Category: Environment

So You Want An EV?

Happy Mother’s Day to all my female readers…..may you have a wonderful and relaxing day.

Just another IST FYI post….I am doing the best I can to keep my reader informed and/or entertained….

These days the big push in automotive ads is toward the electric vehicle(EV)….Polestar, Genesis, Tesla and most major automotive brands are push one model or another…..

I had considered it but after a little research I decided against it…..cost being one, few charging stations, and then the price of the battery replacements…..all together it was not very attractive to me.

Then I read an article on EVs…..

If you are considering buying an EV then maybe you should pay close attention to this article….

It’s hard to ignore the big push for electric vehicles. It’s all around us, the talk of the news, and when the government starts offering tax credits, you know they mean business. Electric cars will be our future, whether we like it or not. 

If you’re considering purchasing an electric vehicle (EV), knowing what you’re getting yourself into is essential. With big promises of greener transportation and lower costs, it’s easy to walk in blind. So here are 12 things EV owners need to talk about that we all should know. 

Your average gas-powered car can drive 300-720 miles on one full gas tank. Your average EV range is significantly lower than this. Combining the low range of an EV with the fact that charging infrastructure is considerably lacking, it’s reasonable to worry. Imagine having half a gas tank, only two gas stations within a several-mile radius, and then crossing your fingers that the gas pumps work. I’d be panicking, too. 

I have two kids, and they panic when I stop to fill up with gas, and that only takes around 8 minutes, max. I can’t imagine having to take 30 minutes to recharge an EV every time I need a charge. Who has 30 minutes to dedicate to that in the middle of their day? Not me, that’s for sure. 

https://wealthofgeeks.com/harsh-truth-ev/

In all fairness there is a charging station going in 3 blocks from my house….but it has yet to be finished after 3 months.

Nowadays cost will be a major selling point….with the way things keep rising people will avoid this cash outlay for as long as they can.

Enjoy your Sunday and once again…..Happy Mother’s Day.

As always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Recycle Or Not

I am one of those ‘tree huggers’ that recycles and have been for decades….but in recent years with so many reports about the useless trend of recycling has got me wondering if I should continue to do so.

There are a bunch of disturbing reports about plastic waste…..

A report released Thursday estimates that countries worldwide are on pace to generate 220 million tonnes of total plastic waste this year, a finding that comes as governments are set to convene in Ottawa, Canada later this month to hash out a binding global treaty to limit the toxic pollution that is inundating waterways and communities across the planet.

The new report from EA – Earth Action (EA) projects that Plastic Overshoot Day—the point at which the amount of plastic waste produced exceeds the capacity of global management systems—will arrive on September 5 this year. Over a third of the total plastic waste created this year will end up in nature, according to the analysis.

On average, each person globally contributes 28 kilograms of plastic pollution per year. Previous research has shown that just 20 companies are responsible for more than half of the world’s total single-use plastic waste.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/plastic-waste-2024

That is a scary amount of waste….but there is always recycling, right?

The most recent article shows me that we all may have been ‘hoodwinked’ by big oil….

The petrochemical industry—including major oil companies like ExxonMobil—knew for decades that recycling was not a sustainable solution to the problem of plastic waste, yet continued to promote it in order to avoid regulation and deceive consumers into continuing to buy and use their products, a report released Thursday by the Center for Climate Integrity reveals.

The report, titled The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the Plastics Industry Deceived the Public for Decades and Caused the Plastic Waste Crisis, includes newly disclosed industry documents proving that companies and trade groups knew that plastics could not be recycled indefinitely in the 1980s and 90s even as they launched a massive public relations campaign to sell voters and policymakers on the process.

“This evidence shows that many of the same fossil fuel companies that knew and lied for decades about how their products cause climate change have also known and lied to the public about plastic recycling,” Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) president Richard Wiles said in a statement. “The oil industry’s lies are at the heart of the two most catastrophic pollution crises in human history.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/plastics-industry-lie-recycling

Here is another link to this study….

Explosive new report accuses major corporations of lying for decades: ‘It’s clearly fraud they’re engaged in’

I believe there is a term being thrown around these days….’greenwashing’…..WTF?

