GREY GOOSE ADVENTURES

M/V DELTA MARINER hits bridge while carrying rocket boosters

2012-01-31T15:44:00.000-06:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Delta_Mariner

A Murray-based company is among the contractors assisting with salvage operations for the cargo ship Delta Mariner, which struck the Eggners Ferry Bridge Thursday night causing a 300-foot section to collapse.

Mainstream Commercial Divers, Inc., of Murray, contracted over the weekend to help Foss Maritime Company, of Seattle, which owns the 8,400 ton vessel.

Company president Craig Fortenbery said a four-man dive crew and a two-man side-scan sonar crew were on site Sunday.

“We did a side-scan sonar survey, as well as an advising survey in areas of the bridge and vessel, in order to help the development of the salvage plan for the bridge, and develop the plan on how to get the bridge off of the vessel,” said Fortenbery.

Fortenbery said Mainstream still had a few people on site as of Monday afternoon.

“Now we’re utilizing one of our vessels to ferry all of the involved persons back and forth (to the ship),” he said.

Fortenbery said that Mainstream may be further involved, depending on how Foss Maritime moves forward with its salvage plan.

Foss Maritime spokesperson Suzanne Lagoni said the company submitted its salvage plan to the U. S. Coast Guard late Sunday, and is waiting on a review.

The full Foss crew of 16 will remain on board the Delta Mariner throughout the salvage operations, said Lagoni. She added that two river pilots that were on the vessel had disembarked follwing the crash.

Specially trained divers working for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plan to be at the US 68/KY 80 Eggners Ferry Bridge early Tuesday morning to begin their underwater examination of Pier 6 and two other piers that support the remaining bridge structure, said Keith Todd, KYTC District 1 spokesman.

The divers will be looking at the base of the three bridge piers to determine if the force of the collision caused collateral damage to the bridge support structure. KYTC inspectors believe one of the piers may have moved as a result of the collision.

Todd said the dive team will not be placing a monitor on the pier at this time.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Mike Hancock has said that evaluating the conditions of the remaining bridge structure will be key in determining strategies for creating a temporary river crossing.

The Eggners Ferry Bridge, which is located at US 68/KY 80, opened in 1932. It connects Marshall and Trigg counties at the western entrance to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. According to the AP, the transportation cabinet said the bridge was in the process of being replaced, and preconstruction work began months ago.

The M/V Delta Mariner was recently involved in a bridge allision on the Tennessee River near Cadiz, Kentucky. There were no reports of injury or pollution. The incident is under investigation and it is premature to speculate as to the cause. It is timely, though, to generally discuss this unique vessel, which has been quietly performing its work for the past 12 years. It was built in 1999 by Halter Marine in Moss Point, Mississippi for Foss Maritime. The sole mission of the Delta Mariner is to transport rocket components from the point of manufacture at the Boeing facility in Decatur, Alabama to launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida or Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The vessel is routed either through the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway or via the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. It can carry up to three 160-foot long, 16-foot diameter Delta IV common booster cores. As their name implies, the common booster cores are attached to the Delta IV rockets to provide additional thrust for satellite launches. The Delta Mariner is specially constructed to operate on both inland rivers and the open ocean. It is 312 feet in length, has a beam of 56 feet, and has a design draft of 14 feet. It is classed with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and its Protection and Indemnity coverage is with the American Club. A quick review shows no previous detentions or deficiencies with the US Coast Guard. Designing the Delta Marine required special engineering and project management during construction to meet Boeing’s unique requirements for transporting the valuable and sensitive cargoes. A large door across the stern facilitates loading of the common booster cores onto this ro-ro vessel.

When is an Oil Dispersant considered a CLEAN UP? When is sinks oil as small droplets out of sight into the environment approved? SHAME ON THE EPA FOR APPROVAL

2012-01-27T19:35:00.000-06:00

FFT-SolutionTM Used In Oil Spill Cleanup
press release
http://www.marinelink.com/news/fftsolutiontm-cleanup342223.aspx
Wednesday, January 25, 2012

FFT-SolutionTM, A new green, toxin free, cost efficient oil dispersant has been used to assist in the oil spill remediation at a mid-Atlantic naval facility. FFT-SolutionTM an approved EPA registered chemical is now listed on the National Contingency Plan list for approved dispersants.

A new green, toxin free, cost efficient Oil Dispersant has been used to assist in the Oil Spill Remediation at a mid-Atlantic naval facility. FFT-SolutionTM an approved EPA registered chemical is now listed on the National Contingency Plan list for approved dispersants. EnviroSmart was tasked with responding to a release of number 6 fuel oil that spread on the sidewalls of a storage tank, the surrounding area, and some of the storm drains located in the immediate area. Michael Costa, REM with EnviroSmart, said, "FFT-SolutionTM was used to clean the exterior of the storage tank, storm pipe drains and headwalls, as well as equipment and vehicle decontamination activities. It was a very easy and effective application that we would recommend using for other similar oil spill response actions. We believe FFT-SolutionTM saved our client money and improved our response time with apparent removal of the oil." (This is a traveling flim-flam elixir sold to the EPA as an oil spill clean up because it "apparently" removed (sunk) the oil by breaking it into small droplets (not visible to the human eye) making it "appear" to be gone when in reality it was sunk out of sight and still remains a pollution in the open environment - shame on the EPA for approving 'FFT-SolutionTM' - undoubtedly EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson's Chemical Engineering degree must of been earned online through a "dry lab" acreditation - no person in their right mind would approve this product sham.)

Fog Free Technologies (FFT), a South Carolina, USA- based company, has pick-locked nature's own compounds to produce a plant-based, toxin-free solution to organically clean up oil spills world wide. The product known as FFT-SolutionTM effectively transforms crude oil into fine particles to promote biodegradation of oil in the ocean and on the shore. (Spilled oil from the EXXON VALDEZ still remain after 20 years of "bio-remediation" on Prince William Sound beaches) FFT Vice-President Doc Knight said, "this 100% organic solution has been tested using U. S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, and has been approved by the EPA to be listed on the National Contingency Plan (NCP) list as an oil dispersant." Knight also said "we are pleased that EnviroSmart selected FFT-SolutionTM as one of their tools to clean up this spill." FFT's patented product formulas serve a variety of applications from crude oil remediation, wastewater utility cleaners of fat, oil, grease and odor, commercial and household cleaning products and more. FFT's product formulas are 100% toxin free and completely bio-degradable.."

PLEASE JUST SAY "NO" AND VOTE FOR NEW GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES IN HOPES QUALIFIED PERSONS START REPRESENTING AMERICAN CITIZENS.

Arctic 2012 Expedition - Request for Crew

2012-01-26T18:48:00.001-06:00

http://www.thearcticinstitute.org/2012/01/34251-arctic-2012-expedition-request.html

by Malte Humpert The M/V GREY GOOSE is outfitting for a 10,000 nautical mile voyage in 2012 from Mobile Alabama 'over-the-top' through the Arctic Northwest Passage to Astoria Oregon. The 55 foot steel Motor Vessel GREY GOOSE ('GG') is planning to depart Mobile Alabama on a 10,000 nautical-mile voyage of discovery up the USA eastern seaboard, Canada and Greenland before staging at Pond Inlet Nunavut Canada to challenge the fabled Arctic Northwest Passage 'over-the-top' during the minimum ice season to Alaska then down through British Columbia's breathtaking 'Inside Passage' on the way to our homeport in Astoria Oregon. Departure is scheduled for May 14, 2012.

Everett-based sea captain Douglas Pohl has announced his intention to sail his 55-foot expedition motor vessel, the Grey Goose, through the fabled – and dangerous – arctic waterway known as the Northwest Passage in the summer of 2012, and is offering six fellow boating adventurers “share-the-ride” berths for contributing to the expenses of the voyage. Captain Pohl plans to leave from his outfitting port of Mobile, Alabama in May 2012, and then sail northwards along the Atlantic coastline of the United States and Canada before crossing over to Greenland. By late summer he expects to complete an east-to-west traverse of the Northwest Passage, and by the fall reach his new home port in Astoria, Oregon.

