Washington | July 14

Reuters - President George W. Bush planned to lift a ban on oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf on Monday as part of an effort to ease record high oil prices, the White House said.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush was acting because the Democratic-led Congress had failed to do so since he urged lawmakers last month to lift restrictions on offshore drilling, a move strongly opposed by environmentalists.

Bush was due to announce his decision and make a statement on energy needs at 1:30 p.m. EDT. High gasoline prices increasingly have irked American consumers in a presidential election year, when Bush's Republicans are trying to keep control of the White House.

David Shukman | July 12

BBC - Twenty Russian scientists are to be evacuated from their camp on a drifting ice-floe in the Arctic after it started disintegrating sooner than expected.

The Russians had set up research station "North Pole 35" on the floe last September when it measured a safe five kilometres long and three kilometres wide, and their original plan was to stay on it until this September.

But after enduring the permanent night of the Arctic winter and surviving the threat of polar bears, the scientists now find that their temporary home has shrunk to just 600m by 300m and faces complete break-up as it drifts towards a current known to contain relatively warm waters.

Also see: Antarctic ice shelf breaking up in dead of winter

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Juliet Eilperin & R. Jeffrey Smith | Washington | July 11

WaPo - Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce today that it will seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming to human health and welfare -- a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed.

Jim Efstathiou Jr. | NY | July 7

Bloomberg - New York City's tap water, so pure residents swear it tastes better than bottled, may become a casualty of climate change as warmer temperatures threaten to spoil the mountain reservoirs supplying 9 million people.

Water from the largest unfiltered delivery system in the U.S. may become dirtier as weather patterns shift, bringing stronger storms to the region, the city's Department of Environmental Protection said in a May report. Heavy rains muddy reservoirs and wash in bacteria and parasites. That may force New York to spend $10 billion on filtration, the DEP said.

The most populous U.S. city receives 1.3 billion gallons (4.9 billion liters) a day of water through a network of gravity- fed aqueducts from 19 reservoirs as far away as 125 miles (200 kilometers). Rains that mix silt and mud into the system pose the biggest threat to water quality, said Walter Mugdan, water division director for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Guardian (Editorial) -Three big problems loom over the world economy. In rich countries they cause grumbling and pressure on governments to act; in poor ones rioting and starvation. Some call them the three Fs: food, fuel and finance.

The three Fs are linked, of course. The financial crisis has hastened and sharpened the slowdown in the UK and elsewhere, and taken away the easy money that might have cushioned the blow of surging food and fuel prices. Expensive imported fuel has encouraged governments to use crops to feed cars; and that has forced up the price of food - by 75%, according to a World Bank study reported by this paper.

The three Fs will be top of the agenda at the meeting of G8 leaders that begins today in Japan.

(full editorial at link )

James Meikle | July 4

The Guardian - It was once a fish deemed fit only for the cat. Now, though, it is a favourite of celebrity chefs, who trill the value of fresh specimens caught by handline off south-west England. The big food processors are getting in on the act too, importing Alaskan fish from stocks with reassuringly environmentally friendly credentials.

The unlikely star of the menu? - Pollack, a once unfashionable fish that is cresting a wave of popularity amid assurances that it is cheaper, greener and maybe even better for consumers than the well-loved but overfished cod.

Salmon, cod and haddock still dominate diets, but cod sales in supermarkets, fishmongers and restaurants fell by more than 10% in volume last year, while those of pollack went up by more than 150%.

** A guide to sustainable fish
** Food blog: how well do you know your sustainable fish?

Leonard Doyle | Hyannis, Cape Cod | July 3

Independent -

Oyster Harbours is ground zero in a very uncivil war in which some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the country have joined forces with one of America's dirtiest businesses – the coal industry – to block an ambitious clean-energy project.

As Hyannis filled up with traffic ahead of the Independence Day holiday today, there was a whiff of cordite rather than fireworks in the air as both sides blasted away at each other.

So far, the opponents have spent more than $20m trying to kill off the project, which is known as Cape Wind and is planned for a location widely deemed ideal for offshore wind turbines.

During the summer, 130 slowly spinning windmills located five miles offshore should be invisible to the naked eye because of haze. On winter days, when the "snowbirds" (as the locals call summer visitors) have departed for Florida, the windmills will look like rotating matchsticks out on the horizon.

