We humans find ourselves in an awkward – perhaps fatally awkward – circumstance. We seem unable to safely and morally manage the technologies and systems we are clever enough to invent. From Bhopal to Chernobyl, from Three Mile Island to the Gulf Oil spill, from New Orleans levee failures to the Japan nuclear crisis, we [...]

This solstice, let us make wishes for ourselves, for our neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries. . . and the world.

A BP curriculum for environmental science? Really?

I was 18, skinny, out of money and in New Orleans for the first time after some Appalachian adventures and a visit to Nixon’s D.C. I faked a cocky walk into a French Quarter piano bar and stayed until closing time when the brunette singer in a sequined costume gown took pity on me. We [...]

George W. Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 and was appointed president by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court. A sanctimonious pundit class tells us it is crabby, unpatriotic and uncivil to dwell upon that bit of history. But questions of legitimacy (“does he really belong here?”) have dogged Barack Obama since he won the [...]

The single biggest reason that Long Island can be mistaken for heaven on Earth is the beaches. From the boardwalks of Coney Island and Rockaway, past the world class resort quality of Jones Beach, passing through my personal fave’s Tobay and Gilgo beaches, all the way to the Hamptons, Long Island beaches are central to our way of life. We have a thriving fishing industry and our oysters, from Blue Point on the south shore and Oyster Bay on the north shore, are legendary.

Computer models project that oil from the BP disaster in the Gulf will hit loop currents by June, bringing oil up most of the Atlantic coast by the end of this month. According to this model, oil will shoot up Florida all the way to Virginia before it heads out to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (and international waters). Strands of oil look to make their way towards the Chesapeake Bay and other points north as time goes on. Watch the video here.

You and I pay NOAA Director Jane Lubchenco to protect our seas and oceans. And instead, she seems increasingly complicit in BP’s efforts to cover-up the extent of their disaster.

When the Obama Administration talks of potential accountability, it’s as if the 11 deaths on the Deepwater Horizon rig never happened. But hey, there are business interests and military fuel contracts it must protect. That clearly takes precedence for this Administration.

Today, as millions of gallons of toxic crude oil continue to spew uncontrolled from the mile-deep Deepwater Horizon blowout into the Gulf of Mexico, we are hopeful that this catastrophe will the be the very catalyst we need to begin to break our century-long addiction to oil. This may be looked at some day as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are to the nuclear industry. Indeed, the Deepwater Horizon disaster may provide our last best chance to hasten the switch to sustainable energy in time to avert global ecological and economic disaster.