Gulf Disaster, Part II? (UPDATED)

09/02/10 | Posted by: Ada Aroneanu

This morning, another Gulf Coast oil rig exploded within four months, injuring one oil rig worker. This comes at the heels of the April BP oil rig explosion off the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people.

Given the tragic consequences of the April spill -- 11 dead workers, severe impacts on the fishing and shrimping industries, pollution of the coastlines of Louisiana, and hundreds of people out of work -- it's infuriating that the oil industry has done this again.

What this explosion reveals is that our oil addiction (80 million barrels a day in the U.S. alone) has unavoidably dangerous consequences.  The only way to avoid tragedies like this moving forward is to reduce our dependency on oil and move toward sustainable sources of clean energy.  We need to take personal responsibility for our consumption, and also hold our elected leaders accountable.

Find out more about how to demand Congress takes action by getting involved in an October 10th "Global Work Party" event year you.

UPDATE:  There are reports that oil is spilling into the ocean:

The Coast Guard is reporting that a mile-long oil sheen is spreading from the site of today's oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

Policy update 8/31/10: Two more weeks of recess

08/31/10 | Posted by: Jason Kowalski

The mid-term elections continue to dominate the August congressional recess. Members of Congress will go on campaigning for two more weeks before returning to Washington, D.C. in mid-September. 1Sky and our allies, including 350 and Energy Action Coalition, continue to hammer members of Congress to protect the Clean Air Act and work to address our addiction to fossil fuels and the climate crisis. See coverage in the New York Times.

Congressional Timeline:

• 9/13: Congress returns from recess
• 10/8: Target adjournment for House
• 11/2: Election Day

Key Primary Results

In the Alaska Republican Primary, tea party candidate Joe Miller is on pace to defeat Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) with a 1,900-vote lead with only a few thousand absentee ballots still being counted. Miller is a climate denier who consistently accuses Senator Murkowski of being too moderate on energy issues. This close defeat brings the political effectiveness of Senator Murkowski's attacks on the Clean Air Act into question. Senator Murkowski moved to the right on the issue of Clean Air Act regulations, but was still attacked as a more liberal candidate on energy in general. In the process, Senator Murkowski suffered in-state public criticism for her actions, which certainly didn't help her in such a tight race.

The Anchorage Daily News honed in on the fact that lobbyists helped write Senator Murkowsk's Dirty Air Act. Meanwhile, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) ran TV ads attacking Senator Murkowski for prioritizing out-of-state polluters over the people of Alaska:

Friends of the Earth ran Alaska radio ads (.mp3) highlighting her contributions from corporate polluters and their lobbyists, and Greenpeace's PolluterHarmony mocked her close ties to former Bush administration officials working on behalf of utilities and coal companies to gut the Clean Air Act:

Weekly round-up 8/27/10: Coal poisons our water and other "shockers"

08/27/10 | Posted by: Ines Ware

I have always been weary of drinking tap water without a trusty water filter. However, I neglected to think about the fact that dirty coal waste contaminates water too. It's been recently reported that contaminants in 39 waste sites in 21 states have seeped into the groundwater. Dirty Coal pollutes our water with toxic metals such as arsenic, selenium, lead and chromium. And the worst part is that not all coal-waste sites have groundwater-monitoring data, which means that there could be pollutants in water that go undetected. States such as Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Tennessee are some of the states who do not require monitoring of these coal-ash "ponds".

"By not monitoring, the states are playing Russian roulette with our drinking water because we don't know exactly when and where and how that contaminant is going to show up," Evans said.

Katrina, five years later

08/27/10 | Posted by: Adi Nochur

Five years ago, our nation watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, taking more than 2,000 lives and displacing hundreds of thousands of others. In Katrina, concerned climate advocates like myself saw a vivid and disturbing preview of a future in which climate change continues unabated; a world in which more frequent and intense extreme weather events and natural disasters wreak havoc upon our communities, especially marginalized low-income communities and communities of color. Five years later, our government still has not taken the bold action we need to address the climate crisis, and the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have yet to fully recover from the hurricane’s destruction.

Then this year the BP oil disaster spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, again highlighting the consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels and adding insult to injury for an already struggling Gulf Coast. Yet despite taking repeated blows, the people of New Orleans remain resilient in advocating for the restoration and rebuilding of their communities. With the five-year anniversary of Katrina approaching on Sunday, 1Sky is honored to join our allies at the Hip Hop Caucus and over 40 other local and national organizations in endorsing this year’s Hurricane Katrina Commemoration March in New Orleans on Sunday, August 29.

The march will call for “a comprehensive plan to revive the economic and environmental health of the Gulf Coast.” That comprehensive plan must be matched by comprehensive solutions that address our climate crisis and move our nation to a clean energy economy. How many more oil spills, how many more hurricanes will have to happen before we get serious about addressing these challenges? How many more disasters will New Orleans and our world have to suffer? This year we saw a coal mine explosion in West Virginia kill 28 people and watched as extreme weather manifested itself all over the globe, from wildfires in Russia to floods in Pakistan to landslides in China. The consequences of our fossil fuel addiction are mounting every day, from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic Circle, and it’s time we do something about it.

If you can’t be in New Orleans this Sunday, you can still show solidarity with the Gulf Coast by adding your voice in support of a healthy recovery for New Orleans and the broader region. May the five-year anniversary of Katrina redouble our commitment to working for bold climate solutions, for a sustainable future and justice for communities across the world.

