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Archive for May 27th, 2010
Relentless heatwave sweeps across hills too
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Times of India: The scotching heatwave sweeping across vast swathes of north and central India has taken into its grip the cooler areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, with weathermen ruling out any respite in the days ahead. Shimla, the 'Queen of Hills,' sweated it out with the day temperature at 31.1 degree C. The state Met office held out little hope, saying the city may surpass the highest ever temperature for the month of May "" 31.7 degrees C recorded on May 20, 2004. In Rajasthan, ...
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Gulf Oil Spill Bigger Than Exxon Valdez; Obama: It’s My Job
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Investor's Business Daily: President Obama insisted Thursday his administration is calling the shots on the Gulf oil spill as it remained unclear if BP's (NYSE:BP - News) latest bid to plug the huge leak would work. "I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down," Obama declared at a news conference in the East Room of the White House. On Monday, the federal official in charge of dealing with the crisis, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, declined to broadly say the ...
Hurricane plus oil equals more problems
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
CNN: A predicted busy hurricane season this summer is on a collision course with an unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the results are anyone's guess, weather experts say. "The problem is that this is a man-made experiment we wish we hadn't made," said Jenni Evans, a professor of meteorology at Penn State University. Scientists on Thursday said as much as 19,000 barrels of oil have been spewing every day from the BP well in the Gulf, making it the largest oil spill ...
Plan for barrier islands against oil spill approved
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: The US government gave the go-ahead Thursday for an ambitious plan to construct several barrier islands to reduce the amount of oil from the giant Gulf of Mexico spill from coming ashore. Coast Guard commandant Thad Allen told reporters that he gave approval for the trial construction of a section of prototype barriers that, if they appear to work, could become part of a larger construction separating the Louisiana coastland from the widening oil slick. "The state of Louisiana ...
Gulf leak eclipses Exxon Valdez as worst US spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Associated Press: As BP labored for a second day Thursday to choke off the leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, dire new government estimates showed the disaster has easily eclipsed the Exxon Valdez as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. After an 18-hour delay to assess its efforts and bring in more materials, BP resumed pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater. Officials said it could be late Friday or the weekend before the company knows if the procedure known ...
Obama press conference: ‘anger and frustration’ over oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: President Obama rejected criticism Friday of his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, saying, "This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred." It has been more than five weeks since an oil rig leased by BP exploded and sank in the Gulf, and only now does there appear to be progress in plugging the massive leak. Speaking in a more than hour-long press conference in the East Room, Mr. Obama defended his administration's performance and said he was "angry ...
Arresting images of oil spill help drive story
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Associated Press: For many following the news, the Gulf oil spill was an important but abstract story -- until live video became widely available showing plumes of oil gushing into the water at a furious pace, hour after hour and day after day. The undersea images were first seen publicly late last week and television news networks have used it more as this week goes on. CNN and MSNBC executives debated internally whether to keep the feed constantly on the corner of their screens, much like they do ...
Oil Spill Poses Risk to Gulf Power Plants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Guardian: Even before the big Deepwater Horizon spill, an oil boom stretched across the intake canal at the Anclote power plant near Holiday, Florida, just east of the Gulf of Mexico. It's there to keep the oil in, should there be any accidental spill at the oil-fired electricity station. But now it's part of Progress Energy's defense plan for keeping the oil out. The Anclote facility, which provides electricity to about 600,000 households north of Tampa-St. Petersburg, is just one of at least ...
Rats damage huge swathes of China’s grasslands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: A plague of rats has gobbled up vast swathes of grasslands in north China, sparking a mass extermination drive amid concerns for herders, state media said Thursday. The proliferation has left holes across 65,000 kilometres (25,000 square miles) of Inner Mongolia, making it difficult for herders to ride their horses, whose hooves can get caught up, the official People's Daily newspaper said. Authorities have launched a massive extermination drive, with more than 1,000 tonnes of ...
Reacting to climate change: The reef protector
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on May 27th, 2010
China Daily: The water is calm; there is just a slight wind blowing. A group of fishermen set off to the coral reef area in a fishing ground in Palawan Province in the Philippines. Their sunburned skin and callous hands show years of experience at sea. The number of fish catch in this Bay has declined over the years due to overfishing and shrinking spawning areas such as mangroves and coral reefs. Climate change is hitting coral reefs hard, turning a once vibrant diving and fishing ...