-
This Is Not A Riot
Posted on August 18th, 2010 7 comments[ UPDATE FROM JOABBESS.COM : ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH, CLIMATE CAMP SITE HAS BEEN TAKEN. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION FROM process@climatecamp.org.uk, Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 9:59 PM : "Site taken! People needed NOW! At 9.15PM tonight Climate Camp took the site on RBS HQ. Get on site as fast as you can! Defence help urgently needed. Come to RBS Gogarburn Gardens, off Gogar Station Rd. More info later. x" ]
Al Gore has been telling all the young people, and well, all of us, really, to protest, in public, to make a downright law-unabiding nuisance of ourselves :-
“Gore calls for major protests on government’s climate change inaction…In a post on his personal blog headlined “The Movement We Need”…”
Well, it won’t work to call people out onto the street. Most people are too busy credit-crunching, wage-slaving or favour-scraping to be able to commit to a short-term, potentially self-defeating public display of annoyance, frustration and shrill demands.
And if people do come out to the big protests, it won’t achieve much. News reports can be swept into the trash. Activists can be swept into holding facilities. Politicians can conveniently ignore anything that isn’t violent.
Drop the loud-hailers and home-made placards, I say, and do something more…focussed.
The Climate Camp want to target the Royal Bank of Scotland for financing Coal power plants and Tar Sands oil projects, which are very bad things to be doing, and smacks of huge corporate irresponsibility, considering the bank is largely owned by the British taxpayer, and I say, if you can’t make the camp (and I can’t for reasons which I shall not go into just now), do something about money in other ways instead.
What’s your money doing ? Which oppressive regimes in oil-rich countries is it supporting ? Which Fossil Fuel companies trashing your Environment do your bank support ? Why not switch your money to an ethical financial organisation ? Why don’t we all try to do this at the same time ? “Crowd-banking” could have an impact, you never know until you try.
Let’s pick, say, Monday 23rd August 2010. And let’s all spend our way out of Climageddon together on that day. Transfer your money to an ethical bank, or pledge to do so. Phone your bank and tell them you’re leaving for a sustainable bank.
Other actions possibly useful :-
1. Refuse to buy Fossil Fuels for a day.
2. Refuse to use any hot water for one day (most hot water is produced by burning Fossil Fuels). It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere – come on – a cool shower won’t hurt you.
3. Don’t spend any money on anything that had Petroleum-based plastic or Natural Gas-based chemicals in its production – which would rule out 85% of non-food purchases, I reckon.
4. If you’re working for a company or an organisation who have anything to do with the Energy industry, make a point of asking your boss, or their boss, or the Chief Executive or something what the company/organisation intends to do about moving the whole business to Renewable Energy.
5. One short telephone call could have you moving from burning Coal for your home electricity to a Green Energy account.
This is not a riot – but it is an emergency, and the response should match the scale of the problem.
Our Climate – Not for Sale.
Bloody Oil from Felix Gonzales on Vimeo.
Be Prepared, Behaviour Changeling, Big Picture, Burning Money, Climate Change, Coal Hell, Corporate Pressure, Emissions Impossible, Energy Revival, Fossilised Fuels, Global Warming, Growth Paradigm, Low Carbon Life, Peace not War, Petrolheads, Political Nightmare, Protest & Survive, Public Relations, Regulatory Ultimatum, Resource Curse, Social Change, Unconventional Foul, Unnatural Gas, Voluntary Behaviour Change Action, Beyond Petroleum, Beyond Psychotherapy, Big Switch, BP, British Petroleum, Broken Philosophy, Camp, Canada, Climate, Climate Camp, Climate Change, direct action, Edinburgh, Green Power, money, O Canada, Oil Sands, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Switch banks, Switch electricity provider, Switch provider, Tar Sands -
BP Oil Spill : The Undead Story
Posted on August 5th, 2010 1 comment
Despite the best early morning wide-eyed televised efforts of Carol Browner this week, the BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill story just will not die :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/05/oil-spill-white-house-accused-spin
“Gulf oil spill: White House accused of spinning report : Scientists say it is ‘just not true’ that the vast majority of oil from the BP spill has gone : Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 August 2010″
Use all the dispersants you want (or are just about legally entitled to), but an ecological catastrophe like this will not go away and die quietly, even though a large number of marine animals will be forced to :-
http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/08/feds-giving-spill-data-to-bp-not-public
“…to use dispersants…doesn’t make the oil go away, it just puts it from one part of the ecosystem to another…”
Be Prepared, Big Picture, Environmental Howzat, Marine Gas, Media, Obamawatch, Political Nightmare, Public Relations, Toxic Hazard Barack Obama, Beyond Psychotherapy, Bob Dudley, BP, BP America, BP Colombia, BP Russia, British Petroleum, British Pollution, Carol Browner, David Cameron, GOM, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, Robert Dudley, Siberia, TNK-BP, Tony Hayward -
“Kill Kill Kill This”
Posted on August 5th, 2010 No comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TINzvWrtjYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyutuErxPo8
Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the United States of America, has been all over the Media, announcing the policy to “kill kill kill this” BP nightmare story, telling the world that a turning milestone point has been reached :-
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/PDFs/OilBudget_description_%2083final.pdf
Have they decided that BP have been punished enough now for the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, and the reputation of the company needs to be rehabilitated sharply in order to protect the Economy ?
