Rose Hackman, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: The Obama administration has been an enormous disappointment to me and, I suspect, to many readers. In a few highly targeted and publicized efforts President Obama has done some compassionate and life-affirming things. But the day-in-day-out activities of his administration, as this account makes clear, the "fix" is in during Obama Administration as much as it would be in a Republican Administration.
Anyone who looks at the track record of oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic with open eyes sees that the potential for disaster is so great that it would be a mad scheme to undertake it. Particularly with a world awash in oil, and the transition out of the carbon era gathering speed.
All of this, of course, is a function of Citizens United, greed, and the tsunami of money that has swamped American government. I think it is also worth noting that this important article was published in The Guardian, while a deafening silence on the topic pervades media in the U.S.
Activists protest the Shell Oil Company’s drilling rig Polar Pioneer which is parked at Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle.
Credit: Jason Redmond/Reuters
The Obama administration’s process for giving Shell the go-ahead for restarting its drilling in the Arctic lacked transparency and prevented an informed public response, environmental groups have warned.
The results of a third-party audit required by the US government before Royal Dutch Shell be allowed back into the US Arctic remain under wraps, and the third-party auditor – supposedly taken on to provide better oversight – was selected and paid for by Shell, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed.
The consequences of such a lack of transparency and opportunity for public scrutiny are worrying, the environmental group Greenpeace says.
Shell had to exit the US Arctic waters in 2012 after the oil giant’s equipment failed an environment protection test. Its activities in the area that year were […]
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Stephan: Do you know about the Blood Moon? Unless you pay attention to the Theocratic Right's media probably not.
This essay is much too polemic, but I am using it because it is one of the few commentaries making an important point: As you read this keep in mind that millions of Americans believe this to be an accurate statement of reality. It is dark, parlous and driven by fear and over-active amygdalas. But it is important to accept that it is their reality.
The Blood Moon prophecies are part of the Great Schism Trend one of the meta-trends, like climate change, with which it interacts, that will shape our future. If you don't think these beliefs have policy consequences look at the U.S.-Israel relationship.
John Hagee
Credit: AP/J. Michael Short/Keith Lamond, photowings via Shutterstock/Photo montage by Salon
In 2015, there is a United States congressman who believes that the so-called blood moon prophecy determines the fate of the Middle East and, because of some more prophecy, the fate of the world, of all of us. In 2015. Common Era.
“Blood moons,” which is a gussied-up way of naming your garden-variety lunar eclipse, “have preceded world-changing, shaking-type events,” says Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, a man constitutionally permitted to vote in one of the world’s most powerful legislative bodies. Legislation, accords, Security Council Resolutions, military aid packages — why consider this mere terrestrial ephemera when you can just go out into your backyard and consult the moon?
While the prophecy may seem fringe — like something a hooded Nostradamus type from the Dark Ages would wheeze in dim and flickering firelight — it’s gaining surprising traction in conservative media, and is being adopted as legitimate by prominent figures, […]
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Natasha Geiling, - Climate Progress
Stephan: As I have predicted for some years, the first large corporations to change their policies on carbon investments will be insurance companies. Since they pay out claims brought on by disasters, they are exquisitely attuned to what causes disasters and carbon energy is at the top of their list. Insurance companies understand what Republicans will not admit — climate change is a game changer unlike anything ever seen before by the human species. So I take AXA's action as good news.
AXA Chief Executive Officer Henri de Castries
Credit: AP
Citing climate change as a major threat, one of the world’s largest insurance companies has pledged to drop its remaining investment in coal assets while tripling its investment in green technologies.
At a business and climate change conference held this week in Paris, AXA — France’s largest insurer — announced that it would sell €500 million ($559 million) in coal assets by the end of 2015, while increasing its “green investments” in things like renewable energy, green infrastructure, and green bonds to €3 billion ($3.3 billion) by 2020.
During the announcement on Friday, AXA’s chief executive Henri de Castries spoke about the threat that climate change poses to the environment, and the responsibility of insurance companies to deal with those threats. Last year, AXA paid over €1 billion ($1.1 billion) globally in weather-related insurance claims, citing climate change as a “core business issue” already driving an increase in weather-related risks.
“The facts are undeniable. If we think […]
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Maggie Ybarra , Reporter - The Washington Times
Stephan: Like so much that is important this has gone almost completely unremarked by corporate media. I found this account in the right-wing Washington Times, Reverend Moon's paper in D.C.. A paper it should be noted that featured such additional articles as: "Best Concealed handguns," "Best handguns under $500,"and "These Pro-gun Celebrities may shock you." But right-wing source or not this is an important article because it reveals that the Orwellian surveillance state created by the Patriotic Act hasn't done any of the things it was supposed to do, but has intruded in micro-detail into the lives of ordinary Americans.
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz
Credit:: DOJ.gov
FBI agents can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Thursday (emphasis added) that could complicate efforts to keep key parts of the law operating.
Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations.
The FBI did finally come up with procedures to try to minimize the information it was gathering on nontargets, but it took far too long, Mr. Horowitz said in the 77-page report, which comes just as Congress is trying to decide whether to extend, rewrite or entirely nix Section 215.
Backers say the Patriot Act powers are critical and must be […]
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Stephan: When I see these developments happening with non-carbon energy technologies I can't help but wonder where we might be today if we had begun the transition in 1973 after the big oil crisis, instead of 2015. But at least it is now happening and, as this report describes, it is getting very exciting. This is the latest in electricity using wind generation.
Bladeless wind turbines
What do you get if you take the blades off a wind turbine? A better wind turbine.
That sounds like a joke, but that’s actually more or less the model of a new wind turbine prototype. Instead of blades that turn in the breeze, the turbine is just a hollow straw that sticks up 40 feet from the ground and vibrates like a guitar string when the wind thrums by.
The Spanish engineers who founded Vortex Bladeless in 2010 said they were inspired by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster (maybe not the best pitch for clean energy to a disaster-wary public, but I’ll leave that to their marketing department). Here’s how it actually works, from Wired:
Instead of capturing energy via the circular motion of a propeller, the Vortex takes advantage of what’s known as vorticity, an aerodynamic effect that produces a pattern of spinning vortices. Vorticity has long been considered the enemy of architects and engineers, who actively try to design their way around these whirlpools of wind. And for good reason: With […]
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