Ten thousand years ago the Pleistocene epoch ended after a good long run, long even for geologic time. Two and a half million years is nothing to sneeze at. (I’m tempted to turn that into some kind of mastodon joke, the sneezes of proboscideans being, well… nothing to sneeze at. Sorry.) So, the Pleistocene ended and across the western hemisphere the elephant ancestors and saber toothed tigers, and giant beavers and short faced skunks… a plethora of Pleistocene critters all vanished from the earth. We understand this tragedy to be the result of a fateful combination of human hunting pressure, and massive rapid climate change, aggravated perhaps by the rapid spread of highly infectious diseases.

Today we’ve all been exposed to another vector, a reminder that we live in times more parlous than those at the dawn of our current era when so many big animals died. Cecil the Lion is dead, a sentient creature, a thirteen year old sentient creature protected in a natural park in Africa for his entire life brutally slaughtered by a dentist from Minnesota, a man who says he kills large animals because he “doesn’t have a golf game.” Cecil is the victim of a man whose sense of entitlement and privilege threatens us all, a man who needs to be brought up short by society. The government of Zimbabwe has indicated that they want this chicken-shit bwana back for prosecution. If the US Justice Department fails to cooperate with the extradition, if Zimbabwe fails to prosecute the poacher to the maximum extent possible, then there is no justice.

There are seven billion people on the planet and we need to follow the rules if we intend to get through the next twenty years without being trampled by the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

There’s a petition to visit the wrath of all sentient life on the self absorbed asshole who caused Cecil to suffer for forty hours with a poorly placed arrow before killing him and attempting to hide the evidence of the crime by scattering Cecil’s remains and destroying his radio collar. Sign here for justice.

As it happens, I’m already much recovered from my earlier confusion at the UW Hospital elevator, but I still need both hands on the wheel. I’ve always been elevator savvy. When I want to go down, I push the down button. When the elevator arrives, I watch the buttons and if the light on the down button goes off, well… that means it’s my ride. Today, I was staring at the arrows above the door. The down-arrow was illuminated. The up-arrow was not. I confused the arrows with the buttons and just stood there. A random guy helped me sort it out. “We’re going down,” he said. “Oh great,” I thought. If I can’t even understand elevator signals, how will I drive?

In fairness to myself, I had just watched Beth being wheeled away to the operating room where she is even now having her hip replaced. The surgeon suggested I come back in six hours or so. I was feeling a little adrift, drifty.

And, in a burst of synchronicity, I just got the call from the operating room nurse. They’ve finished the surgery. Beth is fine and she’ll be wide awake and in her own room in an hour or two. I’m off to the hospital again, quite sure I’ll be able to figure out the elevators this time, and not even a little miffed that my knowledge of the state soil was wasted this morning when the radio host had to show off her own knowledge and spoil the game by blathering, “Oh, I know that! It’s Antigo silt loam.”

Too hip.

The discovery in the 60s of the extreme age of some Bristlecones, ones that express strip growth as an adaptation to harsh cold dry conditions and grow specifically in otherwise inhospitable environments, is one of the most fascinating stories in modern field biology. The ancient tree was discovered by a geographer within the peri-glacial environment of Wheeler Peak, Nevada (now Great Basin National Park). In trying to increment-bore the tree, he got two valuable instruments stuck and had to cut it down to retrieve them. The rings could then be counted. Imagine everyone’s surprise to find out that what was the oldest living thing known at that time had been cut down by a scientist researching paleo-geography and climate change. The blunder was instrumental in preserving that area, and prompted wider studies in the new field of dendrochronology. Since then other species and examples of bristlecones have been found to be very old and older too, but the lesson itself is timeless.

Lucchetti is a sort-of cyber-raconteur, a man whose comments often bring together art, science, and environmentalism in interesting ways. He has a Facebook page with a wall visible to registered Facebook users. His profile picture is a snapshot of that somewhat disturbing Doggie Diner wiener dog.

