- -06-08-10 Little Progress in Containing Spills in 25 Years (MSNBC News)
- Rachael Maddow investigates the lack of progress in containing oil spills. 06-10
- -01-08-10 Obama Reveals Green Jobs (CNN News)
- "President Obama unveiled a program Friday that will provide $2.3 billion in tax credits for the clean energy manufacturing sector, a move aimed at creating 17,000 jobs." 01-10
- -02-02-10 Winners From Obama's Green Job Incentives (U.S. News)
- "On Monday, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden unveiled both Obama's proposed space budget through 2015 and the Administration's plans for how that money should be spent. And though Bolden filled his prepared remarks with all the usual promises to 'blaze a new trail,' answer a 'bold challenge,' 'spur innovation' and, of course, inspire young people, the fact of the matter is that the new plans will keep America on the ground for most of the next decade or longer. And whenever U.S. astronauts finally do return to space, they won't be going very far." 01-10
- -03-27-10 Nations Mark Earth Hour (CBS News)
- "The white-shelled roof of the Sydney Opera House fell dark Saturday night, one of the first landmarks to turn out the lights in an hour-long gesture to be repeated by millions of people around the world who are calling for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions." 03-10
- -04-15-10 Body Heat as Alternative Energy Source (CNN News)
- "Using excess body heat to warm a building is not a new concept — the Mall of America in Minneapolis recycles the heat generated from shoppers' bodies to help regulate the temperature of the massive complex during Minnesota's dreadful winters. But Stockholm has taken the idea a step further by successfully transferring excess body heat from one building to another." 04-10
- -04-15-10 Iceland's Volcano a Travel Hazard (Time.com)
- "Volcanic ash, which is made up of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen fluoride, along with fine silica particles, may not block pilots' sight lines, but its chemicals can wreck sensitive aircraft engines. It can also clog an aircraft's ventilation holes, causing engines to stall."
"When Eyjafjallajokull last erupted, in 1821, it remained active for an entire year. Worse, the current event could trigger the eruption of nearby Mount Katla, which is even more powerful. If Katla were to explode, North Atlantic airspace could be affected for months. It could even impact the climate: the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines threw so much ash into the atmosphere that it reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the planet, cooling the world by about 0.5°C over the next two years. And that's something everyone would notice, even on a clear day."
- -04-23-10 Greece Asks for Bailout (Time.com)
- "Comparing Greece to a sinking ship, Papandreou said he had no choice but to activate the $60 billion aid package agreed on earlier this month by European finance ministers to help his deeply indebted nation stave off default." 04-10
- -04-29-10 Louisiana Governor Declares State of Emergency (CNN News)
- "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday as winds drove a massive oil spill toward the state's coast and authorities scrambled to mitigate its environmental effects."
- -05-01-10 Machines and Microbes Will Clean Up Oil (CNN News)
- "There's no way to stop oily water from reaching land along the Gulf Coast, but experts will use tools both massive and microscopic to clean it up." 05-10
- -05-13-10 Climate Change Is Causing Lizard Extinctions (Time.com)
- "A few years ago, a team of herpetologists first noticed a suspicious pattern of extinctions among populations of European lizards. At the time, it wasn't clear why they were dying — it could have been global warming, but it also could have been disease or loss of habitat. So researchers set out to get the hard evidence, ultimately launching a global study that eventually drew in more than two dozen scientists from around the world." 05-10
- -05-16-10 Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf (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." 05-10
- -05-22-10 "Top Kill" Planned to Stop Oil Leak (CNN News)
- "A "top kill" method intended to stop the runaway flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico will likely be tried early next week, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Friday."
