whyinthehell

His was a candidacy of promise and hope — of change from one of the most anti-environment administrations in decades.

But more than two and a half years into his term, President Obama’s record on conservation has left more than something to be desired.

Defenders’ President Rodger Schlickeisen takes a look at the Obama administration’s record — and how it needs to be improved.

“Candidate Obama consistently said that dealing with environmental problems—especially climate change, the number one threat to protecting the rich biological diversity that supports all life on Earth—would be one of his top priorities. Believing that, the House of Representatives acted quickly once President Obama was in office to approve comprehensive climate change legislation and send it to the Senate. The House bill curbed greenhouse gas emissions and set up a mechanism to help protect wildlife and biological diversity. But the President failed to put his political muscle into pushing the Senate to act. Then the long drawn-out battle over health care followed by his party’s loss of numerous House and Senate seats in 2010  doomed any chance of enacting climate change legislation for the foreseeable future – a missed opportunity that will result in considerable unnecessary  environmental damage.

Unfortunately, climate change is not the only issue affected by Obama’s  timid legislative approach. The explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago dramatically underscored the need for stricter regulation of offshore oil drilling to protect our oceans and coasts and the people and wildlife that depend on them. But is the White House fighting for tougher new laws to assure that nothing like this event that triggered the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history will ever happen again? No. Obama did appoint a stellar commission that made thoughtful and important recommendations for stronger offshore drilling regulation, but he has yet to push for reform legislation – and each passing week whatever opportunity there is to win needed reforms grows smaller. Although a few stalwart environmental leaders have introduced reform bills, others in Congress have interpreted the administration’s congressional inaction as an opportunity to promote more unsafe drilling in more places. These places include Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, where  marine ecosystems are even more fragile and vulnerable to devastation from oil spills than in the Gulf of Mexico.

Not only has the President failed to push for desperately needed legislation, he supported his Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who, with no consultation and no warning, adopted the Bush administration’s plan to remove federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies based on political boundaries rather than the science required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). When conservationists sued and a federal court overturned his illegal action, Secretary Salazar actively encouraged Congress to enact legislation removing federal protection from Northern Rockies wolves, ignoring the court’s decision. And the White House did nothing to stop it.

For the first time in the nearly 40-year history of the ESA, Congress—with the complicity of the Obama administration—has intervened to remove all protection from a listed species. If, as many fear, this turns out to be a precedent for additional legislation blocking protection for endangered species, the damage to our ability to safeguard imperiled plants and animals essential to the web of life will be incalculable.

Obama’s record to date gives us no reason for optimism on forest protections and energy development guidelines. His administration’s conservation record falls far short of what it promised, what was expected of it and – most importantly – what we need. Our major environmental problems, especially those caused by climate change and loss of species and habitat, are huge and growing and will cause future generations great anguish and difficulty if our political leaders fail to lead.  Unfortunately, President Obama’s instinct seems to be to avoid tough battles, relying on the argument that even as his record falls short, his administration is better on conservation than the previous one and better than any likely to succeed him should his re-election effort fall short.

That argument simply isn’t acceptable. Avoiding serious action, or–to use one of the President’s own phrases–“continuing to kick the can down the road” to another administration, will only result in our most serious environmental problems continuing to grow faster than society’s capacity to solve them. The dangers are too great to give the President a pass on environmental leadership. Those of us who care about the fate of the planet and generations to come must demand real progress that promises to solve our very real problems. For conservation, the future has to be now.”

Read Rodger’s article on the Defenders Blog.

Together with the World Wildlife Federation, on June 23 Coca-Cola unveiled a billboard in the Philippines that’s actually good for the city it inhabits.

The 60 x 60 foot living billboard in Manila is made of thousands of Fukien tea plants surrounding the iconic curvy shape of a silver Coke bottle. The project with the CO2-eating plants was created in conjunction with Coca-Cola Philippines’ Live Positively sustainability program.

Pots made from recycled bottles contain the 3,600 trees, which live off a mixture of organic fertilizers. Though they are currently in the first stages of growth, the plants are expected to grow quickly, completely taking over the billboard surface, absorbing a total of 46,800 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

mohandasgandhi:

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Live green by conserving water, eating organic food, being vegetarian, and buying non-toxic products can help lessen global warming, which is causing water temperatures to rise, upsetting the oceans’ delicate balance.

Take Your Car To The Carwash

Washing your car at home not only uses 60%-percent more water than a commercial car wash, but the untreated detergent runoff ends up in streams, lakes, and the ocean.

Pick Up After Pets

A recent U.S. Geological Survey study of streams and creeks in Kansas showed that pet-waste germs made up approximately a quarter of the bacteria in samples collected from local waterways. When enough bacteria get into the ocean, they can cause beach and shellfish-bed closures and threaten the drinking supply.

Watch What You Wash Down The Drain

Cooking grease, excessive food waste, and trash in sink drains and disposals can accumulate in city sewer lines and cause blockages that create sewage overflows into the ocean. Only use the disposal for organic waste.

Use Natural Personal-care And Laundry Products

Everything you put on your body eventually goes down the drain when you shower, as does the water from your washing machine. Waste-water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out these types of chemicals.

Be A Green Boater

Use nontoxic cleaning products and paints over a drop-cloth, recycle used oil, and schedule regular maintenance to avoid fuel and lubricant leaks.