I missed Perseid sky watching this week due to mosquitoes and humidity. Thanks to @NASA_GoddardPix on twitter I have a couple of great images available for my vicarious enjoyment.

Bonus! They have a link to a high def video of the recent solar activity, the coronal mass ejection or super-flare or whatever you call it.

It’s not exactly a fresh concern. Since Ben wrote about his gustatory experience with cloned milk and meat for Wired magazine three years ago, the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved meat and dairy products from cloned critters. The US Department of Agriculture, bureaucratic servant of the big ag biz, has called for farmers to voluntarily keep cloned food products out of the supply chain “so it can manage a smooth and orderly transition to market.” In other words, until the “greed is good” crowd can control cloning operations under the umbrella of amoral corporate agribusiness, the USDA wants to keep the market closed.

In the Eurozone, government approval hasn’t been this easily won. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), sensitive to citizens’ concerns regarding animal welfare, genetic diversity of farm animals, and market conditions in the face of pressure from the global agribusiness giants, maintain a cautious attitude about clone products and other “novel foods.” In July clone products were removed from the “novel foods” category and the European Parliament called for more specific regulation (see Amendment 14). A press release accompanying this action said:

“A clear majority in the European Parliament supports ethical objections to the industrial production of cloned meat for food. Cloned animals suffer disproportionately highly from illnesses, malformations and premature death. MEPs have been calling for proper regulation for years: it’s high time the Commission listened to the European Parliament and citizens on this issue.”

There are now over 6 billion people to feed on the planet earth, and the way things are going there will be nine billion by 2024. Agricultural production on an industrial scale results in a degraded environment and ethical shortcuts that end up poisoning people. I’m thinking of mad cow disease, BSE prions spread through the mixture of brains, bones, and meat in cattle feed. USDA regulation is a sick and twisted example of government bureaucracy cross bred with corporate interests to the detriment of us all. In the case of mad cow disease, US beef producers have been restricted by the USDA from testing their own cattle. Whatever regulations emerge in the USA to control the market for clone sourced food, they will doubtless be as noisome and as ineffective as the regs surrounding animal feeding.

Cross posted at Class War.

Every day, news about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico gets worse. This week we learned that a large section of the Gulf could become a “dead zone” as oil-eating microorganisms proliferate and suck oxygen out of the water.

Whether anything positive could somehow come from this disaster remains to be seen. But ecologically conscious people should be aware of and involved in the political response to the spill. Because if you aren’t, the people whose greed, ignorance and negligence led to the disaster will be the ones creating the “solutions.”

For example, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is urging the federal government to allow offshore oil drilling to continue, in spite of the damage being done to Mississippi’s beaches. Note that Barbour was once a Washington lobbyist for the oil industry.

For years, conservatives have pushed issues that were and are central to the Deepwater Horizon spill. One is “drill, baby, drill,” or turning the planet inside out to suck up every last drop of oil before investing in alternative energies or conservation.

Another is deregulation, or the belief that industries must be freed from interference by government regulation, including environmental and consumer protections. For example, already a few politicians are calling for deregulation of the oil industry, as if government caused British Petroleum to mismanage its oil rig. Some pundits are saying the disaster proves government regulations “don’t work.”

The truth is that the federal agency responsible for inspecting offshore oil rigs did not do its job. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was not conducting the monthly inspections at Deepwater Horizon that its own policies required. It appears BP was running the rig without adhering to all safety procedure.  Critics say the MMS is staffed by “industry friendly” people who don’t believe government regulations should get in the way of making money.

Regarding the cost of repairing the damage, there are two kinds of cost — environmental cleanup and economic damages. The environmental cleanup part is relatively straightforward, although there will be a fight to be sure it gets done. In 2024, a full 20 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster, 16,000 gallons of oil remained in the intertidal zones of Prince William Sound.

