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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

By 1Sky intern Amy Plovnick. -- Luis

Last Tuesday House of Representatives took a break from their 6-week recess to pass an emergency state aid bill that provides $16.1 billion in Medicaid funding and $10 billion to pay teachers’ salaries. The bill passed 247 to 161, largely along party lines with the Democrats voting in favor. It is fortunate that House members returned to Washington from their vacations to pass this critical spending measure.

What is not so fortunate is the fact that in order to help pay for the spending, a provision was included in the bill that cuts $1.5 billion in renewable energy loan guarantees. This cut comes in addition to the $2 billion that was cut from the program last summer to pay for the cash-for-clunkers program. Together, the cuts represent over half of the $6 billion that was originally allocated for the Department of Energy (DOE) program, which gives the renewable energy industry the cash flow necessary to bring expensive new projects to the market and hastens the transition to a clean energy economy.

Environmental and climate groups (1Sky included) are gearing up to push for climate action during the congressional recess, even if it means showing up at the office doors of senators who have failed to respond to climate change. Also, advocates will put the pressure on lawmakers to defend the EPA's efforts under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. Climate advocates are currently battling Senator Jay Rockefeller and his "Dirty Air Act pt2" which will cripple the EPA's ability to regulate pollution for two years. 1Sky is mentioned in the New York Times for our shadowing events.

Russia Feels the Effects of Global Warming

Russia is feeling the burn this summer with temperatures topping 100° Fahrenheit for the first time. When I think about Russia, I think about blizzards and Russian snow hats. However, Russians are actually undergoing such an extreme heat wave that even President Dmitry Medvedev is convinced of climate change. His epiphany was spurred by an extreme heat wave which is blazing into its second month, a drought that has ruined a third of Russia's crops and wildfires that have blanketed half of European Russia. The Prime Minister has even banned grain exports from August 15 to December 31. Even more, numbers of deaths per day in Moscow has doubled to 700 due to this heat wave. I would say that Russians are now pretty convinced. The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that Russia could experience a doubling of disastrous droughts, see catastrophic fires and suffer large crop loss in this century. I would say they were pretty accurate in 2007.

Our country has not experienced such a heat wave in the last 50 or even 100 years... Everyone is talking about climate change now... Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past. This means that we need to change the way we work, change the methods that we used in the past." -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

His translated speech can be found here.

These are the dog days of summer for the climate movement in every sense of the phrase. We're literally baking under the heat of the warmest summer on record, and we're figuratively "dog-tired" from a long and (so far) fruitless battle to get our dog-tired Senate to do something about climate change. We're casting about for ways to move the ball in the right direction and get more of our fellow Americans on our side in this fight. In short, we need to be inspired -- and pie charts, PowerPoints or policy papers won't cut it.

The folks at the Creative Visions, Crosscurrents and Quixote Foundations realize that art has the potential to move and inspire people the way facts and figures, necessary as they are, simply can't. After all, there's a reason why a copy of Picasso's Guernica is hanging at the U.N building instead of a fact sheet about casualties during the Spanish Civil War.

That's why they've launched the CoolClimate Art Contest, which has been running since July 12th and closes on September 6th:

The contest seeks to generate iconic images that address the impact of climate change and spurs participation in the climate change debate. Create a work that encompasses the questions above and explores our relationship with the climate – from clean energy jobs to pollution-free oceans – the subject choice is yours.

We're proud to be one of the partner organizations involved in this contest that will be judged by a who's who from the artistic, scientific and climate advocacy worlds:

• Jackson Browne (musician)
• Jayni Chase (philanthropist)
• Chevy Chase (comedian)
• Mel Chin (artist)
• Dianna Cohen (environmental artist)
• Philippe Cousteau (ecologist)
• Agnes Gund (renown art collector)
• Van Jones (environmental activist)
• David Ross (former head of Whitney Museum and SF Museum of Modern Art)
• Carrie Mae Weems (artist)

The deadline to submit artwork is September 6th. If you've decided to participate, good luck!

This week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) canceled a vote on the oil spill response package, punting consideration until after the August recess. Without bipartisan support, the bill did not have the votes necessary for passage. BP's "static kill" finally plugged the deepwater well that has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for over 3 months. Both houses of Congress are out on recess until September 13th. 1Sky’s board reflects on the state of affairs regarding climate action. During the recess, 1Sky will be "shadowing" members of Congress wearing giant "oily hands" to represent the dirty money from oil and coal companies that is holding our energy policy hostage in Congress.