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Archive for the tag 'Environment'

Feb 20 2010

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

From the lovely gCaptain:
A federal judge has ordered a Hong Kong-based company to pay a $10 million fine after the cargo ship it operated caused a massive oil spill in San Francisco Bay.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston also ordered Fleet Management Inc. to better train its officers in navigation and safety Friday.
The fine was [...]

One response so far

Feb 17 2010

What Price, the Bay?

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

This just in:

New Sentencing Expected In Cosco Busan Oil Spill
Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong was the operator of the Cosco Busan, responsible for hiring and training the crew, at the time the container ship struck a fender of a Bay Bridge support pier in heavy fog on Nov. 7, 2007.
More than 53,000 gallons of [...]

One response so far

Jan 30 2010

Watching The Cove

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

I finally did it.
As a mom of three small kids, I don’t get out much, and despite having promoted the screenings of the film “The Cove”, I never actually got the chance to go, myself. I had to wait for it to be available on Netflix, fercryingoutloud. But wait I did, and watch it, we [...]

No responses yet

Jan 26 2010

Surf’s Up

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

This just cracks me up:

Maximum height of extreme waves up dramatically in Pacific Northwest

Using more sophisticated techniques that account for the “non-stationarity” in the wave height record, researchers say the 100-year wave height could actually exceed 55 feet, with impacts that would dwarf those expected from sea level rise in coming decades. Increased coastal erosion, flooding, [...]

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Jan 22 2010

Don’t Swim in the Poo, Continued

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

This just in, from Baykeeper:

Heavy Rains Trigger Sewer System Breakdowns
Heavy storms this week have caused numerous sewage spills and treatment facility overflows that are polluting waterways and closing beaches – and reports are still coming in from across the region.
So far, 235,361 gallons have discharged from 23 sewage system overflows, along with 90 million gallons [...]

2 responses so far

Dec 19 2009

What the climate change numbers mean…

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

…in simple terms that mere mortals can understand. Naturally, this is an oversimplification, and you could nitpick each of these things. What’s critical is that you understand, generally, what the numbers in question mean. From the Guardian:

Copenhagen climate summit: Five possible scenarios for our future climate
With talks in Copenhagen descending into chaos, the prospects for [...]

One response so far

Dec 19 2009

350.org’s response to the failure of Copenhagen

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

From Bill McKibben and company:
Dear Friends,
We need you to read this closely, if you would.
You’ve always counted on us to tell the truth, and it would be useless to pretend we’re happy with the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks.
You’ll likely hear the Copenhagen drama spun in a thousand different ways, but here’s our honest [...]

No responses yet

Dec 17 2009

Gutpunched in Copenhagen

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

My heroes are in tears.
http://rozsavage.com/2009/12/17/cop15-t-1-weeping-for-the-world/
http://www.350.org/about/blogs/end-day-update
http://tcktcktck.org/stories/campaign-stories/open-letter-president-obama
I was so hoping for some kind of grand gesture. And I suppose Obama might yet swoop in and deliver. If so, I’ll even forgive him the finance crisis. But so far? It’s looking like business as usual, where the rich and powerful make theater and the poor and disenfranchised suffer.
I’ll [...]

3 responses so far

Dec 15 2009

This Is About Us

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

The inestimably brilliant George Monbiot, on Copenhagen:
This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make [...]

No responses yet

Dec 13 2009

Tuvalu Speaks (For Us All)

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

I can’t imagine what it must be like for Ian Fry to say what he says in front of the world. I wonder if any of our pampered, entitled, mostly-useless elected officials (I will not call them leaders) are listening? I wonder if our “change” president will actually do something, instead of simply mouthing platitudes [...]

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Nov 11 2009

Hurrah the Brown Pelican!

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

I am so excited! I almost never get to post positive environmental things on this blog. So it is with incredible glee I post this:

Brown pelican removed from endangered species list
A century-long effort to protect the bird is no longer needed, federal officials say. The brown pelican population, once imperiled by hunters and DDT, has [...]

2 responses so far

Nov 02 2009

Yup. Another spill.

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

Almost too mundane to blog:

Tanker spills oil into San Francisco Bay
A mechanical failure during the fueling of a tanker caused an oil spill Friday morning, leaving a two-mile slick south of the Bay Bridge and evoking memories of a much larger spill two years ago.
The spill was reported to the Coast Guard at 6:48 a.m. [...]

3 responses so far

Oct 29 2009

Eustasy in North Carolina (A failure of specificity)

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

Sometimes, the scientific method’s reductionist thinking makes my head ache. Check this out:

North Carolina sea levels rising 3 times faster than in previous 500 years, Penn study says
An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. Researchers found 20th-century sea-level rise [...]

2 responses so far

Oct 13 2009

The Most Important Thing You’ll Do Today

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

This just in, from 350.org:
Dear World—
This is an invitation to build a movement—to take one day and use it to stop the climate crisis.
We are a group of people from around the planet—young and old, scientists and writers and activists—who have one thing in common. We know the most important number on earth: 350. And [...]

No responses yet

Oct 10 2009

Excellent Readings in Eustasy

Published by Laureen under Uncategorized

From the BBC:
‘Scary’ climate message from past
A new historical record of carbon dioxide levels suggests current political targets on climate may be “playing with fire”, scientists say.
Researchers used ocean sediments to plot CO2 levels back 20 million years.
Levels similar to those now commonly regarded as adequate to tackle climate change were associated with sea levels [...]

No responses yet

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