Federal records show that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP the green light for drilling, in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126495§ionid=3510203
In pictures: Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico
Seawater covered with thick black oil splashes up in brown-stained whitecaps.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html
BP And The 'Little Eichmanns'
By Chris Hedges
Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25468.htm
Reports show NOAA knew Gulf of Mexico drilling operations were illegal
An Interior Department agency has authorized more than 300 drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico without first obtaining permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to published reports and the notice of intent to file a law suit by an environmental non-profit.
http://snipurl.com/wfi84
From Information Clearing House
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BP Stands for Bad Petroleum
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "Saturday the White House warned BP that it expects the oil giant to pay all damages associated with the disastrous oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, even if the costs exceed the $75 million liability cap under federal law. BP responded Sunday saying its public statements are 'absolutely consistent' with the Administration's request."
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=xyPnDNOZY5z2eMBeBpUpMduwVFlHdh7M
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Protect Our Oceans From Oil Drilling's Invisible Threat: Acidification
http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3807
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Speak Out Now Against More Offshore Oil Drilling
Two weeks ago we told you the truth when everyone else was trying to downplay the size of the Deepwater Horizon oil "leak". Let's see a show of hands of who believed us then.
Now the New York Times is finally reporting that the oil blowout disaster in the Gulf is much larger than we were led to believe, at LEAST 25,000 barrels a day versus 5,000. British Petroleum and our own government have done nothing but lie to us about the scale of this catastrophe since the beginning. And the reckless use of massive quantities of "dispersants" to try to further hide the hide the truth, trying to make it look like there is less oil out there, is just making things worse.
And yet, astonishingly, members of Congress are still talking as if the way to respond to the climate crisis is to drill MORE oil wells off shore, and in the Gulf in particular. Driven by their self-serving corporate contributors they want to burn MORE coal to further accelerate global warming, and preferentially subsidize absurdly expensive and dangerous nuclear power plants instead of true renewables like concentrated solar technologies, where the same investment would make our country energy self-sufficient safely.
Please tell your members of Congress to stop treating the Gulf, and the rest of our coastline, like the oil companies' own personal industrial sewer. This may be our last chance to put sane energy policy in place, assuming it is not already too late.
No More Offshore Oil Drilling Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1044.php
Right wing flacks for the oil companies may seize on every bogus temperature signal, one isolated snow storm, any fleeting aberration from the undeniable trend, but the climate crisis is inescapably the reality that it is. For in the meantime the percentage of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is already over 392 ppm, and climbing more and more every year without respite.
And that is why we created a couple months ago our "350 ppm or catastrophe" cap, embroidered in beautiful ocean tones of blue, with a red arrow pointing the way to where we need to go, an atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration down to no more than 350 parts per million. Yes, we were using the word catastrophe even before the latest disaster. It was not an exaggeration then, and it is even less so now.
Please consider requesting one of these new caps from the return page after you submit the action page above, to help spread the climate sanity message. Start the conversation about carbon dioxide as a global warming pollutant. As you know, we never set a price on our policy advocacy message items. You can have one for a donation of any amount at all. Submit the action page, or you can get one directly from this page.
350 PPM Or Catastrophe Caps:
http://www.peaceteam.net/message_items.php
As bad as the situation in the Gulf is right now, it will unfortunately get so much worse when the hurricane season hits again, and all that oil gets dumped on land by the storm surges, hurricanes themselves driven by rising global temperatures.
This is not just a wake up call, this is a kick in the head. Either we get serious about the climate crisis, and STOP burning fossil fuels, requiring literally a Manhattan project to develop alternative renewable resources, or the day will come all too soon when the scientists tell us there no longer anything we can do to save ourselves.
No More Offshore Oil Drilling Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1044.php
Please submit the action page to your members of Congress calling on them to dramatically shift the focus of the new Climate Crisis bill, away from more emphasis on coal and especially the insane push for even more oil drilling in the Gulf, assuming it has not already been turned into an industrial sewer by the irresponsible corporate criminals at BP. No amount of dispersants can continue to conceal the truly biblical scale of the ongoing Gulf eco-catastrophe.
And instead of providing subsidies to dangerous and expensive new nuclear power plants, we need to redirect those same resources into real support for true renewables, concentrated solar technologies in particular. Only a fundamental shift in direction offers any hope of averting the climate disaster of our future, just as otherwise inevitable as a blow out incident just like the one we are witnessing in the Gulf right now.
If our legislative representatives will for once in their lives ever take actual scientists seriously, you must understand that just a half hearted bit of carbon offset trading has NO chance of actually reducing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million and keeping it there. Unless we do that, its inexorable rise, which continues unabated even now, will make the world of our near future unrecognizable from the temperate one we now enjoy.
How they have so ignorantly ridiculed the environmentalists for so many years, calling us "tree huggers". Well, they can call us "shrimp huggers" now too, and "oyster huggers", and "fish huggers" and "bird huggers". It's about time we gave mother nature a hug. Lord knows she could sure use one right about now.
And here is the Facebook link for the No More Offshore Oil Drilling action page further above.
[Facebook] Action Page:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum1044
And this is the Twitter reply for this same action
@cxs #p1044
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
usalone393b:319308
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Minerals+Management+Service
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=NOAA
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drilling
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Reich+Blog
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Hedges
