tagged w/ endangered earth
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ENE NEWS...
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HuffPo: Large amounts of radioactive materials could be deposited across 1,000s of miles if water lost at Fukushima fuel pool — Media just beginning to grasp that danger to world is far from over -Nuclear Expert
Published: April 22nd, 2012 at 4:54 pm ET
By ENENews
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Title: Robert Alvarez: The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is Far From Over
Source: Huffington Post
Author: Robert Alvarez*
Date: Apr 22, 2012
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More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster began, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. Senator, it’s sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins pose far greater dangers than the molten cores. This is why:
• Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl
• Several pools are 100 feet above the ground and are completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions. The pools could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake.
• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating and can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds, if not thousands of miles. [...]
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*Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department’s secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. He is an award winning author whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Nation, Technology Review, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. He has also been featured on”60 Minutes”, Nova and All Things Considered.
Published: April 22nd, 2012 at 4:54 pm ET
By ENENews
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THE REPORT FOLLOWS...
.ENE NEWS...
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HuffPo: Large amounts of radioactive materials could be deposited... more
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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/26/us/26spill-web3/26spill-web3-articleLarge.jpg
Photo Provided to The New York Times...
As the fire raged, the Deepwater Horizon buckled. More than 110 people escaped the rig on April 20, but 11 men died. Photographs of the burning rig were provided to The Times by a worker on a nearby boat who asked not to be identified.
December 25, 2010
December 25, 2010
Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours
By DAVID BARSTOW, DAVID ROHDE and STEPHANIE SAUL
PART ONE…
The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern.
Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig’s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck.
It was no better there.
That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig’s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
“We’re going to die!”
It has been eight months since the Macondo well erupted below the Deepwater Horizon, creating one of the worst environmental catastrophes in United States history. With government inquiries under way and billions of dollars in environmental fines at stake, most of the attention has focused on what caused the blowout. Investigators have dissected BP’s well design and Halliburton’s cementing work, uncovering problem after problem.
But this was a disaster with two distinct parts — first a blowout, then the destruction of the Horizon. The second part, which killed 11 people and injured dozens, has escaped intense scrutiny, as if it were an inevitable casualty of the blowout.
It was not.
Nearly 400 feet long, the Horizon had formidable and redundant defenses against even the worst blowout. It was equipped to divert surging oil and gas safely away from the rig. It had devices to quickly seal off a well blowout or to break free from it. It had systems to prevent gas from exploding and sophisticated alarms that would quickly warn the crew at the slightest trace of gas. The crew itself routinely practiced responding to alarms, fires and blowouts, and it was blessed with experienced leaders who clearly cared about safety.
On paper, experts and investigators agree, the Deepwater Horizon should have weathered this blowout.
This is the story of how and why it didn’t.
It is based on interviews with 21 Horizon crew members and on sworn testimony and written statements from nearly all of the other 94 people who escaped the rig. Their accounts, along with thousands of documents obtained by The New York Times describing the rig’s maintenance and operations, make it possible to finally piece together the Horizon’s last hours.
What emerges is a stark and singular fact: crew members died and suffered terrible injuries because every one of the Horizon’s defenses failed on April 20. Some were deployed but did not work. Some were activated too late, after they had almost certainly been damaged by fire or explosions. Some were never deployed at all.
At critical moments that night, members of the crew hesitated and did not take the decisive steps needed. Communications fell apart, warning signs were missed and crew members in critical areas failed to coordinate a response.
The result, the interviews and records show, was paralysis. For nine long minutes, as the drilling crew battled the blowout and gas alarms eventually sounded on the bridge, no warning was given to the rest of the crew. For many, the first hint of crisis came in the form of a blast wave.
CONTINUED…http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/26/us/26spill-web3/26spill-web3-articleLarg... more
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The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning
By JUSTIN GILLIS
PART ONE…
MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii — Two gray machines sit inside a pair of utilitarian buildings here, sniffing the fresh breezes that blow across thousands of miles of ocean.