But a problem arises because the wind farm will at times be visible from some of the most expensive summer homes and private beaches in the US, most notably the Kennedy family compound in Hyannisport. And whether Obama Democrats or McCain Republicans, vulgar billionaires or old New England money, opponents of the project decided long ago to throw in their lot in with Big Coal to try and kill off Cape Wind. "This is like trying to put a wind farm in Yellowstone National Park as far as we're concerned," said former coal executive Glenn Wattley, who runs the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Aditya Chakrabortty | July 3

The Guardian - Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — far more than previously estimated — according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

Xan Rice | Nairobi | July 2

The Guardian - · Oil-rich countries seek to guarantee supplies
· Global shortages trigger new land-lease deals

Abu Dhabi is to develop nearly 30,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan in the first step towards ensuring food security in the emirate.

The move follows similar projects by Middle Eastern countries locking up land from Brazil to Pakistan and Thailand to guarantee supplies of cereals, meat and vegetables at a reasonable cost. Although the region is rich in oil, lack of rain makes large-scale food imports a necessity, and it has been hit by the global food shortage, with prices and inflation rising sharply.

Watered by the Nile, Sudan has great agricultural potential, and it is reported to have offered Abu Dhabi free use of the land, hoping to benefit from the business links and technical know-how.

June 27

Independent -

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzA6gVepbOo&feature=user

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Antoaneta Bezlova | Dujiangyan | June 26

IPS/Asia Times - China's deadly earthquake last month appears to have shifted more than just tectonic plates in the country's picturesque Sichuan province. The May 12 temblor has given a boost to China's green lobby, which has been calling for a review of Beijing's zealous dam-building program and may tilt the balance of public opinion in favor of such appeals.

When the quake struck, it came in an area famous for ancient hydrological works. Sichuan is the homeland of Da Yu, the legendary Chinese emperor who won his right to the throne in 21st century BCE (Before the Common, Christian Era)by controlling floods. Instead of building dikes as others did before him, Yu dredged out river channels to release the torrential waters. He then directed the water to irrigate distant farm lands.

While the city of Dujiangyan was almost entirely destroyed by the magnitude eight earthquake, the old hydraulic system located only 10 kilometers from the epicenter, survived the temblor with little damage. The same cannot be said about the cluster of 6,000 reservoirs and dams that local experts estimate have been built on the rivers of Sichuan.

Erika Bolstad | Washington | June 25

Anchorage Daily News - The U.S. Supreme Court dashed the hopes of more than 32,000 fishermen and Alaska Natives who have been waiting for nearly 20 years to hear whether Exxon Mobil Corp. will have to pay billions in punitive damages for its role in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

In a 5-3 vote, the court decided this morning to reduce the $2.5 billion punitive damages. The award was excessive, the justices wrote, and reduced the damages to $507.5 million. The original multibillion punitive damages had been awarded as punishment for the company's role in spilling 11 million gallons of oil in the pristine fishing waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound.

The 32,677 plaintiffs in the case have been waiting for their compensation since 1994, when a jury in Anchorage returned a $5 billion punitive-damages award against Exxon Mobil Corp. The company has been appealing the verdict since then. In 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cut the award to $2.5 billion. Exxon appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case on Feb. 27.

"Story "intentionally left blank for now.

Moises Velasquez-Manoff | New York | June 25

CSM - Farm runoff creates ‘dead zones’ offshore, but no national authority is tasked to address them.

In the early 1970s, Earl “Rusty” Butz, the US secretary of Agriculture, urged American farmers to plant crops “fencerow to fencerow.” “Get big or get out,” he told them. Farm subsidies followed and, as many small farms consolidated into fewer larger ones, the country transitioned into a new era of corporate-dominated agribusiness. With large-scale farming came the large-scale application of man-made fertilizers.

Around the same time, large algal blooms began appearing with increasing regularity in the shallow, coastal sea at the mouth of the Mississippi. The algae died and sank. As it decomposed, it sucked oxygen from the surrounding water. Areas along the ocean floor became oxygen-depleted, or hypoxic. Oxygen-dependent organisms that were able to, fled. Those that couldn’t, suffocated.

The nation had a new problem, one that underscored how the ocean’s problems can begin 1,000 miles inland: Fertilizer applied throughout the huge Miss­iss­ippi watershed was creating a “dead zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It’s the second-largest such dead zone in the world, after the one in the Baltic Sea.

Bob Egelko | Washington | June 24

SF Gate - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the military's assertions of national security trump the need to protect endangered species, when the justices decide whether the Navy must limit its use of sonar in training exercises off Southern California because the sound waves might harm whales.

The justices agreed to hear the Bush administration's appeal of federal court rulings that have banned sonar within 12 miles of the coast and required the Navy to reduce or shut down the sonic blasts when it detects the presence of whales or other marine mammals. Lower courts have rejected President Bush's attempt to exempt the Navy from environmental laws and allow unrestricted use of sonar in training to detect enemy submarines.