Potential crew mates may join Captain Pohl for the entire voyage, or board the Grey Goose for just a leg of the voyage. The Northwest Passage along the northern coastline of Canada and Alaska, is widely considered by mariners to be one of the most difficult sea passages in the world. It has been ice-blocked throughout history, and only with the recent impact of global climate change has the waterway been free of ice long enough in the summer for a successful crossing. In August 2011, twelve small vessels are reportedly traversing the Northwest Passage, and the waterway is expected to again be ice-free next year in 2012. Captain Pohl estimates that the Grey Goose will be one of the first hundred vessels in history to complete a single season passage of the fabled Northwest Passage. “It’s a chance to do something that very few people have ever done,” said Pohl, adding that those who partake of the adventure will stand in an exclusive circle among nautical enthusiasts. (The above text was adopted from a Press Release from November 1, 2011).

For more information, please refer to www.northwestpassage2012.com, contact the Captain at (425) 971-5765, or email him at info@northwestpassage2012.com.

Polarnet Project - new fiber optics cable for polar communities

2012-01-26T08:56:00.001-06:00

With new fiber optics cables, competition between the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route moves to the seafloor

THE ARCTIC by Mia Bennett

First it was server cooling rooms. Now, new, trans-Arctic telecommunications cables might be the next big thing up north. At this year’s Pacific Telecommunications Council conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, there was much talk about a potential subsea optical transmission cable that could be laid under the Arctic Ocean thanks to the melting ice cap. Network World reports that with this cable, internet, voice, and private traffic could go directly between Asia and Europe, doing away with the need to pass through North America.

Arctic Fibre's Proposed Route through the Northwest Passage, from Nunatsiaq News. (c) Arctic Fibre.

The Toronto Star and Nunatsiaq News have more details on the proposed 15,600 kilometer Canadian cable, which would run between London and Tokyo via the Northwest Passage. Northern China and Japan and Northern Europe would then have a lower latency connection between them, which could be beneficial for financial centers in both continents. Promisingly, the cable could also bring faster internet service to Northern Canada, much of which currently relies on slow satellite-based connections operated primarily by Telesat. Doug Cunningham, president of Arctic Fibre, the company behind the plan, remarked that its aim “is to satisfy a social goal: to provide the necessary bandwidth to people in remote Arctic communities…Without it, the economic divide (between north and south) will only grow wider.” It is important to note, though, that in some places in northern Canada, like Nunavut, the satellite-based internet can actually be faster than the dial-up connections that some people in rural areas in southern Canada use, so the gap is more complicated than a straight north-south divide.

Fast internet is one of the keys to spurring growth in the Canadian North. Given the remote distances, telemedicine and online schooling are more popular and practical solutions than in other places. With faster internet speeds, such industries could take off even more. Arctic Fibre’s proposed cable would reach the settlements of Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, Igloolik, Hall Beach, Cape Dorset and Iqaluit. Many are skeptical, though, that such an investment would be profitable. Given the huge price tag and the small amount of people in the High North, it’s likely that the project would have to be heavily subsidized by the government.

Cunningham envisions that Canada would finance one third of the CAN $640 million project, while Asian, American and European telcoms would pay for the other two thirds. In Canada, he’s hoping to win support from the territorial government of Nunavut and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, where he claims broadband internet could be a real boon. Cunningham remarked on the station, “If you’re sending them there, they need broadband to do their jobs properly. It’s something we take for granted here.” Of course, the scientists in Antarctica do not have broadband internet, nor do scientists working on icebreakers at sea. They all use satellite internet, so service provided at this level is presumably functional enough to let researchers do their jobs.

Polarnet Project's proposed fiber optic cable route.

Arctic Fibre will have to compete against a possible fiber optic cable through the Arctic passage to the east: the Northern Sea Route. Polarnet Project intends to lie down a fiber optics cable from London to Murmansk, Anadyr, Beijing, and Tokyo. Other parts of China, northern Russia, and Seoul would also be connected by this cable. The Russian Optical Trans Arctic Submarine Cable System (ROTACS) is already further along than the Canadian cable. In October 2011, the Russian Governmental Commission for Federal Communications and Information Technology approved the project, and last week, Polarnet Project announced a tender for supply of the cable. The company hopes to begin construction in the second half of this year, while Arctic Fibre wouldn’t get started until at least the third quarter of 2013. Polarnet Project’s website claims that ROTACS would only be 14,700 kilometers, though the Toronto Star reports that it would be a significantly longer 17,000 kilometers; I am not sure of the reason for the difference in measurement.

This is not the first time companies have sought to connect London and Tokyo via the Arctic. In January 2010, it was reported that Khanjee Holding, an infrastructure investment firm, and the Kodiak-Kenai Cable Company wanted to build a similar cable, whose main benefits would have served Alaska rather than Canada. The cable would have had its primary landing in Prudhoe Bay and connections to Dutch Harbor, Nome, Kotzebue, and Barrow. The companies were not successful in obtaining the $350 million in loans they sought from the U.S. government for the project, which ultimately was given a $1 billion price tag.

Now, though, Alaska is out of the picture. It seems that the competition is once again between the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage, though the action is taking place on the seafloor rather than at sea level.

Audubon map – new Puget (Sound) Loop unveiled as enviro groups strategize

2012-01-26T08:48:00.000-06:00

Stormy weather is not the best recipe for bird watching.

But that’s not stopping environmentalists from getting together in Olympia to set their legislative priorities.

And among the festivities celebrating the Washington Conservation Voters’ day of lobbying is the unveiling of a colorful new, hand-drawn bird-watching map.

The new “Puget Loop” Audubon map is the latest in a series of trail maps,used by avid birders.

"It covers the area where most of us live, Puget Sound,” says Woody Wheeler, who now makes a living guiding tourists from all over the country, who come here just to seek out our unique mix of birds.

“And you might think, well there are big cities here and lots of commerce, so maybe there wouldn't be as many birds, but that’s not the case.” Wheeler says.

He can list 4 or five great places to go birding within Seattle’s city limits. They're all on the new map, which he helped create.

Wheeler says one of his favorite places to take people is Union Bay, near the University District, where at this time of year you can find the Pacific Wren. It's a little mottled brown one that doesn't look like much. But he says there's another reason to enjoy finding it.

“It has the longest song of any bird in America. And that's around here. And it's an amazing little song," He says, adding that he had just spotted one there. "They're not singing much now because it's winter. But, when it gets brighter and warmer, they'll start singing more. And they have an incredible song, for such a little bird.”

You can hear the Pacific Wren's long song and see it sing in this YouTube Video:

Christi Norman runs the state’s birding trail program out of another great spot, at the south end of Lake Washington, in Seward Park, where you can see majestic eagles and pre-historic-looking herons, among many others.

But she says that’s just the tiniest taste of what’s on the new map.

“You can see Albatrosses on the Pacific Coast. You can go to eastern Washington to the little, tiniest nooks and crannies and find the Calliopy hummingbird. You can find owls in the Northeast in the Ponderay.”

Or you could seek out the elusive great gray owl that flies into our forested coastlines.

Norman and others attending the strategy sessions in Olympia say this wildlife heritage is part of what brings in scarce funds for essential services, by fueling our tourist trade.

“And we have been growing our wildlife watching about ten times faster than the rest of the country. And that's because we have such fabulous birds all over the state,” Norman says.

She and others attending the Environmental Priorities Coalition day of lobbying say telling people about what we have and then protecting it is something they can celebrate – as they push back against all kinds of rollbacks to environmental battles that are looming because of the down economy.

[You can buy a copy of the map for $4.95 on the web site of Seattle Audubon.]

