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Archive for July, 2010
A Spill Into the Psyche, and a Respite
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
New York Times: Out on the Gulf of Mexico, where the surface has come to resemble a floating intensive-care unit – all those hulking ships laden with specialized machinery, bobbing in wait for the next emergency – something good finally happened last week. If only provisionally, oil stopped spewing into the sea. As BP ended its string of futility and affixed a cap to the wellhead, the news comforted a battered American psyche, a counterpoint to a ceaseless narrative of plans going spectacularly ...
United States: Museum exhibit explores impact of shifting climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Chicago Daily Herald: The "Climate Change" exhibition features a collage portraying technological advances since the Industrial Revolution. An illuminated LED line runs through this timeline, portraying the corresponding rise in CO2 in the earth's atmosphere. What: "Climate Change" Where: Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, (312) 922-9410, fieldmuseum.org Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Nov. 28 Admission: $22, $18 seniors and students, $15 kids ages ...
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Comments Off on United States: Museum exhibit explores impact of shifting climateHimalayan ice shrivels in global warming: exhibit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: When British climbing legend George Mallory took his iconic 1921 photo of Mount Everest's north face, the mighty, river-shaped glacier snaking under his feet seemed eternal. Decades of pollution and global warming later, modern mountaineer David Breashears has reshot the picture at the same spot - and proved an alarming reality. Instead of the powerful, white, S-shaped sweep of ice witnessed by Mallory before he died on his conquest of Everest, the Main Rongbuk Glacier today is ...
The forgotten footprint: Nitrogen
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Times Argus: You may know your carbon footprint, but do you know your nitrogen footprint? Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Nitrogen has been pegged as an over-looked cause of climate change and as a culprit in some of the most insidious forms of environmental pollution. "Nitrogen's role as a greenhouse gas is mostly as nitrous oxide," said Jeff Merrell, environmental analyst for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resource's Air Pollution Control Division. Nitrous oxide ...
Our beaker is starting to boil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
New York Times: David Breashears is one of America's legendary mountain climbers, a man who has climbed Mount Everest five times and led the Everest IMAX film team in 1996. These days, Mr. Breashears is still climbing the Himalayas, but he is lugging more than pitons and ice axes. He's also carrying special cameras to document stunning declines in glaciers on the roof of the world. Mr. Breashears first reached the top of Everest in 1983, and in many subsequent trips to the region he noticed ...
BP says “hopeful” well can stay shut indefinitely
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Reuters: BP Plc is "hopeful" that its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico can remain sealed until a pair of relief wells permanently stop the flow, a company executive said on Sunday. BP is more than two days into a pressure test on its crippled Macondo well, which had been described as a temporary measure to stop oil from gushing into the Gulf while engineers study pressure within the well. Now, BP officials say they want to keep the well sealed in until they finish a pair of relief ...
Beyond a Gulf Cleanup
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
New York Times: In Sunday`s paper, my colleague Justin Gillis and I present a science-based analysis of the environmental future of the Gulf Coast. It`s fairly optimistic, considering how badly polluted the coastline appears today in many places. In the course of our reporting, we were struck by how adept nature can be in healing itself from exposure to a "naturally occurring" substance (meaning oil, even if its spread results from human error) as opposed to say, PCB`s. Of course, nature`s ...
Oil Well Capped, But For How Long?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
National Public Radio: Government officials are continuing to monitor the cap on BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf, but it's not clear whether the well is sealed for good. Host Liane Hansen talks with NPR's Richard Harris about the latest developments.
BP, feds clash over reopening capped Gulf oil well
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Associated Press: BP and the Obama administration offered significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts spewing again. Pilloried for nearly three months as it tried repeatedly to stop the leak, BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and wants to keep it that way. The government's plan, however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which ...
Experts fear long oil effect on marine life, food chain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Scientists studying the massive BP oil spill fear a decades-long, "cascading" effect on marine life that could lead to a shift in the overall biological network in the Gulf of Mexico. With some 400 species estimated to be at risk -- from the tiniest oil-eating bacteria to shrimp and crabs, endangered sea turtles, brown pelicans and sperm whales -- experts say the impact of oil and chemical dispersants on the food chain has already begun, and could grow exponentially. "A major ...
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