Environment
BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community
- Category: Environment
By For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation.
BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.
"Hey Tony - You Need to Go to Jail"
- Category: Environment
By Dennis Bernstein
Texas Shrimper Diane Wilson Arrested Protesting BP
On June 17, after watching BP’s oil blowout pollute the Gulf of Mexico for nearly two months, environmental campaigner and fourth-generation Texas shrimp boat captain, Diane Wilson, had had more than enough.
So Wilson seized the only opportunity she may ever have to confront BP chief executive, Tony Hayward, eye to eye, about his “criminal activities” as top dog at the oil giant.
Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Beg For a Chance To Take Basic Measurements
- Category: Environment
By Dan Froomkin 
A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the 77-day-old BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended to definitively measure how much oil has spilled and where and how it is spreading throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
An all-star team of top oceanographers, chemists, engineers and other scientists could be ready to head out to the well site on two fully-equipped research vessels on about a week's notice. But they need to get the go-ahead -- and about $8.4 million -- from BP or the federal government or both. And that does not appear imminent.
BP, Government Blocking Press from Reporting Their "Ballet at Sea"
- Category: Environment
By Kevin Gosztola 
"As high tourist season approaches, there will be people who 'come on down to Alabama' regardless of the oil spill. A delicate balance between preparation for the worst and the pleasure of tourists is in the making."
Living on a Dying Delta
- Category: Environment
by: Dahr Jamail 
Our first full day in Louisiana finds us venturing south from New Orleans to Houma, a town about an hours drive to the southwest. It is from here we are to take a flight over the marsh to inspect the damage, thus far, caused by the ongoing BP oil catastrophe.
Walking into the office of Butler Aviation Services at the airport, the downtrodden mood, and accompanying anger, are palpable. Of course this is not assisted by the fact that Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Louisiana today.
Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster Disrupts BP-Government Disinformation Meeting
- Category: Environment
By Larry Everest
Tonight, in New Orleans, the BP-government informational meeting didn't go as planned, thanks to the actions of members of the newly formed Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster and others in attendance who have been speaking out about the oil catastrophe.
Since the beginning of this nightmare, BP, and various government agencies -- including the Coast Guard, the EPA, NOAA, and the Dept. of Energy -- have been holding "open houses," or "informational meetings" across the state of Louisiana and beyond, to try and reassure people that they're doing all they can to stop this catastrophe, that they're on top of the situation, that they really want to hear peoples' concerns and give them all the information and help they need. In reality, those attending hear a stream of double-talk, obfuscation, vague promises, and outright lies. These are very deliberate exercises in disinformation and pacification, with BP and the government working together in an attempt to paralyze people, keep the lid on the situation, and maintain their legitimacy.
America: a Company-Owned Town
- Category: Environment
The Great Gusher in the Gulf is a political, not simply an economic and environmental, crisis. “No amount of public disgust at BP has moved Obama to behave as if he is beholden to the majority that elected him – for the simple reason that he is not.”
“The United States can no longer engage effectively in “nation-building” in the one place on Earth it has a right and duty to do so: at home. These are the lessons of the 2010 Gulf oil catastrophe, the 2008 financial meltdown and the 2005 Katrina horror – disasters that history will rightfully conflate as symptomatic of the fundamental crisis of the rule of Capital.
BP Yanks “Containment Cap”, Oil Flows Unimpeded into Gulf
- Category: Environment
By Raw Story 
Oil gushed unchecked Wednesday from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico after BP's containment system was removed for repairs when a robotic submarine crashed into it, US officials said.
"We had an incident earlier today, they noticed that there was some kind of a gas rising," said Admiral Thad Allen, the US official coordinating the response to the disaster.
The Gulf Emergency Summit & Going Forward
- Category: Environment
On Saturday, June 19, 100 people came together in New Orleans – with another 1900 watching via live webcast (at www.gulfemergencysummit.org) for an Emergency Summit to Stop the Gulf Oil Catastrophe. Present were fishing families immediately affected, academics, scientists, and activists who traveled from New York, California, the Midwest, and Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and the NOLA region. Moving presentations were given by Larry Everest, Elizabeth Cook, John Clark, Cindy Sheehan, Kindra Arneson, Barry Thornton, Joetta Carr and Raymond Lotta. Dozens spoke from the floor.
Because humanity & the planet come first...
Environment