Inmarsat FleetPhone 800

2012-01-25T07:53:00.000-06:00

Inmarsat’s latest satellite communications system combines a fist-size external antenna, integral GPS and a choice of two telephone terminals, the most versatile being the FleetPhone Oceana 800 (approximately $2,400; dealer prices vary). FleetPhone calls cost as little as 55 cents a minute. Send and receive e-mails and small attachments using a USB connection. Text messages are posted via a PC or the Oceana 800 itself using the terminal’s small color LCD screen. The system incorporates 505 emergency calling and a complete set of tracking features, including periodic location messages (position, speed and heading), one-touch location messaging, ignition on-off reporting and remote location polling via text message. The terminal also operates in speakerphone mode and, allows connection of up to five corded or cordless handsets. Inmarsat, 1-800-563-2255 (toll free in North America), +1 709-748-4226 (Worldwide);www.inmarsat.com

FleetPhone 800 Brochure - http://www.inmarsat.com/Downloads/English/Fleetphone/Collateral/Oceana800_Brochure_Web.pdf?language=EN&textonly=False

Coverage Map - http://www.inmarsat.com/Downloads/English/Coverage/FleetPhone_coverage_map.pdf?language=EN&textonly=False

Cruise captain sparks outrage among mariners

2012-01-24T08:16:00.002-06:00

Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruiser Costa Concordia, which ran aground off Italy's tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, is taken into custody by Carabinieri in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo)

Seafaring tradition holds that the captain should be last to leave a sinking ship. But is it realistic to expect skippers — only human after all — to suppress their survival instinct amid the horror of a maritime disaster? To ask them to stare down death from the bridge, as the lights go out and the water rises, until everyone else has made it to safety?

From mariners on ships plying the world's oceans, the answer is loud and clear: Aye.

"It's a matter of honor that the master is the last to leave. Nothing less will do in this profession," said Jorgen Loren, captain of a passenger ferry operating between Sweden and Denmark and chairman of the Swedish Maritime Officer's Association.

Seamen have expressed almost universal outrage at Capt. Francesco Schettino, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and of abandoning his crippled cruise ship off Tuscany while passengers were still on board. The last charge carries a potential sentence of 12 years in prison.

Jim Staples, a captain for 20 years, who spoke Wednesday from a 1,000-foot cargo vessel he was captaining near New Orleans, said captains are duty-bound to stay with the ship until the situation is hopeless. When they bail early, everything falls apart.

"I'm totally embarrassed by what he did," he said of Schettino. "He's given the industry a bad name, he's made us all look bad. It's shameful."

82 Photos
Luxury cruise ship runs aground
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Winter oil spill training on Great Lakes underway - Where is Shell, BP, Chevron et al ???

2012-01-23T22:16:00.001-06:00

NEWS RELEASE

U.S. COAST GUARD

*************************

Coast Guard, other environmental response agencies to practice recovering oil from icy water

Exercise is first of kind for Coast Guard

CLEVELAND ― Members of the U.S. Coast Guard, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, oil spill response organizations, Enbridge Energy Partners and several other agencies are scheduled to participate in a unique exercise out of St. Ignace, MI, Monday through Wednesday, during which several techniques for recovering spilled oil and other hazardous materials from icy waterways will be tested and evaluated.

While the Coast Guard frequently trains for spill recovery throughout the country, this will be the first time the service has practiced such activities in icy water.

Members of the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, based in Groton, CT, have been studying multiple recovery options for the unique conditions prevalent during Great Lakes winters.

The goal of this project will be to evaluate the effectiveness of those options by recovering small amounts of peat moss and oranges, environmentally-friendly oil surrogates, from the icy waters.

The results could also be useful for future responses in the Arctic.

“Fortunately, it's been about nine years since we've needed to recover a large amount of oil from an ice-covered waterway in this region, but as responders we all need to be prepared for potential accidents year round and know how to address the unique challenges we face here,” said Capt. Joseph McGuiness, commander of Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie, MI. “This collaboration is an invaluable opportunity for all the responders to come together to share our best practices, learn from each other and practice working alongside one another to safeguard the public and the environment.”

Four vessels will be involved in the project.

The Port Huron, MI-based Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock, a buoy tender with ice-breaking capabilities, will deploy and evaluate a new Coast Guard cold-weather skimming system.

Additionally, three commercial tugboats will deploy commercial responders and equipment.

In addition, Enbridge Energy Partners will be deploying responders on the shoreline for training, vessels for use during demonstration and helicopter overflights.

PHOTO CAPTION: Coast Guard, other environmental response agencies prepare equipment for oil-recovery training.

Greedy Lying Bastards - Climate and Capitalism

2012-01-22T09:16:00.001-06:00

Best and most accurate movie title of 2012! A new documentary film exposes the environmental destruction, illness and death caused by the fossil fuel industry

Director Craig Rosebraugh says:

“This film is an investigation into an industry that is simply out of control. The fossil fuel industry has shown that it will stop at nothing to maximize profits for shareholders, whether it’s cutting corners on safety, employing highly paid lobbyist to impact the political process, giving huge amounts to climate change denialists to ensure that no legislation is passed that would impact the bottom line, or complicity in the murder of individuals who speak up against environmental degradation.”

News Release from the film’s producers:

What happens when an industry has too much power? Greedy Lying Bastards presents a searing indictment of the influence, deceit and corruption that defines the fossil fuel industry. From the Gulf Coast to the tiny nation of Tuvalu, from Nigeria and Uganda to Peru and Alaska, filmmaker and political activist Craig Rosebraugh documents the impact of an industry that has continually put profits before people, waged a campaign of lies designed to thwart measures to combat climate change, used its clout to minimize infringing regulations and undermined the political process in the U.S. and abroad.

Rosebraugh’s in-depth investigation into the industry took him to five continents and nine countries. Greedy Lying Bastards is the disturbing and revealing portrait of what he uncovered on his journey, a tale of devastating consequences. By interweaving the stories of the victims of the Gulf oil spill and the global climate crisis with a look at the practices of fossil fuel companies and the climate change deniers they support, he lays bare the industry’s deliberate pattern of irresponsibility. And, while oil companies worldwide exert undue influence over policies that will protect their revenues, those who speak out against the industry’s reckless practices risk their livelihoods, imprisonment, and in some instances, their lives.

The 2010 tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon that cost 11 men their lives, is but one byproduct of the industry’s unchecked–and often unregulated–drive for profits. More than a year later, the documentary shows how Gulf Coast residents continue to pay a steep price. Settlements promised by BP are proving largely insufficient and thousands of claims remain outstanding.

Greedy Lying Bastards goes inside emotionally charged meetings with BP, where those most affected by the spill share their anger, frustration, and hopelessness. Businesses are being forced to close, families are being rendered destitute, and people are desperate. Perhaps one of those victims puts it best when he asks a single word be relayed to BP … “Help.”

Even more alarming, is the increasing number of health problems related to exposure to the crude oil and the toxic dispersant Corexit used to break up the spill. And while the federal government on up to the President has declared Gulf beaches and water clean, and the seafood from the region safe to consume, experienced scientists conducting tests in the Gulf are arriving at very different conclusions. According to one recent test¸ shrimp we’re now eating from the oil-spill affected region showed petroleum hydrocarbon levels ten times the amount now considered safe.

Reassured of its safety, people returned to the beaches with dire—even fatal—consequences. Steven Aguinaga and his friend Merrick Vallian, healthy young men, went swimming off the coast of Florida. They emerged covered in an orange goo. Within 30 days, Vallian was dead and Aguinaga has exhibited and continues to experience severe symptoms associated with chemical exposure.

“They allowed a chemical that was banned in nineteen countries to be sprayed,” a Mississippi resident says. “And now, when people start saying ‘I’m sick, I’ve got all these problems,’ they want to ignore them.”

