The environment thread

[Balta1701]

Fun related fact: The ocean is a large carbon sink in part because of these types of organisms. Hooray for positive feedback cycles!

The ocean basically stopped being a large carbon sink a couple years ago. When you warm the ocean up and add CO2, it starts to acidify, and thus, can dissolve less CO2.

[southsider2k5]

They're involved in the clean-up efforts. That's different from regulating the drilling/ piping or being in charge of stopping the leaks.

 

 

 

Source? The leak was reported on Monday at 8:45 AM in the pipeline. Presumably, they were able to close the pipe line and stop the leak quickly. The EPA took over clean-up operations Wednesday. edit: Maybe you're confusing contained with stopped-leaking.

 

You'll need to explain how the efforts to clean up and contain a relatively small oil leak in a pipeline is comparable to what happened in the Gulf, where the main focus has been getting the damned thing to stop leaking for 100 days. The EPA should be and, AFAIK, is involved with the efforts to clean up the spill in the ocean and on the shorelines, rivers and lakes. What would you like them to have done here?

 

You don't see how this is 100% contradictory? Stopping and preventing problems isn't a part of fixing them? And if you don't see them under the same vein, that explains A LOT about why our government gets away with being so incredibly wasteful.

[Balta1701]

You don't see how this is 100% contradictory? Stopping and preventing problems isn't a part of fixing them? And if you don't see them under the same vein, that explains A LOT about why our government is so incredibly wasteful.

So, BP has the same group doing its environmental impact statements as they have doing the engineering on their blowout preventors? Otherwise, that's equally wasteful.

[southsider2k5]

So, BP has the same group doing its environmental impact statements as they have doing the engineering on their blowout preventors? Otherwise, that's equally wasteful.

 

Keep making excuses for a complete failure here. It is amazing how much your opinions have changed in like a year and a half.

[Balta1701]

Keep making excuses for a complete failure here. It is amazing how much your opinions have changed in like a year and a half.

 

It can be a complete failure and your argument can still be nonsensical.

[StrangeSox]

You don't see how this is 100% contradictory? Stopping and preventing problems isn't a part of fixing them? And if you don't see them under the same vein, that explains A LOT about why our government gets away with being so incredibly wasteful.

 

What are you even talking about?

 

The EPA was not in charge of regulating drilling, contrary to your point.

 

The EPA is not a disaster response agency responsible for stopping unprecedented oil leaks, contrary to your point.

 

What should the EPA have done? Regulated oil drilling, outside of their jurisdiction? Taken over the efforts to cap/ plug the well, outside of their expertise, knowledge and experience? How is the Gulf situation at all comparable to the Great Lakes situation, where the oil leak was stopped quickly and easily and the biggest issue was containment and collection of what has already leaked?

 

The EPA hasn't been perfect here and I hope they step up efforts in containment and cleanup in the Gulf, but you're not making any sense at all.

 

 

[Balta1701]

Moscow hit 100 degrees F for the first time in recorded history last week.

[Balta1701]

The Deepwater Horizon is now, by the official count, the biggest marine oil spill ever and the 3rd biggest all-time, behind the Persian Gulf spill and the Lakeview gusher.

[Balta1701]

"energy" bill put on hold until at least after the recess in the Senate. With this being an election season such that both sides will be in full campaign mod, it may well be completely dead.

U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday postponed this week's vote on alternative energy legislation that also would have strengthened offshore drilling safety in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to take the bill off the Senate's schedule until at least mid-September, when Congress returns from a long summer break, dealt a blow to Democrats' efforts to hold BP fully responsible for the economic damage from the Gulf oil spill.

 

"We tried jujitsu, we tried yoga, we tried everything we can with Republicans to come along with us and be reasonable ...we could not get anyone to come along with us," Reid told reporters.

This post, of course, is entirely to hammer at NSS, who insisted we would pass an energy bill this year.

 

[Rex Kickass]

"energy" bill put on hold until at least after the recess in the Senate. With this being an election season such that both sides will be in full campaign mod, it may well be completely dead.

This post, of course, is entirely to hammer at NSS, who insisted we would pass an energy bill this year.

