Gulf of Mexico seafood deformities alarm scientists

By Dahr Jamail 19 April 2012 NEW ORLEANS (IPS/Al Jazeera) – “The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. “And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.” Cowan, with Louisiana State University’s Department of […]

Presidential panel faults Congress for inaction on offshore drilling after BP oil spill

By JOHN M. BRODER17 April 2012 WASHINGTON – Members of the presidential panel that investigated the 2010 BP oil rig explosion and spill sharply criticized Congress on Tuesday for refusing to act on any of its recommendations and gave the Obama administration and the oil industry mixed marks. Their report [pdf] said that federal regulators […]

Human-made earthquakes reported in central U.S

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Philip Barbara17 April 2012 (Reuters) – The number of earthquakes in the central United States rose “spectacularly” near where oil and gas drillers disposed of wastewater underground, a process that may have caused geologic faults to slip, U.S. government geologists report. The average number […]

Pro-oil outside groups spend more than $16 million on energy attack ads since January

By Rebecca Leber12 April 2012 A handful of outside groups, fueled by oil and coal dollars, are committing tens of millions to propel Big Oil to the forefront of the 2012 elections — outspending the Obama campaign on political energy ads by an overwhelming amount. In the first three-and-a-half months of 2012, groups including Americans for […]

Atlantis papers show familiar BP pattern of neglect

By Loren Steffy12 April 2012 We now know why BP wanted to keep information about its massive Atlantis platform in the Gulf of Mexico a secret. Thousands of pages of internal documents and emails, recently released in a long-running lawsuit, reveal ongoing safety issues, deficient design documents and a pattern of problems that are disturbingly […]

BP oil spill contaminated Gulf food chain: study

21 March 2012 (Houston Business Journal) – The Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill could have long-term effects on the Gulf of Mexico’s aquatic food chain, a new study says [Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico]. BP Plc’s (NYSE: BP) Macondo well at the site leaked […]

Graph of the Day: Growth in World Oil Supplies, 1983-2011

By Gail the Actuary12 April 2012 The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released full-year 2011 world oil production data. In this post, I would like show some graphs of recent data, and provide some views as to where this leads with respect to future production. The fitted line in Figure 1 suggests a “normal” […]

Are dolphins doomed? They’re certainly taking a hit

By Tim Wall9 April 2012 Several mass deaths of dolphins have occurred over the past few years and while experts are worried about the die-off they say we are not witnessing a global population crash. But what is behind the recent mass strandings and deaths is complicated and, inevitably, involves humans. For example, the bottlenose […]

Global warming is a moral issue on par with slavery: NASA scientist

By Severin Carrell, www.guardian.co.uk 6 April 2012 Averting the worst consequences of human-induced climate change is a “great moral issue” on a par with slavery, according to the leading Nasa climate scientist Prof Jim Hansen. He argues that storing up expensive and destructive consequences for society in future is an “injustice of one generation to […]

Video: 615 dead dolphins found on Peru beaches – Acoustic tests for oil to blame?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy [As always, apologies for the advertising.] By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com6 April 2012 Conservationists counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches in Peru, a wildlife group said Wednesday, and the leading suspect is acoustic testing offshore by oil companies. “If you […]

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