"Video footage shot on June 18 by Ben Raines of the Press-Register and uploaded the following day captured both oil in the water and a Gulf water teeming with sharks. The video closes with a view of a discarded American flag in the water, clotted with oil like the crab in front of it."
FEATURE
Sharks Gather at Oily Shore To Escape Oxygen Dead Zone in Gulf (Video)
"Video footage shot on June 18 by Ben Raines of the Press-Register and uploaded the following day captured both oil in the water and a Gulf water teeming with sharks. The video closes with a view of a discarded American flag in the water, clotted with oil like the crab in front of it."
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The Environmentalist
at
6/29/2010 01:27:00 AM
Labels: BP, Environment, Fauna, Flora, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Press-Register, Science
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FEATURE
Historic Aerial Footage Reveals the Scope of the BP Gulf Oil Disaster (VIDEO)
The video is heartbreaking but vital for the understanding of the scope and enormity of the disaster. It shows the sea and the operations underway at the site of the blown well and compares the mitigation efforts to the true size of the disaster and its impact on wildlife:
John Wathen: "This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done. A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all around it's blow hole."Mr. Wathen asks that concerned parties visit two Gulf funds listed on the video, which is available at this link.
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/28/2010 03:49:00 PM
Labels: BP, Climate Change, Environment, Fauna, Flora, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, History, HURRICANE CREEK KEEPERS, Science, SOUTH WINGS
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FEATURE
Home: the Movie
The film, produced by Luc Besson, was made by French photojournalist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the founder of Altitude Agency, known for its aerial photography, and the international environmental organization: GoodPlanet. Mr. Arthus-Bertrand has given up his rights to the film to enable its free streaming over the Internet. To date, over eight million have viewed it.
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.Embedding is dsiabled; it must be viewed on YouTube.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
Please share.
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/27/2010 05:10:00 PM
Labels: Business, Climate Change Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Environment, Global Warming, Luc Besson, PPR Group
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FEATURE
NASA's Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Satellite Timelapse Video
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has tracked the disaster in the Gulf with two or their satellites, Terra and Aqua. They've put together this timelapse video from earth's orbit:
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/26/2010 08:06:00 PM
Labels: BP, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, NASA, Science
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FEATURE
Oil Gushes Unchecked After Problem With Cap On BP Well
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The Coast Guard says BP has been forced to remove a cap that was containing some of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.A live video feed of twelve cameras on the damaged well is available at this link:
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says an underwater robot bumped into the venting system. That sent gas rising through vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming in the cap. Allen says the cap has been removed and crews are checking to see if crystals have formed before putting it back on.
http://climate.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/live-video-feeds-of-gulf-oil-disaster.html
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/23/2010 10:30:00 AM
Labels: Adm. Thad Allen, BP, Environment, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Science
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FEATURE
Does the $1 Trillion Key to Winning the Afghan War Lie Under the Sand?
A small group of Pentagon and USAID officials and American geologists have discovered vast deposits of untapped mineral substances in Afghanistan, consisting of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and industrial metals such as lithium. The value of these previously unknown deposits is estimated at $1 trillion dollars. Continued...
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/18/2010 08:27:00 PM
Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Lithum, Mining, Politics, SAM SEDAEI, War, World News
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FEATURE
International Findings from EPA Analysis of the American Power Act
So let’s take each of these points in turn.
1. US Action Spurs/Solidifies Action of Other Countries. One of the chief talking points of opponents of US clean energy and climate legislation is the claim that the US taking action would have little impact on global warming. Taking US action in isolation, they claim that reducing US emissions won't make much of a dent in world emissions and future temperature increases.
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/17/2010 11:59:00 PM
Labels: Brazil, China, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Environment, EPA, Global Warming, Jake Schmidt, NRDC, UNFCCC, World News
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FEATURE
The Pelican and Me
These real birds, and the many species that inhabit the gulf area; turtles, dolphins, and the fish they live on, are in military terms collateral damage like the armless child who is mutilated or destroyed by the missile meant for the terrorist. BP – no – not the British people, is a multi-national company driven by greed and ruled by dividends; for them the endangered pelicans are not amazing creatures with which we share our finite world, but really bad PR, a public relations nightmare making viewers of the birds destruction cringe in horror and dismay. Continued...
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/14/2010 10:37:00 AM
Labels: BP, Commentary, Environment, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, PELICAN, Sherman Yellen
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FEATURE
Building Trust in Online Communities
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/13/2010 11:35:00 PM
Labels: Barbara Bray, Change, Education, FUTURE, Living, TEACHING
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Where is Dick Cheney During the Gulf Oil Spill?
one two. However, since the Deepwater Horizon began its slow motion process of turning the Gulf into a dead zone, Mr. Cheney has been remarkably silent.
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/13/2010 07:10:00 PM
Labels: Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Environment, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Halliburton
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FEATURE
Flow rate from BP oil spill many times higher than previously estimated
The federal government has doubled the official estimate of the oil spewing from BP's damaged well head on the Gulf floor to 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day. That is many times the estimate a few weeks ago and exponentially more than the initial estimate calculated by the pictures of the disaster provided via government satellite.
A government panel on Thursday essentially doubled its estimate of how much oil has been spewing from the out-of-control BP well, with the new calculation suggesting that an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days.This dramatic change in estimate came about after it was discovered that BP had high resolution video of the Gulf floor they had chosen neither to release or to inform Congress or the Flow Rate Group of its existence. It is expected, as the newly revealed high resolution video is studied by the Flow Rate Group scientist who've been brought together by the USGS, the estimates will continue to rise. Continued...
A barrel is 42 gallons, so 30,000 barrels would equate to nearly 1.3 million gallons a day. The Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 is estimated to have spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.
Ira Leifer, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a member of the flow-rate group, said the new figures confirmed a suspicion he had developed, based on looking at satellite data, that the rate of flow for the well was increasing even before BP cut the riser pipe.
"The situation is growing worse," Dr. Leifer said.
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/11/2010 03:43:00 AM
Labels: BP, Environment, Fauna, Flora, Flow Rate Group, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Ira Leifer, Live Oil Feed, Pollution, USGS
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FEATURE
White House Releases Graphic of Oil Spill Effort
The White House released this graphic of the efforts in the Gulf. It shows the different resources deployed and the stats (some of them grim and sure to rise, as with wildlife deaths) collected thus far. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
In a related story, an uproar has begun over the White House's announcement that they may allow shallow water drilling in the Gulf after the moratorium to look at permitting and regulation. Continued...
Related: A live feed from all cameras on the ocean floor is available at this link: http://climate.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/live-video-feeds-of-gulf-oil-disaster.html
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/08/2010 04:45:00 AM
Labels: Barack Obama, BP, Environment, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Live Oil Feed, Oil, Politics
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FEATURE
Silver Linings in the Muck
There’s hope, for example, that the spill is proving the folly of trying to extract every last drop of a finite resource by invading ever more difficult and sensitive places. The past safety record of offshore drilling, cited by President Obama when he announced he was opening up more ocean to oil companies, means nothing when those companies are moving into uncharted waters, technically speaking.
As BP has tried each new trick to stop the hemorrhage on the ocean floor, it has made clear these techniques have never been attempted at that depth – a public admission that one of the world’s largest oil companies, using the industry’s most advanced extraction technologies, doesn’t have the experience or tools to drill safely in these new places. Continued...
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/07/2010 03:11:00 PM
Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Becker, Bill McKibben, BP, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming
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FEATURE
Global Surface Temperature Change
We update the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) analysis of global surface temperature change, compare alternative analyses, and address questions about perception and reality of global warming. Satellite-observed nightlights are used to identify measurement stations located in extreme darkness and adjust temperature trends of urban and peri-urban stations for non-climatic factors, verifying that urban effects on analyzed global change are small. Because the GISS analysis combines available sea surface temperature records with meteorological station measurements, we test alternative choices for the ocean data, showing that global temperature change is sensitive to estimated temperature change in polar regions where observations are limited. We suggest use of 12-month (and n×12) running mean temperature to fully remove the annual cycle and improve information content in temperature graphs. We conclude that global temperature continued to rise rapidly in the past decade, despite large year-to-year fluctuations associated with the El Nino-La Nina cycle of tropical ocean temperature. Record high global temperature during the period with instrumental data was reached in 2010.
Summary:
Human-made climate change has become an issue of surpassing importance to humanity, and global warming is the first order manifestation of increasing greenhouse gases that are predicted to drive climate change. Thus it is understandable that analyses of ongoing global temperature change are now subject to increasing scrutiny and criticisms that are different than would occur for a purely scientific problem. Continued...
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/02/2010 04:52:00 AM
Labels: Climate Change, Environment, GISS, Global Warming, James Hansen, NASA
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When Corporations Rule
Formal investigations are underway, but it appears that lax federal oversight and enforcement, combined with corporate corner-cutting and greed, are implicated in both of the energy industry tragedies -- the worst coal mine disaster in 40 years and the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Massey Energy’s mine and British Petroleum’s drilling ship in the Gulf were subject to federal oversight. In both cases, oversight failed.
Some barriers to federal oversight are systemic. Congressional hearings after the Massey disaster, for example, found that mining companies often abuse the appeals process when federal inspectors find safety violations. About 16,000 violations currently are being appealed, representing $195 million in unpaid fines. It takes more than a year to resolve an appeal these days.
Other barriers are cultural, the result of an Administration’s philosophy about overseeing powerful industries. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, corporate lobbyists for the fossil energy industry were appointed to key government policy and regulatory jobs. The most infamous was Philip Cooney, the former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute who used his position in the White House to censor and water down the conclusions of research by federal climate scientists. After a whistleblower revealed Cooney’s misdeeds to the New York Times, Cooney resigned and went to work for ExxonMobil.
To illustrate how much the Bush Administration was in bed with oil companies, however, nothing topped the scandal in the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, the same agency accused now of insufficient oversight in the Gulf oil spill. Continued...
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/02/2010 04:51:00 AM
Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Becker, BP, Business, Climate, Corruption, Environment, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, Massey Mine Disaster, PCAP, Politics
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FEATURE
Indonesia Takes Concrete Steps to Address Deforestation as a Part of Agreement with Norway
“Indonesia stands by its commitment to reduce our emissions by 26 per cent relative to business as usual levels by 2020. This we will do out of our own funds through a set of measures I will be announcing in the near future.” With the help of international partners, we could reduce our emissions by as much as 41 per cent”
Posted by
The Environmentalist
at
6/01/2010 08:19:00 PM
Labels: Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Global Warming, Indonesia, Jake Schmidt, NORWAY, NRDC, World News
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