"In the procedure, thick, viscous fluid twice the density of water will be pumped at a high rate into the site of the leak to stop the flow so that it can then be sealed with cement, Suttles said." Also see Oils Spills. 05-10
- -05-26-10 BP Has Had Strong Ties With Government (New York Times)
- "Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from the British oil giant BP to develop alternative energy sources through a new Energy Biosciences Institute." 05-10
- -05-29-10 "Top Kill" Not Working (CBS News)
- "A risky procedure to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico has yet to show much success, and BP is considering scrapping it in favor of a different method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, an executive said Saturday." 05-10
- -05-29-10 Effort to Cap the Oil Gusher (New York Times)
- "The new strategy is to smoothly cut the riser that the oil is leaking from and then place a cap. Pipes attached to the cap would then take the oil to a storage boat waiting at the surface." 05-10
- -05-29-10 Gulf Oil's Underwater Threat (Time.com)
- "So far, it's impossible to predict exactly where the toxic cloud [of oil] is heading. If shallow currents take hold of it, they could keep the chemicals near the surface, hastening the breakdown that occurs when they're exposed to sunlight. But if the chemicals hitch a ride on deeper currents, they could sweep down into the canyon, turn south along the west coast of Florida, and then reach the Keys. It's not even out of the question for them to catch the Loop Current and swing up the Atlantic coast of the U.S. The effect on ocean life could be devastating and it will by no means be limited to the fish themselves." 05-10
- -05-29-10 Infrared Camera Shows Oil Slick Extending for Hundreds of Miles (CBS News)
- "From the air, the oil-slick waters stretch for hundreds of miles, the camera only picking up images from the surface of the water."
"The federal government now estimates as many 39 million gallons worth of oil has poured into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig collapsed. Zappa says it is clear from the pictures seen in this video that the cleanup booms are simply overmatched." 05-10
- -05-29-10 Kerry and Lieberman Reveal Strong Climate Bill (IGSD.org)
- "The Senate climate bill unveiled today by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) contains a section entitled “Achieving Fast Mitigation” to address non-CO2 climate forcers, including black carbon soot, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These non-CO2 greenhouse gases and pollutants, together with others like ground-level ozone, make up 40-50 percent of total climate forcing."
"One of the non-CO2 forcers’ most important attributes is that they are short-lived in the atmosphere – days to a decade and a half – meaning reductions will produce benefits fast and help to avoid the tipping points for abrupt climate change." 05-10
- -05-31-10 Methods Tried to Stop Leaking Oil (New York Times)
- "Since a fire engulfed the Deepwater horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, engineers have attempted a number of techniques to slow or stop the torrent of oil leaking from the wellhead 5,000 feet below the surface."
Provides diagrams as well as descriptions. 05-10
- -06-08-10 Subsea Oil Plumes Found 142 Miles from Rig (MSNBC News)
- "There have been reports of such underwater "plumes" previously, but BP had questioned whether oil was actually forming below water."
"This is the first time the presence of oil plumes has been confirmed by a government agency." 06-10
- -06-14-10 What Happens to the Toxic Waste from the Oil Spill? (MSNBC News)
- "But where the oil is concentrated in slicks on the surface, some of it can be burned off. The Deepwater Horizon response website said that as of Saturday, more than 95,000 barrels had been disposed of that way."
"After that it gets more complicated. More than 400 skimmer boats are collecting oily water from the surface of the Gulf — about 474,000 barrels as of Saturday. That mixture, as well as the runoff from rinsing down oily equipment or washing oiled birds, is supposed to be collected and transported to facilities like the River Birch Landfill near Avondale, La." 06-10
- -06-15-10 Efforts Described as Chaotic in the Gulf Oil Spill (New York Times)
- "From the beginning, the effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP. As a result, officials and experts say, the damage to the coastline and wildlife has been worse than it might have been if the response had been faster and orchestrated more effectively." 06-10
- -06-15-10 Tracking the Gulf Oil Spill (New York Times)
- Provides a map. 06-10
- -06-20-10 Governors Claim that Coast Guard and Federal Bureaucracy Continue to Delay Solutions (ABC News)
- "But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges."
