Stop Drilling Baby Stop Drilling, Seriously

This is where the oil slick from that sunken oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico is right now, right off the coast of Louisiana. Yes, those are two (TWO!) Wildlife Refuges nearby.

If this was headed to St. Pete Beach or somewhere nearby, I'd fly off the handle.

God Does't Believe in Global Warming

So, I guess we should sit back and do nothing because the Bible says so. How silly. What's next, applying the teachings of the Bible to Social Security? How about Pork Barrel Spending?

via The Daily Dish

High Speed Rail

Want.

Though it would be nice if they'd connect Tampa and Orlando to the rest of the country. Click it to get all in close.

Bush Loves Fishes

President Bush has declared more ocean to be national marine monuments. The shockingly rational move should provide much needed protection to the areas by denying various industries access to the areas.

I say instead of the Presidential Library Bush is trying to set up in Texas, which by the way has been met with some problems apart from the oxymoronic aspect of it all, the first Presidential Aquarium should be established. Maybe we could just name one of the dolphin shows at Sea World after him. The 1p.m. show maybe?

Solar Energy is Bad for the Environment?

This makes no sense...

The federal government is delaying solar energy programs in order to assess the impact such programs would have on the environment. Get it? Let's go ahead and delay progress on an energy source that could alleviate a variety of current problems, you know, like pollution, global warming, gas prices, war, little things like that. Also, as this NY Times article points out, this delay could make it impossible for those in the solar energy business to stay afloat while they wait, since many of them are relatively new and cash strapped. Not all solar energy projects will be effected by this, just the really big ones.

would you buy a hover car?

Check out this poll on the home page of cnn.com:

I like how 30% of voters are completely ruling out the idea of buying an electric car...ever. What if 20 years from now, the only options are electric cars, or cars that run on human waste? I guess a third of the population is going to be driving cars that smell like shit.

Japan Buying Votes to End Whaling Ban

A National Geographic article this week chronicles Japans efforts over the last couple of years to "recruit" nations to vote to overturn the ban on whaling. Previous nations that have supported and voted with Japan in an attempt to overturn the ban in the past include Gambia and Togo.

According to National geographic,

...early this March Japanese officials invited representatives from 12 developing countries to Tokyo for a special meeting to obtain "understanding of Japan's position on sustainable whaling."

Also in the past Japan has been able to court nations previously thought to support the ban by offering development plans ($$$$).

Japan Willing to Limit Illegal Whaling?

National Geographic is reporting that Japan may be willing to agree to a compromise that would allow the nation to hunt whale near its own homeland, ending the silly "scientific whaling" the nation has conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. The International Whaling Committee has been deadlocked for more than a decade with nations such as Australia and New Zealand opposing whaling while Japan and several smaller nations support it.

I don't think there is any doubt that the recent efforts of Greenpeace, and especially Sea Shepherd, to interrupt whaling activities as well as the Japanese whaler's response (kidnapping and the firing of live rounds), have played a major role in Japan's revised thinking.

Clearly, it would be much better if they ceases hunting whale completely. But, it is something.

Up Here in the Trees

A new city zoning resolution will require a tree to be planted every 25 feet on streets with new developments and accompanying some types of building additions and conversions. This is all part of the city goal of 1 million new trees.

I have lifted the following fun and important facts about trees from Gothamist who say they lifted it from MillionTreesNYC:

• One tree can remove 26 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.
• Street trees intercept 890.6 million gallons of storm water annually.
• They provide $52 million each year in increased property values.
• They provide food and shelter for many species of birds, insects, and other wildlife.

Too bad the 4 story tall tree that used to shade our apartment was torn down to make it easy for a new shoe store to take out there trash and charge 300 dollars for a pair of sneakers. Speaking of that tree, here is an ode to its beauty written a little while back.

Baptists, Catholics Becoming Crazy Tree-Huggers

Both the Southern Baptists and the Catholic Church are taking public steps to promote the crazy idea that the Earth is worth trying to keep clean and perhaps even save.

All of this despite the coming rapture.

The Catholic Church has come out and listed "causing environmental blight" as one of a set of new modern sins (never mind the weirdness of coming out with new, more modern sins).

