video of Senator Whitehouse in September, 2008, where he asks a very pointed question of oil company executives and top energy experts at a Senate Energy Policy Forum. This guy seems to “get” it – and in this video he articulates it. What an anomaly he is politics today!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXV7EBaRVxk]

Washington Office:

Hart Senate Office Building

Room 502

Washington, D.C. 20510

202-224-2921 phone

202-228-6362 fax

“Hole In the Ocean”

June 17, 2010 by Christine

“Hole in the Ocean” was written written by Joe Monto & Steve Bartlett to keep the focus on the BP oil spill disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. This is already the largest environmental disaster in United States history, and the oil is still gushing out of the oil well.

The song is dedicated to the 11 men who lost their lives on the Deepwater Oil Rig on April 20th, 2010.

The words to ” Hole In The Ocean” are:

The wave crests on fire
And storm clouds below
The oozing dark monster

Creeps silently slow
The heartache of many
The future unclear
We stand on the shoreline
Surrounded by fear

Chorus:

There’s a hole in the ocean
That’s breaking my heart
When will it end
Why did it start?

Can we ever return
To our blue watered bay
There’s a hole in the ocean
That stands in our way

2nd Verse:

For the diving birds diving
And the fish ‘neath the waves
There is so much to do
There is so much to save

With bitter tears stinging
For the ones who were lost
Is there really a way
To assess what this cost?

Bridge:

Eleven souls sailing
That April day
It happened so quickly
‘Twas no time to pray

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtIWvkDvVUM]

Click here to send a message to President Obama to ban offshore drilling permanently.

Click here to find out how BP is quietly breaking ground on a controversial project in B.C.’s Rocky Mountains without a provincial environmental review.

BP’s Blocking Information, Not Oil Flow

June 14, 2010 by Christine

Is the U.S. a democracy or a corporate-run dictatorship? From the sounds of things, BP is controlling access to public beaches in the spill area and intimidating locals and clean-up workers to limit the information that is flowing out of the Gulf coast. Looks like they’re way better at blocking information than they are at limiting the flow of oil out of the ruptured oil well.

Here’s a video of a reporter from New Orleans TV station WDSU trying to get access to a public beach and speak to clean-up workers:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZHnStD690U]

For more, check out:

“BP Blocking Media Access to Oil Disaster Sites” PRWatch.org

“Filmmaker on Media Blackout: Feels Like Oil Companies Are Running The Whole Government” on GrantLawrence.blogspot.com

If you are Facebook, join the group 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling for ideas and information on how we can kick this fossil fuel habit. (click here)

Or go to Tom Rand’s website at “Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit.org“. Rand says “It’s a myth that we need fossil fuels. We just haven’t decided to kick the habit.”

And here’s a new blog I just discovered, Monkeyfister.blogspot.com, which has links to live spillcam feeds as well as great posts on the BP catastrophe. The byline of the blog is “It starts with planting a garden…”. So as an act of optimism, in defiance of our consumer culture, plant a seed or weed your garden before you call your elected representative and tell them it’s time for clean energy NOW.

To do just that – contact your elected representatives at all levels, local, state/provincial, and federal – if you’re in the U.S. click here for contact info. If you’re in Canada, click here for contact info on Members of Parliament and Senators.

Grieving in Louisiana

June 13, 2010 by Christine

A poem by Paul Unruh:

GRIEVING AGAIN

April and May 2010

Part I

Grieve for the red fish and the trout

That lie belly up

Near the marsh grasses

Grieve for the brown pelican

That flounders on the riverbank

Instead of gliding proudly over

Grieve for the dolphin nearby

With oil in its eyes and nostrils

And a death ache in its stomach

Grieve for the sea turtle

The raccoon

And the lowly nutria

Grieve for the prairie marsh

As it soaks up the crude

And its ecological cycle begins to warp

Grieve for the Vietnamese and the Cambodians who survived war, Katrina and Rita

But who now sit in silence on their boats

At night time.

Grieve for the Houma, the Cajun, the Atakapa and the African American

Whose ancestral way of life is being altered

Without their permission

Grieve for the eleven

Who died while at work

On the sea

Part II

Pray for the children who do not understand

The unspoken fear and sadness

On the faces of their parents

Pray for the parents who wonder

Whether their children will learn

Their ancestral way of life

Pray for Venice, Boothville, Buras, Triumph, Empire and Port Sulphur

And for their roots

Sunk deep in the oily marsh

Pray for us all, that we may yet find a way to save the earth

And to teach our sons and daughters

To fish

–Paul Unruh

the globs of oil - Lousiana coast.Lois Nickel — Louisiana Coast. June9.2010. photo by Lois Nickel

Paul Unruh is a volunteer and consultant with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) from the Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton Kansas. He is currently working on the Gulf Coast. Thanks to Lois Nickel, Director Regional Relations & Programs at MDS for forwarding this poem to me, and to Paul for giving me permission to share it.

