August 27, 2010
While it seems as if news coverage of the BP Gulf oil spill has slowed to a trickle since the oil giant stopped the massive flow of oil last month, several concerned researchers at Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper recently went deep into the Louisiana wetlands to try and document the negative toll the millions of gallons of un-captured oil has had on the environment and marine wildlife.
Their video documentation, titled Dead Bird Island, may be hard for some to stomach, but serves as an important reminder of how difficult the job of cleaning up will be for months, and likely years to come.
August 8, 2010
According to a report by a University of Delaware scientist currently working in the Arctic, an ice chink four times the size of Manhattan has broken apart from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland. It has been nearly fifty years since a glacier lost this large a portion of its ice.
In a sadly ironic twist, the news comes during the same week that climate change negotiations between wealthy and poor nations seem to have hit a snag, if not all out broken down, in Bonn, Germany. The current talks follow an extremely underwhelming climate change summit in Copenhagen late last year.
As if the nations of the world needed more incentive to change the direction of their current talks, this month the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also confirmed that the past decade was the warmest ever recorded.
August 6, 2010
As much an annual right of summer as the “Taste” or the Air and Water Show, Chicagoans have grown to expect regular closings of the city’s prized beaches due to massive amounts of sewage being intentionally released into Lake Michigan.
John McCarron of the Chicago Tribune has penned an insightful update on how the city of Chicago’s 35-year old, billion dollar water reservoir project continues to siphon away tax dollars, instead of the water it was designed for.
July 15, 2010
For the first time since April, oil has stopped flowing from BP’s ruptured well one mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement by BP comes following installation of a massive, 150,000 pound containment cap custom-built for the well.
Engineers began slowly closing the line this morning while testing the new cap and its ability to contain the pressure and leaking oil. While surely welcome news for thousands of Gulf Coast residents and fisherman who’s livelihoods have been decimated by the largest spill in the region’s history, BP officials stressed that the integrity tests will continue for up to two days. The tests are designed to gauge whether any new leaks appear in other locations.
Still, news of the flow being stopped for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig exploded and sank nearly three months ago has been greeted with cautious optimism.
Today’s successful test represents the best chance yet at temporarily capping the leak until the relief wells currently being drilled permanently contain the rupture. “We’re in very good shape on the relief wells. We’re exactly where we want to be,” BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells tweeted on BP’s website.
July 6, 2010
The United States Coast Guard, along with BP, recently issued a warning to all media in the Gulf that they risk arrest and possible prison time if their cameras get too close to some of the areas hardest hit by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Reporters now risk a felony conviction if they attempt to cover the story within 20 meters of the hundreds of miles of protective boom that are currently in place throughout the region. According to the Coast Guard/BP unified command response team, the measure was put in place following instances of the boom “being vandalized.”
Reserved as the type of mandate you would expect to hear coming out of countries like China, Russia or Venezuela, the announcement is the latest development in a string of strange rules and media-limiting incidents all aimed at making it more difficult for reporters to cover the disaster.
In crude-soaked areas from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle, reporters, producers and photographers have been turned back or challenged by the Coast Guard or local law enforcement officials who observers claim receive part of their income from BP.
The latest rule governing media coverage now threatens to slap a felony conviction on the records of reporters while they attempt to cover the worst oil spill in the history of the Gulf of Mexico.
June 24, 2010
The containment cap was placed back on the leaking well Wednesday evening, following its removal due to an accident with a submarine one mile below the ocean surface. During the day long period without the cap in place, up to 100,000 gallons of oil was likely spewing from the well every hour.
It may take some time to fine tune the system to where it was before the accident. “It’s a setback, and now we will go back into operation and show how this technology can work,” BP’s Bob Dudley told the Associated Press.
Live Video Feed of the BP Oil Leak:
http://tinyurl.com/27za3fb
June 23, 2010
BP removed the containment cap over the damaged well early Wednesday after a robotic submarine hit a vent. While BP attempts to refit the cap, oil may be spilling at higher levels than before today’s accident.
BP officials said that the company’s efforts had captured about one million gallons of oil on Tuesday, one of the largest totals yet in a 24-hour period.
June 17, 2010
On the 59th day of the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the national media spotlight remains heavily focused on the environmental destruction affecting the entire Gulf Coast region. With the livelihoods of thousands of residents permanently threatened, along with the health of coastal wetlands and entire species of marine animals, the effects of the unfolding tragedy will remain with us for years, if not decades.
Ironically lost within the thousands of stories coming out of the Gulf is the marking of an effort aimed at getting more Americans to use less gasoline. In promoting the 5th annual Dump the Pump Day on June 17th, the American Public Transportation Association cites the rising cost of gas as one of the main reasons motorists should ditch their cars in favor of riding buses and trains in their communities.
A tough economic climate easily justifies considering such a move. According to the APTA, the average household spends 18 cents of every dollar on transportation, and 94% of this goes to buying, maintaining, and operating cars, the largest expenditure after housing. A two car household that downsizes to one car can save almost $10,000 a year.
However, when considering the benefits driving our cars less has on our society and on our environment, one doesn’t need to look any further than at the astonishing damage currently being caused to one of our nation’s most important regions. It is America’s massive oil consumption that has helped place the thousands of well heads now in the Gulf.
Any reason aimed at reducing an individual’s environmental footprint should be commended. The latest environmental carnage brought on by our demand for oil should make Americans take a closer look at ways to reduce the amount of oil and gas they use, including encouraging and using public transportation more often.
June 5, 2010
Calling the Gulf oil spill “brutally unfair” President Obama today promised to stand with the people of the Gulf Coast “until they are made whole.”
In his weekly radio address recorded from Grand Isle, Louisiana, Obama said he visited residents and business owners who “are losing hope” that they’ll ever be able to return to the way of life they had on the barrier island before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast. He said the spill has not just damaged livelihoods but “upended whole communities.” The massive amount of oil now floating in the water has forced the suspension of fishing in large parts of the Gulf.
On the 47th day of the spill, Obama said he has authorized the deployment of 17,000 national guard troops to aid in what has become the largest response to an environmental disaster of its kind in the history of the country.
“We’ve also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims and we will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf Coast,” he said.
The federal government has sent BP a preliminary bill of $69 million dollars to pay back some of the costs for the clean-up. Obama has appointed a bi-partisan commission to look into the causes of the disaster and promised to change any laws that failed in preventing the largest oil spill in United States history.
Meanwhile, BP has been working for the past several days to place a containment cap on top of the failed blow-out preventer but current estimates of captured oil represent only a fraction of the amount flowing from the ruptured pipe. According to a company statement, “it is not possible at this stage to estimate how much oil and gas will be captured by this containment system.”
