The environment thread

[StrangeSox]

McClatchey on the Jones Act topic

 

YEah but didn't you hear? Fact Check is run by the ANnENBERG FOUNDATION! And B. Hussein OSama and terrorist William Ayers served on the Chicago Annenberg Project! Do you really think thy're impartial? LOL! Obama controls them!

 

^actual argument from birthers

[mr_genius]

YEah but didn't you hear? Fact Check is run by the ANnENBERG FOUNDATION! And B. Hussein OSama and terrorist William Ayers served on the Chicago Annenberg Project! Do you really think thy're impartial? LOL! Obama controls them!

 

^actual argument from birthers

 

eh, in the birthers defense, I've seen some laughable "Fact Checks" from them. it was basically opinion not fact.

[kapkomet]

McClatchey on the Jones Act topic

 

 

Okay, then why are companies specifically asking to waive the requirement told "we'll get back to you"... so they can say they haven't been asked? This is an outright lie. There's too many people that's been asking for it to be temporarily waived.

[BigSqwert]

 

Yes, the Climate Change 'Hockey Stick' Still Stands

 

Michael Mann was one of the scientists at the center of the so-called 'Climate Gate' controversy, and as the author of the famous 'hockey stick' graph (the one above, displaying clearly that the temperatures we're currently experiencing are anomalous, and hotter than the last 2,000 years) is a favorite target of climate denier attacks. Well, guess what folks -- finally, an Investigative Committee of faculty charged with determining the strength and quality of Mann's research, and whether he had engaged in any wrongdoing, has passed down its long-awaited decision. And yes, Mann has been completely vindicated -- and as well as the famous 'hockey stick.'

 

read more

[StrangeSox]

There's a shocker.

[Texsox]

I am not certain where I stand on this http://newsblaze.com/story/20100629112611z...b/topstory.html basically, without hard evidence several groups have sued BP to stop burning the oil until it can be determined that sea turtles (endangered) are safe. I spend some time ewach summer volunteering at Sea Turtle Inc and am sympathetic to their mission and the plight of sea turtles, but I'm not certain if stopping the burning isn't ultimately better than not burning.

 

"BP is burning turtles alive and it is cruel, heartless and a crime we can't and won't allow to continue," said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN). "Sea turtles were critically endangered before BP created America's worst environmental catastrophe, and every effort possible must be taken to rescue endangered turtles from this oil spill. BP needs to reverse course and help double our efforts to rescue sea turtles, not prevent their recovery."

 

 

 

The spill occurred as rare Kemp's ridley sea turtles started nesting in the Gulf of Mexico. Several females have been tracked directly to the oil spill. Millions of hatchlings are racing to the sea now from nests in the Gulf of Mexico and are likely to face oiled waters as they seek out Gulf currents.

 

 

[Balta1701]

I am not certain where I stand on this http://newsblaze.com/story/20100629112611z...b/topstory.html basically, without hard evidence several groups have sued BP to stop burning the oil until it can be determined that sea turtles (endangered) are safe. I spend some time ewach summer volunteering at Sea Turtle Inc and am sympathetic to their mission and the plight of sea turtles, but I'm not certain if stopping the burning isn't ultimately better than not burning.

Really, the problem is...there's no good answer. It's probably a question of whether you kill 80% of them or 90% of them. And since it's kind of hard to do a controlled study comparing burning and not burning during the worst peacetime oil spill in history...yeah.

[Rex Kickass]

Okay, then why are companies specifically asking to waive the requirement told "we'll get back to you"... so they can say they haven't been asked? This is an outright lie. There's too many people that's been asking for it to be temporarily waived.

 

Could you provide some examples of requested Jones act waivers in relation to the BP Oil Spill? Because everytime I hear this argument and I ask for them instead of getting an actual answer, I get moved goalposts. But the Jones act talks about shipping cargo and passengers from one US port to another in a wholly domestic voyage.

 

Exactly why couldn't US built ships with US crews move cargo to the gulf?

[HuskyCaucasian]

Obama backs world's largest solar plant in Arizona w/ $1.5b

Two solar energy companies are looking to expand with the help of nearly $2 billion in new financing through the US Recovery Act, President Barack Obama announced over the weekend.

 

During his weekly address, Obama said the Department of Energy would provide $1.45 billion in conditional commitment funds to Abengoa Solar, as well as additional funding to Abound Solar Manufacturing for three massive construction projects.

 

Abengoa Solar plans to build the largest concentrating solar plants in the world in Arizona. When completed, the 250-megawatt facility known as Solana is expected to provide enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

BP Board Game from the '70s

 

That's just weird.

[lostfan]

Howcome nobody cracks Al Gore jokes or makes sarcastic global warming comments when it's 105 degrees in the mid-Atlantic?

 

It's funny that when it's 17 degrees in January or March in a northern city you hear people saying dumb things, but when it sustains triple digits for a while, nobody says anything.

Edited July 6, 2010 by lostfan

[Rex Kickass]

Howcome nobody cracks Al Gore jokes or makes sarcastic global warming comments when it's 105 degrees in the mid-Atlantic?

 

It's funny that when it's 17 degrees in January or March in a northern city you hear people saying dumb things, but when it sustains triple digits for a while, nobody says anything.

 

That's an inconvenient observation.

[Texsox]

That's an inconvenient observation.

 

 

LOL

[Texsox]

That's an inconvenient observation.

 

 

LOL

[mr_genius]

Howcome nobody cracks Al Gore jokes or makes sarcastic global warming comments when it's 105 degrees in the mid-Atlantic?

 

It's funny that when it's 17 degrees in January or March in a northern city you hear people saying dumb things, but when it sustains triple digits for a while, nobody says anything.

 

i posted an Al Gore joke in the GOP thread a couple days ago.

 

[southsider2k5]

Howcome nobody cracks Al Gore jokes or makes sarcastic global warming comments when it's 105 degrees in the mid-Atlantic?

 

It's funny that when it's 17 degrees in January or March in a northern city you hear people saying dumb things, but when it sustains triple digits for a while, nobody says anything.

 

They'd all be sexual harrassment and divorce jokes anyway...

[Texsox]

Tar balls on the Texas beaches. f***

[StrangeSox]

Where's the oil?!

[FlaSoxxJim]

Tar balls on the Texas beaches. f***

 

Welcome to the club.

[Texsox]

They think the tar balls are from ship hulls that went through the spill.

[BigSqwert]

Computer Simulation Shows BP Spill After 1 Year

 

Where will the BP spill be a year after the Deepwater Horizon first exploded on April 20th? It's hard to say, of course, and depends largely on whether the relief well BP says will be ready next month is successful in cutting of the deep sea gusher. But oceanographers still have some ideas of what's likely to happen with the spill that's currently amassing in the Gulf -- and they designed a pretty horrifying animated computer simulation to display one possible scenario of how far the spill will reach in 360 day's time. Video is after the jump:

 

This video projects what could happen if the spill is successfully capped by September 17th, and assumes that 50,000 barrels per day have been spewing from the source.

 

 

Mother Jones explains some of the more pertinent impacts this projection predicts:

 

* Oil spreads initially in the Gulf of Mexico before entering the Loop Current, the narrow Florida Current, and finally the Gulf Stream.

 

* After a year, about 20 percent of the particles have been transported through the Straits of Florida and into the open Atlantic.

 

* Coastlines near the Carolinas, Georgia, and northern Florida might see the effects of the catastrophe by October.

 

* The main branch of the subtropical gyre will likely transport the oil towards Europe, though strongly diluted.

 

* As northeasterly winds intensify near Florida in October and November, the oil in the Atlantic moves closer to eastern US shores as it retreats from western Florida shores.

 

* The narrow deep Straits of Florida force the Florida Current into a narrow channel, creating a tight bottleneck for the spreading of oil into the Atlantic. As the animation suggests, a filtering system in the narrowest spot of the Florida Current could mitigate the spreading of the oil film into the North Atlantic.

 

It also appears oil that oil would make landfall along Cuba's shores before long.

 

via

[BigSqwert]

Oh and by the way..."WHERE'S THE OIL!!!"

[StrangeSox]

Where's the oil?!

 

 

Oh and by the way..."WHERE'S THE OIL!!!"

[FlaSoxxJim]

They think the tar balls are from ship hulls that went through the spill.

 

That is a very likely explanation.

[Texsox]

Oh and by the way..."WHERE'S THE OIL!!!"

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) ― Officials are collecting soil and water samples along the Texas Gulf Coast to help with response plans if more crude oil from the Gulf oil spill washes up on the state's shores.

 

Biologists with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department began gathering the samples this week. That's after Monday's announcement that test results confirmed tar balls found over the weekend along the Texas Gulf Coast were from the BP oil spill.

 

The samples are being collected from Port Arthur near the Louisiana border to Port Isabel in south Texas. They'll give officials a baseline to assess the spill's effect on Texas if more tar balls and oil are found on the state's coastline.

 

Biologists were collecting samples on Wednesday on Galveston beaches, where tar balls were found on Sunday.

 

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