Frustration is growing among residents of the US Gulf of Mexico coast over the pace of efforts to combat the growing oil spill in the region.

Author and activist Naomi Klein has been visiting the state of Louisiana.

She told Al Jazeera that patience is running very thin

Biologist Doug Inkley – BP Oil Ashore ‘just the tip of the iceberg’

How can benzene affect my health?

Breathing very high levels of benzene can result in death, while high
levels can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches,
tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Eating or drinking foods
containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the
stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, rapid heart rate, and
death.

The major effect of benzene from long-term exposure is on the blood.
Benzene causes harmful effects on the bone marrow and can cause a
decrease in red blood cells leading to anemia. It can also cause
excessive bleeding and can affect the immune system, increasing the
chance for infection.

Some women who breathed high levels of benzene for many months had
irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries,
but we do not know for certain that benzene caused the effects. It is
not known whether benzene will affect fertility in men

Read more at : http://bpoilleak.org/

On the wake of the Deepwater Horizon, there are calls left, right and
centre to increase the security of oil rigs, improve oil spill response
and whatnot. This is good, but far from sufficient. What we need to
address is the world's dependence on oil, and how we can quit the black
stuff. It might appear a hard task until you consider the lenghths to
which we go to get oil. The animation below, by cartoonist Mark Fiore,
sums it up:

Read more at Greenpeace

“Major developed and developing countries have signed up to tackle the problem and to limit global warming to two degrees. As countries enter their emissions cuts in the formal register by January 31st, they can and should make good on this.” That was Ed Miliband’s comment on the Copenhagen conference. So it is surprising to learn that Britain’s own plans for tackling climate change are based on an approach which is expected to result in an increase in global warming of at least two degrees.

The government’s plans are derived from the report Building a low-carbon economy – the UK’s contribution to tackling climate change, published by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in December 2008. In the CCC’s favoured scenario, global emissions of greenhouse gases peak by 2016.

The current crisis is a classic hit by economic hit men (EHM) - except this time, the victims are us.

Drawing on personal experiences described in his blockbuster books (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The Secret History of the American Empire, and Hoodwinked), John Perkins explains how tools honed during the past four decades in developing countries are enabling the extremely rich to purchase businesses and real estate at fire sale prices; defend abolition of health care, education, and other social programs; and justify privatization of the public sector. However, crises offer opportunities.

Perkins presents a plan for transforming the economy and describes ways each of us can employ our individual passions and skills to not only prosper but also create a world we will be proud to pass on to future generations.

"We'll be the first to bring to the market a storage battery for home use, which can store sufficient electricity for about one week of use," said Fumio Otsubo, president of Panasonic, in a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Stressing that Panasonic and Sanyo have already test-manufactured a storage battery for home use, Otsubo said, "We're positioned closest [among firms] to realizing CO2 emission-free daily life."

By making Sanyo its subsidiary, Panasonic plans to accelerate the development of the storage battery, while planning to sell it together with a system that will enable households to check electricity usage on a home-based TV display

Read the whole article at http://www.physorg.com/news180778009.html

Study suggests that wind is ecologically and economically practical and could reduce CO2 emissions Cambridge, Mass. – September 10, 2009 – A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. Using extensive metrological data and incorporating the Chinese government's energy bidding and financial restrictions for delivering wind power, the researchers estimate that wind alone has the potential to meet the country's electricity demands projected for 2030.

The switch from coal and other fossil fuels to greener wind-based energy could also mitigate CO₂ emissions, thereby reducing pollution. The report appeared as a cover story in the September 11th issue of Science.

Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.

The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world.

In the first study to look at what happens over the years to the billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in the world's oceans, scientists are reporting that plastics — reputed to be virtually indestructible — decompose with surprising speed and release potentially toxic substances into the water.

There are only months left to build a strong global climate treaty -- but some countries are putting its future in doubt.

Around the world a global movement is building to raise the bar of ambition ahead of the crucial climate negotiations in Copenhagen, 

December 2009. An immediate global outcry is needed to inject urgency into the process and to rescue the new treaty.

Add your name to the petition, and Avaaz will deliver it with stunts and meetings at key events prior to Copenhagen. 

Sign the Petition at Avaaz.org