BY ETHAN SACKS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Director James Cameron says audiences don’t have to look to the stars to find resonance for his sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar,” which returns to theaters Friday with nine more minutes of footage.

They can find a big, oozing parallel right in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The BP mess is a classic example of how our energy policies, or lack thereof, are going to hurt us,” Cameron recently told the Daily News. A symptom of the same corporate greed that drove the fictional RDA Corporation to pillage the planet Pandora in the film, he said.

Cameron had a close-up view of the environmental devastation in the first few weeks after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. In early June, the 56-year-old writer-director-producer convened with a group of 25 experts who came up with a suggestion of a method to plug the leaking wellhead that had been spewing one million gallons of oil a day. After ignoring his group’s report, BP successfully adopted an almost identical method two months later.

“Lots of technologies were offered to us. They were thoroughly evaluate by a team of industry engineers,” BP spokesman Robert Wine responded by email. “We did have some contact with James Cameron. His technologies were not suitable.”

But Cameron said the the oil giant has been running roughshod over the EPA, Coast Guard and scientific experts since the early days of the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. He points to the use of the toxic dispersant, Corexit – BP says it weighed the risks and had government approval – and the company’s blockade of outside inspection of the wellhead site.

“It’s a bit like having the bank robbers run the video surveillance of the vault,” says Cameron.

He’s hoping moviegoers leave his movie this weekend thinking a little bit more about the environment – in the Gulf and beyond. There’s nothing wrong with a little nutritional value to go with all that popcorn in Cameron’s book.

“[The world is in worse shape] than anything I dreamed up for ‘The Terminator,’” said Cameron, referring to his 1984 post-Apocalyptic thriller. “I should make a new ‘Terminator’-like movie where someone travels back in time to warn us before it’s too late.”

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Kamchatkas ecotourism strives for investment

26 August, 2010, 17:10

Kamchatka has the highest prices for gas, fuel and food in Russia. Everything needs to be shipped in. Located in the far north east of Russia, the region feels as remote as anywhere on Earth.

Opportunities for small business are further complicated by the extreme climate of a land bedeviled by earthquakes and typhoons. But it is just this quality of untamed wilderness that makes Kamchatka a destination for adventurous tourists – and the money they bring.

Although larger than California, the peninsula has only 300 kilometers of paved roads.
Traveling to most parts of Kamchatka is almost impossible for anyone who does not have access to an Mi-8 helicopter, Galina Volgina, head of department, Kamchatsky ecotourism society, points out.

“Ecotourism is purely small business, it’s 100% self-reliant risk and it provides employment for the population. The main problem is lack of infrastructure. We need small aviation and helicopters in order to take tours around Kamchatka, but it costs a lot and regulations are tough for the operations of helicopters and small aviation” Volgina insists.

Kamchatka is home to many natural wonders, including 26 active volcanoes, half the world’s population of Steller’s sea eagles, and the largest population of brown bears on Earth. But in order to see it all, one needs to flee the city by boat or helicopter.

The average price for an hour’s rental of a helicopter starts at $3,500, seriously adding to the price of tours. But operators say the number of tourists is still higher than the number of available helicopters.

Over 20,000 nature-lovers come to Kamchatka annually. Most arrive on cruise ships, spending just a few days and seeing only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the peninsula’s attractions.

Just one third of travelers come as real adventurers. Tourists from Japan and the US are ready to pay $200 a day to discover nature’s hidden treasures.

But even with the high prices, the tour operators find it difficult to make a profit, not to mention the high direct expenditures on infrastructure.

“The tourism industry in Kamchatka is worth $3 million. However, most of that is taken up by costs – hotels, helicopters, off-road jeeps and special transportation,” says Volgina.

Kamchatka is unlikely ever to become a mass holiday destination. But the locals believe there is room for specialist ecotourism to grow. They want the government to invest more seriously in the peninsula’s infrastructure to improve access, while preserving its unique natural heritage.

