Photos from the BP Gulf of Mexico Disaster the Government Has Been Keeping from You – May 8, 2012

Greenpeace FOIA Request Uncovers Shocking Images from the Deepwater Horizon Blowout

When BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well blew up and sank two years ago and began spewing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, reporters from around the world rushed to the crime scene to cover one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Just one problem: BP representatives, state and federal law enforcement officials, and private security contractors hired by BP started to restrict the media’s access to the coastal areas hardest hit by the incoming waves of oil. Writers and photographers were told they couldn’t enter public beaches and were hassled when they tried to do so. Boat and small… more

by: Jason Mark

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Occupy 2.0 – May 1, 2012

With the Takeover of a University of California Agricultural Testing Station, Occupiers Move from Envisioning a New World to Creating One

It doesn’t take an agricultural expert to know that you can’t grow vegetables without water. So it wasn’t surprising that after hundreds of people marching under the banner “Occupy the Farm” took over a University of California agricultural testing station on April 22, UC officials responded by shutting off water to the site. The next day a late-season storm brought a half-inch of rain to the San Francisco Bay Area, irrigating the thousands of vegetable starts in the ground and lifting the spirits of the urban farming activists who are determined to save the site from development.  Score: Occupiers, 1 — UC administrators, 0.

All photos… more

by: Jason Mark

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For Earth Day, Treat Yourself to an Inspiring Success Story – April 20, 2012

Documentary Film Burning the Future Shows the Power of Citizen Action

Spoiler alert: The documentary Burning the Future: Coal in America has an inspiring ending. The film’s heroine, Maria Gunnoe, wins the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to end mountaintop removal coal mining. The Obama administration starts to become much more vigilant than its predecessor in scrutinizing, and at times halting, the wantonly destructive practice. Massey Energy, the longtime nemesis of environmentalists, gets bought out. And one of the main battles covered by the film — the effort to re-locate Marsh Fork Elementary School away from a massive coal sludge impoundment lake — has been a… more

by: Jason Mark

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Why Do Conservatives Hate Public Transit? – April 3, 2012

In a word, because it’s public

Once upon a time — in a political environment that seems otherwordly compared to what we have in the United States today — the federal transportation bill was a bi-partisan endeavor. Now things are different. Congress went into spring recess last week and once again left hanging a reauthorization of the transportation bill, which expired two and a half years ago. Congress was just barely able to approve a temporary, 90-day extension of the lapsed law so that current infrastructure projects can keep moving along.

Photo by Jens LudickePublic transit does show the power — the necessity, even — of individuals working together. The
… more

by: Jason Mark

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Founder of the Slow Money Alliance Tries to Remind Investors of a Place Called “Here” – March 22, 2012

CONVERSATION: Woody Tasch

Photo courtesy Slow Money Alliance"What we’ve lost in our pursuit of abstract economic growth and
abstract wealth creation … is connection to each other and to our
communities," says Tasch.

“Money is like horseshit,” I once heard rabble-rouser Jim Hightower say. “If you pile it up, it stinks. If you spread it out, it makes things grow.” That agriculturally minded metaphor about wealth accumulation would be the perfect bumper sticker for The Slow Money Alliance, a network of investors (some big, some small) committed to supporting sustainable food enterprises in their communities.

You’ve probably heard about Slow Food, and Slow Money is pretty much the… more

by: Jason Mark

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