The more contentious issue will be paying for the economic damages. These include revenue lost to fishing and tourism businesses and income lost by their employees. The federal Oil Pollution Act written into law after the Exxon Valdez spill caps an oil company’s liability for economic damages at only $75 million in the case of an oil spill caused by accident.

And this brings us to another issue pushed hard by conservatives — “tort reform.” Tort “reformers” want to change personal liability law to protect industries from being sued by people they injure. This campaign was begun in the 1980s by big tobacco companies facing lawsuits from lung cancer sufferers. It was joined by asbestos manufacturers being sued to pay for employees’ mesothelioma treatments. More industries followed suit.

Democrats in Congress have proposed raising the oil spill liability cap to $10 billion, although this could probably only be applied to future spills. But Republicans, long the champions of “tort reform,” strongly oppose the change.

The cap issue may be moot if investigation shows criminal negligence on BP’s part. But already the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been calling for putting cleanup and damages costs on the backs of taxpayers. And this week House Minority Leader John Boehner concurred, although the subsequent uproar caused him to walk his comments back.

In November, the U.S. will be holding midterm elections. At the very least, find out where candidates in your state stand on these issues before you vote. And some faxes and phone calls to your congress critters wouldn’t hurt.

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Barbara O’Brien is a long-time political blogger and activist who writes for several websites, including her own blog, The Mahablog, and Mesothelioma Law and Politics. She also is the Guide to Buddhism for About.com.

Fries, by Karin Hearn

Earlier this year, in a typical exercise in editorial bloviation, the pompous Thomas Friedman, a high priest in the cult of the entrepreneur, belittled the bail-outs and by inference any proto-Keynesian impulses from the left. Bail-out money would have been better spent on start-ups, Friedman suggests. Grove destroys the nonsensical position that the government should back start-ups while commodity manufacturing should be allowed to die. No matter what Mr. Friedman says, our faith in start-ups as little job creation engines is misplaced. Long experience in Silicon Valley informs Grove’s argument that shipping jobs overseas to avoid rising costs stateside is a chump’s game.

As time passed, wages and health-care costs rose in the U.S., and China opened up. American companies discovered they could have their manufacturing and even their engineering done cheaper overseas. When they did so, margins improved. Management was happy, and so were stockholders. Growth continued, even more profitably. But the job machine began sputtering.

Back in the day, Intel converted its intellectual capital to manufacturing muscle by scaling up for production and creating jobs. These jobs cost Intel about $650 each–$3,600 in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation. Today, while the money invested in companies has grown enormously, far fewer jobs are produced. Grove estimates Silicon valley job creation costs now at about $100,000 per job. The reason is that over ninety percent of the jobs are farmed out to offshore manufacturing plants. Apple, for example, has 25,000 US employees (including, I assume, the nimrods behind the “Genius Bar” at your local Apple retail outlet). Meanwhile, in southern China, 250,000 Foxconn employees are busy manufacturing Apple products.

The US undervalues manufacturing. Ideologues like Friedman have been touting the “service (would you like fries with that?) economy” for years, placing a premium on “knowledge work” and ignoring the fate of factory workers and their jobs. The social costs of deteriorating infrastructure are ignored. The decisions to build new plants are based on financial statements.

Photo by Lawrence Sinclair

The profit motive has forced jobs offshore for a lot of reasons. Grove is less than forthcoming about Silicon Valley’s open secret, the environmental costs associated with making chips and circuit boards. The point isn’t central to his concern; but, by the eighties it was clear that the San Jose area would soon be awash in a sea of heavy metals and carcinogenic compounds if something wasn’t done. One of the quick and dirty solutions was to send our pollution offshore with our jobs.

Grove dares to question the conventional wisdom that the free market is “the best economic system.” He says, “Long term, we need a job-centric economic theory–and job-centric political leadership–to guide our plans and actions.” He’s lobbying for the country to “rebuild our industrial commons.” How can we get that done?

