Special Project | Ecological Disasters, Week of May 27

• Climate change is real and poses a threat to every living thing on the earth.
• 9 New Items including:
  • Silencing Communities: How the Fracking Industry Keeps Its Secrets
  • Insurance Giant Lloyd’s of London Warns Of ‘Unique And Hard-To-Manage Risk’ Of Arctic Ocean Oil Drilling
  • Gulf Oil Spill: Fishermen Reel From Seafood Troubles
  • Japan’s triple disaster: An indictment of capitalism
  • Tell Shell's CEO: You can't profit from human rights abuse
  • Arrest of BP Scapegoat: Real Killers Walk
  • BP Covered Up Blow-out Two Years Prior to Deadly Deepwater Horizon Spill
  • BP Settlement Sells Out Victims
  • Conclusive Evidence that BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill is Sent to Congress

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

Dan Wasserman

Gulf Oil Spill: Fishermen Reel From Seafood Troubles, Cain Burdeau and Jay Reeves, Huffington Post

• This spring, though, catches are down, docks are idle and anxiety is growing that the ill effects of the massive BP oil spill may be far from over.
• Arrest of BP Scapegoat: Real Killers Walk
• Feds Let BP Off Probation Despite Pending Safety Violations
• Conclusive Evidence that BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill is Sent to Congress

Silencing Communities: How the Fracking Industry Keeps Its Secrets, Mike Ludwig, Truthout

• The 'Rogers' family signed a surface-use agreement with a fracking company in 2009 to close their 300-acre dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania. That's not the end of the Rogers' story, but the public, including the Rogers' own neighbors, may never learn what happened to the family and their land as drilling operations sprouted up in their area. The Rogers did not realize they had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the gas company making the entire deal invalid if members of the family discussed the terms of the agreement, water or land disturbances resulting from fracking and other information with anyone other than the gas company and other signatories.
• Keystone pipeline will spill, study predicts

Tell Shell's CEO: You can't profit from human rights abuse, Tanuka Loha, Amnesty International USA
Tell Shell -- Own up. Pay up. Clean up. Make this message loud, clear and inescapable

Arrest of BP Scapegoat: Real Killers Walk, Greg Palst, Nation of Change

• “The Justice Department went big game hunting and bagged a teeny-weeny scapegoat. More like a scape-kid, really.”
• Feds Let BP Off Probation Despite Pending Safety Violations
• Conclusive Evidence that BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill is Sent to Congress

BP Covered Up Blow-out Two Years Prior to Deadly Deepwater Horizon Spill, Greg Palast, Eco Watch

• “The first blow-out occurred on a BP rig in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan, in September 2008. BP was able to conceal such an extraordinary event with the help of the ruling regime of Azerbaijan, other oil companies and, our investigators learned, the Bush Administration.”
• BP Settlement Sells Out Victims
• The Banality of Corporate Evil

Insurance Giant Lloyd’s of London Warns Of ‘Unique And Hard-To-Manage Risk’ Of Arctic Ocean Oil Drilling, Kiley Kroh and Michael Conathan, Think Progress

• If we have trouble delivering fuel on land, how would we handle a winter oil spill in the Arctic Ocean?
• As ice cap melts, militaries vie for Arctic edge

Japan’s triple disaster: An indictment of capitalism, Peter Symonds, World Socialist Web Site
The political lesson that needs to be drawn from Japan’s triple disaster is that capitalism has proven incapable of ameliorating the devastating impact of the forces of nature. As in the case of the Asian tsunami that wrecked havoc in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand in 2004, and Hurricane Katrina that destroyed much of New Orleans in 2005, the vital needs of working people have been sacrificed to private profit.

BP Settlement Sells Out Victims, Greg Palast, The Mudflats

• BP now has to pay no more than proven damages. It’s like telling a bank robber, “Hey, just put back the money in the vault and all’s forgiven.”
• There's so much corrosion, mendacity and evil covered up by this settlement deal that I hardly know where to begin.
• Is the $7.8 Billion BP Oil Spill Settlement a Bad Deal for Gulf Residents and Businesses?
• Feds Let BP Off Probation Despite Pending Safety Violations

Conclusive Evidence that BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill is Sent to Congress, Natural Society / NationofChange

• “Gulf Rescue Alliance's (GRA) special report has been forwarded to Congress in advance of BP’s upcoming trial and has also been submitted to the appropriate federal, state and county authorities, plaintiff attorneys, and environmental and health advocacy groups who have a stake in the outcome of the trial.”
• US House green lights oil shale plan
• Special Report | The Fracking Nightmare