Man honored for solar energy efforts

A San Rafael man who drowned June 25 in a kayak accident is to receive a posthumous award next month for championing clean energy alternatives.

Ray Dracker, a 55-year-old Gerstle Park resident, was at the forefront of a solar energy project in the Mojave Desert worth several billion dollars prior to his death in North Carolina. Dracker was a senior vice president with Solar Millennium, a German company that was working with Southern California Edison to build two 242-megawatt solar power plants worth $1 billion each on federal land near Death Valley.

The award is being given Sept. 14 by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies. The group’s Clean Power Champion Awards Ceremony will be at the Citizen Hotel at 926 J St. in Sacramento.

QuestPoint n the Mix Updates – A GREEN RENAISSANCE

Listen: a green renaissance

Leanardo Dicaprio has had  a string of movie successes;  The Departed, Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island and  the current summer hit,Inception. Just like the movie Inception there’s  more to Dicaprio then what meets the eye, ah I mean a dream. Rewind to 2007 to Dicaprio’s apocalyptic environmental documentary The 11th Hour. Was he dreaming? Did 200, 000, 000 million  plus gallons of toxic oil just reak havoc on the Gulf of Mexico, and what of the economic and environmental aftershocks? Was it  a projection  or just one of those things? Dicaprio’ like other entertainers, including Woody Harrelson, Scarllet Johanson, Will I am of the Black Eye Peas, Cameron Diaz  and a host of others have been green evangelists in their efforts to wake us from the  nightmare dream of big oil.

The nation needs Washington to  put it’s self interest in the  oil and coal cartel aside. We need to get our country on a path to renewable and sustainable green living with a bold, innovative job producing national energy policy. Whether you live in Oklahoma or Arizona. Gulf shrimpers are rightfully concerned that the shrimp they’re hauling in now is contaminated despite claims to the contrary by the EPA. Do you think it’s safe to eat shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico at this point? Economist have just revealed that China is now the world’s second largest economy after the US. And China is by the way the largest manufacturer of solar panels in the world. What shall the nation do? Sit idle as elected representatives continue burned out and unsustainable debates?

Dicaprio does have  a foundation that takes on environmental causes called The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. But Dicaprio is a Hollywood big wig and he has the resources to do this kind of thing. This is what the artist does…they project upon us and we upon them, but  in some way we can all find a way to make a difference.  Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? The issues regarding this primitive oil and coal burning ritual; its monstrous consequences and the infrastructure that’s been developed around the world to support it is indeed destroying the planet. Other nations around the globe are ahead of the US in terms of renewable energy. If we continue on the path we’re on without setting forth a vision, a bold dream of what our nation’s energy structure will be, one day the big marine freighters coming into our ports won’t be filled with oil (we could run out any way), they”ll be filled with solar panels and wind turbines we have to buy from China.

The 11th Hour – Leonardo Dicaprio

Air District approves $5 million for electric vehicle charging stations

SAN FRANCISCO – The Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors approved $5 million to support further development of a regional electric vehicle charging infrastructure program in the Bay Area.The electric vehicle charging stations and home chargers is part of the Air District’s Spare the Air program which will make owning an electric vehicle in the Bay Area a viable option for residents. “The past several years have seen exciting progress in the development of electric vehicle technology,” said Air District Executive Officer Jack P. Broadbent. “Creating a useful charging network will make it easier for Bay Area residents to Spare the Air every day by going electric.”

The Air District is working to support at-home electric vehicle charging and to establish a network of accessible charging sites where electric vehicle owners can conveniently recharge while conducting their normal business, running errands or shopping. The program will leverage up to $5 million in Air District funds to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure grants including:

3,000 home chargers at single family and multi-family dwellings

2,000 public chargers at employer and high-density parking areas

50 fast chargers within close proximity to highways

In the Bay Area, the transportation sector accounts for more than 50 percent of air pollution. Significant emission reductions from the transportation sector will help the Bay area attain and maintain state and national air quality standards. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (www.baaqmd.gov) is the regional agency chartered with protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area.

La. shrimpers worry about prices for new season

By CAIN BURDEAU and KEVIN McGILL (AP)

NEW ORLEANS — Shrimpers trawling Louisiana waters Monday in the first commercial season since the Gulf disaster don’t know what dangers from the massive BP oil spill still lurk and what market there will be for their catch if consumers don’t believe the seafood is safe.

Perhaps the biggest fear is that some fisherman might try to sell oil-contaminated shrimp.

“If you see oily shrimp, you got to throw them back over. Go somewhere else. It’s all you can do. And you hope everyone else does the same,” said Dewayne Baham, 49, a shrimper from Buras.

Louisiana shrimp prices rose soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the spill that eventually spewed 206 million gallons of oil from BP’s blown-out well into the Gulf of Mexico. The price spike was fed by fears that the shrimp would soon be unavailable. However, despite state and federal assurances that seafood reaching the market was safe, demand dropped and prices crashed a month ago, said Harlon Pearce, a seafood dealer and head of the state’s seafood promotion board.

Ravin Lacoste of Theriot, said he believes his fellow shrimpers know better than to turn in a bad catch. “If you put bad shrimp on the market — we in enough trouble now with our shrimp,” Lacoste said. “You might can go in the closed waters and catch more shrimp. But it ain’t worth it.”

Pearce did what he could over the weekend to allay fears over safety. On Friday, he was in a group that set out with several fishermen on a test run around Grand Isle and Barataria Bay.They trawled several areas, pulling up nets that held shrimp, mud, jellyfish or driftwood — all without the signs or telltale smell of oil.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke also will be in Louisiana on Monday to lunch with fishermen and talk to seafood industry representatives. The spill has put a crimp in the fishing industry in a state that ranks first in the nation in producing shrimp, blue crab, crawfish and oysters, which are a $318-million-a year business in Louisiana. Seafood testing begins when there’s no longer visible oil in a particular area. First, inspectors smell samples for oil. Then comes testing at federal or state laboratories. To reopen seafood harvesting, the samples must test below Food and Drug Administration-set levels of concern for 12 different potential cancer-causing substances. BP also used chemical dispersants to break up the crude, but the government has not yet developed a test for the materials in seafood.

Shrimpers also are concerned about how much they’ll be able to make on their product. “I don’t think people are worried so much about the resource, but the price,” said Rusty Gaude, fishery agent for LSU Sea Grant Program. And fishermen need to know what waters are open. Slowly, more and more waters closed because of the spill are reopening. However, shrimping remains forbidden in federal waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and most of the catches have come off Texas and Florida, said Roy Crabtree, the regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service’s southeast region.

Commercial shrimpers are heading out as the drilling of a relief well meant to plug BP’s runaway well permanently nears completion. Once the relief well is complete, a so-called bottom kill procedure can begin, in which mud and cement would plug the well from below the seafloor.

Engineer John Wright has never missed his target over the years, successfully drilling 40 relief wells that were used to plug leaks around the world. People along the Gulf Coast and others are hoping he can make it 41-for-41. “Anyone who has ever worked extremely hard on a long project wants to see it successfully finished, as long as it serves its intended purpose,” Wright, 56, who is leading the team drilling the primary relief well, said in a lengthy e-mail exchange with The Associated Press. BP began work on its primary relief well in early May. But about two weeks ago, around the time the company had done a successful static kill pumping mud and cement into the top of the well, executives and the government began signaling that the bottom kill procedure might not be needed.

But retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the spill, said the relief well would be finished so the well could be killed. The bottom kill won’t be started until at least next weekend. Despite the waters reopening, many fishermen distrust state wildlife officials and may be reluctant to head out right away, said Patrick Hue, 49, a shrimper out of Buras.

“Nobody wants to rush into this and then someone gets sick on the seafood and the first thing you know, no one wants to buy our seafood,” he said. Seafood dealer Pearce, however, said many shrimpers will be unable to resist. “Opening day is like a religion to these people,” he said. “It’s a way of life down here.”

Alternative Energy: Will U.S. Lead or Follow?

Oil Spill Turns American Minds to Renewable Power Sources As

Inventors, Investors Wait for Gov’t to Get Serious

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Everyday free natural organic energy greets us. It whisks and glistens through the trees, colors the morning sky and casts shadows everywhere we go. Scientist tell us in some regions of the world such as the Sahara desert, there’s enough sunlight  falling within one hour to supply the energy needs of the entire planet for one year. In fact North African and European interest are gathering

together in a project  known as Desertec Foundation to supply renewable solar energy in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe. This is a massive Pyramid scale project and yet there are solar projects that are already satellite bound to orbit the earth. From satellite space stations solar photovoltaic panels will beam  energy back to earth.

This is some pretty mind boggling stuff. But what can we do to live a more organic lifestyle right here, right now while utilizing the best technology can offer? Large scale solutions will not be right for everyone. In fact I’ve been communicating with people that have been involved with solar power and battery storage systems for more than 30 years. Home installed systems or portable systems could be used to power small irrigation systems. More on this later; however some answers may rest in vertical farming and urban farming where more people are gaining an incredible sense of creativity and empowerment in growing their own food or buying from local growers. In Berkeley you can go to the BeeHive Market, a green lifestyle market  operating on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm in the parking lot at the Berkeley Adult School – 1701 San Pablo Avenue.

Organic living seeks to incorporate the obvious advantages of solar, energy efficiency and other renewable sources. Creative thinkers are taking a more holistic and organic approach to food, wine, water usage, health care, beauty, fashion, music, recycling and, and, and…well you can  just go on. In San Francisco one place  you can check out is the Environmental Action Center located in the Crocker Galleria  at 55 Post Street. They provide a wealth  of information and fun events to help you connect with a more organic lifestyle. You can also check out an interview  QuestPoint n The Mix had with Ann Vollen Co-founder of Green Zebra, operators of The Environmental Action Center. A more organic lifestyle is not only possible, but it’s available now.

It appears that BP CEO, Tony Hayward has got his life back. Reports are coming in that he will resign. The New York Times reports,”Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive of BP, has agreed to step down and be replaced by Robert Dudley, the company’s most senior American executive who is now in charge of BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person close to the company’s board.” The Huffington Post writes: Tony Hayward who’s quickly become the public face of the Gulf Oil spill, will be stepping down within days, according to reports in the British press. The move is expected to come in anticipation of the company’s announcement of its first-half results on Tuesday. BP will announce that it has made approximately $10 billion this year, even while contending with the largest oil spill in history, the U.K.’s Telegraph reports. Here’s Telegraph :” The chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, is finalising the details of his imminent exit from BP this weekend as the oil giant prepares to make an announcement on the chief executive’s future possibly within the next 48 hours. After a weekend of detailed negotiations over Mr Hayward’s severance package, it now appears almost certain that he will announce his departure ahead of BP’s half year results on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reports that BP is currently discussing Hayward’s departure: Under the plan being discussed, Mr. Hayward would not necessarily depart immediately, these people said, giving the company time to settle on a successor and devise and orderly transition. It is possible, however, that the board could move more quickly in tapping a new chief. The U.K.’s Guardian also relays news of Hayward’s imminent departure, and reports that he will be replaced by Bob Dudley. Dudley is managing the day-to-day Gulf Oil spill operations.

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Heated responses are coming in about the watered down energy bill Senate leader Harry Reid just buried. Here’s what he said “Over my 40 years in public service, including my time as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I have seen the evolution of public perception and political will on global warming and energy policy. And, of course, we know the cost of inaction. The Gulf oil spill was the most recent warning, but other reminders happen every day. Rising energy costs and our dangerous dependence on foreign oil demonstrate our urgent need for a national clean energy strategy. Democrats are firmly committed to achieving this goal. I had hoped Republicans would be equally committed; it is, after all, their future, too. I had hoped they would join us to see where we could find common ground. Senator John Kerry has worked harder than I’ve ever seen a senator work to bring them along. But they have decided, en bloc, to block sensible legislation that reduces pollution and lowers carbon emissions. They have chosen short-term political gains over solving our country’s long-term energy challenges. They might think that strategy will pay political dividends in November, but down the road we’ll all be paying for our inaction.

