What Happened to the Oil from the BP Spill (Pic)
Photo via Inhabitat
Okay, so the BP spill narrative du jour is that all the oil has disappeared — dispersed, burned, skimmed away, or magically vanished. Stephen Colbert said he’d found it, but he was mostly kidding. There’s only one quarter of the stuff left posing any real threat, according to federal scientists (though it’s probably worth <a…Read the full story on TreeHugger
BP Spill the Biggest Accidental Oil Release in World History
Photo via CNN
Federal scientists have just released the most precise estimates of the BP Gulf spill yet, and as you’ve come to expect from the trend thus far of these revised estimates, the new picture is bleaker than ever. Nearly 5 million barrels are now thought to have been spewed the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the disaster at the Deepwater Horizon site. That brings the BP Gulf spill to an astonishing new milestone: it is now the largest accidental release of oil in the world. Congratulations, BP….Read the full story on TreeHugger
California’s ‘Controversial’ Climate Law Supported by Overwhelming Majority
Image via a Green Living
You’d be forgiven for thinking that AB 32, California’s climate change law, was truly controversial. Republican candidates running for office this year have taken to publicly bashing it, calling it a job killer and worse. And given that the effort to reign in carbon emissions on a national level just deflated because it was viewed by senators as too controversial as well, you might think that fighting climate change is a contentious issue across the board. Well, it’s not. No matter how badly California’s GOP hopefuls batter the law, the public st…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Final Thoughts on a Dead Climate Bill
Photo via the Guardian
I know I’ve ranted and raved a fair amount about the ignominious death of comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation. But lest we all head into our weekends wholly downtrodden and helpless-feeling, a few more words need to be uttered before the casket is lowered into the ground for good (am I getting carried away with this metaphor, here?). Here are some important final thoughts on the demise of the climate bill — and where we can and should go from here. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
How Much Oil is in the Water at Gulf Coast Beaches? (Video)
The BP Gulf spill (or whatever we decide to call it) has already done plenty of damage to wildlife, the local economy, and people’s livelihoods. Images of oiled birds and turtles, crude-covered marshlands, and shuttered businesses are now sadly commonplace. But what about that which we can’t see so clearly? After all, people are still taking to the beaches all around the Gulf — it’s summer, and there’s a record heat wave on, who can blame them? Though those beaches may appear to be oil-free, most are anything but. This video investigates the surprising …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Obama: Energy Bill Must Price Carbon
Photo via the San Francisco Sentinel
Despite all the recent talk about how the clean energy and climate bill is moribund in the Senate, there are still some serious signs that it may be worth holding out hope yet. Yesterday, Obama gathered two dozen senators to discuss the prospects for the legislation — in the meeting, he yet again stressed that any such bill must include a mechanism that prices carbon ……Read the full story on TreeHugger
Is it Safe to Talk About Climate Change Again?
Photo via Keen Press
Over the last year or so, you may have noticed politicians using less and less direct language to discuss climate change. According to some polls, Americans were growing skeptical that man was causing global warming, a trend abetted by fierce public relations efforts from the fossil fuel industry and the Climate Gate non-scandal, which the media did a supremely poor job of covering accurately. But now, the noise from those ruckuses have faded out, and scientists are recording brand new…Read the full story on TreeHugger
BP CEO’s Infuriating Congressional Testimony in 4 Minutes (Video)
Photo via the NY Daily News
Yesterday, BP CEO Tony Hayward headed to Congress to answer questions about BP’s role in the Gulf oil spill. At least, that was ostensibly the reason he appeare…Read the full story on TreeHugger
A Winning Argument for Clean Energy Legislation?
Decades of research has produced a strong scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, and that it is caused largely by humans’ burning of fossil fuels. And over the decades, we’ve seen firsthand the dangers of relying on oil as a fuel source — the price gouging, the geopolitical struggles it produces, the pollution it creates. So it’s a bummer that Americans still need to be convinced to support clean energy legislation. But they do. And there have been many intense debates over how that convincing should be done. The image above, produced by <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2…Read the full story on TreeHugger
A Brief History of Presidential Promises to End US Oil Addiction, by Jon Stewart (Video)
Image via Yannig Roth
Each and every one of the last 8 presidents, at one point during their presidencies, announced to the public that the United States needs to end its dependence on oil. Whether it was Carter, Nixon, or even George W., they all sounded the call for a shift towards cleaner, safer energies. Obama did it again last Tuesday night. Of course, we all know where each of those respective calls for action have landed us … Here, Jon Stewart takes us on a farcical tour of the history of presiden…Read the full story on TreeHugger