I made the mistake of taking in a BBC TV news bulletin on the matter. I heard several talking heads say it’s “good news” that roughly three quarters of the accountable oil from the spill has “disappeared” :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10870159
Breaking this story is “good news” for the stability of pension funds, maybe. But what is the real extent of the real damage to the real world, the world of oceans and fish and plankton ? Will the world be watching as the researchers scavenge data and clues to the marine ecotastrophe that is still unfolding ?
Be Prepared, Big Picture, Burning Money, Corporate Pressure, Cost Effective, Disturbing Trends, Energy Revival, Growth Paradigm, Media, Obamawatch, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, Political Nightmare, Public Relations, Renewable Resource, The Data, Toxic Hazard, Unnatural Gas Barack Obama, BBC, Be Prepared, BP, BP America, British Petroleum, British Petronightmare, British Pollution, Carol Browner, containment, Deepwater, Energy, Energy Return on Energy Invested, Energy Returned on Energy Invested, EROEI, Fossil Fuels, Gulf of Mexico, Natural Gas, offshore, Oil, oil spill, Petroleum, shale gas, Tony Hayward, turning point, unconventional -
The Rehabilitation of BP : Solar Shares
Posted on July 24th, 2010 No commentsHere’s a plan to save BP CEO Tony Hayward’s job.
Why not bring in a special new executive at BP’s London Headquarters, maybe ex-CEO of BP, Lord John Browne of Madingley, who was rather green, really, or that other Anthony, the ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, and make them responsible for expanding an entirely new share offering in Solar Power.
Investors would be encouraged to explicitly finance new solar projects around the world by buying “solar shares” in the company, who make a priority of environmental matters, as we all know.
The British Government could offer extensive tax breaks, declining to tax revenues from solar electricity in the same way that BPs’ Oil and Gas sales are tapped for a percentage slice to help the public purse.
And there you could have it, bish bash bosh.
And while you’re at it, rename the company “Beautiful Photonenergy”.
The world could forget about the Gulf of Mexico plumes and seepages and we could all, together, forge a clean, smooth new Low Carbon, Low Dirt world.
Be Prepared, Big Picture, Energy Revival, Environmental Howzat, Low Carbon Life, Marine Gas, Peak Oil, Political Nightmare, Public Relations, Renewable Resource, Solar Sunrise, Toxic Hazard, Unnatural Gas, Zero Net Beautiful Photonenergy, Beyond Petroleum, Beyond Psychotherapy, BP, BP America, British Petroleum, GOM, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, Solar Energy, Solar power -
Obama : Tough on Grime
Posted on June 18th, 2010 No comments
Tough on grime; tough on the causes of grime.
American President Barack Obama declares that as regards environmental pollution, “we shall fight them on the beaches”.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-nation-bp-oil-spill
“Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it’s not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.”
“But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.”
Be Prepared, Big Picture, Energy Revival, Marvellous Wonderful, Obamawatch, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, Political Nightmare, Public Relations, Regulatory Ultimatum, Social Change, Toxic Hazard American President, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Obama, Barack Promises, Be Prepared, Beltway Pronouncements, Beyond Passable, Beyond Petroleum, Beyond Profitable, Beyond Pschotherapy, Big Picture, BP, BP America, BP plc, Bringing Perspective, British Petroleum, deep down, Deepwater, Deepwater Horizon, in deep water, Oil, Petroleum, President Obama, Transocean -
BP : Too Big To Fail ?
Posted on June 13th, 2010 No comments
Phew ! That’s a relief ! The American President Barack Obama has personally spoken to British Prime Minister David Cameron apparently to reassure him he meant no harm to the reputation of Britain by blaming BP for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/13/gulf-oil-spill
I should hope not ! BP stopped being “British” Petroleum some time ago. Forty percent of BP’s business is in the United States :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/10/us-bloodlust-bp-oil-spill
-
In The Belly Of The BP
Posted on February 5th, 2010 2 commentsI was warned. And it’s true. BP are so protective of their company image that they live in denial. I should know. I’ve been inside the belly of the beast and spoken to one of their head sustainability honchos. Who had a total disconnect about the risks of Fossil Fuel depletion.
“Oil and gas will remain the mainstay of the “Energy mix”. We’ve said that publicly…”
So they’re telling the world what to believe, are they ?
Copyright | Powered by WordPress