Our chapter of the Sierra Club is sending a contingent to the gulf to help with the clean up. We managed to get donations of Dawn and towels for animal rescue. Harrah’s is putting up our people in their hotel. The volunteers are getting free Hazmat training, too. Everything will be documented and I’ll try to get some pix to post here. I was invited to go, but I can’t afford a week away right now. At least I could play a small part in making it possible. There’s a lot more to do, of course, but I’m counting this goal as done. 2 years ago

Microbe found in gulf that has consumed the plumes

As near as I can tell, this is a “science” article published in a reputable big city newspaper.

Or is it… Return of the Triffids?

Who can tell? It reads like sci-fi – is it real? Is it crap? Does it look like a duck, walk like a duck, and talk like a duck?

Or did the primitive gods step into the picture and heroically save the planet? 2 years ago

The title of this post, that is something we will not likely know for another decade, as the toxic dispersed oil continues to poison the Gulf and shore life.

This article addresses current issues, albeit from a cynical point of view. It distresses me that whenever politics becomes a part of the piece, whenever big industry is involved, there is so much spin on the story that some peculiarly 21st century uncertainty principle applies: The only sure thing about what you are reading is the fragmented sides broken off from the whole of our humanity are each and all equally certain to tell lies and more lies, thus hiding the truth in a mass of rubbish.

What happened to our collective desire to know the truth and in doing so be better able to interact positively in our world? 2 years ago

I’ve been trying to keep track of the air quality reports from the EPA and they are saying that people are smelling the chemicals and getting sick. http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/air.html Maps are online. 2 years ago

One of the many terrible rumors about the BP oil spill is that the dispersants are going to wipe out everything. I’ve been trying to find reliable data and so I was really happy that the EPA released a report about the dispersants today. http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/dispersants-testing.html 2 years ago

Found a link to a video of Anderson Cooper explaining how the new Coast Guard regulations are limiting media access to oil spill sites. Horrible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsmLMV1CrM

NOAA just released a projection that the spill will reach Ft. Lauderdale by Aug. 18 http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100702_longterm.html

Still trying to figure out if the rumors about the other dangers, evacuation preparations are true. Will post when I find something. 2 years ago

I feel really hopeful that this ship can skim and clean oil. It will need epa exemptions but will help. Its a 3 day race to get there before the hurricaines. http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/massive-oilskimming-ship-makes-stop-norfolk 2 years ago

For now, I’m trying to stay aware of the problem. I don’t know what to do except stay informed and make sure my family is informed. I’ve been posting links to official news on my Facebook account. Horrible things are happening to people, animals, the water, the beaches.
Its very sad. 2 years ago

I’m on a quest to find a source of royalty free photos of the Gulf Oil Spill to use as Facebook Profile pictures. When I find them, I’m going to try to get as many people as possible to change their photos on every social network that I can and leave them there until the leak is stopped. Does anyone here know someone who has photos that they will share? 2 years ago

I know this goal is supposed to be about action and about “fighting the good fight” and not about bitching and complaining, but I can’t help but be FURIOUS when I read things like this.

Talk about adding fucking insult to injury. You see, Hayward is just “getting his life back” off the clear waters in the Southern coast of England and spending some “quality time” together with his son. Aw, doesn’t it make your heart melt? Just in time for Father’s Day, too!

Motherfuckingfuck. 2 years ago

OK, OK, you all knew that already. But, I am disturbed that the democrats are consistently using this horrible disaster as a siphon for money into their war chests.

Today the war chant is all about Sarah Palin and her request not to demonize BP – so send money! Every day pages of this hit my mailbox, and yet there are never any pages about what LED TO this.

The solutions must embrace the causal factors, and those have everything to do with politicians needs for money, so they can fund their campaigns to stay in office. 2 years ago

http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/six-things-to-do-about-the-gulf-disaster

For now, I am building awareness of the intersecting roles of government and the oil industry.

The US military is the largest consumer of oil in the world, and the largest organization in the world. It is also charged with guarding oil delivery to the US, at a cost of as much as 30 cents a gallon.

Oil subsidies are in the billions of dollars per year.

Oil companies are major funders of political campaigns.

What this all adds up to is a sort of knot that binds those in office to oil company interests, makes legislators more answerable to oil companies than to the American people.