They make no noise. But once an hour, they spit out a number, and for decades, it has been rising relentlessly.
The first machine of this type was installed on Mauna Loa in the 1950s at the behest of Charles David Keeling, a scientist from San Diego. His resulting discovery, of the increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, transformed the scientific understanding of humanity’s relationship with the earth. A graph of his findings is inscribed on a wall in Washington as one of the great achievements of modern science.
Yet, five years after Dr. Keeling’s death, his discovery is a focus not of celebration but of conflict. It has become the touchstone of a worldwide political debate over global warming.
When Dr. Keeling, as a young researcher, became the first person in the world to develop an accurate technique for measuring carbon dioxide in the air, the amount he discovered was 310 parts per million. That means every million pints of air, for example, contained 310 pints of carbon dioxide.
By 2005, the year he died, the number had risen to 380 parts per million. Sometime in the next few years it is expected to pass 400. Without stronger action to limit emissions, the number could pass 560 before the end of the century, double what it was before the Industrial Revolution.
The greatest question in climate science is: What will that do to the temperature of the earth?
Scientists have long known that carbon dioxide traps heat at the surface of the planet. They cite growing evidence that the inexorable rise of the gas is altering the climate in ways that threaten human welfare.
Fossil fuel emissions, they say, are like a runaway train, hurtling the world’s citizens toward a stone wall — a carbon dioxide level that, over time, will cause profound changes.
The risks include melting ice sheets, rising seas, more droughts and heat waves, more flash floods, worse storms, extinction of many plants and animals, depletion of sea life and — perhaps most important — difficulty in producing an adequate supply of food. Many of these changes are taking place at a modest level already, the scientists say, but are expected to intensify.
Reacting to such warnings, President George Bush committed the United States in 1992 to limiting its emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Scores of other nations made the same pledge, in a treaty that was long on promises and short on specifics.
But in 1998, when it came time to commit to details in a document known as the Kyoto Protocol, Congress balked. Many countries did ratify the protocol, but it had only a limited effect, and the past decade has seen little additional progress in controlling emissions.
Many countries are reluctant to commit themselves to tough emission limits, fearing that doing so will hurt economic growth. International climate talks in Cancún, Mexico, this month ended with only modest progress. The Obama administration, which came into office pledging to limit emissions in the United States, scaled back its ambitions after climate and energy legislation died in the Senate this year.
Challengers have mounted a vigorous assault on the science of climate change. Polls indicate that the public has grown more doubtful about that science. Some of the Republicans who will take control of the House of Representatives in January have promised to subject climate researchers to a season of new scrutiny.
One of them is Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California. In a recent Congressional hearing on global warming, he said, “The CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rather undramatic.”
But most scientists trained in the physics of the atmosphere have a different reaction to the increase.
“I find it shocking,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the government monitoring program of which the Mauna Loa Observatory is a part. “We really are in a predicament here, and it’s getting worse every year.”
As the political debate drags on, the mute gray boxes atop Mauna Loa keep spitting out their numbers, providing a reality check: not only is the carbon dioxide level rising relentlessly, but the pace of that rise is accelerating over time.
“Nature doesn’t care how hard we tried,” Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Columbia University economist, said at a recent seminar. “Nature cares how high the parts per million mount. This is running away.”
CONTINUED…The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning... more
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U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough told CNN there are reports the production platform, which is for both oil and natural gas, is still on fire.
"We don't know what caused the rig to catch on fire," he told CNN, noting the incident is under investigation.
Asked about concerns regarding oil leaks or pollution, Colclough said "there are reports the rig was not actively producing any product, so we don't know if there's any risk of pollution."
Mariner Energy is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico. About 85 percent of the company's production comes from offshore assets, with a growing share of that coming from deepwater developments.
The explosion comes nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and causing oil to gush into
the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
VIDEO: us, news, http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/09/02/bpr.beck.oil.rig.bpr.cnnU.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough told CNN there are reports the... more
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Loulan Pitre Sr. was born on the Gulf Coast in 1921, the son of an oysterman. Nearly all his life, he worked on the water, abiding by the widely shared faith that the resources of the Gulf of Mexico were limitless.