“I was shocked to learn of the lasting impact and how little had been done for residents economically impacted or those who have experienced serious health issues from chemical poisoning from the crude or the dispersant,” says Rosebraugh. “The Environmental Protection Agency told BP to stop using Corexit in June 2010 yet the oil company continued to use it through the rest of the year and into 2011.”

How can you right the wrongs when the fossil field industry wields so much influence over energy and environmental policies? The film tackles the reason behind stalled efforts to tackle climate change despite consensus in the scientific community that it is not only a reality but a growing problem that is placing us on the brink of disaster. Greedy Lying Bastards details the people and organizations casting doubt on climate science and claims that greenhouse gases are not affected by human behavior. Among those deniers are Republican Presidential candidates, Texas governor Rick Perry and Minnesota representative Michele Bachman, as well as other prominent politicians like Senator James Inhofe, from oil-rich Oklahoma.

Millions are spent each year by oil and related interests to fund the think tanks, groups, scientists and politicians waging what the film deems a campaign of deceit regarding the science of climate change and its dire impact on the planet. Between 1998 and 2008, Greedy Lying Bastards reports ExxonMobil and Koch Industries have each spent nearly $25 million to dispel claims of global warming.

A far different story about climate change is told by the residents of Kivalina, a small Alaskan island above the Arctic Circle. Over the last fifty years, winter temperatures have risen nearly seven degrees and the ice that once protected the land is not forming properly leading to increasing erosion. As one tribal administrator notes: “The debate is over, we are dealing with the realities of climate change.”

A month and half before the Gulf disaster, floods caused an avalanche of mud and rock to decimate three villages in eastern Uganda, killing some 350 people. More extreme weather thought to be caused by climate change has affected people living there at a subsistence level. Unpredictable cycles of floods and droughts are damaging crops and leaving farming practices into disarray.

In Peru, glaciers are melting at accelerating rates. And the Pacific Ocean is consuming the nine islands that make up the nation of Tuvalu. The tiny Polynesian country is in danger of totally disappearing, and a people and culture along with it.

There’s no worse example of environmental devastation from extraction of oil than in the Niger Delta region. Ken Saro Wiwa, an environmental activist in Nigeria, spoke out against the policies of Shell Oil in the area. The nation’s military dictatorship backed by the oil giant conspired to bring him up on charges largely believed to be politically motivated. Wiwa, along with eight others, were hastily tried, found guilty and subsequently hanged.

Filmed in the US, Tuvalu, Peru, England, Uganda, Kenya, Belgium, Denmark and Germany, Greedy Lying Bastards includes interviews with scientists, industry experts, international political delegates, climate change victims as well as deniers, and people affected by the practices of the fossil fuel industry. Among them: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon; Rep. Henry Waxman; former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman; leading climate science skeptics Myron Ebell, Christopher Lord Monckton, and Jay Lehr; Ken Wiwa, the son of the slain Nigerian environmentalist; farmers in Peru and Uganda; and Mike Robichaux, one of the few doctors willing to treat Gulf residents sick with chemical poisoning from the BP spill.

“This film is an investigation into an industry that is simply out of control,” Rosebraugh contends. “The fossil fuel industry has shown that it will stop at nothing to maximize profits for shareholders, whether it’s cutting corners on safety, employing highly paid lobbyist to impact the political process, giving huge amounts to climate change denialists to ensure that no legislation is passed that would impact the bottom line, or complicity in the murder of individuals who speak up against environmental degradation.”

http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=6427

http://greedylyingbastards.com/blog/

Kudos To The OWS Movement

Posted on October 3, 2011

It is exceptional to see people finally standing up against the greed that is so pervasive in society. All around the world we are seeing movements for change, people rising up against dictators, against corruption, and deceit. It isn’t a surprise to see protests on the Brooklyn Bridge after we’ve seen them work in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. For too long we have sat back and accepted a two-party system bank-rolled by corporate interests, we’ve allowed the few who have the wealth and hold the power to systematically erode our democracy to further their own individual economic interests. Their short term conquests turn into our long term plagues. Whether we speak out against the economic crisis with its paralyzing unemployment and foreclosure rates, or the deliberate release of significant levels of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere causing climate warming, the impact of those seeking greedy short term financial gains touches all of us. It is only when we decide to stand up against this greed that things will finally begin to change.

—Craig Rosebraugh

ONE THOUGHT ON “KUDOS TO THE OWS MOVEMENT”

Don Lieber on October 21, 2011 at 5:05 am said:
…and perhaps nowhere do we see the ‘short-term’ greed at our expense more blatant than in the utterly dangerous and bizarre, new and massive expansions of fossil fuel projects – specifically the Keystone XL Pipeline (Tar Sands Oil) and the monster fracking projects of the Delaware River Water Basin (Natural Gas). Coming at the exact time in which fossil fuel use must be reversed — these ‘greedy, lying bastards’ would sneak these gargantuan, murderous projects past us at the drop of a hat. Luckily, citizens like you, and those behind organizations such as http://www.TarSandsAction.org and http://www.WaterDefense.org are fighting against them. Thank you Craig for all you have done — and continue to do. We are with you…..
Reply ↓

Fact Checking President Obama’s Claims About Domestic Energy Production

2012-01-22T09:05:00.002-06:00

The Obama campaign just released a website that purports to provide “the facts of President Obama energy record.” This is an intentional effort by the Obama campaign to distort the President’s abysmal energy record. After all, energy production on federal land is down under President Obama and the Obama campaign is trying their hardest to hide and obfuscate this basic fact.

Obama Claim: “Since President Obama took office, oil imports have been reduced by an average of 1.1 million barrels per day.”

Reality: A reduction of imports has happened in spite of President Obama, not because of him. More than half of the reduction is because the ongoing recession and much higher price have made fuel so expensive that consumers are using less of it.

In January 2009, when President Obama was inaugurated, the U.S. produced 5,154,000 barrels of oil a day.[1] By November 2011, the last month for which we have data, the U.S. was producing 5,874,000 barrels of oil a day. This 700,000 barrel a day increase isn’t happening on federal lands, for which President Obama would justifiably claim some credit, but on private and state lands.

In fact, because of the actions taken by the Obama administration such as severely limiting the offshore areas where oil can be produced,cancelling oil leases, and withdrawing other oil leases, oil production on federal lands will most likely continue to fall. (More of the Obama administration’s anti-energy actions can be found here.)The reality is that oil production on federal lands is falling, while production on private and state lands is rising.[2] There is a long term trend of decreasing oil production on federal lands. In fact, oil production on federal lands has fallen by 43 percent over the past 9 years according to the Obama administration’s Energy Information Administration.[3] And it has dropped rapidly on President Obama’s watch.

Not only is the Obama administration making it more difficult to produce energy on federal lands, they are leasing much less lands than the past. The following chart shows the decline in leasing on onshore lands over the past 30 years. This lack of leasing on federal lands will only result in lower production on federal lands in the future.

Obama Claim: 2010 domestic crude oil production reached its highest levels since 2003.

Reality: This is true, but the average production per day for 2011 is only 0.3 million barrels per day higher than in 2009. And, as noted above, the reason that U.S. crude oil production is increasing is because of production on private and state lands while production on federal lands is decreasing. The President cannot honestly take credit for the production on private and state lands, but he can take partial credit for decreasing production on federal lands.

Obama Claim: 2010 natural gas production reached its highest level in more than 30 years.

Reality: Yes natural gas production is up, but this is because of production on private and state lands because production on federal lands is decreasing. [4]

Obama Claim: The U.S. has become a net energy exporter.

Reality: This claim is 100 percent false. Because the Obama campaign does not provide a single citation or source for their information, it is impossible to know how great its ignorance of energy facts extends. Every year, the Energy Information Administration, which is part of the Obama administration’s Department of Energy, publishes an Annual Energy Review. If the Obama campaign understood energy facts, they would have looked at Table 1.4 of the 2010 Annual Energy Review. They would have found a table titled, “Primary Energy Trade by Source, Selected Years, 1949‚Äì2010.” That table shows that in 2010, far from being a net energy exporter, the U.S. had net imports of 21 quadrillion Btus of energy of the 98 quadrillion btus used.

