EcocentricHealth
A new study published Saturday in the British medical journal the Lancet found that tens of millions of people in Bangladesh have been exposed to poisonous levels of arsenic from contaminated groundwater. Bangladesh has struggled with arsenic in its water supply since a disastrous campaign in the 1970s to bring clean water to the county …
EcocentricOil
Pity the British—or at least the English. As if it’s not bad enough that their perpetually disappointing football side could only manage a 0-0 tie with 30th-ranked Algeria—prompting human bulldog Wayne Rooney to complain about being booed by his own fans, because that never happens in sport—certain parts of the British media have …
EcocentricOil
Throughout his Congressional testimony yesterday, BP CEO Tony Hayward had one consistent message: he did not know what was going on in the tumultuous weeks leading up to the Deepwater Horizon accident. He had no direct knowledge of the company’s much criticized decisions in drilling the well, and he had no comment on the causes of the …
EcocentricHealth
A cross post from TIME’s Wellness blog:
The H1N1 flu pandemic last year came out of nowhere. Well, not exactly—H1N1 first emerged in human beings in Mexico. But that wasn’t where most influenza experts were looking. The focus had been on southeast Asia, where the H5N1 avian flu had been infecting—and killing—human beings for
…
EcocentricOil
The oil spill can frustrate in many ways. The mix of regulatory failures and oil industry cost cutting that appeared to directly lead to the Deepwater Horizon accident—that’s pretty galling. The inability of BP and the government brain trust to successfully shut off the leak, more than a month and a half after it began—that’s …
EcocentricOil
Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas has received $27,350 in campaign donations from BP—and today during the Congressional inquisition of BP CEO Tony Hayward, Barton was worth just about every penny. Barton’s odd apology in his opening statement to Hayward—Barton said he was “ashamed of what happened in the White House” …
EcocentricOil
Energy security—it’s the policy everyone loves. Republicans love it. Democrats love it. Environmentalists love it. President Barack Obama loves it. Even BP CEO Tony Hayward loves it. While we fight over the need to fight climate change and battle over subsidies for oil, there’s a strong consensus that the U.S. needs to break its …
EcocentricOil
The grand Congressional inquisition of BP CEO Tony Hayward has been adjourned until 2 PM—annoyingly, members of Congress are occasionally expected to vote for things—but so far the biggest revelation has come from Republican Representative Joe Barton. As Jay Newton-Small observed over in Swampland, Barton began his opening …
EcocentricOil
The explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico never should have happened—and I am deeply sorry that they did.
That’s how BP CEO Tony Hayward will begin his testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday morning, according to several media reports. Hayward’s …
EcocentricHealth
Do you know how much radiation your cell phone emits? You will from now on if you live in San Francisco. Yesterday the city’s Board of Supervisors voted to require all retailers to display the amount of radiation a phone emits, a regulation that’s believed to be the first in the U.S. The new ruling, which Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected …
