Aging oil rigs, pipelines expose Gulf to accidents

By BEN CASSELMAN14 December 2010 GALLIANO, Louisiana—On June 10, 1947, Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. won an auction for the right to drill for oil on a plot seven miles off the Louisiana coast. The company built a spindly steel platform and drilled a well in shallow waters. It struck oil, and in 1950, Stanolind […]

Peak Humanitarian Aid

Peak Humanitarian Aid: The period during which accelerating climate crises overwhelm the capacity of industrial civilization to handle them. Has this peak arrived, along with the others? The July 2010 flood catastrophe in Pakistan suggests that it has. The United Nations reports that the scale of the flood damage is larger than the combined damage […]

Video: Pakistan villages still under water four months after floods

By Rania Abouzeid and Haji Jan Mohammad Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010 Dozens of people with outstretched arms welcome the chopper as its rotors kick up swirls of gritty dust from the cracked, mud-caked earth of Haji Jan Mohammad — a poor agricultural village transformed into a desolate island by waist-deep floodwaters that stretch to the […]

Receding glaciers on Mount Rainier threaten park’s major roadways

By Jeffrey P. Mayor, The Tacoma News Tribune12/06/1012:01 pm The greatest threat to the busiest road in Mount Rainier National Park is the mountain itself. Receding glaciers, loose rocks and boulders, glacial outbursts and debris flows could combine to cut off Nisqually-Paradise Road. Half the 1.2 million people who typically visit the park each year […]

7 million Pakistan flood victims face grim winter – Crisis ‘underestimated from the start and then quickly forgotten’

By Matt WadeDecember 4, 2010 UNDERESTIMATED from the start and then quickly forgotten. That is how aid workers have summed up the international reaction to the Pakistan floods, one of the worst natural disasters in modern times. More than four months after the emergency, more than 10 million are still receiving daily emergency assistance and […]

Plagues of roaches, rats, and bedbugs sweep Britain

Pest infestations are on the rise as cash-strapped councils phase out free extermination services By Emily DuganSunday, 21 November 2010 They spread disease, feast on our blood and destroy our clothes. And their numbers are soaring. Britain’s populations of rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, wasps and moths are growing, in some cases unchecked, as more local […]

At least 148 BP oil pipelines in Alaska ‘on the verge of collapse’

By Brett Michael DykesWed Nov 3, 12:01 pm ET All eyes remain on BP’s actions in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this year’s oil disaster. But a new report suggests the oil giant might be contending with another catastrophe soon enough, as its network of Alaska pipelines appears to be on the […]

U.N. reports Pakistan flood’s grim toll

UPIOct. 19, 2010 at 11:00 AM ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 19 (UPI) — An estimated 20.2 million Pakistanis were affected by the monsoon-driven rains that inundated portions of the country, a U.N. agency reported Tuesday. Nearly 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed by the flooding that started during the summer, and at least 7 million […]

Pakistan flood victims going into debt to rebuild

Associated Press17 October 2010 NOWSHERA, Pakistan (AP) — With their villages in shambles, winter on its way and government help slow to arrive, Pakistan’s flood victims are scrambling to rebuild their homes. Many are taking on debt as the price of construction materials has soared following the disaster that damaged or destroyed 1.9 million houses. […]

Scale of disaster, security risks, spotty organization overwhelm Pakistan aid efforts

By NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of ClimateWirePublished: October 15, 2010 The fourth in a four-part series on Pakistan’s flood disaster. Click here for part one, here for part two and here for part three. NOWSHERA, Pakistan — “I wonder if humanity exists in other parts of Pakistan.” Salma Begum 32, fumes when asked what the government and […]

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