Climate Sunday: The Round-up

In a piece of good news, it appears BP will be paying for some additional part of their culpability in the major 2010 gulf oil spill over and above the initial damage claims and clean-up. They've been found guilty of gross negligence. Halliburton will also be paying damages, to the tune of $1.1 billion.

I can't swear the parties involved won't be back in court over this, since events like the Exxon Valdez spill became entirely about the ability of the oil companies to invest in lawyers to try and tire out the argument in favor of their actually fixing things, but I dunno. Maybe they'll just pay this time.

I know I've written about ISIL a bit this week or so, but you know what--they aren't as threatening as climate change could be. Check Juan Cole out if you haven't before--he writes about foreign policy in the Middle East mostly, but he's also sterling on climate issues.

I'm looking forward to reading Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything going by this.

There are many more stories out there, but these were the ones that got me thinking this past week. You might also be interested to hear this summation of the Mann Defamation trial by a writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists.  It seems to me that the National Review editors should have very seriously considered whether they needed to have a scientist exonerated by many reviews of his work compared to a child molester. As an analogy, it sucks. As a slur, it's inflammatory. But the page views aren't worth the magazine's integrity, surely?  They will find out.

Totally the Story of the Day--the Rescue of the Chilean miners--

It's just a great thing to know that these men have survived a truly treacherous situation, that they endured cramped and claustrophobic surroundings and somehow maintained a wonderful cohesion and seem well. That so many people contributed to the rescue of these people is heart-warming: wow, people can really pull their stuff together when lives are on the line. So often you hear about mining tragedies, where there has been a cave-in and there's nothing to be done but recovery.

This rescue was really great news. I find myself so happy for them and their families, who must have been incredibly anxious. And I really find myself wishing them the best and celebrating a bit with them.