Obama Claim: The Obama administration has proposed a five-year offshore drilling plan that makes more than 75 percent of undiscovered oil and gas resources off our shores available for development, while putting in place common-sense safety requirements to prevent a disaster like the BP oil spill from happening again.

Reality: When President Obama was inaugurated nearly 100 percent of the offshore areas were available for exploration and development. Since then, the Obama administration has imposed limitations and made it far more difficult to produce energy on offshore areas. For example, even though there is bipartisan support from the Virginia delegation, including the state’s Democratic Senators, the Obama administration refuses to allow energy exploration off Virginia’s coast.

Politicians taking credit for something good happening on their watch is nothing new, but as we have shown, the reduction in oil use is because of economic dislocation visited upon millions of American families by the longest sustained economic downturn since World War II, while the increase domestic production is occuring on state and private lands, while production on government lands over which he has control is going down. In this sense, the president’s claims are simply breathtakingly in their apparent assumption that no one will bother to fact-check his numbers.

[1] Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, Table 3.1 Petroleum Overview, http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_3.pdf.

[2] See Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2010, Table 1.14, Fossil Fuel Production on Federally Administered Lands, Selected Year 1949‚Äì2010,http://205.254.135.24/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec1_31.pdf.

[3] Id.

[4] See Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2010, Table 1.14, Fossil Fuel Production on Federally Administered Lands, Selected Year 1949‚Äì2010,http://205.254.135.24/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec1_31.pdf.

Institute for Energy Research
Most recent columns

The Institute for Energy Research(IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

Speak Up for The Birds and Wildlife of The Arctic Ocean!

2012-01-22T08:53:00.002-06:00

The ocean waters along Alaska`s northern coast provide vital habitat for extraordinary wildlife, including polar bears, walruses, ice-dependent seals, endangered bowhead whales, and millions of migratory birds.

The Arctic Ocean can also be phenomenally harsh: broken ice covers the water for much of the year, storms with hurricane-force winds can whip up 20-foot seas, and it is entirely dark for half the year. The federal government recently released a proposed Five-Year Program (2012-2017) for oil and gas leasing that could open up pristine new areas in the Arctic Ocean offshore of Alaska to oil drilling. The oil industry has never successfully demonstrated the ability to clean up an oil spill in the harsh conditions of the Arctic Ocean.

Speak up for the birds and wildlife of the Arctic Ocean! Please tell the Department of the Interior that the Arctic Ocean should remain off-limits to oil and gas drilling.

http://www.audubonaction.org/site/R?i=LV0rXdqy3UPU1nIvc1WS_A

An oil spill in the Arctic Ocean could be disastrous for marine mammals such as polar bears, Bowhead whales, walruses, and seals. It would also harm birds such as the Spectacled Eider, Steller`s Eider, and Yellow-billed Loon, all three of which are on the Alaska WatchList.1

Even without the threat of oil and gas development, the Arctic is subject to rapid climate warming at a rate that is twice the rest of the earth. Changes due to warming are already having significant negative impacts on Arctic people and ecosystems. Additional oil and gas activities in the Arctic would only add to existing impacts.

Tell the Department of Interior that you oppose new drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Submit your public comments today.

Sincerely,

David Yarnold
President & CEO

Audubon Alaska Watchlist: http://ak.audubon.org/alaska-watchlist

Arctic Oil Spill Clean-up Impossible - PROVE IT WRONG

2012-01-22T08:32:00.002-06:00

A unique icy water oil spill response exercise is planned for Moran Bay at St. Ignace from Monday through Wednesday.

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, oil spill response organizations, Enbridge Energy Partners and several other agencies will test and evaluate several techniques for recovering spilled oil and other hazardous materials from icy waterways.

We know that clean up of an oil spill in the icy waters of the Arctic is impossible - no new technology and no infrastructure - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. So where is SHELL OIL during the above exercise? The U.S. Government has grossly approved Shell Oil to drill in the Arctic in 2012. If there is an oil spill how will it be cleaned up in the remote icy Arctic?

IT WILL NOT BE CLEANED UP - ITS IMPOSSIBLE TODAY

MORE LIKELY THAN NOT - THE GOVERNMENT WILL APPROVE THE USE OF TOXIC DISPERSANT APPLICATION FROM AIRCRAFT WHICH WILL ATTEMPT TO SINK THE OIL OUT OF SIGHT. THE OIL WILL REMAIN IN THE ENVIRONMENT - POLLUTING THE ENVIRONMENT, WILDLIFE AND INHABITANTS.

PLEASE VOTE FOR RESPONSIBLE CHANGE OF ALL ELECTED POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON D.C.

NO MORE IRRESPONSIBLE DRILLING UNTIL NEW OIL SPILL CLEAN UP TECHNOLOGY IS PROVEN.

SHELL OIL - YOU HAVE THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES - PUT THOSE NASA ROCKET ENGINEERS TO GOOD USE - NEW OIL CLEAN UP TECHNOLOGY SO YOU CAN DRILL IN REMOTE REGIONS SAFELY.

Imagine if the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill happened in the Arctic Ocean, Audubon Alaska 6-2-2010

More dangerous drilling
By DP OPINION

Re: “Shell allowed to drill in Arctic,” Jan. 13 business news story.

The Denver Post reported that air permits are approved to allow offshore oil drilling by Shell off the north coast of Alaska. Why?

The Energy Department just reported the U.S. is now exporting more petroleum products than it imports! This dangerous drilling is not about energy independence, but about higher oil company profits selling Alaskan crude overseas.

This area also has extreme weather and sea conditions and the Coast Guard says it has no capacity to do anything about an oil spill off the north coast of Alaska when it occurs. Coast Guard Adm. Robert Papp told Congress that if the Deepwater Horizon disaster was “to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we’d have nothing” to deal with it. And given the past lies of BP, Exxon and Shell, do we really trust them to tell the truth when they say they will not cause an oil spill?

Ed Talbot, Arvada

This letter was published in the Jan. 22 edition.

For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here. Follow DPLetters on Twitter to receive updates about new letters to the editor when they’re posted

RENDA delivery raises questions - a real fuel shortage?

2012-01-21T08:16:00.003-06:00

While Alaska dignitaries gathered in Nome on Sunday to sing the praises of the recent collaboration that brought the Coast Guard's icebreaker, the Healy, and the Russian icebreaker, the Renda, all the way to the Arctic in the dead of winter to fill the town's fuel tanks, others have been less impressed.

Around town, few people wanted to throw stones on the record, but some were unsure that a fuel shortage even existed. Others, including the town's newspaper, said the story was blown out of proportion by national media.

"The irresistible sitting-on-the-the-edge-of-chairs tidbit that Nome suffers a dire shortage of heating fuel in dark subzero weather — all untrue," wrote the Nome Nugget on its Web site post.

That's partly true, said Jason Evans, chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp. The town had a 70 percent chance of making it to break-up with some heating fuel left in the tanks. But it had almost no chance of making it through the winter with enough gas and diesel to power the town's cars, trucks, sno-gos and machinery.

"We wouldn't have gone through all of this effort if there was no reason to," Evans said.

Perhaps part of the confusion is because the town has two suppliers of fuel: Crowley Maritime Corp., which has a tank farm in Nome that holds 4.6 million gallons of petroleum products, and Bonanza Fuel, a subsidiary of the Sitnasuak Native Corp.

Evans said, however, that Sitnasuak checked with Crowley to see how much fuel its tanks had left before determining that there would be a shortage without the outside delivery. The town's power plant also has tanks, and those reserves were accounted for. It was still not enough, he said.

The shortage was the result of a delivery failure by Delta Western last fall. Sitnasuak ordered 1.6 million gallons of fuel last May, with an expected delivery in late August. That delivery got pushed back to October and then further. A storm came in, followed by several days of cold weather, and shipping lanes froze up before the barge could make it to Nome.