"Sixty days into the crisis, it still can be tough to figure out who is in charge in Louisiana, and the problem appears to be the same in other Gulf Coast states."
Alabama Governor Bob Riley said "the problem is there's still no single person giving a 'yes' or 'no.' While the Gulf Coast governors have developed plans with the Coast Guard's command center in the Gulf, things begin to shift when other agencies start weighing in, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.' "
" 'It's like this huge committee down there,' Riley said, 'and every decision that we try to implement, any one person on that committee has absolute veto power.' " 06-10
- -07-06-10 BP Underperforms on Promise to Clear Oil from Gulf (CBS News)
- "The Washington Post reported today that, in the 77 days since the spill began, BP has skimmed or burned only about 60 percent of the oil it promised regulators it could remove in a single day. In March, BP told the government it had the capacity to skim and remove 491,721 barrels of oil each day in the event of a major spill. As of Monday, however, skimming operations have removed on average less than 900 barrels a day."
"In total, about 2 million barrels of oil have been released into the Gulf as of Monday." 07-10
- -07-17-10 BP Oil Leak Stopped Temporarily (CNN News)
- "The verdict so far: generally good news but still some uncertainty about whether there's a leak in BP's well in the Gulf of Mexico, now fitted with a containment cap." 07-10
- -07-22-10 Editorial: Cap and Trade Is Dead (Time.com)
- "The headline has been written countless times, but this time it is true: carbon cap-and-trade of any sort will not come out of this Congress—and perhaps it never will. Instead of comprehensive economy-wide carbon cap that Senator John Kerry had urged—and that the House had already passed a year ago—or even the compromise utility-only cap bill that had been suggested as an alternative, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he would move forward next week on a bill that only deals with the BP oil spill and a few other low-profile energy policies." 07-10
- -07-27-10 Oil Spill Quickly Disappearing (New York Times)
- "The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster." 07-10
- -11-29-10 Editorial: Cancun Climate Talks Need to Move Forward (CNN News)
- "The next round of international climate meetings begin Monday in Cancun, Mexico, and they will likely determine the future for global action on climate change -- including whether the United Nations will remain at the core of an international regime." 11-10
- Oil Cleanup Effort (ABC News)
- "More than 30 million gallons of oily water have been removed from the surface, and another 10 million-plus gallons have been burned. More than 1.8 million gallons of dispersants have been dropped, and the Coast Guard estimates that with every gallon of chemicals used, up to 20 gallons of oil may be disseminated." 07-10
- Ten Animals Most At Risk from Oil Spill (CBS News)
- "Oil is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico -- the result of the sinking of an oil rig last week. A spill of this magnitude so close to the wetlands, estuaries and national fisheries of south Louisiana is unprecedented."
"Though it's unclear how badly wildlife along the Gulf Coast will suffer, the timing of the spill couldn't be worse. This is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in set breeding areas during this time and there's less instinct to move away from danger."
Also try The EPA Solicits Ideas and Help for Gulf Oil Disaster (EPA.gov)- The EPA is requesting help. 05-10
Also try -04-30-10 Unchecked Gusher from Ocean's Floor: No End in Sight (Time.com)- "It may be time to stop referring to the Deepwater Horizon rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico as an oil spill. A spill sounds like something temporary, a glass of milk overturned, which empties and then can be cleaned up. But what is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the sensitive shorelines of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, isn't a spill. It's an unchecked gush of crude oil from beneath the bottom of the ocean into the water — and no one can say for sure when it will finally stop." 04-10
- -05-01-10 Machines and Microbes Will Clean Up Oil (CNN News)
- Global Warming Deal Is Sealed (Time.com)
- "Over the strenuous and highly verbal objections of Bolivia, the more than 190 countries at Cancún adopted a compromise deal that points the way towards a new system fo climate diplomacy that will include complementary actions by both developed and developing nations. The Cancun Agreements 'mark a new era in international cooperation on climate change,' said Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, who presided over the negotiations." 12-10