As a young Marine staff sergeant, back home after fighting in the South Pacific, he stood on barges in the gulf and watched as surplus mines, bombs and ammunition were pushed over the side.
He helped build the gulf’s very first offshore oil drilling platforms in the late 1940s, installing bolts on perilously high perches over the water. He worked on a shrimp boat, and later as the captain of a service boat for drilling platforms.
The gulf has changed, Mr. Pitre said: “I think it’s too far gone to salvage.”
The BP oil spill has sent millions of barrels gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, focusing international attention on America’s third coast and prompting questions about whether it will ever fully recover from the spill.
Now that the oil on the surface appears to be dissipating, the notion of a recovery from the spill, repeated by politicians, strikes some here as short-sighted. The gulf had been suffering for decades before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.
“There’s a tremendous amount of outrage with the oil spill, and rightfully so,” said Felicia Coleman, director of Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory. “But where’s the outrage at the thousands and millions of little cuts we’ve made on a daily basis?”
The gulf is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the hemisphere, a stopping point for migratory birds from South America to the Arctic, home to abundant wildlife and natural resources.
But like no other American body of water, the gulf bears the environmental consequences of the country’s economic pursuits and appetites, including oil and corn.
There are around 4,000 offshore oil and gas platforms and tens of thousands of miles of pipeline in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where 90 percent of the country’s offshore drilling takes place.
At least half a million barrels of oil and drilling fluids had been spilled offshore before the gusher that began after the April 20 explosion, according to government records.
Much more than that has been spilled from pipelines, vessel traffic and wells in state waters — including hundreds of spills in Louisiana alone — records show, some of it since April 20.
Runoff and waste from cornfields, sewage plants, golf courses and oil-stained parking lots drain into the Mississippi River from vast swaths of the United States, and then flow down to the gulf, creating a zone of lifeless water the size of Lake Ontario just off the coast of Louisiana.
The gulf’s floor is littered with bombs, chemical weapons and other ordnance dumped in the middle of last century, even in areas busy with drilling, and miles outside of designated dumping zones, according to experts who work on deepwater hazard surveys.
The likelihood of an accident is low, experts said, but they added that federal hazard mitigation requirements are not strong enough to guarantee the safety of drillers working in the gulf.
Even the coast itself — overdeveloped, strip-mined and battered by storms — is falling apart. The wildlife-rich coastal wetlands of Louisiana, sliced up and drastically engineered for oil and gas exploration, shipping and flood control, have lost an area larger than Delaware since 1930.
“This has been the nation’s sacrifice zone, and has been for 50-plus years,” said Aaron Viles, campaign director for the Gulf Restoration Network, a nonprofit group. “What we’re seeing right now with BP’s crude is just a very photogenic representation of that.”
History of Neglect
All along the coast, people speak of a lack of regulatory commitment and investment in scientific research on the gulf by state and federal lawmakers.
They note, for example, that over the last decade, the Environmental Protection Agency’s financing for the Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional and federal partnership, was nearly five times the amount for a similar Gulf of Mexico program, and a Great Lakes program was given more than four times as much.
“The funding had never been equivalent to other great water bodies,” said Lisa Jackson, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. “That’s absolutely true. But it’s also absolutely true that this administration changed that long before the spill.”
While the Gulf of Mexico program financing remains at roughly the same levels, Ms. Jackson pointed to other programs to address gulf health that have been created and received tens of millions of dollars in the last two years.
On July 19, the Obama administration announced the recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, a committee created in 2009 to coordinate governance over the country’s major bodies of water.
The White House also announced the creation of a gulf restoration road map before the spill to address the long-term problems on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
Multiple Interactive Gulf of Mexico maps - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html?ref=us
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/us/30gulf.html?_r=1Loulan Pitre Sr. was born on the Gulf Coast in 1921, the son of an oysterman. Nearly... more
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In less than a week, the rescue center at Fort Jackson has received more than five times as many oiled birds as it received in the previous six weeks since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began.
A report Wednesday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that the Louisiana center has reported 415 birds since the BP PLC well blew wild in April. Sixty-six of those had been reported by last Thursday. The number since then is 349, with 61 of them added since Tuesday.
In addition, 14 birds have been brought to the Alabama center, 12 in Florida and one in Mississippi.
Since the start of the spill, bird rescue crews have found 633 dead birds -- about one in six VISIBLY oiled.
A total of 32 sea turtles have been rescued, 28 of them in the Gulf of Mexico. http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/oiled_birds_arriving_at_rescue.html
NOTE: Thses numbers do not include the number of sea turtles (dolphins, seahorses or other wildlife) found dead due to the oil spill or toxic dispersant.In less than a week, the rescue center at Fort Jackson has received more than five... more
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OF COURSE THERE ARE PLUMES... WHY WOULD BY EVEN ATTEMPT TO LIE ABOUT IT?
WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THE DEADLY SLUDGE THAT HAS SUNK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAFLOOR?
THE EPA APPROVED USE OF THE TOXIC CHEMICAL DISPERSANT MAKES THIS DISASTER EVEN MORE HORRIFIC. WHEN COREXIT MIXES WITH THE OIL AND WATER, IT EVENTUALLY IT BECOMES INVISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO CLEAN UP.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/08/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2OF COURSE THERE ARE PLUMES... WHY WOULD BY EVEN ATTEMPT TO LIE ABOUT IT?
WHAT ABOUT... more
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(CNN) -- World Oceans Day, June 8, arrives this year at a time when people are especially focused on the safety of waters threatened by the Gulf oil disaster. Yet it is also a time when more people are committing to work to preserve the oceans than ever before.
Among them is Roz Savage, who last week completed the third and final leg of her effort to row across the Pacific Ocean. Savage was one of dozens who took part in the Mission Blue cruise in April, organized by the nonprofit group TED to develop a strategy to save the oceans.
In her talk on the Mission Blue cruise, taped before the final leg of her Pacific journey, Savage estimated that her trip across that ocean required more than 8,000 miles of rowing, spending 312 days on her own in a 23-foot rowboat. Savage is the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, from the West Coast of the United States to Papua New Guinea. (Maud Fontenoy rowed a shorter route from Peru to Polynesia in 2005.)
Learn more about the "Mission Blue Voyage" http://blog.ted.com/2010/04/ocean_hope_at_m.php
VIDEO: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/living/2010/06/07/ted.roz.savage.ted
Page Link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/08/savage.world.oceans/index.html(CNN) -- World Oceans Day, June 8, arrives this year at a time when people are... more
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PHOTO: Forecast location of the spill at 1800 CDT on Saturday 5/1/2010. The red color shows where oil will reach the shore. The Chandeleur Islands and Louisiana marshes will be affected.
This web site provides a place for people to volunteer to assist in cleanup operations related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Organizations working on the cleanup may register here to be connected with volunteers. OilSpillVolunteers.com will link volunteers with cleanup organizations; we will not be directing volunteer activities.
BP, Transocean, Homeland Security, USCG, NOAA, EPA, Department of the Interior - We need to hear from you. We have 2000 people eager to be trained and eager to jump into action when the oil comes ashore. How do they get training? What can they do to help with the cleanup? Help us.
Volunteers - Please register using this form http://www.oilspillvolunteers.com/register.php . Provide complete as much of the form as possible and indicate whether your contact information can be shared directly with cleanup organizations. Please do not use email to provide your volunteer information.
Caution: Do not attempt oil cleanup work without training and the required safety equipment. The oil waste is a toxic material and can pose a threat. This OSHA http://www.oilspillvolunteers.com/docs/OSHA_HAZWOPER_Oil.pdf handbook for oil spill cleanup will explain.
Cleanup Organizations Needing Volunteers - Please send email to don@OilSpillVolunteers.com describing your needs and activities.
***Please route all individual volunteer offers to the registration form here on the web.
We are receiving a large number of emails and calls and it's much simpler and more reliable to keep track of volunteers in the database linked to the form. We'd hate to misplace an email and lose contact with you.
If you've signed up and had a question - Please be patient, we'll be in touch as soon as possible.
For media information, please contact Melanie Allen - mailto:sglmma@cableone.net
Please pardon the rough format of this site; there's too much to do to worry about making it pretty. We'll soon be adding:
Mailing list information
List of cleanup organizations
Phone numbers to report oiled wildlife
Spill location and movement forecast
* Suggestions and assistance are welcomed.PHOTO: Forecast location of the spill at 1800 CDT on Saturday 5/1/2010. The red color... more
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Cape Wind or Deepwater Horizon: The Choice is Clear - Environment Florida
TALLAHASSEE – As oil continues to spill into the Gulf as a result of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced final approval of the groundbreaking Cape Wind offshore wind project today in Massachusetts.
The announcement means that, in 2012, when the Obama Administration’s plan would let oil companies conduct dirty and dangerous drilling in the Gulf, Massachusetts residents would be the first in the nation to receive energy from clean offshore wind power.
“The spill threatening the Gulf Coast is a tragic reminder that wind energy, not more oil drilling, is the way to use our coastal environment to power Florida,” said Environment Florida Advocate Adam Rivera.
“Wind doesn’t spill,” Rivera added. “Wind turbine operation does not routinely put lives in danger. With the offshore wind potential that exists off Florida’s coasts, offshore drilling is beyond unnecessary.”
The 2008 Navigant Consulting study commissioned by the Florida Public Service Commission and Governor Crist’s Energy Action Team found that the potential for offshore wind in Florida is second only to the Sunshine State’s potential solar photovoltaic resource.
With strong renewables mandates in place, the study projected more than 120,000 gigawatt-hours available to be harnessed for our use by 2020.
In stark contrast, the recent Collins Center for Public Policy report commissioned by the Florida Senate found – in accordance with U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates – that drilling in our state and federal waters will have would have “no discernible impact on petroleum prices at the retail level” and “no discernible impact on the state's or the country's dependence on foreign oil.”
The Florida Legislature rejected strong standards for clean renewable energy in 2009 and 2010. In fact, legislation intended to generate 20% of Florida’s electricity instead became the Florida House of Representatives’ vehicle to bring offshore drilling catastrophe within three miles of Florida’s coastline in the 2009 legislation session.
“It’s a shame that we’re talking about a massive oil spill instead of a new, visionary wind energy project in Florida,” Rivera concluded. “Florida’s elected leaders, from the Legislature up to President Obama himself should focus on our state’s potential for clean wind energy, rather than bring dirty, dangerous drilling to our shores.”
http://www.environmentflorida.org/newsroom/shores/save-our-shores-news/cape-wind-or-deepwater-horizon-the-choice-is-clear
Our Ocean Legacy
Oceans cover over two-thirds of the earth's surface, helping to control the planet’s weather and containing a rich variety of life forms. Yet our oceans are in deep trouble.
Offshore drilling, destructive overfishing, coastal pollution from fertilizers and toxic materials, habitat destruction from bottom trawling, coastal dredging and filling, and rising ocean temperatures all effect the ocean’s health and ability to bounce back from changes.
To restore the oceans to health, Environment Florida supports a moratorium on new offshore drilling, a halt to destructive overfishing, establishment of marine protected areas, policies to reduce the flow of nutrients and toxins into coastal waters, and aggressive action on global warming. https://www.environmentflorida.org/issues/our-ocean-legacy
NEWS & MORE INFO -
Environment Florida Tells Obama: Cancel Drilling Permanently
https://www.environmentflorida.org/newsroom/shores/save-our-shores-news/environment-florida-tells-obama-cancel-drilling-permanently
Oil Rig Explosion the Latest in a Series of Tragic Accidents http://www.environmentflorida.org/newsroom/shores/save-our-shores-news/oil-rig-explosion-the-latest-in-a-series-of-tragic-accidents#id724rbdJYcaBo_iRFPumK0Q
After this most recent accident, pro-drilling leaders must tell us why they support putting people in harm's way for a false solution, deemed to have no discernible impact on gas prices or energy independence.
Oil Spill in National Wildlife Refuge Precedes Florida House Drilling Bill http://www.environmentflorida.org/newsroom/shores/save-our-shores-news/oil-spill-in-national-wildlife-refuge-precedes-florida-house-drilling-bill#idNNJdOOdQCq_wItpSvR78gA The latest in a long line of offshore oil spills fits a distressing pattern of call-and-response: as Florida's leaders call for more drilling, the oil industry responds with yet another disaster.Cape Wind or Deepwater Horizon: The Choice is Clear - Environment Florida... more
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Coast Guard officials are considering setting the Gulf of Mexico oil slick on fire as it moved Tuesday to within 20 miles of sensitive ecological areas in the Mississippi River Delta.
Officials say it could become one of worst spills in U.S. history.
Oil is still leaking at a rate of about 42,000 gallons a day from the well, located some 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana beneath a drill rig that exploded and sank last week. Eleven workers are still missing following the incident, and are presumed dead.
BP, the well's owner, is racing to shut off the well using eight remote controlled submarines, but has had no luck as of yet.
"If we don't secure the well, this could be one of the most serious oil spills in U.S. history," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, head of a joint response task force, said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty miles is the closest the slick has come to land so far.
Officials said oil slicks are sometimes set on fire, especially when they are near sensitive marsh areas where heavy equipment used to clean the oil may cause more harm than good.
If the slick is set on fire, it would be a controlled burn using fire-proof booms, and only done during the day, said Landry. It could begin as early as Wednesday.
The spill, measured from end to end, stretched as wide as 42 miles by 80 miles, although oil isn't necessarily covering that entire area.
Most of the slick is a thin sheen on the water's surface, ranging in thickness from a couple of molecules to the equivalent of a layer of paint. About 3% of it is a heavy, pudding-like crude oil.
At its current flow rate would take over 260 days to rival the Exxon Valdez disaster, which discharged some 11 million gallons into Alaska's Price William Sound. Still, even if it never compares to the Exxon Valdes spill's size, if it makes landfall it'll have serious ecological repercussions
NOT THE ANSWER - http://oilonthebeach.blogspot.com/
Protect Florida's Beaches from Oil Driling - www.protectfloridasbeaches.org
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jun/15/bill-nelson/sen-bill-nelson-says-offshore-drilling-wont-pay-fl/
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/27/news/economy/oil_rig_gulf/index.htmCoast Guard officials are considering setting the Gulf of Mexico oil slick on fire as... more
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Tropical rainforests are a world like none other; and their importance to the global ecosystem and human existence is unequivocal. Unparalleled in terms of their untold biological diversity, tropical rainforests are a natural reservoir of genetic diversity which offers a rich source of medicinal plants, high yield foods, and a myriad of other useful forest products. They are the world’s richest and most productive ecosystems, containing half of all living species on the planet and a multitude of unique indigenous cultures.
Tropical rainforests play an elemental role in regulating global weather in addition to maintaining regular rainfall, while buffering against floods, droughts, and erosion. They store vast quantities of carbon, while producing a significant amount of the world's oxygen.
Despite their monumental role, tropical forests are restricted to the small land area between the latitudes 22.5° North and 22.5° South of the equator, or in other words, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Since the majority of Earth's land is located north of the tropics, rainforests are naturally limited to a relatively small area.
Tropical rainforests, like so many other natural places, are a scarce resource. The vast swathes of forest, swamp, desert, and savanna that carpeted Earth's land surface a mere five generations ago have been reduced to scattered fragments; today, more than two-thirds of the world's tropical rainforests exist as fragmented remnants.
Just a few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered as much as 12% of the land surface on earth, or about 15.5 million square km, but today less than 5.3% of Earth's land is covered with these forests (about 6.7 million square km).
The largest unbroken stretch of rainforest is found in the Amazon river basin of South America. Over half of this forest lies in Brazil, which holds about one-third of the world's remaining tropical rainforests. Another 20% of the world's remaining rainforest exists in Indonesia and Congo Basin, while the balance of the world's rainforests are scattered around the globe in tropical regions. (Adapted for educational purposes from mongabay)
The Disappearing Rainforests
We are losing 33,8 million acres of tropical forest per year, that’s 500,000 trees every hour, or an area the size of a football field every second!
The Amazon covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. It is the most diverse ecosystem in the world, supporting around 60,000 plant species, 1000 bird species and more than 300 mammal species. The rainforest is also home to 20 million people.
Over the past 30 years 15% of the Brazilian Amazon has been completed destroyed - that's an area the size of France. In 2002 an area the size of Belgium was destroyed, the second highest figure on record.
There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000. In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's.
Why do tropical forests disappear?
Logging is one of the principal causes of destruction in the Amazon. By building roads in pristine forest, the logging industry opens the door to further devastation such as clearing forest for cattle ranches and soya plantations. When the demand in the world for meat increases, more rainforest lands are being destroyed and turned into farmland for animals.
Tropical forests yield some of the most beautiful and valuable woods in the world, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, sandalwood, and countless lesser-known species.
Most of the rainforest timber on the international market is exported to rich countries. There, it is sold for hundreds of the times of the price that is paid to the indigenous peoples whose forest has been plundered. The timber is used in the construction of doors, window frames, crates, coffins (we consume even in death!), furniture, plywood sheets, chopsticks, household utensils and other items.
Continued in comments>>>
http://www.studentnunamazon.com/data/pages/rainforest.htm#Tropical rainforests are a world like none other; and their importance to the global... more
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Proposal to declare mass destruction of ecosystems a crime on a par with genocide launched by lawyer
A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace - alongside genocide and crimes against humanity - is being launched in the UK.
The proposal for the United Nations to accept "ecocide" as a fifth "crime against peace", which could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is the brainchild of British lawyer-turned-campaigner Polly Higgins.
The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry.
Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute "climate deniers" who distort science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change.
"Ecocide is in essence the very antithesis of life," says Higgins. "It leads to resource depletion, and where there is escalation of resource depletion, war comes chasing behind. Where such destruction arises out of the actions of mankind, ecocide can be regarded as a crime against peace."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/ecocide-crime-genocide-un-environmental-damageProposal to declare mass destruction of ecosystems a crime on a par with genocide... more
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There are many animals today that are nearing extinction. It is becoming more and more important that we found a way to raise awareness about this problem. A zoo in Philadelphia has found an interesting way to raise awareness about endangered species while appealing to its young crowd. Legos.
The Philadelphia Zoo has opened a lego exhibit that displays many different endangered species. The exhibit is called "Creatures of Habitat: A Gazillion-Piece Animal Adventure," and it opened today. Created by Sean Kenney, the exhibit has 34 animals and took over a year to complete.
The highlight of the exhibit is a 95,000 piece polar bear.
"I love being able to explain serious problems in ways that kids can understand them," says Kenney.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/lego-artisan-creates-endangered-species-for-zoo.phpThere are many animals today that are nearing extinction. It is becoming more and more... more
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Rate of ice-cap melt has been accelerating since 1985
Close to 50 years of data show the Devon Island ice cap, one of the largest ice masses in the Canadian High Arctic, is thinning and shrinking.
A paper published in the March edition of Arctic, the journal of the University of Calgary's Arctic Institute of North America, reports that between 1961 and 1985, the ice cap grew in some years and shrank in others, resulting in an overall loss of mass. But that changed 1985 when scientists began to see a steady decline in ice volume and area each year.
"We've been seeing more mass loss since 1985," says Sarah Boon, lead author on the paper and a Geography Professor at the University of Lethbridge. The reason for the change? Warmer summers.
The High Arctic is essentially a desert with low rates of annual precipitation. There is little accumulation of snow in the winter and cool summers, with temperatures at or below freezing, serve to maintain levels. Any increase of snow and ice takes years.