For long-standing supporters of comprehensive clean energy legislation — and I include myself in that camp — this development was undeniably disappointing. But it is not an excuse to sit on our hands. As Majority Leader, I had a tough call to make: either allow Republicans’ delaying tactics to stop us from doing anything on energy, or do what we can to create green jobs, address the Gulf oil spill and continue to gather support for a comprehensive clean energy bill. I chose the latter option to ensure that these goals can be accomplished now instead of later.”

Josh Harkinson from Mother Jones writes:”The Senate’s climate bill is officially dead. And given that Democrats will almost certainly hold fewer seats in Congress next year, major action on the climate is unlikely to be revived anytime soon. Andrew Revkin, Joe Romm, and Tim Dickinson place a fair share of the blame on Obama. From Dickinson’s widely-quoted Rolling Stone piece yesterday:

Handled correctly, the BP spill should have been to climate legislation what September 11th was to the Patriot Act, or the financial collapse was to the bank bailout. Disasters drive sweeping legislation, and precedent was on the side of a great leap forward in environmental progress. In 1969, an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California – of only 100,000 barrels, less than the two-day output of the BP gusher – prompted Richard Nixon to create the EPA and sign the Clean Air Act. But the Obama administration let the opportunity slip away.

Early on, Obama failed to challenge blowhards such as Senator Jim Inhofe who distorted the science of global warming. Revkin points out that the president has not invited researchers and climate analysts to the White House (as even Bush did). And after BP’s well blew out, Obama’s infamously milquetoast address from the Oval Office never connected the disaster with the need for a cap on carbon. All of this wasn’t for a lack of pressure from his allies. Nine high-profile environmental groups wrote a letter to the president pleading that “nothing less than your direct personal involvement” will break the logjam in the Senate. Al Gore ultimately said what Obama wouldn’t: Placing a limit on global-warming pollution and accelerating the deployment of clean energy technologies is the only truly effective long-term solution to this crisis. Now it is time for the Senate to act. In the midst of the greatest environmental disaster in our history, there is no excuse to do otherwise.

Of course, there’s always an excuse in Washington. Voting for a climate bill might hurt the reelection prospects of swing-state Democrats. The Senate, exhausted in the wake of its tough votes heath care and financial reform, might have never overcome a filibuster. And, to be fair, Obama has already done more for the climate than any president before him. But no matter: The confluence of a huge Democratic congressional majority and a huge ecological catastrophe wrought by the fossil fuel industry could have presented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rewrite the rules of climate politics. With a little bit of leadership. Unfortunately, a little bit of leadership on the climate is more than we’ve got right now.”

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins CEO, Green For All “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate will not pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

The American people need and deserve a climate and energy bill that makes a real difference in fighting climate change while creating jobs that will help pull the economy out of recession. American policy can be smart enough to help the country now while protecting our children and our grandchildren. And we refuse to hand over the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency to big polluters in hopes that it will be enough to buy baby steps towards a clean-energy future.

It is heartbreaking to see our elected officials in Washington, D.C., let the American people down. It is just as heartbreaking that we as an environmental movement have, quite simply, failed to get the job done.

This must serve as a personal wake-up call to all of us. America will not break its addiction to fossil fuels until we all change our own behavior. And the environmental movement needs to rouse people to make that change. Our movement needs to reflect the hearts, minds, and interests of everyday Americans.

Until we can craft clean-energy policy that inspires both the struggling white coal miner in West Virginia and the black mother with two asthmatic children in South Central Los Angeles, our movement will not be able to lead the country the way it needs us to.”