Organize Clean-Ups Of Nearby Beaches

Last year, volunteers collected almost 18,000 pounds of debris from 130 miles of coastline, according to Coastsweep, a UMass-Boston group that organizes statewide cleanups.

Use Cloth Shopping Bags

Plastic bags cause the deaths of 100,000 marine animals each year when the animals mistake them for food, so if you must use them, always recycle them in the bin at your supermarket.

Choose Your Fish Carefully

Many marine species are over-fished, and some have high levels of mercury and PCBs. Buy only “ocean-friendly seafood”.

Cut Up Mono-filament Fishing Line, String, And Rope Before Discarding

Seabirds and other creatures can get tangled in lines, and marine mammals often mistake balloons for food.

Vote With The Environment In Mind

Lobby your legislators to end harmful fishing methods, set tougher safety standards for oil spills, and keep shoreline development in check, among other things.

Use Less Plastic And Always Recycle

According to Greenpeace, about 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean annually; much of it has collected in a spiral in the north Pacific. The “garbage vortex” is the size of Texas, and it’s not getting any smaller.

Help Prevent Air Pollution

Air pollution contributes to water pollution and increases acidity in oceans and lakes. You can reduce your output by avoiding aerosols and driving less, for starters.

Use Only Natural Lawn Products, Landscape Your Property To Lessen Erosion

About 60 percent of soil that’s washed away ends up in waterways, bringing pesticides, fertilizer, and terrestrial bacteria with it.

Don’t Flush Unused Or Expired Medications

Hormones, antidepressants, painkillers, and other drugs are showing up in our water supply and harming aquatic life. Crush unused pills and throw them away in kitty litter, used coffee grounds, or other unpalatable items.

If You Have A Saltwater Fish Tank, Buy Only Marine Aquarium Council-certified Fish, Never Return Them To The Ocean

Pacific Lionfish is just one species that has proliferated in the southern Atlantic and Caribbean after hobbyists released the fish when they got too big for their tanks. A single Lionfish can reduce recruitment of other fish on a reef by a staggering 85%-percent, and these apex predators are threatening both commercial fishing and tourism.

Flex Your Consumer Power

Learn about companies’ environmental policies and buy only from those that promote green practices. Don’t buy products that exploit the oceans, such as coral calcium, shark cartilage supplements, and coral jewelry, and if you take fish oil, you can substitute equally healthy flaxseed oil.

Don’t Throw Trash In Waterways

Cigarette butts, which take up to five years to break down in saltwater, can kill birds and aquatic animals that mistake them for food.

Don’t Use Antibacterial Soap

Its most common ingredient, triclosan, is not completely removed during waste-water treatment, and is toxic to marine organisms.

Don’t Use Soap In Or Near Open Water

Only three parts per million can kill sea urchin embryos, for example.

Dispose Hazardous Waste Properly

Take motor oil, paint, antifreeze, pesticides, and solvent containers and leftovers to a hazardous waste drop-off site rather than pouring them into storm drains or sewers. Clean up spills rather than hosing them into the street.

Service Your Septic System

Make sure your septic system operates properly by having it inspected and pumped at least every three to five years.

Take Up Scuba Diving

It’s safe and will help you appreciate the underwater world.

Use Waterproof Sunscreen

Don’t be a one-person oil spill. Greasy, oily sunscreen leaves a sheen of residue on everything including the ocean.

Use Newspaper Or Popcorn As Packing Material

Never use plastic peanuts and make sure to recycle all plastic material you receive from shipping boxes.

Use Organic Fertilizer

Using compost and organic fertilizers in your lawn and garden keeps rivers and streams clean and free of toxic chemicals.

Carpool

Ride your bike, walk, use public transportation or carpool to cut down on carbon emissions.

Support Save The Whales, Save The Shark Campaigns

We rely on the top predators of the sea in order to keep eco-systems in balance including carbon consuming plankton.

Say No To Drilling

Offshore drilling results in a wide range of health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life.

Make A Donation

If you can, provide financial support.

(via Steven Newcomb)

“With so much at stake, it is right that climate science is subjected to the most intense scrutiny. What does not help is for the real issues to be muddied by discredited arguments or wild theories.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence, as well as a blog looking at the history of climate science. In the articles we’ve included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.”

Originally posted in 2007, but has been updated and contains a lot of links leading to a lot of good info.  ~whyinthehell

“BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come.

Read also: The rest of this special report and MoJo’s complete BP coverage.”

“…Portland Mayor Sam Adams announced that Portland will ban plastic shopping bags. He will layout his plan today at the Ban the Bag Rally, at 12 noon. After Oregon legislators revealed they are considering a ban on plastic shopping bags, the Ban the Bag coalition announced a Ban the Bag action occurring today, Wednesday July 14th.

Not only are millions of barrels of oil used to make the nearly 100 billion plastic shopping bags we use annually, but they can wreck havoc on the machinery at recycling centers; which may be why 95 percent of the bags end up in landfills.

The new statewide legislation being considered in Oregon would encourage shoppers to use fabric or other reusable bags by banning the plastic ones at checkout counters and charging a nickle for every paper bag shoppers used. “

(via ryking)

I’ve tried to post this reblog four times…this is my fifth try.  All my other reblogs have posted just fine.  If this were the Bush era, I’d be getting paranoid about that….