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cross posted at Classwar

• Google stuff. So much of this is great. Why is Feedburner so difficult for me?
• Can the US Punish BP’s Shareholders? The editors of the New York Times asked that question. Is there any doubt that the US could freeze their assets and confiscate every dime? And would that be “punishment?” The NYT takes a swing and misses, bigtime. FAIL.
• Obama summons BP chiefs to White House.
• RSA Boss Slams Barack Obama In BP Row. Brass balls, that’s what the insurance guy who wrote this tract must have. To imply equivalence between the the President of the United States and the Chairman of BP is a bit of a stretch. To offer the President advice from that side of the Atlantic is more than a stretch, it’s presumptuous as hell.
• RSA Ordinary Shares. A chart showing that the presumptuous know-it-all in the previous link has led his company to lose about a third of its value since Obama was elected.
• Gulf spill insurance exposure tops $1.6B: Moody’s. A story showing why the English insurance guy who wrote the “open letter” linked above may be a less than disinterested party.
• Meet the US States that will default on their debt first. We can only hope that English banks and insurance companies are holding these notes.
• Want To Get Faster, Smarter? Sleep 10 Hours. Advice I can live with.
• friendfeed
• Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn do twitter.
• BBDO in the Wikipedia.
• BBDO Turkey. Flotillas are us.

Sarah Gilbert (“mama, military wife, writer, cooker of inconvenient food, photographer of life, finance geek, keeper of chickens, beginning farmer”) posted a poem called oil leak: a sonnet.

The final couplet:

‘Twas me, and you, our thirst, indelicate
gulping, our leak, our spill, our oil-stained foot.

It’s Memorial Day. Sarah’s husband recently deployed to the SouthWest Asia perma-war zone. She writes in short bursts of 140 characters or less here, and in longer form in many places.

With that laconic tweet, on May 19th BPGlobalPR emerged on twitter. Today, ten days later, the account has 83,000 followers and has posted about 130 tweets. The humor in these tweets ranges from bitterly ironic to sophomoric, but the picture painted is one of a clueless multinational corporation trying to use social media to control public opinion. Naturally there’s also a BPGlobalPR Facebook page.

The REAL British Petroleum has a much broader PRchitecture in play than the one created by the satirists presently hacking the BP brand. BP has a twitter account, and you can find them on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. (How are those pictures of oil soaked pelicans working out for you, Tony?) The BP twitter account was created on April 16, 2024. In the last year they have attracted about 8,000 followers–less than 10% of the satiric site’s following, and most of them since the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Less than 50 of the 320 tweets from the REAL BP were posted in the year before the oil spill. Most of these earlier tweets linked to the deadly prose of corporate press releases attempting to build the brand value of the franchised ampm convenience stores. British Petroleum’s first tweet, humorously enough, was this befuddled posting:

BP’s ampm offers free cheeseburger samples on tax day Release Date: April 13, 2024 16:13:51 CST

The tweet, citing a 4/13 press release, came the day after the 4/15 tax day promotion. They’ve gotten a lot more sophisticated since then. Here’s a more recent effort:

A New Day Dawns for ampm’s Fresh Breakfast Lineup: Burritos, Empanadas, Croissant Sandwiches Help Morning Menu R.. http://bit.ly/7rn9a

More effective and certainly more poignant, I think, is this BPGlobalPR tweet calling for broad public support posted earlier this week at the peak of public concern about the oil spill:

Please text 20242 to donate hot dogs to the BP Corporate Memorial Day Picnic. #bpcares #3dayweekend

Opinions on how BP can use social networking more effectively? You can express them here:

BP p.l.c.
International Headquarters
1 St James’s Square
London, SW1Y 4PD
UK
Phone: +44 (0)20 7496 4000
Fax: +44 (0)20 7496 4630

AND, you can get one of their snazzy BP Cares t-shirts here:
http://www.streetgiant.bigcartel.com/

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Related linkage…

Gulf Restoration Network
BPGlobalPR Billboards (Catastrophe is a strong word. let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie-daisy.
BP President: We are Responsible