Earth ChangesS


Bad Guys

Indians Warn of War Against Amazon Mega-Dam


Survival
Thu, 13 May 2010 22:35 UTC
Kayapó Indians
© T TurnerKayapó dance at an anti-dam protest in 2006.
Kayapó Indian leader Raoni Metuktire arrived in Europe last week and has appealed for support for his tribe, which is campaigning against the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river in the Brazilian Amazon.

Raoni said, 'I have always prevented my people from fighting, but I am very worried now. It is time that we take back what belongs to us'.

He added that '3,000 warriors' are ready to take up arms.

Raoni met French ex- President Jacques Chirac and asked that he and the current President Nicolas Sarkozy urge President Lula of Brazil not to allow the dam to be built.

If constructed, the dam would be the third largest in the world and it would flood a large area of land, dry up certain parts of the Xingu river, cause huge devastation to the rainforest and reduce fish stocks upon which Indians in the area depend for their survival.
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Blackbox

Rainbow similar to before China and Chile quake seen over Los Angeles

Jim Duran
WeatherSpace News
Thu, 13 May 2010 17:13 UTC
Image
© Nicholas Gumina "Same thing before the China and Chile quake
San Diego, California residents are reporting shaking continuing in the area. The shaking, according to the USGS, is likely due to the Easter quake this year which rocked the region.

Twitter is rolling with reports of rainbow cloud over Los Angeles today. Reports are coming in that this looks similar to before both the China and Chile quakes where residents reported and took photos of such events in the sky.

While no one can be sure what it means, people should always be prepared for a major Earthquake in Southern California as it is seismically active.

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Bizarro Earth

From above and below, Gulf oil leak looks severe on video

Jonathan Hiskes
Grist
Wed, 12 May 2010 11:22 UTC
The Waterkeeper Alliance provides aerial footage of the Gulf oil leak, shot last week. And BP, after initially refusing, releases underwater footage of the leak.
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Bizarro Earth

Yay for Hay! Redneck Rocket Science - perhaps BP should listen?


youtube
Wed, 12 May 2010 22:46 UTC
Image

CW Roberts employees demonstrating the use of hay to assist in a defense against the oil spill in the Gulf. This is the method that is included in the Walton County Plan of Action.

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Bizarro Earth

Rare "King of Herrings" Found off Swedish Coast


Associated Press
Wed, 12 May 2010 18:08 UTC
Oarfish
© AP/Roger JanssonIn this undated photo released by The House of the Sea aquarium in Lysekil, Sweden, a 12-foot Giant Oarfish found off Sweden's west coast is displayed and measured.
A maritime expert says a 12-foot Giant Oarfish - the world's largest bony fish - has been found in Swedish waters for the first time in 130 years.

Also known as the "King of Herrings," the dead fish was picked up by a west coast resident who found it floating near the shore over the weekend. It was handed over to The House of the Sea aquarium in the town of Lysekil, where expert Roger Jansson says it's being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.

Johansson said Wednesday the Giant Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet, and is believed to live in deep waters. He says the last recorded discovery in Sweden was in 1879.
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Recycle

A Passion to Clean up the Pacific Ocean's Great 'Garbage Patch'

Paul Van Slambrouck
The Christian Science Monitor
Mon, 10 May 2010 15:50 UTC
Image
© Tony Avelar/The Christian Science MonitorMary Crowley’s project wants to enlist fishing vessels to help attack the mass of floating plastic garbage known as the North Pacific Trash Gyre.
Mary Crowley would rather be at sea. But she's not. Instead, she is in a small conference room at a roadside Marriott in this landlocked town north of Sacramento.

Around her are mainly men, many with beards, and many with baseball caps pulled down low and arms crossed tight. They are listening. Many of them would also rather be at sea.

Can these wishes be joined? We shall see in the next month or so.

Ms. Crowley has long hair, a ruddy outdoor complexion, and a sincere manner. She wants to sail west in the next month or two, out to what is called the North Pacific Trash Gyre. Her goal is to start cleaning up the plastic trash that has leaped into social consciousness over the past couple of years.

