In his first address from the Oval Office, President Obama resolutely addressed the nation tonight about the unending disaster in the Gulf. He took a hard line against BP, promised to restore the beautiful ecosystems of the Gulf and, perhaps most importantly for the long-term health of the nation, said his Administration will do everything possible to break our addiction to oil.
Our friends at The Fresh Air Fund are looking for volunteers.
The Fresh Air Fund provides free summer vacations to children from low-income communities. They match kids with host families that are willing to invite the kids out to their homes and give the kids opportunities to experience open spaces, quiet nights, and, of course, fresh air.
Here's a thought question: If you were a policymaker, which would you choose?
Last week, Patently Apple, a blog "celebrating Apple's spirit of innovation," noticed that Apple engineers, in 2008, had quietly filed a patent for a technology to embed solar cells under touch screens.
This Thursday, lawmakers will likely vote on Senator Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to undercut the government’s authority to regulate global warming pollution.
I find it shocking that Senator Murkowski is moving forward with this resolution now - even as oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico seven weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout.
A few months after starting at NRDC, I was asked to give a major presentation on communications at an NRDC Board retreat in Sundance, Utah. As to be expected, I was nervous, but I had worked hard on the presentation and felt I had the situation under control.
Until Robert Redford arrived.
Background
Stop at almost any checkout counter and you'll find dozens of varieties of candy bars. In the United States, where people consume an average of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of candy each per year, candy bars are associated with popular holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day. In Scotland, the deep-fried Mars bar, dipped in batter and immersed in a vat of boiling oil, swept the country in the late 1990s.
It's a global phenomenon. We are striving to find more ways of reducing our effect on the planet during day to day living. Homes are going green through construction options like insulation and other building material choices. The concept can be easily carried into our homes as well, influencing the choices of home décor and design. Opting to go green has benefits for the homeowner's health and wallet as well as for the entire planet.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced on June 1, 2010 that the federal government is opening a criminal investigation into the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Attorney General Holder did not name any specific targets of the investigation, but it’s not hard to figure out who they may be. Holder named the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act as federal laws that might have been violated. I understand that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been working on this matter since very shortly after the spill occurred.