Southern Baptist leaders have declared that the church has a biblical duty to stop global warming. In addition to this positive development they threw in a little caveat that supporters should not promote sinful activity such as abortion for population control (!) as a way to combat global warming.

Hmm...I was wondering about that population control effort because it's a really great idea!

Shots Fired on Anti-Whaling Activists?

Plasticblog is a little late to this story but...

The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group contends that the Japanese whaling fleet they have been tailing for months in an effort to physically disrupt their whaling activities has shot at the activists, hitting the ships Captain, Paul Watson, who was wearing a bullet proof vest at the time. According to Sea Shepherd's web site the on board doctor confirmed that the shot fired could have been lethal if Watson had not been wearing the vest.

The Japanese Coast Guard (who officially have two officers aboard the Japanese whaling ship Nishin Maru while Sea Shepherd contends there were at least four) now seems to contend that only flash grenades were thrown onto the ship. The activists had been lobbing rotten butter and other "stink bombs" onto the ship deck immediately prior to the disputed shooting.

More on "Green" Fur

I received a comment on a previous post about the silly claim and campaign that animal fur is actually environmentally friendly. Below you will see part of the comment as well as a link to a report debunking the claim that fur is green.

http://www.CrueltyIsNotGreen.com

Consumers are urged to be critical of so called “green” claims...

It is important to realize that the alternative to fur is any and every fabric and textile there is, not just fake fur. Fur is not any more biodegradable, natural, renewable, or recyclable than many fabrics out there.

Eat Whale! Wear Fur! Save the Environment?

From Treehugger.com comes this story about the Norwegian-based High North Alliance a pro-whaling group has put out statistics trying proclaiming that whaling is more eco-friendly than raising beef, poultry, and pork in terms of greenhouse gases emitted. Of course, this leaves out the fact that some people may not want to see certain types of whales driven to extinction.

By the way, chopping off my dogs head and eating him for dinner over the next week would probably result in less greenhouse gases than a hamburger I could by down the street but I wouldn't do it cause it's gross and I like my dog. Hamburgers are gross too.

On a related note, a story I missed from November is the ad campaign from the Fur Council of Canada (nice!) titled Fur is Green.

Of course, this fur claim is even less reasonable then the whaling claim. Manufacturing fake furs takes far less energy than farm raised furs and, yes, no animals are killed to make fake furs.

Model Homes in McMansion Community Possibly Destroyed by Environmental Group

Three of four model homes set ablaze this morning on the "Street of Dreams" in Seattle were completely destroyed. The area on which the models were built was recently an undeveloped rural area and wetland. A sign left at the site supposedly indicates the act is the responsibility of Earth Liberation Front. Much of the news media on the topic calls E.L.F. domestic or environmental terrorists. They would, I assume, call themselves activists.

There were no injuries as is virtually always the case when environmental activists engage in direct action.

Here is a one year old Seattle area local news article on the "Street of Dreams" and the concerns some local residents had with the development. According to the article dated March 28th, 2007,

"Neighbors have been fighting the project near Monroe because it's being built on land sandwiched by wetlands and above a drinking water aquifer.

The aquifer serves about 20,000 people. Neighbors insist the project will load their drinking water with pollution, especially since the development will eventually grow to 48 houses."

Here is an article from the same Seattle area news outlet on today's fires.

Anti-Whaling Activists Released from Japanese Vessel

Two activists and members of the group, Sea Shepherd, were released by the Japanese Whaling Ship Yushin Maru two days after being taken captive after boarding the ship to deliver a letter to the ships Captain denouncing the vessels whaling activities. Sea Shepherds and unaffiliated Greenpeace crews have been tailing a number of Japanese whaling ships over the last couple of weeks in an attempt to stop what most consider to be illegal whaling sanctioned by Japan. Check out earlier plasticblog posts on the topic, here, here, and here.

Check out Sea Shepherd's press release.

