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Archive for August 1st, 2010
Earth’s climate future may be etched in Greenland bedrock
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Scientists hit Greenland bedrock this week after five years of drilling through 2.5 kilometres (1.6-mile) of solid ice, a 14-nation consortium announced Wednesday. Ice core samples from Eemian period 130,000 to 115,000 years ago - the last time Earth's climate was a few degrees warmer than today - could help forecast the impacts of current global warming, the researchers said. "Our findings will increase our knowledge on the climate system and increase our ability to predict ...
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Pakistan floods leave 1,100 dead
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Guardian
Russian Patriarch prays for rain as wildfires rage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Reuters: Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill asked Russians to pray for rain on Sunday as wildfires raged across the European parts of the vast country, sweltering since June in an unprecedented heat wave. The hottest weather since records began 130 years ago has withered crops and pushed thousands of farmers to the verge of bankruptcy. The Emergencies Ministry said that as of Sunday morning, 774 fires, including 369 that started since Saturday, were raging in an area totaling about ...
New questions arise on dispersant use in oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Associated Press: BP inched closer to permanently sealing the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico as environmental officials defended themselves Sunday against assertions they allowed the oil giant liberal use of chemical dispersants whose threat to sea life remains unknown. The Coast Guard routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of gallons of chemicals per day to break up the oil, despite a federal directive to use the dispersant rarely, congressional investigators said. Rep. ...
United States: Oil spill pipeline won’t reopen this week: Enbridge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Reuters: Enbridge Inc's chief executive said on Sunday the company would not restart its ruptured pipeline in Michigan this week as it continues to clean up 800,000 gallons of oil spilled in and around the Kalamazoo River. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said there was "significant improvement" at the spill site after almost a week and no signs of new contamination. Officials also gave an update on the cleanup efforts, saying 39,000 barrels -- about 1.6 million ...
Despite Rule, BP Used Dispersant, Panel Finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
New York Times: The Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Environmental Protection Agency's directive on May 26 that they should be used only rarely, according to documents and correspondence analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee. In some cases, the Coast Guard approved BP's requests even though the company did not set an upper limit on the amount of dispersant it planned to ...
Congress questions BP’s use of dispersants in Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
Reuters: BP's use of dispersant chemicals on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is sparking questions from a U.S. congressional panel, which says the company used more of these compounds than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had directed. But the EPA indicated in a statement on Sunday that the difference between what the agency directed and what BP and the U.S. Coast Guard achieved is slight -- the difference between a 75 percent cut in dispersant use and a 72 percent cut. The ...
There’s Less To See, But Oil Still Haunts The Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2010
National Public Radio: Now that the oil stopped spewing from sea floor, we see less of it on the Gulf's surface. It's dispersed. But what does that mean and how does that affect life in the Gulf? Host Liane Hansen talks with oceanography professor Ian MacDonald and Richard Snyder, director of the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation, about their research.