Environmentalists have cited scientific findings that sonar pulses damage the hearing organs of whales and dolphins, can interfere with their ability to navigate, mate and find food, and have caused whales to strand themselves on shore. The Navy says its measures, including the posting of shipboard lookouts for whales, provide adequate safeguards without hampering the training exercises.

Daniel Wallis | Nairobi | June 23

Reuters - Kenya should reverse a decision to grow biofuel crops which will threaten wild life on an important coastal wetland, two conservation groups warned on Monday.

More than 80 square miles (207 sq. km) of the Tana River Delta will be planted with sugarcane, threatening 350 species of birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles, Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said.

"This decision is a national disaster and will devastate the Delta," Paul Matiku of Nature Kenya said in the same statement.

The society said targets set by Western governments to increase their biofuel use as part of plans to fight climate change were actually driving the destruction of valuable environments.

June 22

Friedman loses it over Bush's latest "4th of July"circus on oil. I'd like to believe he wrote the title

NYT - Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.”

But it gets better. The president actually had the gall to set a deadline for this drug deal:

“I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past,” Mr. Bush said. “Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act.”

I am originally from a town outside of Chicago. I feel the Midwest loyalty. It has obviously upset me that there are people I know who have lost their property or have been cut off from going to see their loved ones because of the recent flood crisis.

But, despite these inbred loyalties, there is no possible way I can say that the Midwest flooding crisis comes anywhere near the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina. And there's no way I could conscionably say that the floods in the Midwest in any ways "dwarfed" what happened in New Orleans, which Rush Limbaugh Tuesday had the audacity of saying. Let's look at the differences: In New Orleans, you had a poverty-endemic urban center experiencing one of the most powerful natural distasters, which resulted in a death toll of nearly 1,900 deaths and $81.2 billion in damages, which the victims were given no warning to and FEMA feebly came to aid very, very late in the game; on the other hand, the Midwestern floods impacted a sprawling, white, rural population, who were given warning and immediate aid from FEMA, resulting in 24 deaths and $1.5 billion in damages.

Gulfport, Ill. | June 20

AOL - Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River - not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.

After all, local officials had assured townspeople in 1999 that the levee was sturdy enough to withstand a historic flood, and FEMA had agreed. In fact, some relieved homeowners dropped their flood insurance, and others applied for permits to build new houses and businesses. More at the link

Where have we seen this before?

June 20

Independent - Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, is set to disappear under the waves by the end of this century – and we will be to blame. Johann Hari took a journey to see for himself how western profligacy and indifference have sealed the fate of 150 million peoplewent to see for himself the spreading misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which so many millions depend

This spring, I took a month-long road trip across a country that we – you, me and everyone we know – are killing. One day, not long into my journey, I travelled over tiny ridges and groaning bridges on the back of a motorbike to reach the remote village of Munshigonj. The surviving villagers – gaunt, creased people – were sitting by a stagnant pond. They told me, slowly, what we have done to them.

Ten years ago, the village began to die. First, many of the trees turned a strange brownish-yellow colour and rotted. Then the rice paddies stopped growing and festered in the water. Then the fish floated to the surface of the rivers, gasping. Then many of the animals began to die. Then many of the children began to die.

The waters flowing through Munshigonj – which had once been sweet and clear and teeming with life – had turned salty and dead.

Isabelle Dills | June 18

The Bellingham Herald - The dishwashing detergent aisle won’t look the same after July 1.

Detergent products, including major brands such as Electrasol and Cascade, will be removed from the shelves as part of a countywide ban making it illegal to sell or distribute dishwashing detergents containing more than 0.5 percent phosphorus.

The ban is directed toward residential use, and does not affect commercial or industrial use, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman Katie Skipper said. The ban will take effect statewide in 2010, but Whatcom and Spokane counties have been singled out to begin the ban this year.

Elizabeth Nash | Madrid | June 17

Independent -

When Greenpeace brought out a book showing famous Spanish landscapes submerged in water, they said they "wanted to create alarm and launch a call for action". Those words were truer than they knew. Now the digitally altered pictures are at the centre of a looming legal action.

A group of property developers and owners in the popular Mediterranean resort of La Manga have threatened to sue Greenpeace for millions of euros, over their dramatic predictions of the effects of global warming, which they say have caused house prices in the area to plunge.

The threatened legal action comes eight months after La Manga del Mar Menor, a sandy spit at the heart of Murcia's tourist region, featured prominently in the Photoclima book published by the ecological organisation to jolt Spain into action on climate change.

Greenpeace's initiative "has provoked the collapse of the property market and the services of the affected area", a group of developers say in letters to the organisation, quoted in the Spanish press. They will "take legal action" if Greenpeace refuses to accept an out-of-court settlement amounting to €27m (£21m) in damages.

** Photoclima report (pdf)/with more pictures)