Written on April 13, 1989, this letter was sent from second-grader Kelli Middlestead of the Franklin School in Burlingame, California, to Walter Stieglitz the Regional Director of the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lamenting the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 24, 1989.
Good.
300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds
This made the rounds a few months ago, but popped up on NPR today. It’s worth revisiting.
(via jtotheizzoe)
Source: kohr
We have the knowledge and the fact that oil sands are more CO2-polluting than other kinds of fuel.
Connie Hedegaard, EU Climate Chief
Science Shows Canada Oil Sand Fuels Are High-Risk
“Canada’s plans for tar sands will put the world on track for 6 degrees of warming, way past the globally accepted limit of 2 degrees,” said Franziska Achterberg of Greenpeace.
“Six degrees would be game over.”
The proposed ranking assigns oil sands crude a default greenhouse gas value of 107 grams of carbon per megajoule, compared with 87.5 grams for conventional oil.
Two of the other unconventional fuel sources have higher values than oil sands. They are oil shale at 131.3, found in EU-member Estonia, and coal-to-liquid at 172.
Source: scientificamerican.com
Report Blames BP for Oil Spill
“A new government report by the U.S. Coast Guard and the agency that regulates offshore drilling blasts BP management for decisions that added risk and possibly led to last year’s devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon well exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and unleashing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. BP, the report says, was negligent in the placement of a cement seal that was put in place just a day before the explosion. Other investigations have blamed a variety of factors, including faulty data readings and the failure of the well’s blowout preventer. But this report places most of the responsibility on BP executives, who made decisions that complicated the sealing of the well and made the operation risky.”
Just minutes ago, Al Gore released a video announcing The Climate Reality Project. View the video above, visit the site here.
Note, with just 304 comments, the video is already highly trolled. Show your support and “like” the video.
I’ve accused Al Gore of “preaching to the choir” on climate before, but we can’t let the trolls TROL-LOL-LOL all over this important climate effort.
A call for no new oil drilling on U.S. soil!
From 1862.
(via Anecdotes from the Archive: The Squeaky Wheel Won’t Get the Oil)
Source: scientificamerican.com
Louisiana Senator David Vitter holding NOAA chief scientist appointment hostage . . . for, umm, I don't really know why.
Only weeks after releasing his hold on the appointment on Dan Ashe as head of the US Fish & Wildlife Service (which he agreed to in exchange for getting 15 offshore drilling permits approved - you can’t make this stuff up), Sen. Vitter is holding another government science appointment hostage.
Scott Doney, the nominee for NOAA chief scientist, seems to be another casualty of Vitter’s hurt feelings over the Gulf drilling moratorium after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Of course, the moratorium has been lifted, so this is just getting dangerously close to revenge.
Apparently if you cross a Louisiana oil man, he does not forget. He will take his Congressional ball and go Congressional home.
Heavier Crudes, Heavier Footprints
As oil companies turn to tar sands and other heavy oil sources, a new study shows that (not surprisingly) this will add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at an even faster rate. Good grief.
(Incidentally, since Canada does so much of this, does “Blame Canada” finally apply here?) :-)
Source: sciencenews.org