This delicate equilibrium is easily upset. One warm summer can wipe out five years of growth. And though the accelerated melting trend began in 1985, the last decade has seen four years with unusually warm summers - 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
"What we see during these warm summers is the extent of the melt is greater," says Boon about the results of a five-year remote sensing study that ran between 2000 and 2004.
The white surfaces of snow and ice reflect heat – a process known as the albedo effect. Retreating ice exposes dark soil and gravel, which absorb heat and increase the melt rate of ice along the periphery of the cap. But it's not only the edges of the cap that are losing ice. At lower altitudes the ice is thinning as well.
Changes to the Devon ice cap, which covers approximately 14,400 sq. km, could have multiple impacts on everything from ship traffic to sea level.
There has already been an increase in the number of icebergs calving off from outlet glaciers that flow into the ocean. Boon explains that melt water runs between the bottom of the glacier and the ground, creating a slippery cushion that allows the glacier to slide forward more rapidly than it would in colder conditions.Rate of ice-cap melt has been accelerating since 1985
Close to 50 years of data... more
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At the historic gathering, one fundamental is sidestepped: there can be no nuclear security without nuclear disarmament.
President Barack Obama's nuclear security summit confronts the most important issue facing the world's leaders: the possibility of a nuclear attack. Global challenges do not come more serious and immediate than this. And Obama has made history by being the first leader to convene such a gathering—47 nations are participating—to address the profound threat of nuclear terrorism. He has placed this harrowing matter at the top of the global to-do list.
But despite the ambition of preventing a nuclear attack—by controlling nuclear materials and inhibiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons—the scope of the summit has been limited, purposefully.
The summit has produced important results. Ukraine announced it would get rid of all of its highly enriched uranium (HEU)—the material needed for a nuclear bomb—by the time of the next summit in 2012. The former Soviet republic also said it will convert its civilian nuclear research facilities to low-enriched uranium, which cannot be used for nuclear weapons. (In 1994, Ukraine, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus, agreed to remove all nuclear weapons from its territory and eventually eliminated about 5,000 nuclear munitions.) Right before the summit, Chile gave up its secret hoard of HEU and shipped it to the United States.
On Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were scheduled to sign a protocol governing the implementation of an agreement for the United States and Russia to dispose of enough weapons-grade plutonium to make several thousand nuclear weapons. And Obama administration officials have been claiming that high-level talks accompanying the summit—particularly Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao—are bolstering support for imposing sanctions against Iran, which has been moving in the direction of developing nuclear weapons.
Yet there is something missing from the grand event: a sweeping vision of what must be done to avert the worst nightmare.
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*Follow link 4 more on this story-
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/obamas-nuclear-summit-big-truth-thats-missingAt the historic gathering, one fundamental is sidestepped: there can be no nuclear... more
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Entangled and drowned in a fishing net off the coast of Brazil, these green sea turtles in an undated picture are just a few of the millions of sea turtles that have been unintentionally killed by fishing operations over the past 20 years, according to a study released today by the journal Conservation
"Of all the threats sea turtles face right now, bycatch is the most serious," said Bryan Wallace, a marine biologist with Conservation International and lead author of the study. (Read a commentary by Wallace on how he thinks changing your eating habits can help sea turtles.)
The study pulls together data from around the world on sea turtle deaths from nets, hooks, and trawlsóand questions the estimates of previous reports.
"Because the reports we reviewed typically covered less than one percent of all fleets, with little or no information from small-scale fisheries around the world, we conservatively estimate that the true total is probably not in tens of thousands, but in the millions of turtles taken as bycatch in the past two decades," the authors write.
Six of the seven sea turtle species are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of threatened species.
(Also see "Eight Million Sharks Killed Accidentally off Africa Yearly." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070417-shark-fishing.html )
–John Roach
Published April 6, 2010
Letters.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/photogalleries/100406-sea-turtles-killed-conservation-letters-pictures/#green-sea-turtles-netted_18296_600x450.jpgEntangled and drowned in a fishing net off the coast of Brazil, these green sea... more
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