Blogging the End of the World™
By Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune May 21, 2010, 4:28PM St. Bernard Parish officials on Friday announced a two-pronged effort to combat the potential spread of oil into parish marshes. A BP subcontractor on Wednesday began driving two parallel rows of 60-foot, 8-inch pilings some 500 feet apart off the coast, according to a parish news […]
By The Associated Press May 21, 2010, 3:35PM ANCHORAGE — The director of the Minerals Management Service in Alaska is apologizing to colleagues for having a cake at a recent meeting with the words “Drill, Baby, Drill” on it. In an e-mail Thursday to agency employees nationwide, Regional Director John Goll says it was wrong […]
By The Associated Press May 21, 2010, 2:39PM ROBERT — BP now says it will likely be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot heavy mud into a blown-out well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Three ultra-deepwater rigs and other equipment are at the site where the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded April […]
By ANDREW JACOBSPublished: May 19, 2010 SOUTH HANGAY PROVINCE, Mongolia — They call it the zud, a prolonged period of heavy snows and paralyzing cold that adds to the challenges of living on a treeless expanse nearly the size of Alaska. But this year’s zud followed a punishing summer drought that stunted the grass and […]
By Ben Raines May 19, 2010, 5:00AM In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, BP PLC states that the company could handle a spill involving as much as 12.6 million gallons of oil per day, a number 60 times higher than its current estimate of the ongoing Gulf disaster. In associated documents […]
By KEVIN McGILL and VICKI SMITH Associated Press WritersMay 21, 11:35 AM EDT GRAND ISLE, La. (AP) — Thick, sticky oil crept deeper into delicate marshes of the Mississippi Delta, an arrival dreaded for a month since the crude started spewing into the Gulf, as anger and frustration mounted over efforts to plug the gusher […]
By Ben Raines May 21, 2010, 5:00AM U.S. Coast Guard officials have apparently known for years that there could be significant problems in the federal and industry response to a major oil spill. The report that followed a 2004 “Spill of National Significance” training exercise concluded, “Oil spill response personnel did not appear to have […]
By Jenny Hurwitz, The Times-Picayune May 21, 2010, 12:07PM Government officials in Grand Isle are closing all beaches until further notice, citing the fact that oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill is washing up on the shore. “They’re starting to see dead wildlife,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts. Roberts said there is more […]
By Ben RainesMay 21, 2010, 5:00AM Mobile-area scientists warned BP PLC officials and Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen a week ago that the use of dispersants both on the surface and underwater at the Deepwater Horizon well could have grave consequences for the Gulf ecosystem. The scientists, Bob Shipp of the University of South Alabama […]
Reporting by Daniel FinerenLONDONThu May 20, 2010 4:31am EDT (Reuters) – The top layer of the world’s ocean has warmed steadily since 1993, a strong sign of global warming and a key driver of sea level rise, according to a study by an international team of scientists. “The ocean is the biggest reservoir for […]
