California Eye » Environment

Oil hits Alabama’s Mobile Bay

Featheriver — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:30:00 +0000

Crews begin installing a protective boom across the mouth of Mobile Bay in Alabama May 11, 2010. Oil workers, volunteers and the military have been battling to shut off a gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and stop the huge spreading slick from reaching major ports, tourist beaches, wildlife refuges and fishing grounds. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Crews will aim to capture oil “moving into waters off eastern Alabama and the western tip of the Florida Panhandle, as well as some large patches of sheen moving onto the west Florida shelf and southward to Cuban waters,” the advisory said. [MSNBC]

Drill, Baby, Drill

Featheriver — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:14:40 +0000

Photo: A view of the oil slick from space by NASA on May 24, 2010.

The Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill is the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. It is an oil gusher from the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico that started April 20, 2010 about 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast in the Macondo Prospect oil field.

The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others. Ninety-eight workers survived.

The gusher originates 5,000 feet below the ocean surface. British Petroleum estimates over 5,000 barrels to 100,000 barrels of crude oil is being infused into the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally an unknown amount of natural gas is in the mixture.

The oil slick covers 2,500 square miles. Immense underwater plumes of oil, not visible, lie below the water’s surface.

From 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil continue to flow into the gulf per day. As of May 27 it is estimated between 440,000 and 700,000 barrels as of that date have poured into the gulf.

It is predicted the oil will be picked up by the Gulf Stream and carried around Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States.

How long will the oil spill last?

Nobody knows. Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia has said it could take the ecosystem years, possibly decades, to recover from the infusion of oil and gas. CNN reports that BP is not expected to contain the spill until August, if then.

The fishing industry along the gulf has been closed down. Losses from tourism have been estimated at $3 billion. Five corporations connected to the spill have lost $21 billion in market capitalization since the explosion.

BP argued against new, stricter safety rules proposed last September by Minerals Management Service saying additional regulation of the oil industry was unnecessary; that the voluntary system of safety procedures was adequate, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hurricanes

The hurricane season officially started June 2 causing the worry that “a hurricane might turn the millions of gallons of floating crude into a crashing back surf,” according to the Associated Press. It is feared that the combination of damaging winds and large waves will push the oil deeper into the Louisiana estuaries and wetlands leaving miles of debris-littered coastline. The furthering damage to the coast line will weaken as future tropical storms and hurricanes arrive in the years ahead.

Regulate, Baby, Regulate

Over the years the federal government has been deregulating corporate industry. You’ve heard the arguments about big government’s intrusion into private enterprise.

Around 80 “oil spills” have occurred across the globe since 1937, according to Wikipedia. The most recent occurred in the Singapore Strait resulting from a collision of two marine vessels.

We Must Get Off Oil

T. Boone Pickens says the United States today imports 65% of the oil we use. That is up from 24% in 1970. “Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.” That’s 25% of the world’s oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world’s population. America imports 12 million barrels a day, and Saudi Arabia only produces 9 million a day.

Pickens adds, “In additional to putting our security in the hands of potentially unfriendly and unstable foreign nations, we spent $475 billion on foreign oil in 2008 alone. That’s money taken out of our economy and sent to foreign nations, and it will continue to drain the life from our economy for as long as we fail to stop the bleeding.”

Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf

Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf

Featheriver — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:29:33 +0000

Photo credit: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar visited a wildlife treatment center in Louisiana on Saturday. Jim Wilson, The New York Times.

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given. [New York Times]

Bad news.

Nevada Test Site Radioactive Groundwater

Featheriver — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:49:38 +0000

Dann Weeks wrote an informative article last week in the Pahrump Mirror about radioactive groundwater making its way from the Nevada Test Site toward Beatty. Tests showed the groundwater contains radioactive contamination.

Next time you fill your glass with water from your tap you may want to carry it into a dark closet to see if it glows. The radioactive ingredient is Tritium. What is Tritium? Well it is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

That sounds like using the contaminated water for your shower, to brush your teeth, or shampoo your hair might be risky since it is absorbed through your skin.

According to the Argonne National Laboratory, EVS “Tritium is used as a component in nuclear weapons to boost the yield of both fission and thermonuclear (or fusion) warheads. Tritium is also used as a tracer in biological and environmental studies, and as an agent in luminous paints such as those used to make building exit signs, airport runway lights, and watch dials.”

