News

Starting with the dispersants BP has been using to hide the enormity of the spill in the Gulf. The real reason BP has used nearly 2 million gallons of the dispersant Corexit in the Gulf is to hide the oil and save themselves money in possible fines, says Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He explains that the dispersant is used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. 

Read and produced by Nicholas Fiscina.

Stories written by Jonathan Moore and Nicholas Fiscina.

Sorry to abandon my post for the weekend but it had to be done. My sanity and well-being were at stake. I've done my best to recruit a writer or two but to no avail. It's hard to blame anyone either - "Would you like to chronicle bad new for very little money and hardly any recognition?"

That might change in the not so distant future but for now that is an apt description of the gig. Mostly I do this in tandem with my radio show. The links here today are to the Canadian stories I talked about this morning. Isn't it endearing when I share loads of personal information?

Read by Nicholas Fiscina and produced by Drew Pascoe.

Stories written by Alina Gotcherian, Nicholas Fiscina and Jose Espinoza.

With the once and for all debunking of "climategate" earlier this week - there were editorials around the country telling their readers that the integrity of the science was solid in spite of all that had been alleged over the months since last November when the scientists private e-mails were hacked into - it seems that the anti-science crowd has become far more bellicose.

Read and produced by Nicholas Fiscina.

Stories written by Nicholas Fisicna, Jonathan Moore and Gareth Sloan.

If BP does manage to get the spill contained there's so much that they still have to answer for - Like cutting 40,000 claimants off for having incomplete files. Oh yeah, they're going to make it right all right... for themselves. Take a look at this video with images that aren't being showed much in the MSM:

There's their use of the dispersant Corexit that's described as being four times as toxic as the oil itself: 

Read and produced by Nicholas Fiscina.

Stories written by Chris Hanna, Emily Brass and Jose Espinoza.

In case you missed it, Naomi Klein's op-ed in the Globe and Mail about the G20 and how we all got stuck with the bill - not the $1 billion for security, that's a given - for the crisis that the bankers created and are wholly to blame for.

Amy Goodman over at Rabble.ca reporting on how the media and scientists are being shut out from examining and covering the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf and how the lack of transparency may lead to more disasters.

Hi, I'm back after a day off. Wanted to make sure all the links from Friday's show got posted. Hope your weekend is awesome!

The heat wave in the east has abated somewhat although the long-range forecast for this week includes lots more heat so no putting away those fans yet. A study by Stanford University climate scientists says that exceptionally long heat waves could become the norm in the near future. As the mercury rises outdoors, it's a fitting time to consider the effects of summertime droughts and global warming on ecosystems.

Rachel helps put the current state of affairs in Afghanistan in some perspective. I'm one of those who has a hard time envisioning what success there will look like and yet she manages to make me feel some optimism.

There are days when I get so angry with the current state of the economy, with people like Steve Moore whom Paddy over at the Political Carnival linked to earlier advocating increased taxes on the poor in the US - the lack of readily available and decent paying jobs that have helped to shrink the middle-class over the past 30 years or so - that I sometimes joke on the radio program that I'm looking forward to a time when "Eat the rich," is no longer a bit of graffiti scrawled on a wall but a menu option. I'm gonna' sit down and order me one extra-large republican braised over a spit for two or three days in a tangy lemon-ginger sauce.