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Archive for May, 2010
Obama names chairmen of Gulf oil spill commission
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2010
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency chief on the job during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989 and a former Florida senator will lead the presidential commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico disaster. President Barack Obama on Saturday announced the appointments of William K. Reilly, EPA administrator under Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Bob Graham, a Democrat who also was Florida governor, as the panel's heads. Obama intends to name five others to the ...
Obama unveils commission to probe oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2010
Reuters: US President Barack Obama said today that offshore oil drilling could only go forward if there were assurances that a disaster like the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill would not happen again. As Obama officially unveiled a commission to investigate the accident, he issued a stern message that while keeping pressure on firms involved in the still-uncapped spill - BP, Halliburton and Transocean Ltd - he would also hold Washington accountable for mending its ways. With ...
Anger, frustration over oil mounts along the Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2010
Associated Press: Anger grew along the Gulf Coast as an ooze of oil washed into delicate coastal wetlands in Lousiana, with residents questioning the federal government and others wondering how to clean up the monthlong mess that worsens with each day. "It's difficult to clean up when you haven't stopped the source," said Chris Roberts, a councilman for Jefferson Parish, which stretches from the New Orleans metropolitan area to the coast. "You can scrape it off the beach but it's coming right ...
Oil Threatens Brown Pelican Off Of Louisiana Coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2010
National Public Radio: Oil started washing ashore in Louisiana this week, about 50 miles northwest from where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank a month ago. In a part of Plaquemines Parish in an estuary called Pass a Loutre, the normally green reeds and marsh are brown and dead, coated with oil. In a part of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana in an estuary called Pass a Loutre, the normally green reeds and marsh are brown and dead, coated with oil. "It's so sad when you look around ...
Africa revives hardy, local rice vs Asian cousin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2010
Reuters: Scientists are reviving long-ignored African rice to cut dependence on Asian varieties that may be less able to withstand the impact of climate change on the poorest continent, a report said on Friday. Historically, scientists have focused on breeding useful traits such as disease resistance from African rice into Asian rice. Now the focus is on the reverse -- using African rice as the basic crop and improving it with Asian genes. "African rice was initially ignored by mainstream ...
BP oil spill reaches delicate wetlands of Louisiana
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2010
Guardian: Wildlife under serious threat as thick oil reaches coastal sanctuaries in Louisiana. Link to this video Thick sheets of crude oil spread through the delicate wetlands of Louisiana today, as the BP oil spill continued to threaten the American coastline. Local reports described heavy sheets of oil the consistency of latex paint clogging the marshes in the Mississippi delta that provide a haven for migratory birds, and buffer the shore from Gulf hurricanes. "This is what ...
BP swamped by criticism, spilled oil keeps coming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2010
Reuters: Anger, skepticism and accusations of lying washed over energy giant BP Plc on Friday as it desperately pursued efforts to contain a month-old seabed well leak billowing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. lawmakers and scientists have accused BP of trying to conceal what many believe is already the worst U.S. oil spill, eclipsing the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska. It represents a potentially catastrophic environmental and economic disaster for the U.S. Gulf ...
Kenya: Fishing restrictions bring better catches, says study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2010
SciDev.Net: Closing fishing areas and regulating the use of fishing gear can result in more profitable catches that boost fishermen's incomes, according to a study. The conclusion has emerged from a long-term investigation in Kenya on the effects of fishery closures on fishermen's profits. The study, published today in Conservation Biology, used data on 27,000 fish caught in three locations off the Kenyan coast over a period of 12 years. One location was next to a closed fishing area, one ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Kenya: Fishing restrictions bring better catches, says studyRELEASE: Greenpeace Partners with Industry Logging Canadian Boreal Forests
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on May 21st, 2010
Along with ForestEthics and other foundation-dependent primary forest logging apologists, Greenpeace negotiates weak agreement that legitimizes continued old growth forest logging in exchange for vague promises of possible future protections. Old forest greenwashing must end.
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
(Canada) - In what they gratuitously herald as the 'world's largest conservation agreement', twenty Canadian forestry companies and nine environmental organizations including Greenpeace have announced an agreement that will temporarily suspend for three years any new logging in 29 million hectares of Canadian boreal forest [search] about the size of Montana to plan for possible protections of woodland caribou [search]. In return the nine environmental groups have vowed to stop protesting the companies involved (listed below), including ending their 'Do Not Buy' campaigns.
More troubling, the agreement provides much needed legitimacy to timber and pulp industry efforts to log much, if not all, of the remaining 43 million hectares of Canadas old growth Boreal forests, and ultimately much of the caribou habitat after the moratorium lapses. The agreement uses fancy, meaningless worlds like ecosystem-based and sustainable forest management to describe first time industrial logging of primary forests for toilet paper and ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on RELEASE: Greenpeace Partners with Industry Logging Canadian Boreal ForestsSyrupy oil washes into La. marshes for first time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2010
Associated Press: The spectacle many had feared for a month finally began unfolding as gooey, rust-colored oil washed into the marshes at the mouth of the Mississippi for the first time, stoking public anger and frustration with both BP and the government. The sense of gloom deepened as BP conceded what some scientists have been saying for weeks: that the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is bigger than the company previously estimated. Up to now, only tar balls and a sheen of oil had ...