Two weeks ago today, Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus pipeline carrying diluted bitumen from Canada ruptured catastrophically, creating a 22-foot long gash that unleashed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and toxic chemical diluents into the Central Arkansas town of Mayflower. Since then, the local media has faced strong intimidation from Exxon, local residents have become sick from the toxic fumes, a severe thunderstorm threatened cleanupefforts and led officials to release contaminated water into Lake Conway and the Attorney General of Arkansas has launched an investigation, as a number of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of residents.

via Exxon pipeline rupture is 22 feet long, indicating immense pressure, possible criminal negligence

BREAKING: Storm hits Mayflower, Arkansas site of Exxon oil spill. Contaminated water pumped into Lake Conway as citizen journalists report live.

A manmade disaster was made even worse by nature Wednesday night, as asevere thunderstorm hit Mayflower, Arkansas spreading the Exxon Mobil oil spill to the yards of homes along the cove and the main body of Lake Conway. For nearly two weeks, Exxon has maintained that oil has not reached Lake Conway, despite clear evidence both from aerial video and on-the-ground guerrilla reporting that showed oil had spread throughout a cove and wetlands, which are connected through ground water and drainage culverts to the main body of the lake. Images captured Wednesday night should put any doubt to rest that the main body of Lake Conway is now contaminated with oil.

Citizen journalists, Jak and Lauren, reporting for Tar Sands Blockade, braved the severe weather Wednesday, which included hail, lighting and chance of tornados, to report on what was happening to the site of the oil spill.

MORE: at TreeHugger

18 million people, 6 million cars, and 600 new vehicles hitting the streets every day. Can eco-transit help Mexico City?

(via A greener Mexico City tries eco-transit | MNN - Mother Nature Network)

(via thingsorganizedneatly)

© Elena Dorfman: “Empire Falling 8” / 2012, chromogenic print, 37” x 50”

Photographer Elena Dorfman made more than two dozen visits to the rock quarries of the Midwest, digging into forgotten corners of Kentucky, Ohio, and southern Indiana. With thousands of images shot, Dorfman then created a project-specific process of layering and ‘stitching’ the images together digitally to create the depth and mystery that the images possess. “Manipulating and reconstructing the landscape,” says Dorfman, “I reassemble and layer my images, emulating the natural process of stratum on stratum.” An individual image may be constructed from as many as three hundred photographs taken at multiple quarries.

via Photographer Captures Poignant Beauty of Industry-Ravaged Landscapes

credit: Sarah Fretwell

The use of conflict minerals in the technology industry is a serious issue, but one that manufacturers are doing little to correct. In areas where the sale of minerals is used to fund war, the abuses of human rights are abhorrent — with slavery and rape treated as a fact of life.

After traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and interviewing victims of rape used as a weapon of war, photographer Sarah Fretwell put together a powerful photography project documented the people and their stories, photographs that are not just art but are tools for bringing awareness to the larger impact the technology industry has by using conflict minerals, and to the role consumers play by purchasing the products without asking questions about the materials used in manufacturing.

In this interview, partnered with her images, Fretwell describes the problem and outlines solutions.

(via Rape and Conflict Minerals: Photographer Takes on the Technology Industry Through Art : TreeHugger)

This poster needs a reboot now that we’ve heard Mitt Romney’s thoughts on Hitler’s dirty energy ideas.

When you liquify coal, you…

As Brian Merchant writes, 

“There is simply no other politician I can think of that would ever dream of voluntarily and publicly casting Hitler’s ideas in a positive light, apropos of nothing. ‘Well, nation, Hitler had some good ideas’ is perhaps the single least effective rhetorical framing device in the world.”

Read the rest: Mitt Romney: Hitler’s Plan for Liquefied Coal is Good for America

(Poster via Posters from the Past that Can Guide Us in the Future)

Think we’ve seen the last of the effects of the BP Oil Spill? Think again.

Mutant Fish, Eyeless Shrimp & Clawless Crabs: Fallout from the BP Spill (Video)

© Christian Brändle/ZHdK

Look at how much plastic garbage is released into the sea every 15 seconds. 

More on this haunting art installation here: Poignant Museum Exhibit Illustrates Plastic Catastrophe

What would it be like to swim down through the estimated 100 million tons of trash swirling around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Mandy Barker’s photographs bring viewers probably as close as they’d ever want to come to finding out.

See the rest here: Swim Down Through a Sea of Trash With Dramatic, Eerily Beautiful Photos by Mandy Barker