By Len Bahr, Contributing Op-Ed columnist, www.LaCoastPost.com Published: Monday, July 05, 2010, 6:00 PM The coast of Louisiana occupies North America’s largest delta, which has been rapidly shrinking and sinking for a century. River channelization, flood levees, upriver dams and coastal oil and gas production continue to take their toll. But a decade from now, […]
This year will almost certainly set the record for lowest Arctic ice volume ever recorded (see “When things were rotten“). But whether it will set the less important — but more visible — record for sea ice extent is less certain. You can see how close 2010 is to 2007 now. On the one hand, […]
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 06, 2010 As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, so does the pressure on the plant kingdom. The hope among policymakers, scientists and concerned citizens is that plants will absorb some of the extra CO2 and mitigate the impacts of climate change. For a few decades now, researchers have hypothesized about one […]
Bodo, Nigeria (AFP) July 2, 2010 – The waters around the Niger Delta swamps of Bodo are covered in a thick film of oil that has left the once lush mangroves looking like burnt twigs covered in grease. The air reeks of crude. “I struggle everyday,” said fisherman Gaagaa Giadom, 60, paddling his blackened canoe […]
Governor Jindal’s proposal to build a wall of sand berms to keep oil out of Louisiana’s marshes and off its shores has gotten a lot of media coverage, most of it supportive. A growing number of experts have voiced serious concerns or outright opposition to the plan (1). Both they and the public have been […]
By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy NewspapersPosted on Sunday, July 4, 2010 WASHINGTON — A sobering new report warns that the oceans face a “fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation” not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major […]
By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-PicayunePublished: Sunday, July 04, 2010, 10:44 AM Some days, the oil sent a pungent odor over city streets, causing people headaches. Always, there was fear. Residents worried the crude would forever foul the sandy beaches dotting their shores and wipe out habitat for shrimp and fish in a place where […]
By PATRICK REIS AND ALLISON WINTER of GreenwirePublished: July 2, 2010 Scientists are working to lure migrating birds away from the oil in the Gulf of Mexico and toward safe habitat. At stake is the well-being of more than 50 million birds migrating south to or through the Gulf over the next six months, with […]
By NPR StaffJuly 3, 2010 As the oil spill coats Gulf Coast beaches, rescuers are hatching a daring plan to save as many as 70,000 sea turtle eggs from the disaster. Each year, thousands of newly hatched sea turtles scramble from their nests in the Florida Panhandle’s sandy beaches and Alabama coasts into the water. […]
By Juliet EilperinWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, July 2, 2010; 6:58 PM The Coast Guard and BP reached a settlement Friday with environmental groups over the issue of how best to guard against accidentally killing endangered sea turtles during controlled burns in the Gulf of Mexico aimed at curbing the oil spill’s spread. Four environmental groups […]
