Spill Baby Spill Takes A Turn For The Worse

So I've been fooling myself into thinking that at least there's a silver lining to the Louisiana oil rig explosion and leak in that it will give pause to advocates of increased off shore drilling.

Now word comes that the leak remains uncontained and continues to spread rapidly. This picture is from April 25 so just imagine that slick bigger and closer to shore...The image is from a NASA MODIS instrument (follow the link for more info).

The latest word is even more troubling, we're going to turn Spill Baby Spill into Burn Baby Burn. Is there any way this is actually a good idea? Burning off an oil slick just doesn't seem like the best way to deal with it to me. I suppose that the folks making the decision know what they're doing, but then again do we have any evidence that they do?

That does bring me back to the fact that this incident demonstrates exactly why we shouldn't be drilling for oil along our shorelines.

Green It Up

So I threw together some 30 second videos for the Nicholas School's Green In 3 video contest. Needless to say I didn't win, some dude with a helicopter did, but I thought I would share all the same...







Worth mentioning that the best thing I saw associated with this project was one of the countless posters advertising it on Duke's campus with "waste less paper" scrawled on it. Brilliant, and oh so apropos.

GLEE!

I finally have the internet at my house again- and now I have time to find totally rad videos like this one:

Mine Fuenerals

I have some major issues with coal mining and coal power, but that doesn't prevent me from feeling for the families of the miner's killed recently in West Virgina.

President Obama attended the service for the 29 miners who lost their lives in the tragedy, and his attendance has received plenty of media attention. You know who wasn't able to attend the service? Friends of the victims who work in mines owned by Massey Energy, owner and operator of the mine in question no less. Seems that Massey told the folks working in their non-union mines that they better show up for work instead of attending the funerals...

Makes me wonder how the safety levels and precautions in Massey's mines compare to unionized ones? The violations that Massey has racked up recently, and since the deaths in one of its mines are a good spot to start.

(via TP)

Still The Best Thing On The Internet

XKCD continues its excellence, and not just in making me laugh...

As the scroll over says(you'll need to click through to be able to see it), mapping and exploring what's already hear is pretty exciting and important. We still have better maps of the Moon than we do of the bottom of the oceans, which only cover about 70% of the Earth's surface.

Breaking The Ban - Go F*ck Yourself Fox News

So we have an un-official ban on embedding Comedy Central shows on this blog because their code sucks and they pulled out of Hulu.

Of course when I went to embed this video to share with you it didn't work, so I won't send you to Comedy Central's site but another one where you can watch Jon Stewart lay it down...

Navy Goes Green

The Navy will be flying some of its F-18's on a biofuel blend for Earth Day. It isn't just a stunt either, the Department of Defense is very interested in alternative fuel sources that reduce it's reliance on foreign oil and increase the military's efficiency.

The changes eventually could spread to civilian life. The size of the military's investment will create economies of scale that help bring down the costs of renewable energy, and military innovations in energy technologies could spread to civilian uses, just as the Internet did. In addition, military innovations could help reduce the nation's overall emissions of heat-trapping gases from fossil fuel use.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the Defense Department looks at energy changes as "one of America's big strategic imperatives — to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of fossil energy, to make us better war fighters and to get us more down the road to energy independence. We also feel the military can lead in this regard."

He said there also were added benefits — "making us better stewards of the environment and helping our country move toward a different economy, which we cannot afford to fall behind in."

Make sure to read the whole article which details some of the other service's plans. The military is big enough and burns enough fossil fuel that its reductions alone are noteworthy, but what's really exciting is the potential for trailblazing for the public. If alternative fuel sources and increased efficiency are good for the military aren't they good for the rest of us as well?

(via BD)