Massive stretches of oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico

Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Massive stretches of weathered oil have been sighted heading toward the Mississippi Delta three days after the U.S. Coast Guard announced there was "very little recoverable oil still in the water or on the bottom."

Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

On Friday reports included accounts of strips of the heavily weathered orange oil that became a signature image of the spill during the summer. One captain said some strips were as much as 400 feet wide and a mile long.

Times/Picayune photojournalist, Matt Hinton, who took photos of the weathered oil slick on Saturday, has confirmed the sighting. Continued...

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Coal River Mountain Redux

Dr. James Hansen

Below is an update to the Coal River Mountain story that I described earlier in an e-mail, in an op-ed, and in "Storms of My Grandchildren".

Mike Roselle, of Climate Ground Zero in West Virginia, has an op-ed regarding his upcoming trial in Raleigh County, West Virginia. He was arrested for trespass while protesting blasting near the Brushy Fork impoundment of 8 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge located directly above Marsh Fork Elementary School. (No word yet on trial date for Larry Gibson, Daryl Hannah and me regarding our arrest on 23 June 2009 for "obstruction", when I was reading a request that Massey Energy provide funds for a new elementary school at a safe distance).

I got drawn into this by students at Virginia Tech, who fed me all the details when I gave a talk on their campus a couple of years ago. Underground Appalachian coal mining is being replaced in recent years by mountaintop removal. Big companies come in, dynamite the tops of the mountains, push the debris into the valleys, gather the coal from seams that are only several feet thick, and throw grass seed on what remains.

The number of jobs with this coal mining practice is small, and it leaves the environment in a shambles, the streams and underground water heavily polluted. But it pays off big for the few guys at the top. The head of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, was paid $17.8 million in 2009 plus $27.2 million in deferred compensation. They must also have a lot of political clout, as it is hard to see how this abominable practice could continue otherwise. Continued...

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How Warm Was This Summer?

Dr. James Hansen

Let's look at the surface temperatures in the summer of 2010, which justifiably received a lot of attention. Figure 1 shows maps of the June-July-August temperature anomaly (relative to 1951-1980) in the GISS temperature analysis (described in paper in press at Rev. Geophys., available at this link) for 2009 and 2010, as well as maps for December-January-February (Northern Hemisphere winter, Southern Hemisphere summer) for the past two years.

June-July-August 2010 was the 4th warmest in the 131 year GISS analysis, while 2009 was the 2nd warmest¹.  2010 was a bit cooler than 2009 mainly because a moderate El Nino in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during late 2009 and early 2010 has been replaced by a moderate La Nina. Also most of Antarctica was cool in winter 2010, while it was warm in 2009. Antarctic winter temperature anomalies are very noisy, fluctuating chaotically from year to year.

The maps make clear that perceptions of how hot it was depend on where you live. The two warmest anomalies on the planet this past summer were Eastern Europe and the Antarctic Peninsula. Not many people live on the Antarctic Peninsula and an anomaly of even several degrees in winter there is not a big deal. But the warm anomaly centered in Eastern Europe, which covered most of Europe and the Middle East, was noticed, to say the least. It was also quite warm in Japan, where the prior summer had been cooler than the 1951-1980 mean. The United States, which had been unusually cool in the summer of 2009, was warm this past summer, except the Pacific Northwest, which was cooler than the 1951-1980 climatology. Continued...

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Super Typhoon Megi Hits the Philippines - Strongest Typhoon at Landfall on Record

Called a "monster storm" by meteorologists, the most intense weather event of 2010 has hit the Philippines. Stronger than Katrina, the storm has recorded winds of 178 mph with gusts up to 217 mph. The winds are expected to decrease (relatively) to 140 mph as it makes landfall.

(CNN) -- Super Typhoon Megi has made landfall in the northern Philippines, the national weather agency said Monday. Megi, also known as Typhoon Juan, made landfall near Sierra Madre on Luzon island, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). It has maximum sustained winds of about 225 kph (140 kph) and gusts of up to 260 kph (162 mph).

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The Environmentalist Donation Drive and Book News

The Environmentalist is a public interest magazine that covers the geopolitics of climate change, science, business, history, world news, lifestyle, entertainment, editorial..., as well as providing extensive resources and links.

The writers and editors all donate their time. The magazine relies on donations, store sales, and advertising revenue to offset site costs. Now there are plans in place to open a book imprint in 2011 that will provide low-cost, interactive e-books from Environmentalist writers.  All this needs your support.

The Environmentalist asks our readers to help offset our costs in three ways:

1. If you can afford it, please donate at this link - as little or as much as you can.

2. Visit the site store and buy something if you can afford it.

3. If you can't donate or buy something from the site store, or even if you can, please support our sponsors by clicking on the Google ads throughout this site.  This will keep the better advertising on our site.

More news about the upcoming book publishing imprint to follow.

Links →

Memo to Texas, Alabama & Nebraska: Mind Your Own Business

by William S. Becker

A new poll in California indicates a dead heat among that state’s voters on Proposition 23, the ballot initiative in which out-of-state oil companies are trying to cripple the nation’s most progressive law to combat global climate change.

That law is AB 32.  Proposition 23 would stall its implementation. In the event voters decide to keep AB 32 intact, the attorneys general of at least three states – Texas, Alabama and Nebraska -- say they’re ready to sue California to kill it.  In effect, the three AGs want to prove it’s unconstitutional for a state to decide it won’t purchase dirty energy – for example, coal-fired electricity -- from somewhere else.

California’s voters would be justified defeating Proposition 23 just to send a message to outside agitators to mind their own damn business.  After all, California’s people and their economy have a lot to lose from climate change, including water shortages, wild fires and sea-level rise along the state’s 840 miles of coastline.

For the rest of us, the derailment of AB 32 would be another major loss to the carbon lobby in a year of depressing policy defeats, first in Copenhagen, then in Congress.  By default, the world’s hope for climate leadership from the United States now rests with state and local governments.  Partly as a result of California’s example, more than 30 states are implementing or creating their own climate action plans. The Nov. 2 election, including the outcome of Proposition 23, will affect the political climate for climate action well beyond California. Continued...

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The 600th Anniversary of Prague's Astronomical Clock

The astronomical clock in Prague, a landmark in the architecturally rich city, celebrated its 600th anniversary with a remarkable mapped animation on its face. The clock, called the Orloj, is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall.

The Orloj has three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.  The animation on the clock tower brings the components and Prague's history to life. Continued...

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10/10/10 Global Work Party

STARTING NOW, people at 7347 events in 188 countries are getting to work on the climate crisis.

The invitation—10/10/10 - from Bill McKibben and 350.org:

Dear World,

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they’re having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they’re putting up solar panels on the President’s office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they’re installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic. Continued...

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Slideshow: link