Anti-Whaling Activists Detained by Japanese Whalers

Two members of the Sea Shepherds, an anti-whaling group that engages in direct action to stop whaling efforts worldwide, were detained aboard the Japanese whaling vessel the Yashin Maru. The two activist boarded the Yashin Maru in order to deliver a letter to the captain informing him of that the ship was illegally capturing and killing whales. Prior to boarding the vessel the Sea Shepherds tried to entangle the Japanese ship with ropes and threw acid on to the ship's deck. The Japanese detained the two activists and are still holding them as the Sea Shepherds chase the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Sea Shepherds actions come one day after Greenpeace announced they had successfully forced the Japanese whaling fleet out of hunting grounds they had been in over the weekend. Greenpeace does not approve of the Sea Shepherds aggressive actions. Check out this great New Yorker article about the Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson from a couple of months back.

Thanks to the messenger for passing this along.

Greenpeace Ship Disrupts Japanese Whaling Fleet

Back in November, a small fleet of Japanese ships set out to hunt whales for "research purposes". Clearly a front for commercial whaling, which is illegal yet ignored, the whales that are captured and studied are then sold into the market and ultimately end up on many Japanese dinner tables. The Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza has been hunting for the Japanese flee for months now. Greenpeace's goal is to non-violently disrupt and stop the fleets whaling activities. Over the weekend Greenpeace announced that the whaling fleet had "scattered and ran". The most important ship of the whaling fleet, the Nisshin Maru was forced to flee rendering the entire operation impotent. The Nisshin Maru is the factory ship on which captured whales are processed in order to be brought back to Japan.

Japanese whaling ship on the run.

According to the great Greenpeace member blog, Undercurrents, the Japanese fleet was spotted in the International Whale Sanctuary where it was chased and forced to flee by Greenpeace.

Here is a nice account of the hunt from a member of the Greenpeace crew,

"Then came a futile attempt at the trickery they are so infamous for. The fleet scattered in all directions at full speed, but in doing so they allowed us to locate our target, the Nissa Maru (a.k.a. mother ship, factory ship, death star.) Over the past eight expeditions the Capt. had determined each ships range and speed capabilities. So, when the ships fled the scene he was able to deduce by their speed which vessel was which. We set a course to intercept the factory ship and put the petal to the metal. In an attempt to create a diversion one of the hunting ships turned and headed straight at us. This is the same tactic they used two months ago as they were leaving Japan. They thought we would take the bait and follow them while the Nissa Maru escaped. Wrong! In moments we were passing port to port with the decoy. This was the sweetest moment for me of the entire trip thus far. I stood on the bridge wing and with the biggest smile you could imagine I casually waved to the whalers, thinking to myself, "GOTCHA SUCKERS, GAME ON!!!""

Check out the full account right here.

Greenpeace Calls Out Nintendo

Greenpeace released a report ranking certain electronics vendors according to the environmental impact of their products. Nintendo received the lowest grade due Nintendo's failure to establish a recycling program for older consoles and for not revealing what chemicals are used to make the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo should fix this problem quickly, and an easy fix it should be. Setting up a recycling program for the many generations of consoles the company has put out is a no-brainer. Dell, among many other companies already do this. The process Dell employs is a breeze to the consumer/recycler. You simply enter the type of machine you want to recycle on a designated web site, print out an air bill, tape it to the package, set up a pick up time with a delivery service (in Dell's case DHL), and they pick it up from your home. The only charge the consumer may pay is to purchase a box for shipping.

Hopefully, Nintendo will react to the Greenpeace report, I don't need to feel any more guilt about playing video games.

Hey Japan! Eat Something Else!

Japan is set to send a fleet of ships toward Antarctica to hunt 50 Humpback whales. This is the first time since the 1960's that Japan has targeted the protected Humpback whale. Japan claims it needs to perform these hunts, in part, to conduct research on the whale population. Of course, the whales are still butchered and sold to distributors and ultimately restaurants...Whale Burgers, really!

Green Peace has vowed to hunt the hunters and protect the whales by interfering, non-violently, with the fleets activity. Undercurrents, a Greenpeace crew blog, should make for some great and informative reading over the next weeks and months.

Congress to Override Bush Water Bill Veto

President Bush vetoed a bill yesterday that authorized funding for a number of water related projects, including funds to help restore the Everglades. Bush's reason for the veto was that it is fiscally irresponsible. He apparently made no mention of the money being spent in Iraq or the deficit the country now faces despite the record surplus he inherited as President.

Members of Congress feel that an override of the veto is a forgone conclusion.