Climate Climate & Energy
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Not Management Material
BLM slacks on environmental monitoring in Wyoming For the past six years, the Bureau of Land Management has been slacking on its commitment to assess and limit the impact of natural-gas drilling on wilderness in western Wyoming, says, um, the Bureau of Land Management. A leaked internal assessment for the BLM’s Pinedale, Wyo., field office […]
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They Should Eat Their Spinach
Iron-deficient phytoplankton don’t absorb as much CO2, study finds Phytoplankton’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide is hindered by a lack of iron in their diet, according to a study in Nature. Climate models have estimated that phytoplankton in the world’s oceans have absorbed about 55 billion tons of carbon dioxide, but the new research suggests […]
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Bill McKibben sends dispatches from a global-warming march
Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, published in 1989, the first book for a general audience on climate change. A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, his forthcoming book is titled Deep Economy. He’s participating in a five-day walk calling for action to fight global warming — From the Road Less Traveled: Vermonters […]
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Lebanon Sequitur
Lebanese oil spill continues to spread Six weeks after Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, spilling 10,000 to 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea, the disaster continues to be disastrous. The slick has traveled an estimated 90 miles north, affecting every one of Lebanon’s approximately 200 beaches, and may reach Syria […]
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The Big Seep
Global warming could lead to release of more methane from seafloor A warming ocean could release more of the potent greenhouse gas methane in a vicious cycle that leads to more warming, says a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Petroleum and methane seep consistently from small cracks in the […]
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April Showers Bring April Flowers
Spring is springing earlier in Europe, study finds Across Europe, spring is arriving an average of six to eight days earlier than it did 30 years ago, according to new research published in the journal Global Change Biology. Scientists studied 125,000 sets of observations of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21 European countries, […]
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The Definition of Insanity
Bush administration will open 8 million Alaskan acres to oil drilling As only makes sense following a disaster in northern Alaska involving oil spills and corroded pipelines, the Bush administration next month plans to open 8 million northwestern Alaska acres to oil and natural gas development. The area, in the National Petroleum Reserve, contains “a […]
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God Hates BP
BP hits more snafus in Prudhoe Bay Beleaguered oil giant BP has halted leak testing on pipelines in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field after learning that workers may have been exposed to asbestos. Since a major spill in the oil field in early March, as many as 200 workers have been stripping insulation off of […]
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Target Practice
BP fires up carbon-offset program Oil giant BP, eager to show that it’s Beyond (all the) Petroleum (it’s leaked on the Alaskan tundra), has launched a carbon-offset program for drivers in the U.K. The new “targetneutral” website lets drivers log on to estimate their car’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, then calculate how much they should […]
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How “merchant coal” is changing the face of America
From his rolling green soybean fields above a slow river in eastern Iowa, Don Shatzer looks out over the farm where he was raised, across land he and his neighbors have farmed all their lives. Below him are the garden beds where his wife Linda grows organic vegetables to safeguard the family’s health, and the […]
