RSS Feed
Archive for August 25th, 2010
Federal Investigators Probe Gulf Blowout
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
National Public Radio: Executives and workers from BP, Transocean and Halliburton are giving testimony in Houston this week about the April 20th blowout of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Some witnesses have offered different accounts about what happened and who is to blame.
Posted in 
New bacteria degrades oil faster, in deep, cold water: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
AFP: A new species of bacteria found in the Gulf of Mexico degrades oil faster at deeper and colder depths than expected, scientists said Tuesday in a study that could explain how the BP oil spill has mostly disappeared. The bacteria not only speeds up the bio-degradation of crude oil, but does it without depleting vital oxygen levels in the water, said the scientists who analyzed in May a plume of oil at a depth of 1,000-1,200 meters (3,600-4,000 feet), extending 16 kilometers (10 miles) ...
Time to blame climate change for extreme weather?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
New Scientist: IT IS time to start asking the hard questions. Countless people in flood-stricken Pakistan have lost families and livelihoods. Who can they hold responsible and turn to for reparations? Less than a decade ago, these questions would have been dismissed outright. "Many scientists at the time said that you can never blame an individual weather event on climate change," says Myles Allen of the University of Oxford. But a small meeting of scientists in Colorado last week - organised by the ...
GM salmon may go on sale in US after public consultation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
Guardian: US authorities today began the process to approve the first GM animal for human consumption. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a 60-day period of consultation and public meetings over whether to permit a GM strain of salmon to be eaten by humans, even though it has been called a "frankenfish" by critics. The approval process could take less than a year, and if it gets the green light the fish could be on the market in 18 months. Environmentalists and scientists ...
France drains lake under glacier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
BBC: French engineers are set to drain a lake that has formed under a glacier on Mont Blanc, and threatens to flood the St Gervais valley. The lake, which is said to contain 65,000 cubic metres (2.3m cubic ft) of water, was discovered last month during routine checks. The engineers plan to dig a hole into the ice and pump the water away. In 1892, water from an underground lake flooded the Saint Gervais valley, killing 175 people. The valley beneath Mont Blanc is a ...
US mounts global push for shale gas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 25th, 2010
AFP: The United States on Tuesday offered to help major economies such as China and India develop shale gas, a rapidly growing sector in North America which US officials bill as a clean alternative. Twenty nations held two days of talks in Washington in first-of-a-kind shale gas talks initiated by the United States, where some forecast that shale -- a miniscule presence a decade ago -- could dominate the gas market by 2030. Shale gas comes from deep reserves that were thought ...