\nMexico and bleeding into Louisiana
\nwetlands<\/a>. The situation is so dire
\nthat our best environmental option<\/a> is to set
\nit ablaze<\/a>. Eleven workers died when
\nthe rig blew up. Economic disaster may
\nfollow ecological and human disaster, with the fishing, shrimping<\/a>, and tourism industries likely to take a body blow. Remember when President
\nObama called for a major
\nexpansion of offshore drilling<\/a> four weeks ago and said<\/a> “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills”? How comforting.<\/p>\n
\n Two <\/strong>coal miners \n The Chinese \n Even the week’s good news—the Obama administration’s That’s just this week. Looking <\/p>\n The connection running <\/p>\n Speaking of which, the U.S. Senate looks <\/p>\n Leave it to a business <\/p>\n The craziest part is <\/p>\n “Think of the language <\/p>\n We’re still acting as <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Wake up, Obama. The Gulf spill is our big chance<\/a><\/p>\n Obama puts offshore drilling on hold as Gulf of Mexico oil slick reaches U.S. coast<\/a><\/p>\n
\nwere crushed to death<\/strong> in Kentucky while working for a company
\nwith
\na long history<\/a> of endangering its workers.
\nThis story should have shocked the nation, but coming in the wake of 29
\nminer deaths earlier this month and in the shadow of the oil spill, it got
\nbarely of blip of attention. <\/p>\n
\ncoal freighter that crashed into the Great Barrier Reef<\/strong> a few
\nweeks ago remains stuck and Australian authorities say the best option may
\nbe to sink it<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\napproval of Cape Wind<\/strong>, which would be the nation’s first
\noffshore wind farm<\/a>—feels pretty bad.
\nWhile offshore oil drilling proceeds merrily along with bipartisan
\nsupport, it’s taken nine years of torturous wrangling to get this far with
\nCape Wind. Environmentalists continue to
\nspar over it, and still more litigation and stalling will follow before a
\nsingle turbine goes online along a U.S. coastline. “I’m worried about all those
\nwind turbines blowing up & leaving a wind-slick on the coast of Cape Cod,” quipped<\/a> one
\nclimate reporter.<\/p>\n
\nback at the whole month of April, we had Massey’s Big Branch mine disaster,
\nanother coal miner death<\/a> in
\nWest Virginia, an oil refinery explosion<\/a> in Washington state that killed
\nfive workers, an 18,000-gallon oil spill
\nfrom a Chevron pipeline<\/a> into the Louisiana Delta, and, as mentioned above, a big oil spill at the world’s largest continuous coral reef.<\/p>\n
\nthrough every one of these disasters, of course, is dirty energy—oil and
\ncoal. Only a fool would refuse to see the need to end our addiction.<\/p>\n
\nlikely to turn its back on the problem for the year. Plans to introduce a climate
\nand energy bill this week—albeit one that’s disturbingly friendly to the
\nfossil-fuel industry—are on the skids because
\nof a spat<\/a> between Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).<\/p>\n
\nprofessor to find a “silver lining” in the week’s terrible news: “I think it may create some temporarily
\nspikes in employment if the companies hire some local labor to clean up the
\nspill,” Rajesh Narayanan, professor of finance at Louisiana State University’s business
\nschool, told The New York Times.<\/p>\n
\nthat our leaders continue pledging their tender loving care not to the natural world
\nbut to the GDP. <\/p>\n
\nour politicians use,” author and global organizer Bill McKibben said in a
\nrecent conversation. “‘The economy is ailing.’ ‘It’s hit a rough patch.’ Or ‘It’s
\nhealing.’ Or ‘showing signs of healing.’ I mean, we talk about it like you
\nwould your great aunt. But with the planet, it’s ‘natural cycles’ and ‘pay no
\nattention.’ ‘The Arctic melted: must be a natural cycle someplace.’”<\/p>\n
\nif the economy is the thing that’s real, the thing with physical weight and
\nforce. We’re acting as if the natural world is the abstraction, the intellectual
\nconcept that we can adjust to better suit our needs. That confusion will be the
\nroot of more disasters.<\/p>\n