A View From The Rubble
Frustration mounts as oil seeps into Gulf wetlands
Louisiana fishermen losing patience over spill
UN fears 'irreversible' damage to natural environment
One way you can help?
Use less and do some manual shit for a change. Your heart and mind will thank you...
And for Christ's sake,
STOP USING A GASOLINE POWERED VIBRATOR.
I will if you will.
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Gulf Oil Spill reaches shore...
If you're so inclined, you may sign this petition to my baby's daddy telling him to back the F off of our coasts (through the Sierra Club).
And if you'd like to Volunteer for the Oil Spill Recovery, you may do so here.
Can we please be done fucking shit up?
Please?
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Coast Guard will start burning some Gulf slick oil
China ship 'gouged two-mile scar' in Great Barrier Reef
A 2nd garbage patch: Plastic soup seen in Atlantic
If you're so inclined, please sign: Protect Our Oceans From Offshore Drilling
And if you're so inclined, please sign: Tell EPA to Set Strong Limits on Water Pollution!
And one more... Just because someone's gettin' silly and being a fucker: Sign the petition and tell the President to keep his promise to save the whales.
25 Wasteful Things You Can Live Without
We LIVE here. And up until recently (historically speaking), oil and plastic (made from petroleum products) had nothing to do with living.
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Hey GORDON! Quit with your nasty gas, bish... It's our air too.
Are you tired of corporations trying to greenwash their environmental blunders? So are we. This week, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) gets the greenwash-of-the-week award for spending $105 million (USD) to become a lead sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics, while simultaneously bankrolling billions of dollars in investments in the dirtiest oil project on Earth - the Alberta tar sands. RBC's efforts to advertise themselves as Canada's most caring corporate citizen through their Olympic sponsorship is incompatible with financing Canada's most polluting industry.
The tar sands oil extraction project is systematically turning vast stretches of the breathtaking Canadian boreal forest into a wasteland the size of Florida, eradicating wildlife habitat and jeopardizing the health of First Nations communities across Alberta. Let's do something about it.
If you're so inclined, you can add YOUR name to a petition to Royal Bank of Canada CEO Gordon Nixon. And you may do so here.
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Oh my god... It's 8:30pm Eastern time and it's dark out now. IT'S DARK!! WHAT HAPPENED?? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUN??!! AAAHHH!!
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Unusually Large Snowstorm | ||||
| www.thedailyshow.com | ||||
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I'm not sure who's funnier; Jon Stewart and his correspondents up above? Or the complete morons in the paragraph just below? Ah well... I suppose if I were to really break it down, I'm laughing with the peeps above, and AT the dip-shits below.
In the middle of this week's storm, Senator James Inhofe constructed an "igloo" in Washington, DC and posted a sign reading "Honk if you heart global warming." Senator Jim DeMint tweeted "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle." Rush Limbaugh and Fox News chimed in with story after story distorting the facts to fit their dishonest narrative.
But, of course, WE know that extreme weather IS climate change.
Fact: Climate change causes more frequent and severe snowstorms
Record snowstorms need two things: temperatures below freezing, and very high humidity. On a planet warmer by a few degrees on average, the Northeast US will still have plenty of days below freezing; the big difference will be warmer seas producing higher levels of moisture in the air — and therefore more severe cold-season storms.
Fact: We can expect more extreme weather
Scientists tell us that climate change has already led to more extreme weather in the United States and we can expect stronger hurricanes, more wildfires, heatwaves and droughts, to name a few. The cost of inaction could reach half a trillion dollars a year.
Fact: The world is warming at a quickening pace
Weather in one region over days or months should not be confused with climate or the patterns of weather over decades and centuries. And the science is clear here: the last decade was the hottest on record. And to put this year’s weather in perspective, January was warmer than average for the continental United States.
(via: Repower America)
*** How Global Warming Makes Blizzards Worse
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Historic EPA finding: Greenhouse gases harm humans
"WASHINGTON – The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health."
Which is welcome, yes. But, I'm reluctant to say it's "GREAT". After all, the year is 2009. 2009!
So, while it may be great, it's late.
Better late than never, I suppose...
Not surprisingly, the article goes on to talk about how much it's going to "cost":
"The price could be steep for both industry and consumers. The EPA finding clears the way for rules that eventually could force the sale of more fuel-efficient vehicles and require plants to install costly new equipment — at a cost of billions or even many tens of billions of dollars — or shift to other forms of energy."
And then there's THIS asshole, "It will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project," declared Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which in recent months has been particularly critical of the EPA's attempt to address climate change."
Business groups have strongly argued against tackling global warming through the Clean Air Act, saying it is less flexible and more costly than the cap-and-trade legislation being considered by Congress. Any regulations from the EPA are certain to spawn lawsuits and a lengthy legal fights.
"Such regulations would be intrusive, inefficient and excessively costly, chill job growth and delay business expansion," argued Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, which also has been critical of the climate legislation before Congress.
Of course they would, Jack Getarded. And meanwhile, you're the president of the American Petroleum Institute. I hardly think you're objective or wise.
And then there's the conservative bloggers who are writing about the hacked emails and "climategate" and they share about 5 brain cells between the lot of 'em. And I'm probably being generous.