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do.

In addition, greenwashing may occur when a company attempts to emphasize sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow the company’s involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Performed through the use of environmental imagery, misleading labels, and hiding tradeoffs, greenwashing is a play on the term “whitewashing,” which means using false information to intentionally hide wrongdoing, error, or an unpleasant situation in an attempt to make it seem less bad than it is.

So should we continue to recycle?

“No,” Cirino told Salon. “Even if plastic recycling rates were higher, recycling alone could never come close to solving the serious and wide-ranging health, justice, socio-economic, and environmental crises caused by industries’ continued plastic production and plastic pollution, which go hand in hand.” Cirino argued that, given how plastic production has grown exponentially and its pollution problems have likewise worsened, emphasizing recycling over meaningful solutions is at best irresponsible.

“It’s clear recycling is not enough to solve the plastic pollution crisis,” Cirino concluded. “The fossil fuel industry, governments, and corporations really need to turn off the plastic tap, and the UN Plastics Treaty could be an opportunity to do so on a global level—if member states can come together and form a treaty with real ambition. Ultimately, our world must decide what it values: money or life.”

(salon.com)

A couple of years ago I wrote about recycling here on IST….

Do You Recycle?

Ultimately this is one of those issues that the individual has to decide what is best (pause here for side splitting laughter….like most have no care what happens as long as their Mtn Dew is cold)

Me? My family has already started dialing back the amount of plastic we discard…..we care what happens if you do not then that is your problem.

Be Samrt!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–29Mar24

By now most everyone knows about the trouble with the pesticide known as Roundup….but did you know that the maker of this pesticide is the aspirin people, Bayer? (Think about that for a moment)

Bayer is fighting in most states to stop all the lawsuits against it and its product Roundup….as a public service I want to pass on what this company is up to in your state.

On TikTok, Iowa State Representative Megan Srinivas is angry.

“To me,” she says, pointing at herself with both hands, her eyebrows raised, “Iowa’s farmers matter more than corporate interests.”

Srinivas, a Democrat, posted the video on February 7 to draw attention to a bill that was just starting to make its way through the statehouse. If passed, the legislation could prevent individuals who use pesticides from suing manufacturers based on the argument that the manufacturer should have warned them the products could cause cancer or another illness.

Srinivas is a physician, and one specific concern added to her outrage. Less than a year earlier, the Iowa Cancer Registry released data showing Iowa now has the second highest cancer rate in the country, after Kentucky, and is the only state where rates significantly increased between 2015 and 2019. For the first time, researchers at the Iowa Cancer Consortium have a plan to evaluate whether the incredible volume of weed- and bug-killers used in the state is a contributing factor (although an annual report released at the end of February focused more on high rates of binge drinking).

However, while other states have seen a flurry of more than 100,000 lawsuits brought by individuals claiming Roundup—the most widely used commercial product that contains the weedkiller glyphosate—had caused their cancers, Iowa stands apart. Especially in agriculture, most people trust the safety of pesticides, locals say, and Roundup is the most common and coveted.

Inside Bayer’s State-by-State Efforts to Stop Pesticide Lawsuits

Check with your state rep to see just what Bayer is up to in your state.

I am sure that money will be the answer to their problems….after all there are elections come up…..and soon.

Have a wonderful weekend and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Climate Agreements

I have been following the climate debate for decades….it all started with Carter and just kept me interested…..I watched the timeline for clean environment pushed forward year after year until we are at the point where 2050 is the target date for a clean environment.

Not to worry there will be another climate summit to reassess that timeline and it will most likely be pushed yet again.

So what do you think of all this ‘kicking of the climate can’?

Personally I think these agreements benefit only one sector…..

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/25/climate-agreements-suck/

Climate agreements suck. There are no real enforcement provisions. Many signatories cheat. Some don’t rep0rt at all. Moreover, reported data is highly suspect. It’s a worldwide scandal recently exposed by YaleEnvironment360.