Cutting carbon: We can't afford NOT to

08/26/10 | Posted by: Luis Hestres

By 1Sky blogger Nick Santos. See his bio at the end of this post.-- Luis

Take a good look at this graph from the Stern Review (data from McKinsey & Company). It's a graph of potential sources of CO2 reductions in Gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year (Abatement Gt CO2e/year) sorted by the cost of abatement in Euros per ton of CO2 equivalent reduced (Cost of abatement EUR/tCO2e). So, the height of a box shows the cost of that reduction, with negative costs being profits, and the width of the box shows the potential amount of CO2 we can reduce with it per year. The total area of a box is the total cost if we reduce the amount of CO2 in the box.

Policy update 8/24/10: With the Senate bobbing in oil, election season heats up

08/24/10 | Posted by: Jason Kowalski

1Sky and our allies continue to hammer members of Congress for their failure to address climate change and our addiction to dirty energy while also highlighting how much money members received from the fossil fuel industry. On the campaign trail, some candidates are using climate change to score political points and capitalize on the general mistrust among voters of the D.C. establishment. The EPA is hosting public hearings around the country on toxic coal combustion waste and the effort to reduce smog and protect the public health. Finally, the controversy continues over the White House report claiming that 3/4 of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico has "evaporated or dissolved."

Time to crack down on toxic coal ash

08/23/10 | Posted by: Liz Butler

Coal power plants are by far the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in this country. Their pollution is making our planet a more dangerous place to live. But these coal plants also produce a by-product waste called "coal ash."  Coal ash contains toxic chemicals like arsenic, mercury and lead that can poison the water supplies of entire communities and are known to cause birth defects and premature deaths.

The Environmental Protection Agency needs to regulate coal ash as "hazardous waste" -- and as you'd expect, Dirty Coal and their allies plan to fight these regulations tooth and nail to protect their profits. The EPA needs to hear from you today. Tell the EPA you support cracking down on Dirty Coal and their dangerous coal ash.

On December 22, 2008, a ruptured ash dike at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Eastern Tennessee released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash -- enough to fill 1,660 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The spill covered nearly 400 acres of land, causing major property and environmental damage. The sludge contained high levels of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium that can cause cancer and neurological problems. This is exactly the kind of disaster that the EPA needs to prevent in the future with tough regulations.

The EPA will hold hearings in seven cities about these coal ash regulations over the next few weeks, so it's critical that they hear from you right now. If you live near any of the following cities, please sign up to attend an EPA hearing on coal ash regulations near you:

• Monday, August 30: Arlington, VA at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City
• Thursday, September 2: Denver, CO at the Grand Hyatt
• Wednesday, September 8: Dallas, TX at the Hyatt Regency Dallas
• Tuesday, September 14: Charlotte, NC at the Holiday Inn Charlotte (Airport)
• Thursday, September 16: Chicago, IL at the Hilton Chicago
• Tuesday, September 21: Pittsburgh, PA at the Omni Hotel
• Tuesday, September 28: Louisville, KY at the Seelbach Hilton

The more they hear from concerned citizens like you, the harder it will be for Dirty Coal to block these regulations. Let's protect the health of our families and communities --  send your comments to the EPA today and sign up to attend a hearing near you.

Weekly round-up 8/20/10: Extreme weather hits Pakistan

08/20/10 | Posted by: Ines Ware

U.N. officials and climatologists are now saying that the devastating flood in Pakistan is the worst disaster to date caused by climate change. Scientist at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva are sure that higher temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean contributed to this flood which is directly connected to climate change. According to the Washington, DC Express Newspaper, a publication of the Washington Post, there is a "global donor fatigue slowing needed aid in flood-ridden Pakistan". This newspaper article points out that there was $742M donated to the Haiti relief but only $45M donated to the recent Pakistan relief in the same time period. With over 20 million Pakistani flood victims, an additional $300 million is still needed. An estimated 6.5 million Pakistanis need shelter, food, clean water and medicine including 500,00 families left homeless in Punjab. More rain is expected to come, while the floodwaters cover a landmass the size of England! Please donate whatever you can to the relief fund. Every little bit counts!

On a brighter note, the deadly heat wave in Russia is finally over, though smoke still lingers in the air. Moscow's temperature plummeted on Thursday to 70-73 Fahrenheit. However, Russia is left with a loss of $14 billion off this year's gross domestic product. Also, air pollution sky-rocketed to four to ten times above the previous amount. Russia was not the only country to "feel the burn" this year. There were 17 countries that broke their previous heat records! This should speak volumes to those climate change deniers. The devastating flood in Pakistan, the deadly heat wave in Russia and the horrible flooding and mud slides in western China are all directly related.

Combating climate change deniers

08/19/10 | Posted by: Ines Ware

By 1Sky blogging working group member Andy Silber. See Andy's bio at the end of this post. -- Ines

It must be difficult to remain a climate change denier and read the news. The headlines are covered with stories that are exactly what the climate models predict:

• 2010 is the world's hottest year on record
• More rain threatens to worsen Pakistan floods
• Moscow heat wave death rate doubles to 700 per day
• Massive ice island breaks off Greenland

And that's just within the last week!