As Sitnasuak considered its options, the idea of using a Russian icebreaker came up. Evans said a friend called and said, "You know, it is theoretically possible..." A discussion with Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell followed, Evans said, and still, the icebreaker delivery option stayed on the table. The U.S. Coast Guard's single icebreaker, the Healy, meanwhile, showed up on Nome's horizon by coincidence.

That by no means guaranteed the Healy's help. It wasn't until much later in the planning process that Evans said he knew the Healy would be able to assist the Renda, but the U.S. Coast Guard was involved all along with inspection of the delivery plan, the ship and working with regulations, he said.

Meanwhile, Alaska's elected officials, both state and federal, got on board with the effort. The delivery shown a spotlight on what many officials had been saying for years: the U.S. and Alaska need more icebreakers for the Coast Guard to do its job properly in the Arctic.

In a press conference Sunday in Nome, Sen. Lisa Murkowski noted that the world had been watching this historic event unfold.

"Their eyes have been opened to Alaska perhaps more than through reality TV shows," Murkowski said. "We are an Arctic nation — we might need some ice-breaking capacity."

Treadwell echoed Murkowski's sentiment, saying that the United States needed icebreakers to enjoy some of the same things other Arctic nations in the world enjoy, like the ability to protect their borders and respond to crisis efficiently.

While some comments on Alaska newspaper Web sites have been critical of the Coast Guard's involvement in the effort, saying it was a waste of tax-payer dollars and a glorified political stunt, Evans said many in Nome and elsewhere in Arctic communities agree with politicians that the United States needs to wake up to the need for icebreakers. Many Arctic nations in the world have fleets of a dozen or more heavy icebreakers, while the U.S. is down to one operational ship — the Healy, which is designed for scientific expeditions.

From the start, Evans said his corporation searched for a business solution to its fuel shortage. "We never asked the city of Nome or the state of Alaska to solve our problem," he said. What the corporation did was ask for help facilitating the extraordinary shipment.

Which is how the U.S. Coast Guard and its only in-service icebreaker, the research cutter Healy, became involved.

"The Coast Guard has a long tradition of helping villages," said Lt. Veronica Colbath, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard in Alaska.

Still, the Coast Guard took the job as part of its mission to protect maritime commerce. Generally in Alaska, that work is only year-round in ice-free waterways. Cutting a custom channel through hundreds of miles of sea ice to lead a heavily-loaded fuel tanker to Western Alaska was a first.

"It is not a traditional mission for us in Alaska, but is a traditional mission for the Coast Guard," said public affairs specialist David Mosely, referring to commerce ports in the Great Lakes region and on the nation's East Coast that experience ice and are maintained throughout the winter.

Having a Coast Guard cutter lead the way in, almost like a personal guide, could be viewed as the very kind of government handout Sitnasuak was hoping to avoid. But just how much money the nation spent assigning Healy to lead the way isn't known — and won't be anytime soon.

"We're not getting into numbers," said Lt. Colbath, who couldn't say how much of the Healy's $28 million annual budget the voyage will cost. "We are not going to give an amount of how much money it is costing for the Healy to participate in this mission because it is a worthwhile event for the Coast Guard."

The mission, Colbath said, was great training for what many believe is the future of the Arctic — less ice, increased human activity and the need for a bolstered Coast Guard presence. And, she said, it falls in line with the agency's mandate to maintain the safety and security of maritime transportation.

"I don't think we necessarily got any special treatment," Evans said. "We worked through the process that is in place for all Americans."

Evans said the decision to move forward with the plan to bring the fuel to Nome via a Russian icebreaker was unanimously supported by the Native corporation, although there were plenty of questions and concerns raised by the board.

"I think many people in the Native community and the Arctic communities feel there should be a greater presence by the Coast Guard in the Arctic waters of Alaska," Evans said, noting the increase in shipping as well as oil and gas activity taking place off the shores of the North Slope. "We are always sensitive to community perception, but we feel that it was necessary. I think most people are proud of this accomplishment."

http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1203renda_delivery_raises_questions

Don't Believe the (BP) Hype!

2012-01-19T22:11:00.002-06:00

Notice the increase in BP commercials on television lately? You know, the ones that show pristine beaches, people gallivanting in the water, "locals" claiming that all is well in the Gulf following the devastating explosion and oil spill in April of 2010 that released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil and gas into the ocean, killing 11 and injuring 17 others while virtually shutting down the seafood industry in the area? The commercials that show BP employees rattling off a bunch of statistics about the improvements that have been made since the spill? These are the same employees that appear at black tie events exclaiming their company's commitment to communities and the environment. All of this is part of a multimillion ad spend that BP has launched to win back the public's confidence... and the right to continue drilling in the Gulf. While several of the points in the commercials regarding the effectiveness of BP's response to the horrific accident are true, allow for me to provide some balance to their story. Yes, BP has spared no expense in cleaning up the oil. Yes, the company has set aside $1 billion to restore the environment and ecosystem. However, not everyone harmed by this tragic accident has enjoyed the successful resolution the company portrays.

You see, while 30 percent of the fund has been paid out to nearly 200,000 claimants, the vast majority of the money has gone to large corporations serving the tourism industry. These companies can afford expensive accounting firms, lobbyists and lawyers to represent them when seeking compensation from BP. Who is noticeably missing from receiving compensation are many of the individuals that make up the middle class, the working poor, and the small business owners. These are the mom and pop operations, the independent shrimpers and commercial fishermen and the like. These are the people that not only work the water to make a living, but also to feed their families. These are the voiceless people who live and work in the disenfranchised communities down the bayous struggling to make ends meet. These are the people that find it difficult to navigate their way through the myriad of red tape and high hurdles to receive the compensation from the fund they so rightfully deserve. These are the people that cannot afford attorneys to fight on their behalf. These are Cajuns, Creoles, African Americans and Native Americans. Many of the rules and regulations that BP has set forth for individuals to prove that they have been economically harmed by the accident are reminiscent of the old "Poll Tax" methods used to discourage. The vast majority of these people throw their hands up in frustration and despair and ultimately accept "Quick Pay" or nothing at all (Quick Pay is where you sign all your rights away in return for a $5,000 check). I understand that Ken Feinberg has indicated publicly that he expects to return more than half of the $20 billion fund back to BP. Unfortunately, we can already anticipate the sad scenario whereby Wall Street will applaud BP for recouping funds; Mr. Feinberg will be lauded, and the company will go right back to drilling in the Gulf, all while this already vulnerable group of fellow Americans continue to suffer. I borrow a quote from one of President Obama's speeches, "...that is inexcusable, it's wrong, it flies in the face of everything we stand for."

My firm is assisting a community that has been devastated by the Spill -- the Biloxi Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogee Indians. My colleagues and I have witnessed first-hand the challenges these fellow Americans face in trying to obtain a fair settlement from BP. I would like to invite Interior Dept. Chief Ken Salazar -- the person in charge of granting drilling licenses to big oil companies -- the people in those BP commercials who claim they are from these affected areas, and even Ken Feinberg himself to join us at our workshops in the Gulf where we help these fellow Americans complete the sixteen page claims application that comes with one hundred and twenty three pages of calculations and a laundry list of requests for supportive documentation. I'd like to show them how the "little people" are faring in the great success story that BP is pitching. I would recommend that instead of granting organizations like Catholic Charities over $100 million to assist disenfranchised communities, why not provide the funds directly to the affected communities? These funds could be used to create jobs, spur economic growth and provide this region with ancillary services it so badly needs -- job training, healthcare, affordable safe housing, etc. One of President Obama's greatest accomplishments - securing funds from BP without going through a long and protracted litigation battle - is falling short of its intention. BP and the powers that be are not adhering to the president's orders of providing swift and reasonable compensation to injured claimants... at least not to this vulnerable segment of the population.