 

They didn't try anything. Reid could have kept the Senate in session and could have removed any other business from the docket. I think if the Democrats actually forced the GOP to really filibuster everything, GOP resistance to getting things done would crumble pretty quickly. They might still vote no, but they would at least allow the vote.

[Balta1701]

They didn't try anything. Reid could have kept the Senate in session and could have removed any other business from the docket. I think if the Democrats actually forced the GOP to really filibuster everything, GOP resistance to getting things done would crumble pretty quickly. They might still vote no, but they would at least allow the vote.

The Senate today actually successfully broke a filibuster on a bill that will save the jobs of about 150,000 teachers/police/firefighters.

[Balta1701]

Thankfully, we know that there are no economic consequences to a changing climate, only consequences to doing something about it.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday banned all exports of grain after millions of acres of Russian wheat withered in a severe drought, driving up prices around the world and pushing them to their highest level in two years in the United States.

 

The move was the latest of several abrupt interventions in the Russian economy by Mr. Putin, who called the ban necessary to curb rising food prices in the country. Russia is suffering from the worst heat wave since record-keeping began here more than 130 years ago.

 

“We need to prevent a rise in domestic food prices, we need to preserve the number of cattle and build up reserves for next year,” Mr. Putin said in a meeting broadcast on television. “As the saying goes, reserves don’t make your pocket heavy.”

I can't insert it but the graph of wheat prices doubling in 1 month is quite impressive.

 

Russia is also dealing with some monster wildfires...of the scale that the U.S. is getting some of the soot.

 

Some of the fires are threatening the Chernobyl forests.

 

Edit: Ah, someone else posted the graph.

[kapkomet]

Hello, speculators.

 

[Balta1701]

One of those things that was just bound to happen that will wind up eventually costing taxpayers a fortune in cleanup costs:

One of the primary concerns with transgenic (aka genetically modified) crops is the risk of genetic contamination, i.e. the transfer of engineered genes to wild versions of the same plant. The corporations involved in genetic engineering, such as Monsanto and Bayer CropScience, have time and again assured regulators and the public that this risk is minimal. Still, the government mandates “buffer zones” around such crops’ plantings and the corporations who sell the seeds have created their own protocols to ensure this kind of thing never happens.

 

Well, surprise! It’s happened. Big time.

 

Scientists from the University of Arkansas announced at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting the results of a study that showed genetically engineered pesticide-resistant canola growing like a weed in North Dakota. They found that up to 80 percent of wild canola in their sample from various North Dakota roadsides contained genes that conferred resistance to either glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready pesticide) or gluphosinate (from Bayer’s LibertyLink seeds).

 

But it gets better, er, worse. The scientists also found wild canola with both properties. And as lead scientist Cynthia Sagers observed in an accompanying news report, “these feral populations of canola have been part of the landscape for several generations” — plant generations, mind you, not human generations. Still, this is not a new phenomenon. It’s true that biotech companies do sell seeds with multiple forms of pesticide resistance, so-called “stacked trait” seeds. But these wild canola plants managed this interbreeding feat all by their lonesome.

 

So, these genetically engineered plants — which, when out in the wild, are considered weeds — are cross-pollinating and transferring “alien” genes that confer pesticide resistance. The next step in the chain is for the canola to interbreed with other related weeds. Suddenly, the prospect of our nation’s bread basket infested with superweeds becomes very, very real.

[FlaSoxxJim]

One of those things that was just bound to happen that will wind up eventually costing taxpayers a fortune in cleanup costs:

 

Yep, the Frankenplants have been an ecological catastrophe in the waiting since the beginning.

[Balta1701]

HomeSun, a British solar company, has announced that it will spend £1 billion (US$1.6 billion) on a free solar panel giveaway to British households. The method behind HomeSun’s billion-dollar madness is to promote home solar power in the UK. The free installations will be spread out over the next three years and will add solar energy to an estimated 2.5 million homes.

 

HomeSun plans to recoup its massive investment through earnings from government feed-in tariffs to promote solar power installation. Any excess energy produced by the free-paneled homes will be collected by HomeSun and sold back to the national grid at a premium.

 

Daniel Green, head of HomeSun, aims to boost renewable energy production in Britain while helping the European Union meet its carbon reduction goals on schedule. He pointed out that Germany already produces half of the world’s solar energy, but the UK has yet to show much progress in the field. He wants HomeSun, “the free power company,” to catapult Britain onto the global solar power front.

 

Interested UK homeowners need only go to HomeSun.com to check if their home is eligible for the free solar panel installation, a process that begins simply by “pinning” your house on an interactive map. If a home becomes one of the lucky 2.5 million, it will be equipped at no charge with a 3.5-4 kWp solar system, including maintenance for 25 years.

 

HomeSun also offers a deal, dubbed SolarShare, where £500 (US$800) and a $5/month service fee gets you a fully installed 2.6-kWp solar system guaranteed for 25 years. The same system from HomeSun normally costs £11,000 (US$17,500).

 

However, free isn’t always better. According to The Guardian in response to the “free solar panel” movement in the UK, the average homeowner would save just under US$4,400 over 25 years, or the term of the feed-in tariff. Meanwhile, a homeowner who paid for the same system through a loan at 7.7% interest paid back over 10 years (going into debt but leaving themselves freedom to make money off the FIT) would save nearly US$10,400 over the same term.

 

Nevertheless, HomeSun’s offer is not a bad one. Homeowners who cannot afford their own system can still adopt solar energy, at little or no cost to them, and save a few hundred bucks a year on their utility bill.

Link

[HuskyCaucasian]

Link

My wife and I agreed that when me move to Florida we are setting aside up to $20,000 to install solar panels on our house with the ultimate goal of achieving 75-100% energy independence.

[Balta1701]

My wife and I agreed that when me move to Florida we are setting aside up to $20,000 to install solar panels on our house with the ultimate goal of achieving 75-100% energy independence.

In the U.K., public policy has allowed it to be profitable for private companies to do that for you.

[HuskyCaucasian]

In the U.K., public policy has allowed it to be profitable for private companies to do that for you.

well, not here. Woudlnt want to be too socialist.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Athomeboy_2000

[Balta1701]

Onion FTW.

In what may be the greatest environmental disaster in the nation's history, the supertanker TI Oceania docked without incident at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Monday and successfully unloaded 3.1 million barrels of dangerous crude oil into the United States.

 

According to witnesses, the catastrophe began shortly after the tanker, which sailed unimpeded across the Gulf of Mexico, stopped safely at the harbor and made contact with oil company workers on the shore. Soon after, vast amounts of the black, toxic petroleum in the ship's hold were unloaded at an alarming rate into special storage containers on the mainland.

 

From there, experts confirmed, the oil will likely spread across the entire country's infrastructure and commit unforetold damage to its lakes, streams, and air.

 

"We're looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions," said Charles Hartsell, an environmental scientist at Tufts University. "In a matter of days, this oil may be refined into a lighter substance that, when burned as fuel in vehicles, homes, and businesses, will poison the earth's atmosphere on a terrifying scale."

 

"Time is of the essence," Hartsell added. "If this is allowed to continue, the health of every American could be put at risk."

 

Officials predicted that the oil could be carried as far north as Minneapolis and as far west as Honolulu. Hopes of containment are said to be scant, as the pipelines transporting the oil are numerous, massive, and buried deep underground, making it virtually impossible to dig them all up and reverse their flow back toward the TI Oceania.

 

"Our fear is that we'll start seeing this stuff in tanker trucks headed to gas stations all over America," Environmental Protection Agency official Ralph Linney said. "And once they start pumping it into individual cars for combustion, it's all over."

 

"How can we possibly contain this after it's spread to 250 million vehicles, each one going in a different direction?" he added.

 

Experts are saying the oil tanker safely reaching port could lead to dire ecological consequences on multiple levels, including rising temperatures, disappearing shorelines, the eradication of countless species, extreme weather events, complete economic collapse, droughts that surpass the Dust Bowl, disease, wildfires, widespread human starvation, and endless, bloody wars fought over increasingly scarce resources.

 

Meanwhile, government officials, stunned to learn of the massive amounts of carbon dioxide that will be released into the atmosphere as a result of the TI Oceania tanker's successful docking, have called for a full investigation into the disaster's cause.

 

"I am shocked and horrified by this development," Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said. "Rest assured, we will find the people responsible for allowing this to happen, and they will be held accountable. Every last one of them."

 

....

Noting that they have acted in strict accordance with U.S. laws and complied with the orders of federal regulators, representatives from ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Chevron have all denied responsibility for the disaster.

 

That may be the greatest satirical article I've ever read. That immediately goes up there with "Bush pledges that our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is at an end".

[Balta1701]

About 1/3 of Pakistan, an area the size of the United Kingdom, is currently under water. And more rain is still on the way.

 

 

[Balta1701]

The era of antibiotics is coming to a close. In just a couple of generations, what once appeared to be miracle medicines have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were designed to knock out. Once, scientists hailed the end of infectious diseases. Now, the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight.

 

Hyperbole? Unfortunately not. The highly serious journal Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday posed the question itself over a paper revealing the rapid spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. "Is this the end of antibiotics?" it asked.

 

Doctors and scientists have not been complacent, but the paper by Professor Tim Walsh and colleagues takes the anxiety to a new level. Last September, Walsh published details of a gene he had discovered, called NDM 1, which passes easily between types of bacteria called enterobacteriaceae such as E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to almost all of the powerful, last-line group of antibiotics called carbapenems. Yesterday's paper revealed that NDM 1 is widespread in India and has arrived here as a result of global travel and medical tourism for, among other things, transplants, pregnancy care and cosmetic surgery.

 

"In many ways, this is it," Walsh tells me. "This is potentially the end. There are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae. We have a bleak window of maybe 10 years, where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely, but also grapple with the reality that we have nothing to treat these infections with."

 

And this is the optimistic view – based on the assumption that drug companies can and will get moving on discovering new antibiotics to throw at the bacterial enemy. Since the 1990s, when pharma found itself twisting and turning down blind alleys, it has not shown a great deal of enthusiasm for difficult antibiotic research. And besides, because, unlike with heart medicines, people take the drugs for a week rather than life, and because resistance means the drugs become useless after a while, there is just not much money in it.

 

Dr Livermore, whose grandmother died for lack of infection-killing drugs in 1945, is director of the antibiotic resistance monitoring and reference laboratory of the Health Protection Agency. Last year, the HPA put out an alert to medical professionals about NDM 1, urging them to report all suspect cases. Livermore is far from sanguine about the future.

 

"A lot of modern medicine would become impossible if we lost our ability to treat infections," he says. He is talking about transplant surgery, for instance, where patients' immune systems have to be suppressed to stop them rejecting a new organ, leaving them prey to infections, and the use of immuno-suppressant cancer drugs.

Link. Emphasis mine there.

[Balta1701]

Alternative energy investment prospects have shriveled in the United States after the U.S. Senate was unable to break a deadlock over tackling global warming, a Deutsche Bank official said.

 

"You just throw your hands up and say ... we're going to take our money elsewhere," said Kevin Parker in an interview with Reuters.

 

Parker, who is global head of the Frankfurt-based bank's Deutsche Asset Management Division, oversees nearly $700 billion in funds that devote $6 billion to $7 billion to climate change products.

 

Amid so much political uncertainty in the United States, Parker said Deutsche Bank will focus its "green" investment dollars more and more on opportunities in China and Western Europe, where it sees governments providing a more positive environment.

 

"They're asleep at the wheel on climate change, asleep at the wheel on job growth, asleep at the wheel on this industrial revolution taking place in the energy industry," Parker said of Washington's inability to seal a climate-change program and other alternative energy incentives into place.

 

Besides failing to set a policy dealing with climate change, Parker also complained that on-again, off-again tax incentives for renewable energy contributes to the poor outlook for investment in the United States.

Link.

[NorthSideSox72]

Link.

Idiotic on so many levels. We're passing on a huge opportunity to be in front of a wave that could be an economic boom for the US.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

Link.

Also, this reminds me, saw an interesting graphic on npr's site today. Talks about how most of the progress made so far in alt energy has been done by the states... and shows a map of goal levels, and actual performance levels, of % electricity generated by renewables, by state.

 

I figured the top states would be out west, where population and demand is low, and there is so much opportunity for solar and wind. But as it turns out, the top 2 states are Maine and Iowa.

 

Also interesting, I was shocked to see how high the %'s actually are - there are a number of states well over 10%, and quite a few more in the 5-10% range.

 

Graphic.