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Joe Romm, the climateprogress.org blogger, once said: The best thing about improvements in health care is that all the climate-change deniers are now going to live long enough to see how wrong they were.
I’d just like to note that now China is light years ahead of the U.S. in climate change legislation. Great work senators.
So here we are, day 71, and Obama yesterday finally decides to accept aid from [only 12 of] the 30+ countries and organizations that offered help since the day it occurred. Great job Mr. President. I would offer you more sarcastic praise if I hadn’t already convinced myself that you’ve legitimately turned into a massive political black hole–no pun intended (is that even politically correct? Probably not). Meanwhile, BP is dragging their feet, spending how much on clean up thus far? $2.35 Billion. For a company that offered $20 Billion to the entire region in an escrow account without even flinching, that’s bullshit in my eyes. Maybe they should take some of their $239 billion (at 31 Dec 2009) total revenue and clean up the gulf.
Now to the really good part. Because of the total negligence from the parties mentioned above, we have other factors introducing themselves that will multiply the aforementioned negligence. We have entered hurricane season. A few issues here– the first outlined by the New York Times:
Strong winds from a tropical storm raised wave heights to seven feet or more, forcing the suspension of skimming operations and controlled burns on Tuesday. Rough seas make it impossible to contain oil so skimmers can pick it up or ignite it.
Get that? Cleaning up will be an on-again-off-again mess for the next few months. On top of that, Rep. Edward Markey says BP’s disaster response plan for an oil spill never made mention of hurricanes or tropical storms. Here you have one of the most profitable corporations in the world and they claim to have a minimal clean up plan. How can I say this politely? I don’t think ‘preparedness’ is a term in the BP bible.
Ready for the icing on the cake? If you had not already guessed this from general logic, think about what the general movement of the ocean and tides do. They move items in the water ashore. Now think about what storms and hurricanes do to things in water. They move them ashore at a faster rate. So, we have an erroneous amount of oil in the water, and we also have an oncoming barrage of hurricanes for the next few months. Have we had an ecological mega-disaster before? I just found one. If this news gets you down, just check out my previous post for a laugh.
In other news, Justin Beiber sucks.
With [environmentalists'] nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.
Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.
-Sarah Palin
Still knocking ‘em dead Sarah. Thank you for all your brilliant efforts. For without them, this site would surely no longer exist (OK this site would exist but it would be a lot less comical).
Garbage
This one is the most obvious. It’s astounding how much of our trash finds its way into the ocean. Animals become easily entangled and trapped in our garbage, and it can destroy delicate sea life like coral and sponges. In addition, sea turtles and dolphins often mistake plastic bags for their favorite foods, jellyfish and squids, choking them or clogging their digestive system. If that’s not bad enough, hopefully the bigger-than-Texas trash vortex (actually twice the size of Texas) in the Pacific Ocean and its smaller cousin in the Atlantic will help serve as a wakeup call.
Here’s another great representative of religion all around the world, knocking this one out of the ballpark.
Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.
“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes,” he said.
Mr Sedighi was delivering a sermon on the need for a “general repentance” by Iranians. “What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes,” he said.
Or you could go out and live life to the fullest, meaning commit a few “sins” because apparently you’ll be dead before you get to enjoy life. Damn those promiscuous females!
Mercury Pollution
Scientists report that our ocean’s mercury levels have risen over 30% the last 20 years, and will increase another 50% in the next few decades. Emissions from coal power plants are the primary culprit, dispensing poisonous mercury that works its way up the food chain, eventually coming to us through the fish we eat. This neurotoxin can alter brain development of fetuses and has been linked with learning problems. And in 2002, several lakes in Norway were found to have a poor state of mercury pollution, with an excess of 1 mg/g of mercury in their sediment.
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. This video is disturbing at times.
VENTERSDORP, South Africa — Followers of one of South Africa’s most notorious white supremacists cast his death as a rallying point for their cause Sunday, with one top member claiming his brutal death was “a declaration of war” by blacks against whites.
Eugene Terreblanche’s supporters blamed his slaying on a ruling party official’s performances of an apartheid-era song that advocates killing white farmers. Police, however, say it appeared to be a wage dispute that led two of Terreblanche’s farm workers to bludgeon him in his bed Saturday.
South African officials are trying to ward off any rise in racial tensions 10 weeks before their country of about 50 million enters the global spotlight as host of soccer’s World Cup. President Jacob Zuma appealed for calm following “this terrible deed” and asked South Africans “not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred.”
Overfishing
Many marine scientists consider overfishing to be the worst impact humans are having on the oceans. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that over 70% of the world’s fish species have been entirely exploited or depleted. By capturing fish faster than they can reproduce, we are harming entire ecosystems that interact with those species, from the food they eat to the predators that eat them. These losses make the ecosystems more vulnerable to other disturbances, such as pollution. A complete overhaul of fishing policies, requiring global cooperation, is needed to achieve a sustainable system.
According to a 2008 UN report, the world’s fishing fleets are losing $50 billion USD each year through depleted stocks and poor fisheries management. The report, produced jointly by the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), asserts that half the world’s fishing fleet could be scrapped with no change in catch. In addition, the biomass of global fish stocks have been allowed to run down to the point where it is no longer possible to catch the amount of fish that could be caught.
Preschoolers? Honestly? These parents need serious help. It is brilliant though. Bravo director!