Whether or not you believe in global warming is really beside the point. Because, you see, there's this:
and this...
What about the cost of BREATHING in THAT?
This shit just doesn't go bye-bye...
If anyone thinks that's not a problem, I'd like you to consider going to your car that's parked in your garage, roll down your windows, have a comfy seat, start the car with the garage door closed, and all the windows of the garage closed and contemplate air pollution.
Please, take notes if you wish.
I'll give you a few hours.
And if you're actually considering this, please don't. But, I do STRONGLY encourage you to stop with the lobotomies and get ready to wipe my ass, 'cause that's all you're good for.
Greenpeace ages world leaders in head-turning ads
We've got one thing and haven't got another.
The one thing we've got is pollution. Most certainly.
The one thing we haven't got is time.
I'm not trying to be bleak and disheartening. But, our society really needs to consider what the COST really is...
Clean air, like clean water, is not a commodity, it's a basic human right. In fact, it's a basic right to all living beings.
So, speaking of vending machines:
* Coke to move to climate friendlier vending machines
* Can 10 Million Green Vending Machines Keep Coke Cool?
* Decade of 2000s was warmest ever
UPDATE: I actually wasn't aware of this, so MUCH THANKS to The Herbal Biologist for bringing it to my attention!
Herbal Biologist, "re: the coke links at post's end
That's quite a spin Coke is putting on their switch to a greener coolant -- hydrofluorocarbon will no longer be available to recharge refrigeration units in the US after that date. Coke has no choice but to switch. Ah, greenwashing strikes again!"
Me, "OOoohhh... I see how it is, Coke! You SCAMMING OPPORTUNISTS! You're totally pulling a Ronnie Reagan with the Berlin Wall kind of thing. You sneaky little buggers... H.B. IS ON TO YOU!!"
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As the years go on, Will and I are eating less and less meat. We mainly just eat chicken or fish. We rarely eat red meat anymore. And we've given up pork entirely. Pigs are just too damn smart for me to feel comfortable consuming them. And the day I saw them listening, really listening to a boy play the harmonica, it was over for me.
This doesn't mean we don't like it. I LOVE hamburgers. I LOVE filet mignon wrapped in bacon with melted bleu cheese on top sitting on a puddle of a port wine reduction (AH! I'M DYING!) and pork chops and pork roasts and sausage and Beef Bourguignon.
LOVE IT.
MEAN IT.
DAMN IT.
And for the most part, I'm comfortable with our place on the food chain.
It's the disgusting, vile way we treat our "food" before it's slaughtered that bothers me.
It's disgraceful. And I want to live more respectfully than that. To support more respectful practices than that.
And just reading,
"Cattle are herd animals, happiest with other cattle. Calves feel most content and secure when with adult cattle (even if none of them are their mothers). Separating a bunch of calves from their mothers and putting them in a pen by themselves creates a great deal of anxiety and stress for the calves. A big calf that is healthy and eating well does not really need milk from his mother anymore, but he still feels emotionally dependent on her, and very insecure without her."
straight from Cattle Today is enough to curb my enthusiasm for meat right there, let alone the environmental ramifications of mass beef consumption, OR health reasons - red meat links to heart disease and some cancers.
Cheeseburger Footprint - from Six Degrees from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo.
The Cheeseburger Footprint: "the greenhouse gas emissions arising every year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs."
Jonathan Safran Foer reveals on "Ellen" the facts of our factory farms.
Jonathan Safran Foer's animal farm (Book Review From The Washington Post)
"Ultimately, Foer insists that his is not a call to vegetarianism as much as a call to acknowledge that meat matters. After he has described in brutal detail some of the horrors of industrial slaughterhouses, his visits to heroic farmers such as Frank Reese and Bill Niman demonstrate that the choice doesn't have to be between eating meat and not. So-called compassionate carnivores can choose to seek out meat from family farms that would sooner set their barns on fire than let an animal suffer, although Foer points out that such farms produce less than 1 percent of the animal meat in the country. None of this is simple. Even some of the book's good guys, such as Niman, allow branding, castration and removal of cattle's horn buds with hot irons. Moreover, as Foer was finishing his research, Niman was forced out of the company he founded, saying new owners were more concerned about profits than animal welfare; he publicly proclaimed that he would no longer eat Niman Ranch meat." (And Bill Niman's wife is now a vegetarian.)
I don't really know where I'm going with this... Yes, I do.
I would just like to urge you before the pending Thanksgiving Holiday to shop for your food responsibly. And it DOESN'T have to be expensive:
Sole Food: Eating organically (and responsibly) on a food-stamp budget.
And think respectfully towards what you eat, because it literally becomes part of you. Not because you should. But, rather because you can.
Your choices DO make a difference. Either way, good or bad, you make a difference.
There is no in-between.
*** Freaked out about hamburgers now? There's an alternative: Recipe for Black Bean Burgers
Now granted, the last time Will made Black Bean Burgers, they were yummy in my tummy, yes. Unfortunately, it was the night before I was flying from New York to Los Angeles and I farted the entire way. THE WHOLE WAY, PEOPLE. They just shut down the engines somewhere over Philly and I powered the plane the rest of the way there. We arrived 25 minutes later.
Oh sure, everyone was unconscious upon arrival at LAX, but still. We got there FAST.
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