Evidence of cheating is found in the atmosphere: Global CO2 is on a rampage, skyrocketing upwards like never before, double-to-triple rates of only one year ago, see: CO2 Bursting into the Atmosphere. This is not supposed to be happening. It is twisting the planet’s climate system into a pretzel that doesn’t know which way to turn next. There are plenty of reasons to believe it is going to get much, much worse. The planet’s climate system is already so far whacked-out that it’s breathing fire.

Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions are skyrocketing in the aftermath of the much-touted climate agreement Paris ‘15 when 196 countries agreed to cut to net zero. Oops, wrong, many signatories are “net nothing.”

There is compelling evidence that signatory nations to Paris ’15 don’t give a damn about the agreement or care about Hot House Earth as they cavalierly undercount, when they do report, or they simply refuse to report. As a result, UN climate goals go straight into the trash, worthless.

A little history….the first worldwide climate summit was in 1979….the mandate was “a better understanding of the climate system and the causes of climate variability and change” and “to determine the predictability of climate; and to determine the effect of human activities on climate”.  In practice, the program aims to foster initiatives in climate research which require or benefit from international coordination and which are unlikely to emerge from national efforts alone.

And that agreement has been sliding down the toilet ever since.

So yeah climate agreements suck because it means nothing to the polluters because government will have their backs….until the bitter end.

And that end is not that far away…..but the profits will flow and the planet will eventually burn.

I know a bit dramatic….but what the Hell someone had to say it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–19Mar24

I live on the Gulf Coast and part of our economy is that of seafood….the industry down here has taken many hits in the past twenty years….Katrina crapped on our seafood, then came Deepwater Horizon oil spill another dump on our seafood….then there is the Spillway that when opened screws our oyster industry then there is the influx of foreign seafood flooded the markets….like I said many hits and then came one last shot at killing our seafood industry……

A new report from researchers at the Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey suggests that necrotizing fasciitis may no longer be as rare as previously assumed, no thanks to climate change and global warming

Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a rapid-spreading, life-threatening bacterial disease that destroys the fascia, the tissue under the skin surrounding muscles, fats, and blood vessels. It is caused by a species of bacteria known as Group A streptococcus, also called “flesh-eating bacteria”, and Vibrio vulnificus. These bacteria thrive in warm salt and brackish waters, alternatively entering the body through open wounds or oral ingestion. 

Recent statistics show that necrotizing fasciitis affects about 1 in every 250,000 people in the United States per year [2]. In some other parts of the world where the climate is warmer, it may affect as much as 1 in every 100,000 per year. NF has been termed a “very rare” disease due to these low frequencies of occurrence, but global warming may be causing the increase. 

This recent report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that those statistics may be on the verge of going higher as world waters are getting warmer [3]. Flesh-eating bacteria species (especially Vibrio) thrive in unusually warm waters, and according to the report from the CUH, the few cases of necrotizing fasciitis studied have mostly arisen from the Southeastern U.S coast, the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

Experts Warn That ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria May Be Spreading To Seafood, Beaches Due To Climate Change

It just does not pay to be a fisherman on the Gulf Coast anymore….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Project 2025

College of Political Knowledge

2024 Election Series

November is just months away….now would be a good time to pay attention!

If Trump is successful in his bid for a second term these are things we can look forward to in the future.

It is a Heritage and GOP blueprint to destroy the planet…..and the MAGA movement and Donald the Orange are embracing the 920 page blueprint.

I would post the link here but that would drive me into a stroke laughing so hard to think anyone would actually care enough to read the document.

We all have an idea what will happen if a conserv is elected….those ideas are valid but here is what will probably be the game plan.

With that in mind I found an article that will inform you before your attention span wanes.

When former President Donald Trump exited the Oval Office in January 2021, he left behind a record of environmental rollbacks unrivaled in modern U.S. history. Over his 1,461 days as commander-in-chief, Trump replaced, eliminated, or otherwise dismantled more than 100 environmental rules — at least — from repealing the Clean Air Act to allowing coal plants to dump toxic wastewater into lakes and rivers to declaring open season on endangered gray wolves.

