More on the Flogs Issue

BCL has more on the M THIRTY enviro flogs issue.

Also, I've heard that PB is removing identified flogs.

Funding Anti-Green Sock Puppets

Not all unions are in McGuinty's pocket. The Ontario Power Workers' Union (UPW) has bankrolled a campaign against McGuinty fighting the Green Energy Act.

More and more, marketing companies are using social media to promote their clients. UPW is pushing for power produced using coal and nuclear by, in part, seeding conversations in social media.

The marketing company in question is M THIRTY. Read the link above if the details and ethics interests you. I'm not getting into it.

Except to point out that one of the bloggers M THIRTY uses seems to be on the Progressive Bloggers blogroll.

Rather, I just wanted to point out that anti-green groups like Wind Concerns Ontario likely don't exist without similar backing. They say differently, or appear to.

Note: As I write this quick note, I see that BCL has written more, and has included the same suspicions as mine, fleshed out in detail.


UPDATE:

BCL reports some flogs are going into maintenance mode...

BREAKING: Latest BP well containment attempt a failure?

Bloomberg is reporting that the latest attempt to abate much of the gusher has failed, and there's nothing to do but wait until the relief wells are complete, sometime in August.

On the slightly brighter side, other news outlets are still reporting that the latest 'great idea' is merely stalled.

From that last link:

"The slick from the crippled well has now drifted within striking distance of beaches on the Mississippi, Georgia and northwestern Florida coast."

 Here's an idea: If we can't solve a well failure like this, maybe we shouldn't be drilling at such depths? At all?
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UPDATE:

Bloomberg is too early on the call. The gusher may be mostly capped in the next 24 hours.

Harper: The Environment is a Sideshow

 Here's one the many questions Harper would not allow to be asked at the tightly scripted G8/G20 Forum Monday:

“In light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the reluctance of the companies involved to accept responsibility, what new control measures for oil drillers will the Canadian government put in place to reduce the risk of oil spills in Canadian waters, and ensure the continuance of our marine ecosystems and the sustainability of our fisheries?”

What a great question. Notice how it  ties the environment to the economy?

As reported by Jane Taber, this question was submitted by Raimey Gallant, a student from Winnipeg’s Red River College.

Harper's stage managers nixed the question. As we all now know, PM Office denials aside, this entire matter was heavily stage managed.

What does Harper have to say about concerns which do not fit his very narrow definition of economics?

"Anything beyond the economy, including issues frequently covered by the national media, is a “sideshow,” the Prime Minster said."

To have our environment described as a sideshow by this circus act of a government speaks volumes about it's pettiness and lack of concern for my children's future.

Drill, Baby, Drill!

"...fears are growing that the spill in the Gulf of Mexico could become one of the worst ecological disasters in history."

If the maveriks were instead in The White House, I wonder how they would have handled this fiasco?

This is so well timed. Less than a month ago, Obama signed an order allowing more offshore drilling to take place. That was done despite protest. Let's hope he permanently kills the order.

Hopefully, plans to send Alberta oil via pipeline to the West coast for tanker shipping will be doomed by this as well.

FactCheck.org on recent IPCC issues

FactCheck once again turns its non-partisan eye on the Global Warming debate, and address the recent 'gate' issues related to the IPCC. It finds little to complain about.

Climate Science Slipping?

Journalist disses Canada and I agree

Monbiot:

Canada's image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling

The tar barons have held the nation to ransom. This thuggish petro-state is today the only obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen

Sadly, I can only agree:

After giving the finger to Kyoto, Canada then set out to prevent the other nations striking a successor agreement. At the end of 2007, it singlehandedly blocked a Commonwealth resolution to support binding targets for industrialised nations. After the climate talks in Poland in December 2008, it won the Fossil of the Year award, presented by environmental groups to the country that had done most to disrupt the talks. The climate change performance index, which assesses the efforts of the world's 60 richest nations, was published in the same month. Saudi Arabia came 60th. Canada came 59th.

Harper did this, without ever having a majority government.

It should never have been this easy.

Stephen Harper, Just Visiting

Wish I had time to do this kind of work. This ad using the same style Harper is using to attack Ignatieff. Despite agreeing with the subject matter, and not at all liking Harper, I still find these types of ads rub me the wrong way.

Enviromental legal precedent: Court orders policy rewrite

A court ruling which says that government must follow law. It's never been done before? That explains a lot...

Several environmental groups including the David Suzuki Foundation challenged the Fisheries Department in Federal Court over its management of the Nooksack dace, a small minnow that only lives in four freshwater streams near Vancouver.