Here is a short video document I produced of the collective action at BP’s “Green Curve” station in Los Angeles last Wednesday:
The sad story of the Deepwater Horizon spill continues, of course. 60 Minutes has some decent coverage here, including an interview with a survivor of the initial blast.
Firedoglake has a page devoted to developments here, as does the UK Guardian here.
But the latest episode in a sad history of oil operations. This current disaster will result in several disastrous and long term effects.
Democracy Now covers the important angles of this story – how the government exempted BP from environmental review despite its dismal environmental record, noting its lobbying and greenwashing campaigns as well as its role in the 1953 overthrow of democracy in Iran,
Nikolas Kozloff reviews the role of Obama’s secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. (I can’t help but succumb to a flash of schadenfreude for President Centrist since this disaster comes right on the heels of this.) And here is a bit about the Halliburton connection.
One group is mobilizing for a day of protests and calling for the seizure of BP’s assets.
The current Iraq War, which has now dragged on into its 7th year, was justified by the U.S. government and mainstream news media on the basis of a series of demonstrable lies either made up or extracted by torture from people accused of terrorism by the Bush Administration.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands (perhaps a million) of people have been killed in the course of what the International Tribunal at Nuremberg would have considered “the supreme international crime“.
The 7th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion was commemorated this Saturday by modest popular protests in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. I attended and documented the Los Angeles event in the following video:
The L.A. march was organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition and was led by disabled Vietnam Veteran Ron Kovic (author of “Born on the 4th of July“), who was accompanied by a color guard of terror war veterans carrying the flags of war profiteering corporations.
And here is a nice essay on the anniversary by Andy Worthington.
As expected, COP15 failed to reach a legally binding agreement on climate change, and was marred by the barring of civil society groups from the proceedings, the police suppression of environmental activist groups.
The fault line of the talks fell between rich and poor countries – that is, between rich industrialized countries responsible for the vast majority of carbon emissions and the poor and developing countries that stand to lose the most from climate change.
(Naomi Klein explicates the notion of “Climate Debt” here.)
Rich polluting countries disrupted the U.N. negotiations by means of a secret deal presided over by the host country. The end result was a non-binding “Accord”.
Click here to read reactions from some of the major environmental groups, and here to see how the non-binding accord doesn’t even come close to addressing the problem.
Despite the failure of the talks to reach a legally binding agreement, some see silver linings in the end of climate change denial, the chance to move beyond cap and trade schemes, and the explosion of activism with regard to climate justice.
Democracy Now! was reporting from within the COP15 convention center for the entire course of the talks, and you can check our their exclusive and extensive coverage here.
Here is a basic primer on the Af-Pak Adventure, courtesy of the inestimable LLoyd Dangle of Troubletown:
And for an elaboration of the final panel, see Tom Engelhardt’s essay, “Meet the Commanded-in-Chief.”
Plastic pollution is fucking marine life.Charles Moore, who first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, has a TED talk about the problem:
Moore is also featured in the 12-part vbs.tv documentary, “Garbage Island.” (If you want to cut to the chase, I suggest starting at episode 9. If you want to learn about some of the consequences for human health, see the interview with Dr. Frederick vom Saal.)
One of the many ill consequences of our plastic throwaway culture is this:
On the remote Midway Atoll, according to the L.A. Times, 40% of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of our plastic trash. The BBC covers the story here.
Chris Jordan is an artist who “runs the numbers” on our throwaway culture. Here is an example of his work, “Plastic Bottles, 2007.” It depicts “two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes”:
Here is a partial zoom:
And a detail at actual size:
Check out more of his work here.
Simply by waving a bidder’s paddle, Tim DeChristopher disrupted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s auction of scenic public land to private oil companies.
Although he had no money to pay for it, DeCristopher won 13 parcels totaling 22,500 acres and drove up prices for others. The land he won bids for will not be able to be re-auctioned until the next administration is in power.
Amy Goodman interviews Tim DeChristopher, who now faces federal charges, here.
“Thisis the farewell kiss, you DOG! This is from the widows, the orphans andthose killed in Iraq. You are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis.”Watch it with subtitles here.
Farooz confronted Condoleeza Rice with bloody hands as she was about to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committe in October 2007. Video here.
On November 8, 2001, 16-year-old Alina Lebedeva slapped Prince Charles’ face with a red carnation while he was visiting Riga following the US/British bombing of Afghanistan. “I’m against the Afghan war,” she told reporters.
Although Lebedeva originally faced a maximum sentence of 15 years for endangering the life of a senior official, she was eventually let off the hook. Here is an update page.
