Ma Nature, the Happy Toilet – BP on Trial at the Occupation by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
For Greenpeace.org
Nov. 28, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

[Occupy Wall Street Climate Trial, New York. Sunday, Nov 27.]

This is not the first courtroom where I’ve faced off against BP, British Petroleum. But this time, I was outdoors, with a patrol car’s red lights spinning.

Occupy Wall Street asked me to act as “prosecutor” in the Climate Court in their relocated locale in a New York park.

I have the cold, hard, documentary evidence in my hand, gathered with the help of Greenpeace and their submarine (no kidding) in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caspian Sea, in Alaska.

Drowning Fish? by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
June 30, 2011

July 3 would have been my parents’ 67th Anniversary. 67 years. Maybe it was the triumph of Hope over Reality (still have that Obama 2008 poster?). Or maybe something else, something that those of us who haven’t walked that far down the path can’t imagine.

Corporate Profit Versus Life On Earth by Rand Clifford

by Rand Clifford
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
June 5, 2011

Image by tomswift46 (No Groups with Comments) via Flickr

The last year has been especially catastrophic for life on Earth, while at the same time, corporate profits have jumped a staggering 36.8%, setting all-time records. Is this a coincidence, or are the long-term implications as sinister as they might seem?

How many disasters like the massive poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico, or gushing of radiation from multiple reactor-core meltdowns in Japan can the biosphere take? Or, perhaps a more apropos question is: How much more profit will the biosphere survive?

Antonia Juhasz: Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill

Dandelion Salad

pdxjustice on May 26, 2011

Policy analyst, activist and author, Antonia Juhasz, talks about her latest book, BLACK TIDE: THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE GULF OIL SPILL. Antonia Juhasz spoke at Powell’s Books in Beaverton, Oregon, on April 25th, 2011. Thanks to PC Peri and Flying Focus Video Collective for recording this program!

The Solar Initiative: 35 Years in the Non-Making By Steve Windisch

By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 24, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

It was back in 1976 that President Jimmy Carter had Solar Panels installed on the roof of the White House, the type that heated hot water. This event came at the height of arguably the most successful Grass Roots Campaign ever seen in America: The Ecology Movement. This truly “bottom-up” and widely based movement was responsible for more far-reaching legislation passed (in sheer volume), than even the Civil Rights and Womens’ Rights movements; which were also highly important grass roots successes proving the Power of the People when roused. And the Ecology Movement did most of this within a few years; and by uniting many people across the entire political spectrum together on a single issue that broke Party and social barriers. It accomplished wonderful things…

BP’s Secret Deepwater Blowout by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
Crossposted at Truthout/Buzzflash
April 19, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Only 17 months before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig suffered a deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP deepwater oil platform also blew out.

You’ve heard and seen much about the Gulf disaster that killed 11 BP workers. If you have not heard about the earlier blowout, it’s because BP has kept the full story under wraps. Nor did BP inform Congress or US safety regulators, and BP, along with its oil industry partners, have preferred to keep it that way.

The earlier blowout occurred in September 2008 on BP’s Central Azeri platform in the Caspian Sea.

It’s Time To Go To Work For The Solar Initiative by Steve Windisch

By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 8, 2011

The below is a possible Letter to an elected official. We would urge you to please write one and send it, letting them know this subject is both important to us all, and to our planet. Sadly, due to terrible events, NOW is the best time for doing this. Despite the BP Gulf Disaster one year ago, despite the Fukushima fission nuclear disaster… These topics are STILL not being seriously discussed in Congress… Major incentives for PV Solar energy is not even a serious topic, if that bizarre fact can be believed. And these topics will not be discussed, and only the ones that the energy lobbyists want will be discussed… as long as we do not work together. It is time for ALL in the environmental movements, all who seek positive change, to work together now.

BP In Deep Water: The Making Of the Channel 4 Investigation by Greg Palast + video

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
March 29, 2011

English: Platform supply vessels battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew. Français : Les restes en feu de la plateforme Deepwater Horizon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For two decades, investigator Greg Palast has been on BP’s trail. In BP: In Deep Water, Palast takes Dispatches viewers along on his world-wide investigation of the oil giant. (Broadcast tonight, 8pm. UK only.)