President Joe Biden then rolled back most of the rollbacks, largely before their full impacts could be felt, which is why some experts say the most significant climate consequence of Trump’s presidency was actually the loss of four years that could have moved the green transition forward.

Had all Trump’s policies gone into effect, the nonpartisan Rhodium Group estimated at the end of 2020, they would have added an additional 1.8 gigatons of CO2-equivalent to the atmosphere by 2035 — more than the annual energy emissions of Germany, Britain, and Canada combined. But even though we never felt the full brunt of them, the medical journal The Lancet estimated that the policies undertaken during his presidency were responsible for 22,000 deaths in 2019 alone due to sharp increases in things like asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer.

Now Trump is once again the presumed Republican nominee and currently leads Biden in general election polls. Were he to win, he has a ready roadmap for building on his dubious environmental legacy: Project 2025, a 920-page document developed by the right wing think tank The Heritage Foundation.

Project 2025 isn’t just a climate plan, or course — it’s a comprehensive proposal, covering everything from immigration to abortion, education, pornography, and child labor. Though billed as a “presidential transition project,” its wishlist includes numerous actions that would require Republican control of both chambers of Congress (admittedly possible, though currently looking like a longshot) to enact. Undaunted, the document sets its sights on the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s landmark climate legislation, which — since the U.S. is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter — is all but necessary to keep the planet off the path to 1.5 degrees Celcius.

Read On!

https://heatmap.news/politics/trump-climate-change-project-2025

Then there is the 4 prong attack on society…..

Called the 2025 Presidential Transition Project—or “Project 2025,” for short—the plan has “four pillars”:

  1. an 887-page policy agenda,
  2. a presidential personnel database of vetted conservatives,
  3. a Presidential Administration Academy to train these people to achieve the Project 2025 policy agenda, and
  4. a 180-day playbook, which is what they hope to achieve in the first 180 days if Trump takes office in January 2025.

Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women

You might want to read this careful for your vote could be helping to destroy the planet and your way of life.

Just a thought

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Climate Change Myths Debunked

2024 will be the telling year!

In less than one year we will be running to the polls to vote this way or that…..we have a year of rhetoric, lies, myths and manure to endure until the day we vote. Some will buy into the BS spread while others will be deciding for themselves what is fact and what is fiction.

One of the big issues, besides the economy, will most likely be that of climate change…so I would like to pass on the debunking of most of the rhetoric against climate change.

Climate change refers to long-term changes in precipitation, temperature, and other atmospheric conditions on Earth. It is primarily driven by natural factors such as variations in the sun’s intensity, volcanic activity, and internal processes within the Earth’s climate system.

However, human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, have significantly contributed to the rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions, including gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).

These gases trap heat, leading to a warming effect known as the greenhouse effect. The enhanced greenhouse effect intensifies the Earth’s natural warming processes, contributing to the observed rise in temperatures over the years.

he average global temperatures have risen by approximately 0.08 degrees Celsius (or 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade since 1880, and this rate has more than doubled, to a rise of 0.18 degrees Celsius (or 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit), per decade since 1981.

However, the increase in temperatures has come with a rise in skepticism and doubts surrounding climate change. This skepticism, fueled by misconceptions and selective interpretations, weaves a narrative that questions the urgency of addressing our planet’s warming climate.

In this article, we shed light on some of the most common myths and arguments around climate change and provide a counterpoint rooted in scientific evidence.

https://interestingengineering.com/lists/climate-change-global-warming-co2

Our climate is a real and pressing problem…..something has to be done other than what the governments have been doing for decades….kicking the can down the road so as not to upset the corporations that contribute to our governments corruption.

As the world puts to bed the hottest year on record, the Washington Post calls attention to a study suggesting we haven’t seen anything yet. The paper by renowned climate scientist James Hansen—the New York Times notes that it was Hansen’s testimony before Congress 35 years ago that helped put the topic on the nation’s radar—warns that the pace of warming has already begun accelerating at a rate scientists have long warned about. Specifically, the study in Oxford Open Climate Change predicts that global warming is on track to spike 50% in the coming decades, with effects that could be catastrophic, per the Post. However, the above coverage, as well as a story in E&E News, make clear that other scientists disagree.