Comment: For more information about the serious problem with trash in the oceans of our planet read the following articles carried on SOTT:

The Biggest Dump in the World

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

A Plague of Plastic

Mission to Break up Pacific Island of Rubbish Twice the Size of Texas

Huge Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic Too

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Vader

Cap-and-Trade is back on the cards thanks to BP oil disaster

Brian Sussman
American Thinker
Wed, 12 May 2010 12:58 UTC
On Wednesday,
Image
© UnknownSenators John Kerry (right) (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (center) (I-CT)
plan to introduce legislation designed to inflate the cost of energy, strain family budgets, and decimate America's manufacturing sector -- all in the name of supposedly saving the climate.

Kerry and Lieberman have been revamping legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last year. The House bill imposes oppressive limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and establishes a complex cap-and-trade scheme in which the federal government determines how much CO2 a business may emit. If a business exceeds its allowance, it may purchase additional "carbon credits" from an exchange, where the credits will be traded like a commodity. Rules for the exchange of carbon credits, including the trading of carbon derivatives, are addressed in the House bill, and my sources tell me that the Senate version will include these same stratagems.

In an e-mail sent to the media last week regarding their plans, Kerry and Lieberman said, "We can no longer wait to solve this problem which threatens our economy, our security and our environment."
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Newspaper

South Africa: Woman Kicked to Death by Giraffe as She Walked Her Dogs

Stewart MacLean
The Daily Mail
Wed, 12 May 2010 06:52 UTC
Image
© AlamyTragic: Merike Engelbrecht, 25, died instantly on Saturday after a giraffe kicked her near Musina in South Africa
A woman was kicked to death by a giraffe as she walked her dogs on a game farm in South Africa, police said today.

Merike Engelbrecht, 25, died instantly on Saturday after the animal lashed out at her near Musina in the country's Limpopo province.

Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the tragedy happened when one of Ms Engelbrecht's dogs ran towards and startled the giraffe.

It is believed the animal became agitated and violent in an attempt to protect its young calf, who had been walking nearby.

Colonel Otto said: 'It was a terrible incident. It appears the animal kicked out sharply as she walked close to it.
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Magnify

Once Amigos, Now Enemies: BP, Halliburton, And Transocean

Dolores M. Bernal
News Junkie Post
Tue, 11 May 2010 13:54 UTC
Image
© New Junkie PostHaliburton station in Venice, Louisiana.
Reporting from New Orleans

It has been a day of finger-pointing at the first Senate hearing on what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. None of the men representing the three companies - BP, Transocean, and Halliburton - have wanted to admit total responsibility for what caused the accident on April 20, which resulted in 11 deaths, and in 4,000 square miles of oil contaminated water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both Halliburton and Transocean were subcontracted by BP to work on the 5th generation oil rig. The rig was supposed to be one the most modern rigs ever built, defying ocean depths and debuting the rig's "dynamic" free-standing platforms. But the events that led to the April 20 explosion should have warned BP that its race to have the latest, rig technology could deliver, was going to go sour.

According to an article in the Times Picayune, a natural gas surge shut down the Deepwater Horizon rig just weeks before the April 20 explosion. BP engineers thought they had found a solution to the problem, but the oil rig eventually failed.
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Footprints

Rumble in the Jungle: Activists vs. Palm Oil

Barry Estabrook
The Atlantic
Tue, 11 May 2010 21:40 UTC
Image
© David Gilbert
Wake up in the morning. Enjoy a warm, soapy shower. Eat a bowl of cereal, perhaps with soy milk. Dab on some lipstick ...

Perform any of those mundane tasks and chances are you've done your bit to destroy a patch of rainforest somewhere in Indonesia where vast stands of virgin trees have been cut, bulldozed, and burned to clear land for palm oil plantations. Once used primarily in cosmetics, palm oil, which is free of artery-clogging trans fats, has become the ingredient du jour in processed foods. In the United States, consumption of the stuff has tripled over the past five years. Growing oil palms is now the largest cause of deforestation in Indonesia, contributing to global warming and destroying crucial habitat for the country's endangered orangutan population, which has fallen by half since the onset of the palm-oil boom.
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