The following letter from climate activist Bill McKibben was sent out today by 350.org. -- Ed. Dear friends, We woke up this morning with a deep sense of sadness. Hurricane Sandy has brought serious hardship to many of the people we love and places we treasure. It has affected many homes, I was talking to a friend and they suggested that it might be a good idea for people … [Read more...]
Stop the frack attack
A rush to drill is sweeping the United States. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is surging into new areas as quickly and cheaply as possible. And they have been using techniques like hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) long before we fully understand the extent of the negative impacts on the health of the local people, communities, water, air, climate, and other … [Read more...]
Deepwater what?
How soon we forget. Today marks the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But don't expect to hear much about it. The largest environmental disaster ever in American history, the BP oil spill dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and its consequences continue to reverberate in the area. But unless you're a … [Read more...]
Peak oil gets pepper sprayed
How many Saudi Arabias did you say that was? It's hard to keep up these days with claims by oil and gas drillers about how many Saudi Arabia-sized reserves of tar sands oil/shale oil/deepwater oil/hydrofracked gas that North America is now allegedly able to access due to the smarts of petroleum geologists and the tenacity of oilmen. "Because of better technology, notably … [Read more...]
Get ready for the next Big Lie from Big Oil
Did you think it was just an accident that conservatives seem so good at singing from the same hymnal on the issue du jour, whether it's privatizing social security, blaming the Dodd-Frank bill for Bank of America's (now cancelled) $5 debit card fee or defending Hermann Cain from sexual harassment charges? Well, it's not an accident. Whether it's El Rushbo, John Boehner or … [Read more...]