Ivan Thornton
Managing Partner, Fiduciary Management Group, LLC

Royal Canadian Navy Intelligence Officer Faces Espionage Charges - Navigate the NW Passage Undetected?

2012-01-18T17:43:00.001-06:00

Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle arrives Tuesday at the Provincial Court in Halifax to face espionage charges. Delisle, an intelligence officer with the Canadian Navy, is accused of passing information to a foreign entity.
Photograph by: Paul Darrow, Reuters, Postmedia News

An unfolding espionage case involving a Royal Canadian Navy intelligence officer could be connected to the territorial dispute in the Arctic, an intelligence expert said Tuesday.

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former officer with the CSIS spy agency, said his sources told him the duties of Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle in Halifax included monitoring vessel traffic in the North Atlantic.

Delisle had access to sensitive information, including locations of ocean sensors that help authorities monitor ship movements. That type of information could be useful to a country, such as Russia, if it wanted to try to navigate waters without being detected, he said.

Media reports have suggested Delisle was leaking information to Russia.

Jeremy Kinsman, a former Canadian ambassador to Russia, suggested Tuesday the type of information Russia might want could be related to Canada's intentions over territorial claims in the Arctic. Canada and Russia have duelling claims to the mineral riches of the Arctic and the strategic and commercial potential of the Northwest Passage shipping route.

Neither police nor government officials would say who was receiving the information or the nature of the information that was leaked.

"I can assure you the government of Canada takes every step to protect government information, secure and otherwise, " Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Tuesday.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa had no comment.

Delisle, 40, of Bedford, N.S., who remains in custody, is accused of passing protected government information to an unknown foreign body from between July 6, 2007 and Jan. 13 of this year. Court documents allege the leaks took place near Ottawa, Halifax, Bedford, N.S., and Kingston, Ont. He could face a life sentence.

Delisle, who neighbours have described as a regular family man, is the first person to be charged under Canada's Security of Information Act. The act was part of a package of anti-terrorism laws introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Court documents allege the intelligence officer leaked information that could "increase the capacity of a foreign entity or a terrorist group to harm Canadian interests."

Mackay said it remains to be seen if Canadian security was compromised.

Juneau-Katsuya said Canada is known abroad as a "playground" for spies and Delisle's arrest underscores the need for this country to beef up its counter-intelligence. Canada is a target because it is a technology and research centre and because of its close relationships with other western countries, he said.

"We're in the inner circle of all the major military alliances and decision-making of the western world," he said. "We have the secrets of all our friends."

Juneau-Katsuya said it would not surprise him if Russia were the country receiving the leaked information.

Canada is a member of NATO and Russia remains an adversary despite the end of the Cold War, he said.

Michael Byers, a political science professor at the University of B.C. and Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, said Tues-day that while the situation is unsettling, it would have been far more serious during the Cold War.

"In the absence of significant military tension between Russia and NATO, there's no immediate use for that information," Byers said. "If this was 1980, I would be very alarmed by this development. I'm not alarmed by this, although I am certainly concerned."

Byers said any information potentially fed to Russian interests would be for use in case of future international tension. He said the affair could signal an apparent effort from the Russians to simply "cover its bases," adding that "we do the same thing. I've spent enough time with [Canadian] military officers to know they have plans for everything.

"Given that Russia's principal military strength remains its nuclear sub-marine fleet ... and needs to be able to access the Atlantic Ocean via some relatively narrow waterways, having inside information as to the acoustic sensor locations of NATO countries would certainly facilitate the covert movement of those vessels."

He stressed that with Russia's cur-rent standing in the global community, including its recent addition to the World Trade Organization, there's no reason for it to "upset the apple cart."

A larger question, Byers said, is how Prime Minister Stephen Harper chooses to respond to the situation.

"You can either kind of shrug it off in terms of foreign relations ... or you can use it as an opportunity to stir up some controversy in international relations," he said. "I would encourage the Harper government to take the former approach and to shrug this off. We all know that espionage hap-pens and we also know that as far as Russia goes, that steering Russia in a more co-operative direction is good for everyone."

Whatever the case, said Kinsman, the alleged breach is serious, he said. Canada is the custodian of a lot of other countries' information and if this country is seen as lax in terms of protecting that information, other countries may be hesitant about sharing information in the future, Kinsman said.

"If there are violations, you have to show that you are acting decisively. If you become suspect you won't get what you need for the monitoring of your shores."

MacKay insisted Tuesday that Canada remains trusted by its allies.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/caper+linked+territorial+disputes+Arctic+observers/6013197/story.html#ixzz1jr93qFq0

Shell Oil steps forward to challenge drilling in Alaska - NEW ICE CLASS SUPPORT VESSEL

2012-01-18T15:58:00.000-06:00

The M/V Aiviq icebreaker, contracted by Shell Oil to support drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, is scheduled to be completed by Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore in early 2012. The vessel, ordered in July 2009, is on track for April 1, 2012, delivery in Galliano, La., and will then head north, according to Shell Oil spokesman Curtis Smith.

The $200m Aiviq is the largest vessel ever built by Chouest, and will be among the most advanced and powerful, non-military icebreakers on the waters. Lonnie Thibodeaux, Chouest spokesman, said the vessel's hull was scheduled to leave the company's North American Shipbuilding yard in Larose, La. on Dec. 20 for its LaShip yard in Houma, where the bridge is being built for final assembly. The Aiviq will travel though the Panama Canal to Alaska this spring.

In order for a ship to be “ice class,” the hull must be thick, and extra girders, beams and bulkheads are needed for structural integrity. The Aiviq is designed to American Bureau of Shipping A3 capabilities to operate in frigid, minus-40-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, and can slash through a meter of ice with 20 centimeters of snow at 5 knots, Smith said. Crafted specially for harsh winter conditions, the ship can also work in Alaska the rest of the year.

The vessel is being built to International Maritime Organization's Polar Code 3, and measures 111.8 m long, with a 22-m beam and 22-m draft. “It has hybrid generators, noise-reduction equipment, and meets or exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards,” Smith said. The Aiviq can hold thousands of barrels of oil. And because it will be stationed far from medical facilities, the vessel will have a hospital on board.

Building the icebreaker has kept more than 600 workers busy in south Louisiana, helping a region hit hard by an offshore drilling moratorium in the summer and fall of 2010, following the BP spill. And the Aiviq is expected to create over 100 jobs in Alaska, according to Shell.

“Like other vessels in the Chouest fleet, we designed the Aiviq, built it and will operate it,” Thibodeaux said. “We will crew the Aiviq, and personnel from Shell will be on the vessel too.” The icebreaker can accommodate 65 staff in cruise-ship-like quarters.

While South Louisiana, which seldom sees snow, may be an unlikely place to produce icebreakers, Thibodeaux said “we built the Nanuq ice-class supply vessel for Shell in 2007 and have also built two icebreakers for the National Science Foundation.” The Nanuq was outfitted with oil-spill-response capabilities well before the 2010 Macondo spill in the Gulf, he noted. The Aiviq is designed to work in tandem with the Nanuq.

Thibodeaux explained that Aiviq means walrus in the Inupiaq language, and was named by a 12-year-old girl in Nuiqsut, Alaska in a contest sponsored by Shell. Prior to that, the Nanuq, meaning polar bear in Inupiaq, was named by residents of the village of Kaktovik.

The Aiviq is designed with the habits of marine animals in mind. “We're being as proactive as possible in an effort to reduce our overall sound footprint,” Smith said. “Insonification is a significant issue for stakeholders who rely on marine mammals for subsistence hunting.” Man-made noises disrupt mammals communicating via the emission of sounds in water, often at great distances.

Smith said Shell has long worked with the assistance of ice-class vessels offshore. “Shell drilled the majority of the wells in the Beaufort Sea in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and drilled four of the five wells ever drilled in the Chukchi during that same period,” he said.