“Tritium can be taken into the body by drinking water, eating food, or breathing air. It can also be taken in through the skin. Nearly all (up to 99%) inhaled tritium oxide can be taken into the body from the lungs, and circulating blood then distributes it to all tissues. Ingested tritium oxide is also almost completely absorbed, moving quickly from the gastrointestinal tract to the bloodstream. Within minutes it is found in varying concentrations in body fluids, organs, and other tissues. Skin absorption of airborne tritium oxide can also be a significant route of uptake, especially for exposure to high concentrations of tritiated water vapor, as could occur under conditions of high humidity during hot weather, because of the normal movement of water through the skin. For someone immersed in a cloud of airborne tritium oxide (HTO), the uptake by absorption through the skin would be about half that associated with inhalation. No matter how it is taken into the body, tritium is uniformly distributed through all biological fluids within one to two hours. Tritium is eliminated from the body with a biological half-life of 10 days, the same as for water. During the time it is in the body, a small fraction of the tritium is incorporated into easily exchanged hydrogen sites in organic molecules.”

“Tritium poses a health hazard only if it is taken into the body, because tritium decays by emitting a low-energy beta particle with no gamma radiation. This beta particle cannot penetrate deeply into tissue or travel far in air. The most likely form of uptake is as tritium oxide (or tritiated water), as the uptake of tritium gas is typically very low (less than 1%). Tritiated water behaves the same as ordinary water, both in the environment and in the human body. Hence, a significant fraction of the inhaled and ingested tritium is directly absorbed into the bloodstream. The health hazard of tritium is associated with cell damage caused by the ionizing radiation that results from radioactive decay, with the potential for subsequent cancer induction.”

“Lifetime cancer mortality risk coefficients have been calculated for nearly all radionuclides, including tritium.”

Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit organization, issued a report over the past weekend of their analysis of nearly 20 million drinking water tests conducted by water suppliers nationwide between 2004 and 2009 revealed hundreds of pollutants in U.S. tap water. For most, the government has set no safety-based legal limits. Many other contaminants were found in drinking water at concentrations above government-issued advisory health guidelines. They found Las Vegas, NV (Las Vegas Valley Water District) with many pollutants at levels exceeding government health guidelines.

Wonder how communities in Nye County came out in the study? You can find out on the EWG website by typing in your zip code on their Drinking Water Quality Report.

You can locate hyperlinks to the sources for the above on the Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals blog. I’m thirsty and will end this here and go get a drink of water.

World’s glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate

Featheriver — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:51:36 +0000

Glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors. [CNN]

These changes are taking place in Washington State and Alaska in three different climate regimes,” said Edward Josberger, the lead researcher on the study with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington. “So we feel it’s definitely something going on, probably on a global scale, and of course, if you look at other such measurements around the world and put it all together, yes, glaciers are retreating and retreating rapidly.”

Your chance to support a Clean Energy Plan

Featheriver — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:02:08 +0000

Show your support for a Clean Energy Plan

Let our elected officials know we need green jobs.

Host: Nevada State Democratic Party

Type: Meetings – Informational Meeting

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Time: 8:30am – 10:00am

Location: Steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus

Street: UNLV campus at Tropicana and Swenson

City/Town: Las Vegas, NV

View Map

Email: kirsten@nvgreenvote.org

Description

Friends,

Last year, Americans voted overwhelmingly for change, including an energy policy for the 21st Century.

Members of Congress are working to jumpstart our economy and create new, green jobs in Nevada by passing a historic Clean Energy Plan. Unfortunately, big oil and gas companies are using scare tactics to stall this work and are organizing a protest Monday against any sensible reform to our nation’s outdated energy policy.

PLEASE JOIN US — Monday, August 10, at 8:30 a.m. on the steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus — to let our elected officials know we need green jobs and a Clean Energy Plan now! It’s important that we show our support for a Clean Energy Plan.

Join other Nevadans to send a public “thank you” to Sen. Harry Reid for the work he is doing to support a Clean Energy Plan in Congress and call on other senators to vote in favor of jobs that can’t be exported overseas. Sen. Reid recognizes that we must harness Nevada’s vast solar, wind and geothermal energy potential to stabilize our energy costs and create much-needed jobs!

Free parking is available in the Cox Pavilion parking lot on the UNLV campus at Swenson and Tropicana. For more information, please go to www.rebuildnevada.org. To RSVP, please email kirsten@nvgreenvote.org.

Anyone think that perhaps the Nye County Democratic Party ought to hold a Rally in Pahrump? After all Nye County is a perfect spot for “green jobs” rooted in alternative energy sources of wind, solar and geothermic. Why not ask your Nye County Democratic Central Committee to put on a rally here in Pahrump.

National Clean Energy Summit 2.0

Featheriver — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:29:03 +0000

Jobs and the New Economy

Host: U.S. Senator Harry Reid, UNLV, and Center for American Progress Action Fund

Type: Meetings – Convention

Network: Global

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Time: 10:00am – 6:00pm

Location: UNLV – Cox Pavilion

Street: 4505 S. Maryland Parkway (corner of Tropicana Ave. & Swenson Ave.)

City/Town: Las Vegas, NV

View Map

Description

JUST ADDED: Former PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON!