“That is very much on the high end of the range of estimates that are in the academic literature today,” Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth tells the Times. Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania wrote a detailed blog post in rebuttal to Hansen, asserting that “the claim that warming is somehow accelerating now is no more accurate than the false claim, advanced by climate change deniers at the time, that global warming had ‘stopped’ in the first decade of the 21st century.” And Michael Oppenheimer of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton sees Hansen’s warning as useful mainly as a “worst-worst-case scenario,” per E&E.

Hansen predicted as much: “I expect the response to be characterized by scientific reticence,” he tells E&E. The former NASA scientist calls the much-touted goal of keeping warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius “deader than a doornail,” per the Times. While many other scientists agree with that, Hansen differs in warning further that the world is poised to warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. (He does offer more hope on this target, saying that a global push to reduce the use of fossil fuels could keep warming under 2 degrees.) The Times adds context, pointing out that the planet has warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius so far and is already seeing worsening heat waves and storms.

When you vote and if the climate is high on your want list then vote to a person that will try to do something constructive….god knows they have done very little in 50 years.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Climate Summit–2023

As I type this post there is a conference going on and the world is in attendance…..found it interesting that it would be held in a country that sole purpose in existence is to pump oil.

I have been skeptical of these conferences ever since they have been called and that was back in the 1970s (yes I am old I remember them)….and this newest ‘Summit’ is No different….

For the past two weeks, the world’s best and brightest have been meeting in Dubai — under a glittering, color-changing dome built to resemble Islamic geometric art — as the petrostate hosts the United Nations’ latest climate change conference.

And experts are calling bull. In interviews with The Guardian, climate scientists and advocates said the “solutions” offered at the COP28 conference, which include such goofiness as a panel on “responsible yachting,” are “distractions” at best and “frightening” at worst.

Troublingly, the conference is presided over by Dubai’s Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who also runs the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company in what seems very much like a massive conflict of interest.

Al Jaber sparked controversy last week when he publicly expressed pessimism about a gradual fossil fuel phase-out and said there was “no science” behind it, which is categorically false given that the vast majority of scientists — not to mention the UN’s secretary-general — say that eliminating fossil fuel pollution is absolutely the biggest and most important way to turn back the tide on the worst of what climate change has in store.

https://futurism.com/dubai-climate-conference-warning

I expecting nothing better than crap….there is never anything coming out of these waste of time other than false promises and unfilled deadlines.

As long as we are writing about the environment…how about the Green New Deal that has been offered up by Dems?

You would be right if you think that I have had something to say about this ‘Deal’…..most are sitting around either scratching their ass or their head and could possibly do both since both are in the same location.

How About A “Green New Deal”?

Some think that the real ‘opiate of the masses’ is the green new deal….because it let’s too many off the hook for the problem they are feeding…..

What kinds of measures are you taking, personally, to prevent global warming? Have you bought a reusable shopping bag to reduce your reliance on disposable plastic ones? Do you carry a thermos so you don’t end up buying drinks in plastic bottles? Did you buy an electric car?

Let me make one thing clear: These good deeds are meaningless. They can even cause more harm than good.

Simply thinking that such actions are effective countermeasures can prevent us from taking part in the larger actions that are actually necessary to combat climate change. They function like Catholic indulgences, allowing us to escape the pangs of our conscience via consumerism and to look away from the danger around us, allowing the forces of capital to swaddle our concerns in environmental impact statements and tuck them away beneath the form of deception known as greenwashing.

https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/degrowth-communism-green-new-deal/

Few people are truly committed to preserving the environment….but it is fun to rattle on at gatherings and parties…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–30Nov23

They say the way of the future is electric vehicles….they are more environmentally safe than our current means of transportation.

I am sure all the statements are accurate….but the problem as I see it is the cost.  These vehicles are not cheap and after we have ours the battery replacements can be astronomically high….then there is the charging stations….my area at this time there is one I know of and another under contruction….but what is the true cost of owning an electric vehicle.

The electric vehicle story seems to have changed lately from an expectation of rapid adoption and frantic production to a reality of cooling interest and pullbacks in investments. 

