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Archive for May, 2010
U.S. to probe spill, containment efforts in high gear
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Reuters: Energy giant BP said on Tuesday it was now able to siphon off about 40 percent of the oil gushing from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico but has not been able to stop the leak, as President Barack Obama is to create a commission to probe the spill. BP's progress in capturing more oil through a tube inserted by undersea robots into the mangled "riser" pipe of the well came amid new evidence that a powerful sea current in the Gulf was pushing the crude closer to the U.S. Eastern ...
Florida tar balls fuel fears of oil slick spread
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Reuters: Fears that the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill was spreading through ocean currents flared on Tuesday after tarballs were found on Florida's Key West, while energy giant BP Plc worked to capture more of the leaking crude. Tests were trying to confirm whether the oil balls found on the well-known island resort on Monday came from BP's ruptured undersea well. Florida was bracing for potential impact from the spill on the state's $60 billion-a-year tourism industry. "We believe it ...
Oil spill threatens way of life on Louisiana bayou
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Reuters: For part-time fisherman and deckhand Randy Arceneaux, this season was supposed to mark his first chance to trawl for shrimp with his very own boat. And this was supposed to be the year he took his son out with him on the marshy backwaters of southern Louisiana's bayou country for the first time, to begin teaching the boy how to fish, catch crabs, hunt small game. But a deep-sea wellhead owned by energy giant BP ruptured just weeks before the shrimp season was due to open, ...
U.S. says offshore drilling key despite oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Reuters: The U.S. Interior Secretary said on Tuesday offshore drilling was vital to meet the country's energy needs just as lawmakers pushed forward with efforts to make big oil companies fully liable for oil spills. In Capitol Hill hearings four weeks after a drilling rig exploded and caused a massive oil spill deep in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said offshore drilling was still a necessary part of U.S. energy policy. Salazar said about 30 percent of U.S. oil ...
Experts: India becoming dumping ground for e-waste
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Associated Press: An environmental group warned Tuesday that India was fast becoming a dumping ground for electronic waste and asked the government to frame stringent laws to control illegal trade and its recycling. India generates up to 385,800 tons of electronic waste every year -- equal to 110 million laptops_ and imports another 55,100 tons, mostly illegally under the pretext of metal scrap and secondhand electrical appliances, said the Center For Science And Environment. Private companies ...
Wildlife death toll from oil spill still uncertain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2010
Associated Press: Federal officials say 189 dead sea turtles, birds and other animals have been found along Gulf of Mexico coastlines since a massive oil spill started last month. The total includes 154 sea turtles, primarily the endangered Kemp's ridley variety, plus 12 dolphins and 23 migratory birds. But in a phone news conference Tuesday, officials said they don't know how many were killed by oil or chemical dispersants. Barbara Schroeder of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...
This is no forecast. Climate change is here and now
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on May 18th, 2010
Independent (UK): You can look at the warming of Lake Tanganyika as a geographical and scientific curiosity; but you're probably wiser to look at it with a considerable sense of foreboding. Africa may well be the region where global warming hits hardest in the coming century, a possibility clearly spelled out in the last report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2007. The "multiple stresses" include increased water shortages, severely compromised ...
‘Climate change’ danger to salmon and trout in Wye
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 17th, 2010
BBC: Climate change could be putting salmon and trout at risk, according to work by Cardiff University scientists. Researchers studied young salmon and trout populations in the River Wye and its tributaries between 1985 and 2004. The study found salmon numbers fell by 50% and trout by 67%, with the fish hardest hit following hot, dry summers. However, the Wye and Usk Foundation said since the research, wet summers had brought improvements to young salmon and trout ...
Productivity key to reducing emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 17th, 2010
Otago Daily Times: Improved productivity could reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions from sheep by up to 12%, according to the author of a study which calculated the carbon footprint of sheep. Stewart Ledgard, a principal AgResearch scientist, said a higher lambing percentage and faster lamb growth rates offered the best options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from sheep, as opposed to reducing fossil fuel use, which was low on sheep farms compared with other intensive agricultural ...
Lloyd’s of London warns of ‘perfect storm’ threat to insurance market
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 17th, 2010
Guardian: The head of the Lloyd's of London insurance market warns today that one more major disaster could plunge the insurance industry into the red this year. Richard Ward will tell a gathering of insurance chiefs that the industry is facing the toughest year he can remember, the Guardian has learned. "It isn't overstating the situation to say that the insurance industry is facing a potential perfect storm this year," Ward says in his keynote speech at the Insurance Day London ...
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