Archive for May, 2010

Duke restores hydro-power at Alnwick Castle

Journal: A HYDRO-ELECTRIC system which was installed more than a century ago to help keep the lights on in an ancient North East castle has been brought back to life to produce modern day green energy. When it was first switched on in 1889, the water-powered system provided enough electricity to light 100 lamps in Alnwick Castle, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Northumberland. It was abandoned when the castle was connected to mains electricity in 1948, but has now been restored, ...

Interest groups use BP spill for TV ad lobbying

Reuters: A handful of advocacy groups said on Friday they would spend $2.1 million on television ads targeting the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as part of a bid to advance climate legislation in the Senate. The Natural Resources Defense Council, VoteVets.org, Americans United for Change and American Family Voices are mounting separate TV campaigns during Congress' weeklong Memorial Day recess to press Senate Democrats and Republicans to get behind the climate bill introduced this ...

South Africa: Developing a Pristine River: The Okavango Basin

Inter Press Service: The welcome end to wars in the upper reaches of the Okavango River brings new pressures for development and the risk of unwelcome changes to the health of the river. A joint commission to manage the basin is developing tools to avoid this. The Okavango is best known for the rich wetlands of its inland delta in Botswana's Kalahari desert. The delta is protected as a valuable site for conservation and tourism in Botswana, but the same is not true for the river as it rises in Angola and ...

Save Your Logo: Lacoste joins bid to help endangered crocodile

Agence France-Presse: Michel Lacoste proudly brandished a small relic of ancient times: an endangered baby Orinoco crocodile whose survival could hinge on a new marketing operation. The textile entrepreneur and heir of the French clothing giant known for its iconic crocodile logo traveled to Colombia to meet the rare reptile raised in captivity. The eponymous crocodile, which traces its origins to the drainage basin of the Orinoco River that flows through Colombia and Venezuela, is a fearful ...

Obama Puts Boots On The Ground In Gulf States

National Public Radio: President Barack Obama visited Louisiana Friday for a first-hand look at the oil-soaked Gulf of Mexico waters. He toured the command center and met with Gulf state governors and a number of local officials.

Scientists Build Case for Undersea Plumes

New York Times: The ocean caught fire. As it blazed, a dense column of black smoke rose toward the sky. Oily water, the color of strong tea, slopped up the sides of boats. The breeze carried an acrid smell, like gasoline fumes. Aboard the research vessel F.G. Walton Smith, anxiety was growing. Five scientists and six students had come to study the oil leak and its effect on the sea. They brought flasks and gloves, refrigerators and freezers, tiny tools and huge cylinders of ...

BP Says ‘Top Kill’ Method To Plug Oil Leak Has Failed

Associated Press: BP admitted defeat Saturday in its attempt to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by pumping mud into a busted well, but said it's readying yet another approach to fight the spill after a series of failures. BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the "top kill" had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but most of it escaped out of the ...

And Not a Drop to Drink for Palestinians

Inter Press Service: A new desalination facility has come up here on Israel's Mediterranean seashore, to soothe Israel's chronic fresh water shortage. An elaborate network of pipes beneath the beach reaches westward far into the sea. Eastward, it links up with the national water system. Just inaugurated, the plant, one of the largest in the world, turns seawater into drinking water. "The new plant definitely makes our slender reserves more secure," says Abraham Tenne, head of the Desalination ...

Media claim access to spill site has been limited

Associated Press: Media organizations say they are being allowed only limited access to areas impacted by the Gulf oil spill through restrictions on plane and boat traffic that are making it difficult to document the worst spill in U.S. history. The Associated Press, CBS and others have reported coverage problems because of the restrictions, which officials say are needed to protect wildlife and ensure safe air traffic. Ted Jackson, a photographer for The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, ...

BP’s top kill effort fails to plug Gulf oil leak

Associated Press: BP admitted defeat Saturday in its attempt to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by pumping mud into a busted well, but is readying yet another approach after repeated failures to stop the crude that's fouling marshland and beaches. BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the "top kill" had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but most of it ...