PENDING: Keynote Address by GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

WHAT: High-level industry leaders, scientists, policy experts, and public officials, along with citizens and the media, will gather in Nevada for a day-long summit hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, U.S. Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID (D-NV), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

This year’s summit will bring together the nation’s top minds, including former Vice President AL GORE, Secretary of Energy STEVEN CHU, energy executive T. BOONE PICKENS, White House Council on Environmental Quality Special Advisor VAN JONES, Nevada State AFL-CIO executive DANNY THOMPSON, and many others to chart a course for our nation’s clean energy future.

WHY: 2009 provides a pivotal opportunity for our nation to come together to define a policy agenda that accelerates the deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency, creates good jobs, advances energy independence, and ensures long term economic prosperity for Nevada, the nation, and the world. We hope you will join the conversation.

For more information on the summit and to register online, visit: http://www.cleanenergysummit.org

$25 discounted admission price for students!!!

Want to participate in a different way? Volunteer at the event by applying at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SS_2fKOgcDwWwNwh6armDwVw_3d_3d

Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning

Featheriver — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:50:43 +0000

NASA reports:

Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft, provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic’s ice cover. [NASA]

Take a look at the NASA pictures.

President Obama’s Listening Tour in Pahrump

Featheriver — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:10:38 +0000

President Barack Obama

Organizing for America (OFA) has officially landed in Nevada. Organizing for America is dedicated to forwarding President Obama’s agenda through grassroots action, and to creating a progressive, grassroots movement in the State of Nevada.

In order to best serve Nevada, OFA will visit cities throughout the state to re-engage and mobilize the grassroots movement in support of President Obama.

For Organizing for America to succeed, we need to hear from you – your effort and commitment are the backbone of this movement, and your input will help guide our action in Nevada.

At this meeting, we will provide an overview of what the President has accomplished, describe the mission statement of our organization, let you know how you can get involved, and ask for your thoughts on how we can best organize Nevada going forward. Your ideas will be used to write a Nevada-specific plan for Organizing for America in 2009 and beyond.

Come, and make your voice heard. All are welcome. We look forward to meeting new people and seeing familiar faces. Help us build a progressive movement to improve Nevada and our country!
Time: Thursday, July 16 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Host: Evan Sutton
Location:
Rudd Community Center (Pahrump, NV)
150 N Highway 160
Pahrump, NV 89060
Maps:

* Google Maps
* MapQuest
* Yahoo! Maps

Directions: Join us in Room B at the Rudd Community Center, just north of E Basin Ave.
Associated Groups: Nevada Students for Obama, Southern Nevada for Obama

Heller and Cap and Trade

Featheriver — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:39:53 +0000

Republicans in Congress will spend the Memorial Day recess attacking Democrats for pushing a cap-and-trade bill that could raise Americans’ transportation and energy costs wrote The Hill on May 23, 2009.

“Democrats and the Obama administration have said that putting a price on carbon emissions is the best way to wean the country off of foreign oil and stem global warming while also creating new jobs.”

“The attacks on the Democratic energy proposals is part of a larger GOP effort to paint the Democrat-led Congress as big spenders who backed a $787 billion stimulus plan and are now pushing an energy tax and a “government takeover of healthcare,” according to House GOP talking points.”

Not much new about any of this. Republicans just naturally call anything the Democrats do as too expensive, socialistic, and an expansion of government. All the same things the Republicans did while they controlled the White House and Congress.

One of those Republicans who took off during the Memorial Day recess to attack the “cap-and-trade bill” was our own Republican Congressman for Nevada’s District 2, Dean Heller.

He went to Elko to deliver the Republican Talking Points on the subject of “cap and trade.”

He said “his constituents are overwhelmingly against President Obama’s ‘cap and trade’ proposal, which he said would cost the average family of four about $3,200 more a year on their electric bills.”

Heller said at one of his teleconferences 400 people polled were opposed to the cap and trade proposal and 32 supported it, indicating that from other polls there was quadruple that number.

Columnist Dennis Myers takes issue with Heller. See the Pahrump Valley Times when today’s issue goes online. He under took to check Heller’s assertion out. In Carson City, Heller’s hometown, of 30 people asked by Myer, “Not one of them was familiar with the term” cap and trade. Myers wondered how Heller could find 400 people in one conference call that recognized the term? Myers was told by Republican friend of his “that those who participate are screened to be ‘like minded’ (to Heller).” In short it wasn’t a valid poll. Myers’ friend said “poll questions are asked in language that seems designed to elicit certain responses.”

Myers’ asked Heller’s office for the wording of the “cap and trade” question, but got no response.

How about you. Can you explain just what “cap and trade” means and what it is about? Neither can I. [Wikipedia] Nor, I daresay, does Dean Heller. Try reading the Wikipedia coverage of cap and trade and tell me you understand it.