EcocentricOil
Of course, when we say “early,” it is important to remember that we’ve now passed Day 80 of the oil spill, and up to 150 million gallons of crude have already leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, if not more. But BP may be close to finally ending the leak. On Saturday, the company began a complex multi-day operation that involves removing the …
EcocentricUncategorized
Well it only took about 80 days. On Thursday the Gulf coast woke up to some good news—the relief wells seen as the final tool to end the oil leak are proceeding faster than projected, and BP has raised the possibility that they may even be completed by July 27, far earlier than expected. Speaking to NBC and the Wall Street Journal in …
EcocentricWeather
The current heat wave is about to moderate here on the U.S. east coast. Temperatures will “only” be in the 90’s for the next week or so, compared with the 100-plus we’ve been sweating profusely under .
For those of us who write about climate, extreme weather events—not only heat waves, but also floods, droughts, …
EcocentricOil
We keep hearing about the economic devastation that the oil spill will cause—and for Gulf fishermen and BP shareholders, that’s certainly true. But there are some companies specializing in oil spill cleanup that will be making a mint off the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. In this week’s TIME paper edition—oh, and …
EcocentricOil
Government lawyers will be in a federal appeals court in New Orleans today, fighting to reinstate a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. The temporary ban—put in place by President Obama after the BP spill to give a presidential commission time to reevaluate the safety of deepwater drilling—was overturned last month by a …
EcocentricRegulation
Once you get past those who insist climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people and engage with global warming critics who actually have use of their rational faculties, the main point of debate tends to be the cost of trying to reduce carbon emissions. The conservative writer Jim Manzi over at the New …
EcocentricEndangered Species
I find it hard to think of a more depressing finding than this one: writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of international researchers predict that thousands of rare flowering plant species are likely to become extinct before humans discover them.
And that’s just from the current pressure from habitat loss …
EcocentricOil
Last week the Coast Guard sent out an announcement to the media: from now on there would be a 20-meter safety zone established around all protective shoreline boom, booming operations and general oil spill response operations taking place in southeast Louisiana. Any ship that comes with 20-meters of the boom could be liable for up to …
EcocentricEcocentric
In what I really hope is the final word on “climategate”—the controversy over thousands of emails stolen from the archives of climate researchers at Britain’s East Anglia University and published on the Internet last year—an independent British inquiry into the matter largely cleared the scientists involved. Muir Russell, a senior …
EcocentricRegulation
We’re all feeling the heat today on the East Coast. Some of us are even writing about it. But this week will also be marred by unusually bad air quality in the Eastern U.S.—several cities hit Code Orange or Code Red for air quality, due to dangerously high levels of ozone and other pollutants. (Check out the nationwide levels here.) In …
