vegansaurus!
08/01/2011
Industrial farming is killing the oceans »
Remember how the ocean’s fucked? It’s still fucked, especially in France, where the beaches are unfit for human presence because of “Up-stream releases of manure from intensive farming that overload the near-shore waters with nitrates.” It causes growth of a seaweed that releases a toxic gas!
Farm effluent is so amazing. It creates dead zones in places like the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, which now covers 83 miles of that body of water. Back in December of 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan “to dramatically reduce the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that states can allow in the bay from municipalities and farms,” but guess whose opposition is blocking the EPA from implementing it: the American Farm Bureau Federation’s! Of course! Because dead zones are caused by runoff from those giant places food comes from, farms and feedlots.
In Brittany, 31 wild boars were found dead last week; the animals “‘were not [otherwise] sick and they did not drown.’” People can’t visit the beaches there because they could release pockets of the toxic gas the algae produces and die. How would this happen? By, you know, slipping and falling in the algae, or running, or walking. Not that anyone wants to play on a beach covered in horrible slime.
Industrial farming! It feeds most of the world while it kills the oceans! The best part of history is always when you realize no one’s planned more than like 10 minutes into the future.
∞ posted at 12:52 by seriousmeaveness 
05/31/2010
This photo of a Portuguese Man o’ War, by Flickr user slkeith, is part of the National Wildlife Federation BP Oil Spill Coverage pool. Yes, that horrible black stuff is oil. No, Man o’ Wars cannot live while full of petroleum products.
The NWF’s coverage of the environmental impact of the spill is all right. They’ve set up a donate-by-phone system, so you can just text “wildlife” to 20222 to give them $10, easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy. You can also donate directly online, if you prefer.
They discovered one oil plume last week with a larger surface area than San Francisco’s (six by 20 miles, vs. seven by seven), which is terrifying, you know? It is going to cause the gruesome deaths of countless animals. If you can give some money to the cleanup effort, please do. You can’t count on BP to do anything good.
∞ posted at 14:15 by time-for-naps 
04/30/2010
» Spill, baby, spill!
Just your weekly reminder that offshore drilling fucking sucks, and the people who demand it the loudest are fucking assholes who deserve a kick in the face. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not only an economic disaster for fisheries, but it’s a hell-on-earth for the birds and marine life who live in the Gulf and on the coast of Louisiana.
Courtesy of the New York Times comes this shocking infographic showing which species are now in peril from the spill. Want a sneak preview? “The Gulf of Mexico is the only spawning ground for the Western Atlantic population of the bluefish tuna, which is at the peak of spawning season.” America, FUCK YEAH!
The antidote to this shit is clean energy, like the offshore wind farm off Cape Cod that was approved this past week by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Unfortunately, groups are already suing to block its construction because they say the wind farm will block the views from their mansions endanger marine life and commerce. Because birds and fish are just choking in wind-slick from leaky wind turbines. Quick, someone call in the emergency windbreaker and visor crew! These feathers aren’t going to comb themselves back into place.
∞ posted at 08:03 by stevesimitzis 