It seems logical that one important answer to this problem would be to divorce oil interests from politics. The way to do this would be to make it illegal for any entity or person to fund a political campaign. Instead, the media would be charged with covering all elections. They could gabble on as much as they want about whomever they want, but would be invited to televise debates among candidates, much as they do now. Every candidate would publish their positions on their internet sites, and all Q & A would be through their sites. Lobbying would be illegal. Simple. So why is this not in the works?

My guess is it is because of the complex web of hidden interests that operates the US political system. Woven into this web are junkets and prizes and vast sums of money, private jets, yachts and prostitutes of all sorts. The allure and the glitz, the pure sexiness of the whole experience is something they won’t give up until it is yanked away.

The cost of what amounts to a rock star life style for every senator and congressperson is shown in the Gulf disaster. No one was willing to expose the truth about how big oil operates, and now the evidence of how it operates is splashed all over the birds and dolphins, strangling the coastline, and insidiously surging through the gulf waters on its way into the Atlantic Ocean.

I will say it again – one answer to this is to sever the ties between government and the oil industry, and the way to do that is by doing away with the ability to spend money on a run for public office, other than to set up a web site. 2 years ago

other than continue doing what I have been doing so far (avoiding plastic like the plague, recycling, not driving), choices that make sense to me, but that do not feel like action.

I also signed some online petitions as soon as I added this goal. I’m glad to hear that BP has now set aside an account to pay for different damages and cleanup effort (not that that was a result of the petitions, but anyway…)

I got an invite a few days ago for the goal to boycott BP (thank,s tikini). The reason why I didn’t join that goal is that I don’t even drive much (now it’s once every few months), and when I used to drive, I never used BP gas. Like K~ said, I certainly won’t start now, either. 2 years ago

Maybe it would be helpful to identify the real issues

1- There are causal factors beyond the fact that bp made some grave mistakes – the same error that caused the Titanic to sink is at play here: getting the job done faster. Faster is rarely better. As a culture, we need to pull away from this attitude. We need to redefine certain ethics and move back toward excellence as a defining goal.

2- there is a clamor for Obama to step up to the plate and take charge of this disaster. Beyond words, where is the federal intervention? It has been suggested that BP has such a financial gravitas both as a corporate entity and a financial backer to the democratic party and the Obama campaign that any move into their business by the government would be a disaster of its own. It has also been suggested that a federal takeover would reduce accountability for the entities that caused the disaster.

3 – There are numerous accounts of BP interfering with efforts to help by non-BP employees while BP employees slack off on the job. This fuels my anger to near explosion.

4 – As spiraljetty point out here, we need truth and transparency. As this disaster spins ever more out of control, one wonders how the figure 5000 gallons a day ever was posited. A third grader could look at the webcam down there and realize the volume of oil escaping far exceeds 5000 gallons a day. When any fat corporation opens their mouth, someone needs to say “prove it”, and if if was a false claim, there should be an automatic penalty. And yes, what conceivably could happen here? What are the chances the oil plumes will be pulled into the Atlantic Ocean and from there everywhere? What will happen to the algae? It makes me sick to see the dying sea creatures, but far far worse would be the obliteration of algae. Is it at all likely the floor of the gulf itself will collapse as the oil is depleted? What happens if it does?

Like I said, I am obsessing and I want to stop. So if these ideas are ludicrous, please tell me why…

And I nearly forgot – the ethics of responsibility. these clearly need redefining. 2 years ago

Did a bit of a web search and found out that there will be an address on Tuesday night from President Obama about the oil spill. Here is a link to the official site http://www.whitehouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill/

Will keep looking for what I can do. There is a link on the page about where to send technology ideas. Any inventors out there? 2 years ago

First of all we need to know the truth about the anticipated impacts of this spill. We should be able to get that from the government but I’m not sure whether we are or not.

We need the media to keep going down there reporting the stories and put them up front for us in a way that keeps us from getting the idea that its taken care of, overwith or on the other hand, overwhelming.

We need to know what we can do from far away. If there are evacuations and resettlements, people will need help.
Found one site that might be reliable, will check..
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/

Can anyone do anything to help with technology for cleanup? Some of our best minds need to work on this NOW. Otherwise, no orange juice.

Projected impacts on the food chain, not just fish need to be made public.

Whats this about Benzene and Sulfer Dioxide? 2 years ago

I think we need to start making a ruckus and get this moved up in importance in everyones minds. Its easy to think it won’t effect us because its not where we live. Thats not right. It will. Make noise. Thats a start. 2 years ago

1. Sign a petition to seize BP’s assets.
2. Tell Washington to put controls on Big Oil.
3. Get two more of your friends to do the same. 2 years ago