What BP Doesn’t Want You To See: Dead Fish Washed Ashore, Gulf Coast Birds Mired in Oil

June 11, 2010 by Christine

This shocking photo was taken by NY Times reader Sabrina Bradford on a beach in Waveland Mississippi. It dramatically demonstrates the impact of the oil catastrophe on fish and the fishing industry. 37% of the Gulf of Mexico is now closed to fishing.

From Greenman 3610, this video which communicates what words cannot, and shows clearly why BP was keeping the media away from some beaches:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9-k9UhAjgY]

Sign At A BP Gas Station, The Onion’s Take on BP, & Bill Maher On Climate Change Denial

June 8, 2010 by Christine

And from The Onion, “Massive Flow of Bullsh*t Continues to Gush From BP Headquarters“:

As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.

The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP executives shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, has completely devastated the Gulf region, delaying cleanup efforts, affecting thousands of jobs, and endangering the lives of all nearby wildlife.

“Everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest,” said BP CEO Tony Hayward, letting loose a colossal stream of undiluted bullshit. “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean, and the volume of oil we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total volume of water.”

Click here for the rest of the article.

Not many articles I read on climate change make me laugh out loud, but this column of Bill Maher’s from The Huffington Post sure did. It’s called “New Rule: Al Gore Must Come Out With a Sequel to His Film and Call It An Inconvenient Truth 2: What The F**k Is Wrong With You People?”:

A bunch of depressing new surveys reveal that people in droves are starting to believe that global warming is a hoax — and this time, it’s not just us. People are always accusing me of hating America and calling it stupid, so tonight I’d like to take a few moments to hate England and call it stupid. Because now English people don’t believe in global warming either. I thought the English were smarter than that. The home of Newton and Darwin. I can’t believe we let these people build our exploding oil platforms.

Even scarier is why people have stopped thinking global warming is real. One major reason pollsters say is we had a very cold, snowy winter. Which is like saying the sun might not be real because last night it got dark. And my car’s not real because I can’t find my keys.

You really need to go to THP and read his whole rant – click here to do just that!

More Evidence of Canada’s Embarrassing Lack of Leadership on Climate Change

June 4, 2010 by Christine

From The Pembina Institute, this commentary on new figures released (very quietly) by the Canadian government on this country’s rising greenhouse gas emissions:

Yesterday afternoon, Environment Canada very quietly posted on its website the annual Climate Change Plan r equired by the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act. This is an important document because it’s the only place where the government provides a full list of its measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and estimates the emission reductions from each measure.

The plan reveals the following:

The government now expects Canada’s emissions to continue rising every year from 2009 to 2012, even with federal measures in place (p. 34). Six years after taking office, the government will still not have achieved absolute reductions in Canada’s emissions, despite having proclaimed in 2007 that it would be “Turning the Corner” and getting emissions to decline “as early as 2010 and no later than 2012.”

Click here to read the full article.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Simpson blasted the Harper government’s performance on climate change in the Globe and Mail today, calling Canada a “climate change miscreant”:

Try as it might, the government could not put lipstick on a pig. The numbers were there, stark and depressing, in an annual report required by all signatories to the original Kyoto Protocol. The bottom line: The world is right to consider Canada a climate-change miscreant.

On Canadian soil, two world leaders have recently urged Canada to do more. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both made that pitch, implicitly criticizing Canada’s bad record. Their critiques are rooted in recent history, stretching back to the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. The critiques remain valid today, which is why Canada has no credibility whatsoever internationally on the climate-change file.

According to the government’s own numbers, actual emissions will grow in absolute terms in every year from 2009 to 2012…Click here to read the full story.

Our country is capable of so much more than we are doing right now. Canada, under Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, led on addressing the depletion of the ozone layer and stopping acid rain. There is no reason a Conservative government should oppose “conserving” essential things like our environment – unless they are so deeply in the pocket of the oil patch that they can’t see the light of day, or a brighter greener future for Canadians.

Bill C311 continues its journey through the senate, with the partisan debate indicating that the Conservatives, who outnumber the other senators, could scuttle the will of the elected House of Commons. Please take the time to call or email Conservative senators today, to let them know, for the sake of the planet and our children, Bill C311 needs to pass. For contact info and sample letters, go to the “How to Contact Senators re: Bill C311” page.

Meanwhile, if you are feeling in the mood for some dark humour, check out this recent posting from “The Onion” on a new eco-friendly cigarette that helps climate change by “killing off the number one threat to Mother Earth”. Click here to see the article.