One year after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig blew apart and spewed 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP claims victory – that most of the oil is gone.

Profit Pathology and Disposable Planet by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.michaelparenti.org
February 26, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Some years ago in New England, a group of environmentalists asked a corporate executive how his company (a paper mill) could justify dumping its raw industrial effluent into a nearby river.  The river—which had taken Mother Nature centuries to create–was used for drinking water, fishing, boating, and swimming.  In just a few years, the paper mill had turned it into a highly toxic open sewer.

The executive shrugged and said that river dumping was the most cost-effective way of removing the mill’s wastes. If the company had to absorb the additional expense of having to clean up after itself, it might not be able to maintain its competitive edge and would then have to go out of business or move to a cheaper labor market, resulting in a loss of jobs for the local economy.

Barack Obama: As Bad as Bush by Mike Whitney

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Mike Whitney
Global Research
January 22, 2011

His enemies call him a tyrant and a dictator, but he is neither. Hugo Chavez is a tireless champion of the poor and a committed Christian socialist. The only difference between Chavez’s type of Christianity and Barack Obama’s, is that Chavez walks the walk.

For example, on Tuesday, Chavez used his powers under the new “enabling laws” to enact the “Law for Dignified Refuge” a presidential decree that mandates “dignified and humane” housing for all Venezuelans. The Venezuelan parliament approved the controversial (and temporary) enabling laws because the country faced an unprecedented housing crisis due to the massive floods in December.

Transparency in the Age of Obama by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
January 9, 2011

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.

Taken from the White House Website – A message from President Obama to his staff.

Illnesses linked to BP oil disaster by Dahr Jamail

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Dahr Jamail
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
January 5th, 2011 | Inter Press Service

Doctor attributes widespread sickness to toxic chemicals from the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.

Despite BP having capped its well in the Gulf of Mexico in July, the health-related after-effects of the disaster subsist.

Gulf Coast residents and BP cleanup workers have linked the source of certain illnesses to chemicals present in BP’s oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it – illnesses that appear to be both spreading and worsening.

David Barstow: Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by ideum via Flickr

Democracy Now!
Dec. 30, 2010

“Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours:” The Explosion that Killed 11 Workers and Led to the Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History

It has been eight months since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Eleven workers were killed and more than 200 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. A major investigation by the New York Times takes an in-depth look into how explosion occurred. Based on interviews with 21 crew members and testimony from 94 others, the investigation concludes every single one of the rig’s defenses failed. We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Barstow. [includes rush transcript]

“Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours” (The New York Times)

via “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours:” The Explosion that Killed 11 Workers and Led to the Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History

Cindy Sheehan: The BP Plague Continues!

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
December 19, 2010

This Sunday (December 19th) Cindy welcomes FOUR guests (count them!) in this year-ending blowout, all discussing the ever-spreading BP Plague, still destroying our Gulf Coast.  First up is Karen Meyer Hopkins.  She is Treasurer of Gulf Change, an environmental group from within the Gulf Seafood Industry. Next is Mac McKensie, founder of NOLA Emergency Response (http://www.nolaer.org/), who purchased 3 lbs. of Gulf Shrimp and had their digestive tracts tested for contaminants.

There is Something Wrong with the Independent Media By Steve Windisch

By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
December 9, 2010

There is something very wrong with the independent media. It is unclear if this is somewhat about a failure to understand “priorities”… or if it is mainly something “darker” related to deliberate suppression and misdirection. We do know, that several important and vital stories very damning and damaging to the “status quo” are now not only suppressed by the corporate owned mainstream media (an old story for decades, but a phenomena that greatly increased after the events of “9/11” ); but are also now virtually ignored in the so-called “Independent” Internet media as well: The very people whom we trust to bring us information that the mainstream refuses to. This is a highly disturbing trend that appears to be growing; and what it causes as a result (for whatever reason), is to help maintain the “status quo” and the “hear-no, see-no-evil” mainstream media aura of : “No important questions ever asked, nor answered.”