Environment

By David Swanson

Way back in January, the ocean was still ocean, oil still oil, and combining the two had not yet occurred to us.  The Conch Republic, the Florida Keys, was -- in retrospect -- a secure and pristine paradise.

The danger was of sunburn, not of crude oil on your skin or toxic chemicals in the air you breathed.

While I was there with my family, we enjoyed the sand, sun, and sea.  But we wanted to see more pelicans.  We wanted to see lots of pelicans.

PROTEST BP IN CVILLE ON MEMORIAL DAY


Blow-Out Polluters, Bull Promoters, Bellowing Pigs, Beyond Prosecution?

What ever you call BP, it's destroying the Gulf of Mexico, utterly destroying it. 

Think I'm kidding?  See these images.

And people in Charlottesville, in addition to through their taxes, are giving money directly to BP every day at gas stations.

This has got to end!

For $5 Friday I just gave $5 to http://savethewildup.org

As my friend (and book editor) Crystal Yakacki explains (like many websites, this worthy group's website does not explain itself to newcomers and just gives the latest developments):

"The UP is the upper peninsula of Michigan, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The native people there, and local neighborhoods, have been trying to protect a sacred site from a mine by Kennecott Eagle that will not only destroy the sacred site, but pollute the river, kill the fish, and possibly impact the Lake Superior shoreline.

By David Swanson

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell believes in saving money and does not believe in global warming. So why did he just gave $14 million of our money to a corporation that claims it can fix global warming?

McDonnell on fiscal responsibility:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u-zYpNWmdN0

McDonnell on global warming:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZd40NrjJrU

hekla eruption, Eyjafjalajokull , ash cloud, volcano, bmw, X5, X6The Volcanic ash cloud might halt US BMW production The recent volcanic activity of Eyjafjalajokull filled the skies around Iceland and Europe with a huge ash cloud that could halt production of BMW automobiles at the US company's factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, reports AutoNews.com. If trans-Atlantic flights continue to be delayed for two additional days, says BMW spokesman Mathias Schmidt, the German automaker can be to supply the necessary transmissions to assemble X5 and X6 sport utility automobiles.

Harvey Wasserman spoke in Charlottesville, Va., on April 19, 2010. He discussed past activist successes and new strategies, and the vision of his book Solartopia, as well as the concerns expressed in his recent popular article "Will the Climate Bill Nuke Earth Day?" Wasserman laid out five key steps to fix the mess we're in. You'll want to hear them. Hint: one has to do with corporate power and another with wars.

By David Swanson

Pulling pranks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is just too easy. The Yes Men held a press conference this week pretending to speak for the chamber and fooled the journalists in the room, because "We are no longer going to promote the destruction of the earth's climate" is such a compelling position that it's very tempting to imagine that any human being could adopt it.

But Tom Donohue and his chamber take the opposite position and have for years. William Kovacs, a senior vice president at the chamber, told the LA Times he'd like to stage a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" to deny, not evolution, but human-made climate change.

[Note: I contributed an article, my first ever published in the NY Post. --DS]

MEDIA HEIST BLANKETS CITY WITH "SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST
Tabloid Tells Truth About Climate Change and How It Will Affect City, World

Fake New York Post: http://www.nypost-se.com/
Video News Release: http://www.nypost-se.com/video
City report on climate change: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf
Wake-up call: http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

Here's an announcement from CleanHouston.org about the climate fight, which parallels the health fight. The Democrats in both cases have produced bills that go 90% of the way to satisfying the industries responsible for the problems. In return, in both cases, those industries have used astroturf groups and the corporate media to generate pseudo-populist revolts against the impure efforts that did not provide 100% profit maximization:

Energy Citizens, a corporate-organized Astroturf alliance funded in large part by the American Petroleum Institute, is holding rallies in 20 states over the August congressional recess. The rallies aim to undermine the efforts to get climate legislation enacted at the federal level.

Creating Clean Energy Jobs: Helping People Helping the Environment

Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 11:00 a.m.

Congressman Tom Perriello
Homeowner Ingrid Feggans
Homeowner Chad Thorne
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris
Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek
Worker Michael Stewart
Chair of White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley
Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality Van Jones (hovering but not speaking)

Backstory: Admirable, if insufficient, as this event was, there is an unpleasant context. The week before this event, Congressman Tom Perriello voted for $100 billion for wars (which he was happy to do) combined with $100 billion in loans to eastern European banksters through the International Monetary Fund (which he will likely be hammered for in television ads a year from now, and which he claims to have opposed even while voting for). The White House and Democratic Party leaders made a lot of promises and threats to pass the bill in a very close vote. The day before this event House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer came to Charlottesville for an event with Perriello. Now Van Jones and Nancy Sutley came. Who will be next? My money is on a south district event with a military big whig. You read it here first.

OPEN FOR VIDEOS

7:10 p.m. ET on Thursday: Mindy Lubber from CERES is one of the speakers, formerly at EPA; also Brad Figel global director of govt. affairs for Nike formerly at Senate finance committee (holding up a "sustainable shoe" and supposedly wanting to push Congress to pass "meaningful" climate legislation this year); (Rep. John Dingell seems to be late).

By David Swanson

This weekend in Washington, D.C., there was a lot of preparation for Monday's massive civil disobedience for clean energy at the Capitol power plant. Nonviolence trainings, sign creation, conferences. On Sunday night, just before it began snowing hard, I attended a gathering of authors, poets, singers, and the lead organizers of the action in a large university auditorium, and blogged as follows: