Category Archives: cool sites

Green Wash – The enviromental pollution that keeps giving

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George Bush and his deregulationistas turned green into a bad name. From their expansion of organic products from 120 to well over 1,000 to their attempt to promote something mythologically called clean coal, the Bush administration was hell bent on destroying the environment.  Tragically he may be remembered as the man who set aside more ocean square miles as a wild life sanctuary than any other president…but that is another story…

here is a great site for it:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Greenwashing

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Greenwashing

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This is part of the Center for Media & Democracy’s climate change project.

Greenwashing is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy.

The U.S.-based watchdog group CorpWatch defines greenwash as “the phenomena of socially and environmentally destructive corporations, attempting to preserve and expand their markets or power by posing as friends of the environment.” This definition was shaped by by the group’s focus on corporate behavior and the rise of corporate green advertising at the time. However, governments, political candidates, trade associations and non-government organizations have also been accused of greenwashing. [1]

The 10th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defined greenwash as “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. Derivatives greenwashing (n). Origin from green on the pattern of whitewash.” [1]

In 2008 the environmental group Greenpeace launched a website Stop Greenwash to “confront deceptive greenwashing campaigns, engage companies in debate, and give consumers and activists and lawmakers the information and tools they need to … hold corporations accountable for the impacts their core business decisions and investments are having on our planet.” [2]

Contents

[hide]

The allure of greenwashing

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Of course Green Peace has to have their say:

http://stopgreenwash.org/

What’s this all about?

Every day, Americans are bombarded with advertising about environmentally friendly goods and services. But how many really are green, and how many are just pretending?

dddot dddot dddot

About Shell Oil they say:

At a time when the fate of this federally protected area is so vulnerable and at risk of being altered forever by oil, Greenpeace felt it necessary to shed light on the ironic fact that Shell has used the place to brand its own image as green and actually caring about the environment.

The oil company ran a full-page print advertisement in National Geographic Magazine and several other publications, which featured a color picture of a diver swimming through deep blue water featuring brightly colored fish and coral. The statement in the middle of the ad says: “What do we really need in today’s energy hungry world? More gardeners.”

More gardeners? If that’s really what we needed, we could just stop drilling for oil all together right? All we need is more gardeners.

But Shell doesn’t really mean that at all.

They know that in today’s energy hungry world, oil is the food and the company’s main priority. Even through the thickest green glasses, few are going to dispute that fact.

The rest of the text on the advertisement reads that a Shell employee and marine biologist has been working with the company to protect the area.

But how much could the oil giant really be protecting when the company also actually drills near the vulnerable sanctuary.

The advertisement and words on the page are clearly for show.

Shell does have close ties to the Flower Gardens. In fact, an executive from Shell Canada, Rebecca Nadel serves on the sanctuary’s advisory council. Also on the team for the sanctuary is James Sinclair of the now notorious Minerals Management Service. At first glance, it doesn’t exactly look like those employed to protect the sanctuary are representing the most responsible organizations.

Shell has a cozy bed in sanctuary bureaucracy.

The company however, does donate money to Flower Gardens. The Green Life reports $5,000 of direct funding each year. However, the site also acknowledges that it costs nearly six figures to run one advertisement in National Geographic. For a drop in the bucket, the oil giant rebrands its image as being concerned with the underwater sanctuary.

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More tomorrow

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Carrington’s Flare – While we wait to see how well the cap works in BP’s Oil Gusher

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I will try to post more green wash meditations but let us consider how bad things can get here at times. This is an event I was actually unaware of and it’s coolness is pretty high.

Authors: Trudy E. Bell & Dr. Tony Phillips | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/

A Super Solar Flare

May 6, 2008: At 11:18 AM on the cloudless morning of Thursday, September 1, 1859, 33-year-old Richard Carrington—widely acknowledged to be one of England’s foremost solar astronomers—was in his well-appointed private observatory. Just as usual on every sunny day, his telescope was projecting an 11-inch-wide image of the sun on a screen, and Carrington skillfully drew the sunspots he saw.

Right: Sunspots sketched by Richard Carrington on Sept. 1, 1859. Copyright: Royal Astronomical Society: more.

On that morning, he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something unprecedented and “being somewhat flurried by the surprise,” Carrington later wrote, “I hastily ran to call someone to witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds, I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled.” He and his witness watched the white spots contract to mere pinpoints and disappear.

It was 11:23 AM. Only five minutes had passed.

Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.

Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted.

“What Carrington saw was a white-light solar flare—a magnetic explosion on the sun,” explains David Hathaway, solar physics team lead at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Now we know that solar flares happen frequently, especially during solar sunspot maximum. Most betray their existence by releasing X-rays (recorded by X-ray telescopes in space) and radio noise (recorded by radio telescopes in space and on Earth). In Carrington’s day, however, there were no X-ray satellites or radio telescopes. No one knew flares existed until that September morning when one super-flare produced enough light to rival the brightness of the sun itself.

“It’s rare that one can actually see the brightening of the solar surface,” says Hathaway. “It takes a lot of energy to heat up the surface of the sun!”

Above: A modern solar flare recorded Dec. 5, 2006, by the X-ray Imager onboard NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite. The flare was so intense, it actually damaged the instrument that took the picture. Researchers believe Carrington’s flare was much more energetic than this one.

The explosion produced not only a surge of visible light but also a mammoth cloud of charged particles and detached magnetic loops—a “CME”—and hurled that cloud directly toward Earth. The next morning when the CME arrived, it crashed into Earth’s magnetic field, causing the global bubble of magnetism that surrounds our planet to shake and quiver. Researchers call this a “geomagnetic storm.” Rapidly moving fields induced enormous electric currents that surged through telegraph lines and disrupted communications.

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Here is a really good article on it. I am posting a chunk of it not covered above.

http://passingstrangeness.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/the-carrington-flare/

The Carrington Flare

April 15, 2009

As it happened, a second member of the Royal Astronomical society (another Richard, this one the otherwise-obscure Richard Hodgson in London), also saw the flare and so proved conclusively that there was nothing wrong with Carrington’s equipment. By the time this was realized, though, it was already pretty clear that something truly odd had happened—something rattled the Earth’s atmosphere the next day, as described above.

The connections between light, magnetism, and electricity were still incompletely understood in 1859 (James Clerk Maxwell would not entirely coincidentally publish his tour de force on the subject over the next few years), but Michael Faraday had already discovered the Law of Induction. Shorn of mathematics, it provided for the creation of electricity if a piece of metal cuts across a magnetic field or the field instead cuts over the metal. That was the connection between the strange readings at Kew and the telegraphic events around the world. The enormous auroras were symptomatic of huge fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field, and those fluctuations were playing across the world’s 200,000 kilometers of telegraph wire. By analyzing the directions followed by wires and comparing them to the effects that occurred at their stations, it was even possible to develop a rough idea of how the fluctuations had flowed around the planet.

Though the correlation between sunspots and the fluctuations of Earth’s magnetic field had already been discovered by Edward Sabine, this was the first really solid evidence that the Sun could reach out to the Earth with something other than light or gravity. Conservative by nature, Carrington himself didn’t commit to a connection between his flare and the electromagnetic storm, but now we know that the Sun throws off coronal mass ejections consisting of protons and electrons (the first having been observed in 1971). We even know for sure that the 1859 event was caused by one, despite the more than a century since it occurred; protons and electrons expelled by the Sun move quickly, but not anything like the speed of light, so that accounts for the delay between Carrington seeing his flare and the beginning of the auroras.

The clincher can be found on one of the charts linked to previously. There’s a “fishhook” shape (marked with an arrow labeled “D: Solar Flare Effect”) in the bottom trace. That’s called a magnetic crochet, and it’s the characteristic bump in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by X-rays from the coronal mass ejection ionizing part of our atmosphere. X-rays move at the speed of light, outpacing the charged particles following them—and it takes eight minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth at that speed. As closely as can be told from the relatively crude instrumentation that drew the track (hours are listed at the top of the same chart), the crochet occurred within the same time frame as Carrington’s closely timed 11:18 observation of the flare. So we have both a delayed effect from the slow stream of charged particles and a high-speed effect moving at light speed; a coronal mass ejection fits the bill exactly.

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The Wikki article is kinda lame:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Christopher_Carrington

Richard Christopher Carrington

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Richard Christopher Carrington
Born 26 May 1826
Chelsea, London, England
Died 27 November 1875 (aged 49)
Churt, England
Nationality English
Fields Astronomy
Known for Solar observations
Notable awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1859

Richard Christopher Carrington (26 May 1826 – 27 November 1875) was an English amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations first corroborated the existence of solar flares as well as their electrical influence upon the Earth and its aurorae; and whose 1863 records of sunspot observations demonstrated differential rotation in the Sun.

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It’s amazing how far we have come…but the Oil Gusher shows how far we have to go..

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Boycott BP – At this very moment they are pumping mud into the blowout preventer

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How could you possibly continue to call that thing a Blowout Preventer? It is just too sick to contemplate.  Drilling mud is pretty toxic so here is hoping very little of it has to be pumped in to the Gulf itself.

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http://www.leanweb.org/

BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Causes “Summer Of Tears” For Louisiana Bayoukeeper
We would like to share with you a reflection on the personal impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster written by our colleague and friend Mike Roberts of Louisiana Bayoukeeper. Mike has made a life for himself and his family fishing the waters of the Louisiana coast. Now BP’s disaster is threatening an entire way of life.
Mike Roberts
Summer Of Tears
by Mike Roberts

The boat ride, out, from Lafitte, Louisiana, Sunday, May 23, 2010, to our fishing grounds was not unlike any other I have taken in my life, as a commercial fisherman from this area. I have made the trip thousands of times in my 35 plus years shrimping and crabbing. A warm breeze in my face, it is a typical Louisiana summer day. 3 people were with me, my wife Tracy, Ian Wren, and our grandson, Scottie. I was soon to find out, how untypical this day would become for me, not unlike a death in the family. This was going to be a very bad day for me.

As we neared Barataria Bay, the smell of crude oil in the air was getting thicker and thicker. An event that always brought joy to me all of my life, the approach of the fishing grounds, was slowly turning into a nightmare. As we entered Grand Lake, the name we fishermen call Barataria Bay, I started to see a weird, glassy look to the water and soon it became evident to me, there was oil sheen as far as I could see. Soon, we were running past patches of red oil floating on top of the water. As we headed farther south, we saw at least a dozen boats, in the distance, which appeared to be shrimping. We soon realized that shrimping was not what they were doing at all, but instead they were towing oil booms in a desperate attempt to corral oil that was pouring into our fishing grounds. We stopped to talk to one of the fishermen, towing a boom, a young fisherman from Lafitte. What he told me floored me. He said, “What we are seeing in the lake, the oil, was but a drop in the bucket of what was to come.” He had just come out of the Gulf of Mexico and he said, “It was unbelievable, the oil runs for miles and miles and was headed for shore and into our fishing grounds”. I thought, what I had already seen in the lake was enough for a lifetime. We talked a little while longer, gave the fisherman some protective respirators and were soon on our way. As we left the small fleet of boats, working feverishly, trying to corral the oil, I became overwhelmed with what I just saw.

I am not real emotional and consider myself a pretty tough guy.You have to be to survive as a fisherman. As I left that scene, tears flowed down my face and I cried. Something I have not done in a long time, but would do several more times that day. I tried not to let my grandson, Scottie, see me crying. I didn’t think he would understand, I was crying for his stolen future. None of this will be the same, for decades to come. The damage is going to be immense and I do not think our lives here in South Louisiana will ever be the same. He is too young to understand. He has an intense love for our way of life here. He wants to be a fisherman and a fishing guide when he gets older. It is what he is, it is in his soul, and it is his culture. How can I tell him that this may never come to pass now, now that everything he loves in the outdoors may soon be destroyed by this massive oil spill? How do we tell this to a generation of young people, in south Louisiana who live and breathe this bayou life that they love so much, could soon be gone? How do we tell them? All this raced through my mind and I wept.

We continued farther south towards Grand Terre Island. We approached Bird Island. The real name is Queen Bess Island, but we call it Bird Island, because it is always full of birds. It is a rookery, a nesting island for thousands of birds, pelicans, terns, gulls etc. As we got closer, we saw that protective boom had been placed around about two thirds of the island. It was obvious to me, that oil had gone under the boom and was fouling the shore and had undoubtedly oil some birds. My God. We would see this scene again at Cat Island and other unnamed islands that day. We continued on to the east past Coup Abel Pass and more shrimp boats trying to contain some of the oil on the surface. We arrived at 4 Bayou Pass to see more boats working on the same thing. We beached the boat and decided to look at the beach between the passes.

The scene was one of horror to me. There was thick red oil on the entire stretch of beach, with oil continuing to wash ashore. The water looked to be infused with red oil, with billions of, what appeared to be, red pebbles of oil washing up on the beach with every wave. The red oil pebbles, at the high tide mark on the beach were melting into pools of red goo in the hot Louisiana sun. The damage was overwhelming. There was nobody there to clean it up. It would take an army to do it. Like so much of coastal Louisiana, it was accessible only by boat. Will it ever be cleaned up? I don’t know. Tears again. We soon left that beach and started to head home.

We took a little different route home, staying a little farther to the east side of Barataria Bay. As we approached the northern end of the bay, we ran into another raft of oil that appeared to be covering many square miles. It was only a mile from the interior bayous on the north side of Barataria Bay. My God. No boats were towing boom in this area. I do not think anyone even knew it was there. A little bet farther north, we saw some shrimp boats with boom, on anchor, waiting to try and protect Bayou St. Dennis from the oil. I alerted them of the approaching oil. I hope they were able to control it before it reached the bayou. We left them and started to head in.

My heart never felt so heavy, as on that ride in. I thought to myself, this is the most I’ve cried since I was a baby. In fact I am sure it was. This will be a summer of tears for a lot of us in south Louisiana.

Michael Roberts
Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Inc

You can find Notes From The Louisiana Bayoukeeper here:
http://lmrk.org/notes-from-the-louisiana-bayoukeeper/
SaveOurGulf.orgVisit SaveOurGulf.org to get more information about the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster from Waterkeeper organizations across the Gulf Coast and donate to Save Our Gulf!

For More About LEAN:

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Boycott BP – But is that possible? They own Arcoa

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PB Has huge holdings in Aluminum, Lubricants, and Financial Services it would take the whole world to make it work..Go to:
http://www.bp.com

and click on Products and Services. You will be amazed at the things that they own and the things that they sell. These folks really are too big to fail. So:

How Big is the Spill?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 10:46 AM
From:
“Maggie L. Fox, Repower America” <info@repoweramerica.org>
To:
“doug nicodemus” <dougnic55@yahoo.com>

Repower America

Dear doug,

It’s now been over a month since the Deepwater Oil Disaster began — and not only has BP failed to stop the flow of oil so far, but we still don’t even know how big the spill is — because BP won’t allow anyone else to investigate the extent of the problem.

The secrecy must stop.

BP is refusing to share information — data it’s already tracking — that would assist in the response and public understanding of the scope and severity of the Deepwater Oil Disaster. And they have every incentive in the world to keep doing so — news reports say that the smaller the official estimates of the spill, the lower BP’s liability could be in court.1

We don’t let criminals investigate their own crimes, and this shouldn’t be any different. It’s time for BP to get out of the way and allow access for independent scientists and engineers to determine the real size of this catastrophe.

Sign the petition today calling on BP to provide full access to all their data to the government and independent scientists.

Independent reviews by scientists across the country are suggesting that the oil leak may be as much as 19 times worse than the original estimates — but BP refuses to provide them with the data required to make their estimates more precise. All we know for sure is that the oil just keeps on gushing.

BP is extremely sensitive right now to public pressure — so let’s tell them that we won’t stand for them hiding the truth. We’ll deliver copies of the petitions and any comments you submit to the CEO of BP, as well as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Demand full access to BP’s data and real answers about the Deepwater disaster.

Thanks for joining this fight,

Maggie L. Fox
Chief Executive Officer
Climate Protection Action Fund

P.S. This disaster is a painful reminder of how dangerous our addiction to oil really is – and how critical it is that our elected officials in Washington pass strong climate and clean energy legislation that weans us off of dirty fossil fuels as soon as possible. We must make sure that Americans and our leaders understand the true cost of oil. We simply can’t afford a BP coverup. Sign the petition now demanding full transparency.

___________
1. Marisa Taylor, Renee Schoof and Erika Bolstad, “Low oil spill estimate could save BP millions in court,” McClatchy Newspapers, May 20, 2010. http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100521/pl_mcclatchy/3511770

 
Paid for by the Climate Protection Action Fund

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Maybe this is the best we can do.

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Boycott BP – British Petroleum needs to be taught an economic lesson

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Unfortunately that may be more difficult than you think…As Terry Gross says…first the news

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/21-6

Published on Friday, May 21, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Boycott BP

by Robert Weissman

Why?

Because BP must pay.

Eleven oil workers are dead. One of the largest oil spills in U.S. history continues to worsen. BP’s oil gusher at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico may be 100 times worse than BP first estimated (and 20 times worse than the company presently claims). 100 times!

BP’s oil gusher is now threatening coastal lands in Louisiana and is almost certain to destroy fisheries and the livelihoods of people who fish and shrimp in the Gulf, or rely on the Gulf for tourism business. The giant plumes of oil deep underwater will exact an unknown toll on sea life. And the spreading oil may even wind up in currents that eventually take it to the U.S. Eastern shores.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is sanguine about the whole problem. The Financial Times quotes him saying, “I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”

A boycott will send a message to BP that its shoddy oversight of this project and its history of environmental and worker safety violations is unforgivable. Take the BP Boycott Pledge, and commit not to buy gas from BP for at least three months. Go here: www.beyondBP.org

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Please read the entire article. This guy is pissed off.  And if you click on the link you go to these guys.

http://www.citizen.org/page.aspx?pid=3311

Boycott BP

Take the Beyond BP Pledge! Drive a car? Like the occasional fountain drink? Send a clear message to BP by boycotting its gas and retail store products. Don’t spend a cent of your hard-earned money to feed the bottom line of a corporation that has a sordid history of negligence, willfully violates environmental regulations, and is spewing thousands and thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

I pledge to boycott BP for at least three months.

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But these guys are more fun:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-BP/119101198107726

Kirk Stewart Lager If they cap the leaking well, they can no longer harvest profits from it…… The government is letting them keep trying all these attempts to control it right now (oil recovery system over the well head, a smaller containment dome – dubbed a “top hat”, and now the collection tube that is half ass in place)…… Cap…ping the leak means capping the profits, and apparently we can’t have that.

See More
5 minutes ago · Flag

www.wdsu.com
BELLE CHASSE, La. — Pelicans are the pride of Louisiana, but their images and species could be greatly impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Sunday, May 23, 2010.

Teresa Green I was in BigRapids Mi. today only saw one care at the local BP. And in my home town Barryton MI. There were people at the station but only one was buying gas.

6 minutes ago · · Flag

Description:
Boycott BP stations until the spill is cleaned up!…FOREVER. BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe. http://twitter.com/bayoulee. HEY MEDIA WE WANT AN “OJ COVERAGE” CHANNEL DEVOTED TO THIS BP OIL DISASTER AND WE WANT IT NOW! Boycott des stations. Boicot estaciones. Tankstellen boykottieren. boykot BP stationer. boikotti BP.?????? BP.Bojkot BP. bojkott BP. BP stasies boikot.Bojkot stacji BP.boykot BP. bojkot BP stanice.boicottare le stazioni BP. boykote BP estasyon. ?????? BP. boicot gorsafoedd BPsniðganga BP stöðvar til hella niður er hreinsað! boykot BP. boicot estacións BP. Boicotul sta?ii BP.?????? BP. BP kususia vituo mpaka spill ni kusafishwa up!????????? ???????? BP. ???? BP ????? ?? ????? ??? ????! BP t?y chay ?ài cho ??n khi ???c làm s?ch tràn lên!???????? ??.??. ???????? ?? ??? ??? ??!BP????????????????? ! ????????????????????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???! !?????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ????? ???? ???!????? ?????????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ????! (read less)
Boycott BP stations until the spill is cleaned up!…FOREVER. BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe. http://twitter.com/bayoulee. HEY MEDIA WE WANT AN “OJ COVERAGE” CHANNEL DEVOTED TO THIS BP OIL DISASTER AND WE WANT IT NOW! Boycott des stations. Boicot estaciones. Tankstellen boykottieren. boykot BP stationer. boikotti BP.?????? BP.Bojkot BP. bojkott BP. BP stasies boikot.Bojkot stacji BP.boykot BP. bojkot BP stanice.boicottare le stazioni BP…. (read more)
Website:
http://twitter.com/bayoulee

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There is only one problem with this. BP owns so much other crap that putting a dent in their gasoline sales will only amount to a sneeze. Did you know that BP owns Arcoa and a Solar Panel manufacturer? More tomorrow…much more.

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Jevons’ Paradox – Truth or intellectual masterbation

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I vote for intellectual masterbation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conservation

Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption in order to preserve resources for the future and reduce environmental pollution. It can be achieved through efficient energy use (when energy use is decreased while achieving a similar outcome), or by reduced consumption of energy services. Energy conservation may result in increase of financial capital, environmental value, national security, personal security, and human comfort. Individuals and organizations that are direct consumers of energy may want to conserve energy in order to reduce energy costs and promote economic security. Industrial and commercial users may want to increase efficiency and thus maximize profit.

Electrical energy conservation is an important element of energy policy. Energy conservation reduces the energy consumption and energy demand per capita and thus offsets some of the growth in energy supply needed to keep up with population growth. This reduces the rise in energy costs, and can reduce the need for new power plants, and energy imports. The reduced energy demand can provide more flexibility in choosing the most preferred methods of energy production.

By reducing emissions, energy conservation is an important part of lessening climate change. Energy conservation facilitates the replacement of non-renewable resources with renewable energy. Energy conservation is often the most economical solution to energy shortages, and is a more environmentally benign alternative to increased energy production. Another method is switchingto the user friendly SM energy. This is produced at Swan Energy Savers, envirmental helpers.[1]

dot dot dot as they say…

Issues with energy conservation

Critics and advocates of some forms of energy conservation make the following arguments:

  • Standard economic theory suggests that technological improvements increase energy efficiency, rather than reduce energy use. This is called the Jevons Paradox and it is said to occur in two ways. Firstly, increased energy efficiency makes the use of energy relatively cheaper, thus encouraging increased use. Secondly, increased energy efficiency leads to increased economic growth, which pulls up energy use in the whole economy. This does not imply that increased fuel efficiency is worthless, increased fuel efficiency enables greater production and a higher quality of life. However, in order to reduce energy consumption, efficiency gains must be paired with a government intervention that reduces demand (a green tax, cap and trade).[6][7]

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Just the shear arrogance of this guy makes me vote for the truth side.

http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2005/12/180-jevons-paradox-refuted.html

Well… the doomers love Jevons Paradox. For them it is, above all, a reason not to conserve (or a reason why conservation “won’t help”). After all, why should anybody conserve gasoline? If they do so, it will (by Jevons Paradox) just cause consumption of gasoline to increase.

Now, we may not be able to refute Jevons Paradox as an empirical fact, but we certainly can refute the way doomers are using it. We can do it with a single example:
In a vast parking lot ruled by cars and low-slung superstores, Stacey Harper delivers the unlikeliest of travel alternatives: mass transit.

The 41-year-old nurse wheels a white minivan into a rain-dappled parking spot to pick up a couple more co-workers. It is 6 a.m. on a Wednesday in South Hill, and Harper is driving a van pool to work at Western State Hospital.

A year ago, Harper thought nothing of driving 36 miles from home to work alone. That was before the price of a gallon of gasoline began its steady march upward, ultimately costing her $180 to $200 per month.

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Please see the rest of the blog AND comments, but his point is that people that conserve energy make money. Once they do that they will rarely ever go back to wasting money. That is Jevons failed to take true consumer behavior into account.

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Gulf Of Mexico Oil Crisis Ends – The Oil Spew is over because BP is sucking on a straw.

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That’s right besides the 40 million gallons of oil lurking in mats 1,500 feet above the ocean floor trapped by dispersants and getting ready to wash into the Atlantic and the continued wash of 40, 000 barrels of oil per day, the crisis is over and we here at CES are going to celebrate Norwegian Independence Day. Why? Because it is neither the day of the actual Norwegian Independence nor is it celebrated for the actual year of their Independence. We feel this is fitting.

http://open.salon.com/blog/norwonk/2009/05/17/independence_day_in_norway

Like Americans, Norwegians love to celebrate what is normally translated as Independence Day. Actually, though the day commemorates the events of May 17, 1814, Norway didn’t really achieve independence until 1905. In Norwegian it is sometimes called Constitution Day, which is more accurate – although there is a problem with that as well.
These confusing facts require some explanation. From 1380 to 1814, Norway was united with Denmark. However, as Denmark was an ally of Napoleon, the great powers of Europe decided that her punishment would be to lose Norway to Sweden (slippery as ever, the Swedes had joined the allies at the opportune moment). When the Norwegians were informed that they were now Swedes, they decided they didn’t like that one little bit. Rather than accepting the news, they elected a national assembly to work out a constitution for an independent Norway (at least, it was supposed to be national; the representatives from the northernmost province had such a long way to travel that they came too late to participate). On May 17, 1814 this first Norwegian parliament elected the Danish Crown Prince, Christian Frederick, as their king.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work out at all. The Swedes had the support of Russia, Britain, Austria and Prussia, and no one cared much for the opinion of the Norwegian people. Long story short: the Swedes invaded, and after a short campaign Christian Frederick renounced his throne and went back to Denmark, leaving Charles XIII the new king of Norway and Sweden. That union would last until the Norwegian parliament declared independence (again) in 1905.
All this made Christian Frederick a rather unpopular man in Norway, but in time it was realized that he had actually made a pretty good deal. In return for giving up the crown, he had convinced the Swedes to accept the new Norwegian constitution which parliament had adopted (confusingly enough on May 16, which really ought to have been our national day, but never mind). That was a huge bonus. The constitution, which is still in place, was among the most democratic in Europe at that time.

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So basically like the oil companies, these folks have 2 or 3 Independence Days (Yaaa we are free) every year and the first one lasts a month. It involves children with flags, students dressed in funny costumes according to their profession, and reenactors dressing up in very old clothes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Norway

The young king and Norwegian officials tried to find international backing for their bid for Norway as a sovereign state throughout spring and early summer of 1814. After failing to secure the support of Great Britain, war with Sweden became unavoidable. The Swedish Campaign against Norway was short and decisive. However, while badly trained and equipped, the Norwegian Army put up a determined fight, holding the Swedes back at Kongsvinger and securing a tactical victory at the battle of Langnes. This enabled the King to avoid an unconditional surrender as he was forced into negotiations with the Swedes, leading to the Convention of Moss.

Putting the strategic situation and his own abdication to good use, he persuaded the Swedish crown prince Carl Johan (the former Marshal Bernadotte of France) to let the Norwegians keep their constitution. The Swedish crown prince wanted to appease the Norwegians and avoid a bloody continuation of the war. Realizing that a forced union with himself as ruler of a conquered and hostile country would be very uneasy, he accepted the Norwegian proposition. Norway then entered into a personal union with Sweden with only such amendments to its constitution as were necessary to form the Union between Sweden and Norway. On October 7, an extraordinary session of the Storting convened, and king Christian Frederik delegated his powers to the parliament and abdicated on October 10. The Storting adopted the constitutional amendments on November 4 and on the same day unanimously elected Charles XIII king of Norway, rather than acknowledging him as such, thus reinforcing the concept a King by the will of the people.

Dissolution and the second King

The union amendments were revoked after the dissolution of the ninety-one-year-old union in 1905. The question of a King was again considered, and the Storting elected to offer the throne to the 33-year-old Prince Carl of Denmark, married to Maud of Wales, the daughter of King Edward VII. By bringing in a king with British royal ties, it was hoped that Norway could court Britain’s support. Prince Carl was however well aware of a surge of republicanism in Norway and of the constitutional situation of the Norwegian throne. He insisted that he would accept the crown only if the Norwegian people expressed their will for monarchy by referendum and if the parliament then elected him king. On November 13, the Norwegian votes decided on monarchy with a 74 percent majority, and Carl was elected King by the Storting, taking the name Haakon VII of Norway.

Several other amendments have been adopted since 1814, the most recent on February 20, 2006. After World War II and the restoration of peace and constitutional rule, there was much debate on how to handle the events of the previous five years. None of this led to any changes in the constitution; it had withstood the test of hard times.

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Of Course lots of drinking and eating herring also ensues. This guy gets to celebrate 4 Independence Days the US, Italy and 2 for Norway.

http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/crispo.htm

First, by way of background, Norway was ruled by the kings of Denmark from the 12th century until early in the 19th century (1814).

In 1814, Denmark was penalized for its support of Napoleon by giving Norway to Sweden. Before the transition was carried out, Norway declared itself independent on May 17, 1814. A degree of independence was retained even after Norway became subject to the Swedish Crown.

In 1905, on May 17, Norway declared its complete independence.

In 1914, World War I began. Norway remained neutral, but many of its ships were sunk.

In 1940-1945: when World War II began, Norway again proclaimed its neutrality. However, on April 9, 1940, Nazi forces invaded the two neutral nations of Norway and Denmark under the guise of protecting them against an “Anglo-French Occupation” and “To Protect Their Freedom and Independence.”

Oslo wired Berlin:

“We will not submit voluntarily; the struggle is already underway.”

At the time of World War II, Norway was just beginning to realize its industrial potential when Germany invaded. Five years of German occupation and a burn-and-retreat strategy in the final weeks of the war, left the nation ravaged. But, after the war, the Norwegians, known for their determination and tenacity, returned to rebuild their homes and villages. Finally the flags of freedom were again flying over Europe and Trygve Lie of Norway was elected as the first secretary general of the United Nations.

It is no surprise that Norwegians eat, drink and make merry during the month of May in celebration of this most significant month in their history.

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So we say to BP. Job well done Brownie.

For the real scoop go to:  http://www.leanweb.org/

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They Are Going To Light The Gulf On Fire – This may be one of the most radical

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things I have ever heard. It generates nothing but questions. What about the wild life. What about the ocean animals and plants. What about the air quality. How do you contain it. However, considering the effects they still suffer in Alaska and the lawsuits it does make a modicum of sense.

I was a founding member of this group and their report marks the first time I have posted them I think.

http://leanweb.org/donate/donate/donate-join.html

Louisiana Environmental Action Network
&
Lower Mississippi RIVERKEEPER©

Helping to Make Louisiana Safe for Future Generations

E-ALERT
APRIL 27, 2010
Update On The Deepwater Horizon Disaster

First we would like to express our condolences to the families who have lost loved ones on the rig and to the injured; our thoughts and prayers are with you.

We at LEAN and Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper are bracing ourselves for what appears to be developing into an ecological tragedy.

Graphic showing location of oil slick on April 27, 2010
Map Of Oil Slick April 27, 2010

As of 10:40 a.m. the oil slick was just 21 miles South East of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Government agencies have been requesting oil booms to deploy around Delta National Wildlife Refuge (which already experienced a spill of 18,000 gallons of crude oil earlier this month). Delta National Wildlife Refuge is in the extreme south-eastern end of the Mississippi River Delta.

NASA satellite photo of the oil slick on April 25
NASA satellite photo of slick

Efforts to stop the flow using the blowout preventer have not been successful and oil continues to leak from at least two locations on the well pipe.

What was originally considered “plan c,” the drilling of a relief well, currently appears to be the main plan to stop the leaking. Transocean’s drilling platform Development Driller III will be used to drill the relief well. It is hoped that the relief well will be able to bypass the leaking well and thereby stop the flow from the damaged well.

However, it could take up to three months to drill the relief well and if some other method of shutting down the leaking well is not figured out in the meantime then it has been estimated that 100,000 barrels, or 4,200,000 gallons, of oil could be released into the Gulf before the relief well is operational.

“If we don’t secure this well, this could be one of the most significant oil spills in U.S. history,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said.

Skimmer boats and the spraying of dispersant have been the primary means of dealing with the spilled oil so far but weather conditions are making things very difficult for responders. We understand that the responders will likely begin using control burning of the oil slicks if possible.

If you encounter oil from this spill or to report oiled or injured wildlife you can contact the oil spill Unified Command at 1-800-557-1401. You can also contact us at 1-866-msriver.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will keep everyone updated. We value the work that all of our partners are doing on this issue and we will continue to work with our partners throughout the Gulf region.

Support this vital work today!

Yes! I want to help make Louisiana safe for us and for future generations!

LEAN is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) is a non-profit organization working to foster communication and cooperation among citizens and groups to address Louisiana’s environmental problems.

For More About LEAN:

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It is pray and hold your breath time

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Earth Day – The day after

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Its jam band friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37E2SjHc134

Earth Day lasts a long time in Springfield. That is because one of our big events is on the Weekend. Earth Awareness Fest is Saturday so today is kind of a let down. Nonetheless, I soldier on. This is from Gather by way of PeakOil.

http://peakoil.com/?p=53796

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978190692

What is With “Happy” Earth Day?

April 22, 2010 02:14 PM EDT

views: 279 | 2 people recommend this | comments: 5

Today is Earth Day, an observance begun in 1970 by then-Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in an attempt to spread awareness of environmental issues. It’s grown since that start to being on the calendar in 192 countries. And on its 40th anniversary, it’s beginning to take on the trappings of a greeting card holiday. The mere existence of Earth Day greeting cards available from companies that don’t focus on the environment is only part of that.

Twitter’s trending topics as I type this lists “Happy Earth Day” as the most popular worldwide. I find that strange. No, actually, I find it silly. You put the word happy in front of words and phrases like birthday, holidays, and new year. Days on which you celebrate and have a good time. Party holidays, in short. Earth Day is not a party holiday. You can throw one, sure, but I’m not sure I see the point of doing something which in and of itself is wasteful extravagance on a day meant to remind people that resources are finite. Yes, there are safer forms of paper plates and cups and potato plastic cutlery. That’s beside the point.

I’m not saying that people need to be all solemn and dark and such. It’s a day to pay respect. Respect the planet we live on. The one that keeps us alive. Acting like nothing we do has a long-term impact is the worst you can do on a day like this, or any day for that matter. Behaving as if a reminder that we are part of a system that needs to be treated with more respect than we’ve paid it as a species over the centuries is a reason to be perky and nothing more is nearly as bad. The last thing we need is to act like we only have to nod and wink at the day’s existence to be doing anything about it.

So I bid you a good Earth Day. Try to recycle that can you throw away most days. I know I should. And if you do host a gathering to discuss environmental issues, I beg you, check the labels on the throwaway products you buy for it, if any. The irony levels you keep from overloading may be your own.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH1eUI25Yqg )

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Have a great weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2b1SWmH-BM&feature=related

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Earth Day Coming Up – The back to the land movement was WAY ahead of its time

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All this week I have been posting about radical things from the environmental movement that have become main stream starting with a post on cars (CAFE standards) and continuing with posts on recycling, and residential energy conservation. Today it is the Back To The Land Movement. While they were laughed at and many of their efforts failed, the back to the landers had it right in so many ways…big cities are dumb energy dinosaurs…single labor “jobs” are alienating and defeatist…fresh air and hard work are good for you..and on and on. Yet the single biggest thing they got right was corporate food is poison and locally grown food is wonderful. So on this day before Earth Day in 2010 I give it up for:

http://www.ilstewards.org/

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Wednesday April 21, 2010

REGISTER NOW! Local Food Awareness Day at the Capitol

On April 28th, local food consumers, farmers and advocates from across the state will come together in Springfield to encourage their legislators to support local food and sustainable agriculture. Illinois Stewardship Alliance would like to invite you to join us for our annual local food and sustainable agriculture lobby day and legislative reception, on April 28th, 2010.

Registration deadline is next Monday, April 19th. For more information and how to register click here.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

4/16/2010 2:22 pm

Would you rather attend a stuffy fundraising dinner
with a group of people you don’t know, or enjoy a delicious meal with family and friends at a great restaurant in your area?
With Share-A-Meal, you will not only have a wonderful meal with people you enjoy but support 13 local charities in Sangamon County.

The Seventh Annual Share-A-Meal with Community Shares will take place at restaurants in Springfield on Tues. April 13, 2010. The event is sponsored by Community Shares of Illinois, a nonprofit organization representing more than 78 charities statewide.

Participating restaurants in Springfield are expected to donate 20 to 25 percent of their meal proceeds to Community Shares of Illinois and its member organizations. Using pledge cards provided at each restaurant, diners will also have the option to direct a portion of their bill to any of the 78 charities that are members of Community Shares of Illinois.

Participating Restaurants in Springfield Include:
 Maldaner’s – 222 S. 6th St.; (217) 522-4313 – lunch and dinner
Augie’s Front Burner – 2 West Old Capitol Plaza; (217) 544-6979 – lunch and dinner
– Tuesday night special: 50 percent off bottles of wine
Tai Pan – 2636 Stevenson Dr.; (217) 529-8089 – dinner

All you must do to contribute is dine out at one of the participating restaurants. Share-A-Meal combines the pleasure of eating out with the joy of giving in one fun-filled event.
Community Shares of Illinois represents more than 78 organizations working to make our state a better place to live. These organizations work to improve the quality of life in Illinois by addressing a wide range of issues, including affordable housing, health care, the environment and civil rights, as well as other issues affecting women, children, people of color, working families, people with disabilities and the poor.

For more information about Share-A-Meal and an up-to-date restaurant list, click here.
To learn more about Community Shares of Illinois, click here.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

4/6/2010 11:59 am

Did you know the Illinois Stewardship Alliance (formerly the Illinois South Project) helped found the Carbondale Farmer’s Market?  Did you know that ISA has been active in state and federal policy working on issues such as protecting farmland? Did you know abut the Stewardship Farm providing research on organic practices, our pilot program to utilize WIC coupons and Illinois farmers markets?  These are just a few of many issues ISA has taken on over the last 36 years since the founding of the Illinois South Project in 1974 in Herrin (?).  The Illinois South Project was founded to give citizens a voice in the development of the federal coal program introduced in the mid-1970’s.  The Illinois South Project acknowledged the negative impact strip mining would have on farmland and the local economy in southern Illinois.  “Central to our program is empowerment of people through active involvement in issues that affect them. To address critical farm policy issues, we organized farmers to attend hearings and town meetings organized by their elected officials. We sent out numerous alerts on crucial issues being debated in the state legislature and in Congress and we submitted testimony on important aspects of the 1985 farm bill” – Illinois South Project 1985 Annual Report

In 1990, the organization opened an office in central Illinois, became a membership-based organization and has worked on a variety of local food and farm issues over the years through research, policy advocacy and education but there has always been a common thread of working for environmental stewardship, economic viability of small farms and connecting rural producers with urban populations.  ISA staff and board are proud to celebrate 36 years of supporting local food systems in Illinois.  We invite you to join us as we continue to advocate for sounds policies that support sustainable local food systems.  ISA continues to be a membership-driven organization with individual and organizational members.  If you aren’t a member, please consider joining now.  If you are a member, don’t hesitate to contact staff and let us know how we can serve you better.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

3/18/2010 4:07 pm

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