General Motors  (GM) – Get Free Report pushed back its EV targets and postponed its coming EV lineup in what it called an effort to ensure profitability; Ford  (F) – Get Free Report postponed $12 billion in EV investments; Hertz is slowing the electrification of its fleets, in part citing weak resale value; and Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Free Report remains engaged in a price war meant to entice skeptical buyers. 

While some data show that EV adoption is on the rise, with EV sales making up a record 7.9% of total industry sales in the third quarter, consumer interest is still flagging.

Polling from S&P Global Mobility found in May that only 67% of respondents are open to buying an EV, a significant reduction from the 86% of respondents that were open to such a purchase in 2021.

While EV adoption might be increasing, the growth in the sector is slowing as consumer concerns over both price and range cool interest. 

It’s no coincidence that Tesla remains so committed to slashing its prices; the biggest pressure point in the transition to EVs, according to S&P, is price. 

“Multiple hurdles need to be cleared to achieve widespread EV adoption,” S&P wrote. “Buyers may want to wait for the next technological advance, or have concerns about charging time and charger availability, but in the end, consumer finances — not engineering — lead the current buying resistance to EVs.”

Part of the gap in the adoption curve additionally involves differences between early adopters and the masses. 

https://www.thestreet.com/electric-vehicles/electric-vehicle-tesla-adoption-curve-cost

While I believe that the electric vehicle movement is an excellent idea I still wonder if we all will be able to afford to buy then operate one of these.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2010 All Over Again

This is for those with short memories….

In 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and cause a massive oil leak that dumped about 200 million gallons of oil into the central Gulf of Mexico….it contaminated sea life, beaches and ruined the economy of many Gulf Coast states like Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi beaches were spared the bad stuff for our barrier islands protected our beaches for the most part but Florida and Alabama were not so lucky.

In case your memory is not what it once was….here are some facts….

Fact #1: More than 200 million gallons of crude oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Fact #2: Deepwater Horizon was a 9yr old semi-submersible, mobile floating, dynamically positioned drilling rig that could operate in water up to 10,000’ deep.

Fact #3: At 9:45am high pressure methane gas from the well expanded into the drilling riser and rose into the drilling rig, the rig ignited and exploded

Fact #4: Over 16,000 miles of coastline was affected during the spill. The coastlines of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were all affected.

Fact #5: 5.5 million feet of oil spill containment boom was deployed to help collect the oil.

Fact #6: Over 8,000 animals were reported dead 6 months after the spill.

This spill effected the seafood industry as well….fish were not caught, shrimp were not fished, oysters were dead and crabs were contaminated…all of which is a mainstay of the Gulf Coast industry….so why am I going on about past doings that most have forgotten?

Easy.

Deja vu.

Just when the fishing grounds were on the rebound from the Deepwater fiasco….it is happening again….

A leak from an underwater pipeline released more than 1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before the flow was shut off, the Coast Guard estimated. The leak was spotted Thursday, about 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River Delta southeast of New Orleans, Reuters reports. Main Pass Oil Gathering Co. turned off the 67-mile line the same day. On Friday and Saturday, overflights saw the oil moving to the southwest, away from the Louisiana shore, per WDSU. No injuries or shoreline impacts have been reported.

rews are searching for the source of the leak, which was near Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, using underwater remote-operated vehicles. The Coast Guard said three skimming vessels are trying to remove the oil on the surface. The National Response Team was activated, the Environmental Protection Agency said, which mobilizes 15 federal entities to help

While the spill is dwarfed by previous spills, like the Deepwater Horizon crisis that saw 130 million gallons of crude pouring into the Gulf in 2010, it’s nonetheless a grim environmental catastrophe that could have devastating effects on the local environment.

“Ocean wildlife will almost certainly pay a terrible price for this huge pipeline spill, which is less an accident than an entirely predictable consequence of offshore oil operations,” said Kristen Monsell, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.

This does not make national news….no one cares if I am honest  those mental midgets do not have to try a eek out a living from the Gulf.

How long must these crises go on before someone cares enough to put a stop tho this insanity?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”