Shell Poised For More Arctic Drilling

Shell plans to drill new wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in 2012 and 2013. The company has invested billions in Arctic leases since 2005 but ran into opposition from environmentalists and native Alaskan groups. Last August, however, Shell received a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conditional permit to explore for oil in the Beaufort Sea, east of the Chukchi. In October, the EPA issued a final air-discharge permit sought by Shell to drill in the Beaufort Sea. With that air permit, Shell can use its Kulluk rig for 120 days a year in Arctic waters, the agency said. In mid-December, BOEM conditionally approved a revised, Shell plan to drill six, oil-exploration wells in the Chukchi Sea next year.

Together, the Beaufort and Chukchi seas could hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In comparison, 17 billion barrels of oil have flowed out of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay fields in the past 30 years.

Icebreaking in the U.S. dates back to the 1830's for clearing harbors in East Coast ports. After the U.S. purchased Alaska in 1867, the Coast Guard --then called the Revenue Marine or Revenue Cutter Service--began to deal with icy Alaskan waters. In this decade, as climate change causes polar ice to melt, more traffic is expected in Arctic waters. Global warming has opened up the Arctic in the summer, expanding the time that drillers and international shippers can operate without risking ice collisions.

Last summer, Coast Guard commandant Admiral Robert Papp warned that if a big oil spill were to occur in the Arctic, the U.S. lacks the infrastructure and equipment to respond quickly. The Coast Guard says that it needs more heavy- and medium-duty icebreakers though paying for them is a challenge. Companies need more vessels to smash through ice too. For now, foreign vessels are allowed to work in frigid U.S. waters under a Jones Act exemption that expires in 2017.

(As published in the January 2012 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News - www.marinelink.com)

Cruise ship catastrophe happening again unlikely? NOT

2012-01-17T09:52:00.000-06:00

UPDATE - 20120117

I HEARD THAT THE CRUISE SHIP LOST ELECTRICAL POWER AND WAS RE-BOOTING - EQUIPMENT RE-BOOTING WAS THE BASIS FOR BEING OFF COURSE WHEN THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED. I CALL THAT HUMAN ERROR FOR NOT TAKING EARLY ACTION TO ENSURE SAFE NAVIGATION OF THE SHIP.

What if in the USA?
U.S. Navigation Rules - http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=navRulesContent
Rule 1 - Application
(a) These Rules shall apply to all vessels...
Rule 2 - Responsibility
(a) Nothing in these Rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case....
Rule 4 - Application
Rules in this section apply to any condition of visibility.
Rule 5 - Lookout
Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.
Rule 6 - Safe Speed
Every vessel shall at all times proceed at a safe speed so that she can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped within a distance appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions.
Rule 7 - Risk of Collision

(a) Every vessel shall use all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions to determine if risk of collision exists. If there is any doubt such risk shall be deemed to exist.
(b) Proper use shall be made of radar equipment if fitted and operational, including long-range scanning to obtain early warning of risk of collision and radar plotting or equivalent systematic observation of detected objects.
(c) Assumptions shall not be made on the basis of scanty information, especially scanty radar information.
Rule 8 - Action to Avoid Collision

(a) Any action taken to avoid collision shall be taken in accordance with the Rules of this Part and [Intl] shall, if the circumstances of the case admit, be positive, made in ample time and with due regard to the observance of good seamanship.
Rule 9 - Narrow Channels
(a) (i) [Inld] A vessel proceeding along the course of a narrow channel or fairway shall keep as near to the outer limit of the channel or fairway which lies on her starboard side as is safe and practicable.

AND THE RULES GO ON... YOU GET THE IDEA - IT WAS NOT JUST ONE VIOLATION...

Typical Master's Standing Orders - http://www.northwestpassage2012.com/standingorders/MASTER'S_STANDING_ORDERS.htm

UNTIL THIS LOSS OF ELECTRICAL POWER IS FALT-TREE RESOLVED FOR ALL CRUISE SHIPS - THIS POTENTIAL PROBLEM COULD HAPPEN AGAIN. CAPTAINS AND MATES NAVIGATE SHIPS, ENGINEERS OPERATE THE SHIP'S MACHINERY - MIGHT THE PROBLEM REALLY BE HUMAN? TAKING THE HUMAN ERROR OUT OF THE EQUATION WOULD BE A GIANT STEP FORWARD...

- - - SNIP - - -
NOW FOR THE CRUISE INDUSTRY'S COMMENTS

Could a catastrophe similar to what happened with the cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy happen in B.C.?

It’s extremely unlikely, say local authorities and industry officials, despite the province’s precarious coastline and narrow passageways that cruise ships traverse on a regular basis.

“You can never say it will never happen because things do happen,” said Kevin Obermeyer, president and CEO of the Pacific Pilotage Authority, which provides pilots for cruise ships in B.C. waters. “But the [cruise ship] crews are highly professional and the vessels are highly sophisticated and well maintained. I’ve done the Alaska trip myself and if I had any concerns you wouldn’t see me on the ship. And I’ll be doing another cruise in March.”

Obermeyer was commenting on whether B.C. could face anything similar to the grounding Friday of the Costa Concordia off Italy’s Tuscan coast. The accident, which killed at least six people, will cost parent company Carnival Corp. — the world’s biggest cruise ship operator — as much as $95 million.

Obermeyer said all ships over 350 gross tons operating within two nautical miles of the B.C. coast require a pilot at all times — two pilots if the trip is longer than eight hours.

He said in 13 years as president, there hasn’t been a serious accident involving a cruise ship, other than some “minor bumps and scrapes” while docking.

He said the narrowest passage the ships traverse is Seymour Narrows near Campbell River and they don’t sail the Inside Passage to Alaska any more.

Greg Wirtz, president of Northwest and Canada Cruise Association, which represents 10 member lines in Canada and the U.S., said in an interview that the tragedy in Italy is foremost on everyone’s mind and is being monitored closely by the industry.

“Our industry in B.C. is carefully regulated [by the International Maritime Organization], as it is worldwide. And Transport Canada requires pilots on board anywhere in coastal waters.

“Accidents can and do happen anywhere, [but] the foremost interest of our industry is to prevent accidents from happening the first time.”

Wirtz said one million passengers ply B.C.’s waters annually on cruises, and that he’s unaware of any passengers cancelling tickets or registering safety concerns.

Nevertheless, Carnival’s share price dipped Monday and Wyn Ellis, an analyst at Numis Securities in London, cautioned that “there will be negative short-term implications for bookings across the cruise sector as pictures of the stricken ship are flashed around the world.”

Carmen Ortega, manager of cruises for Port Metro Vancouver, said home-ported ships will make 191 calls this year, with 670,000 passengers with each call resulting in $2 million of direct economic activity locally.

“It’s probably too early to tell, but [the Costa Concordia grounding] shouldn’t have an impact on business.”

Harbourmaster Capt. Yoss Leclerc also said he doesn’t have any safety concerns.

Carnival is the parent company of Holland America and Princess Cruises, which account for most of the ships home-ported in Vancouver.

bmorton@vancouversun.comWith files from Bloomberg
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Cruise+ship+catastrophe+unlikely+experts/6005221/story.html#ixzz1jjOVwcx8

Shell gets conditional BOEM approval for Chukchi exploration but would it clean up an oil spill - DOUBTFUL

2012-01-17T09:12:00.003-06:00

The Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) has approved conditionally Shell’s Revised Chukchi Sea Exploration Plan set to begin this year.

Shell still must get approval from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) regarding its Oil Spill Response Plan and well-specific applications for permit to drill. Shell must also obtain permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

If the exploration and approvals process allow, Shell proposes to drill up to six exploration wells in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea beginning in the 2012 drilling season.

Shell currently is evaluating the conditions stated in the approval, particularly one that could limit the Chukchi drilling season. BOEM says Shell must cease drilling into zones capable of flowing liquid hydrocarbons 38 days before the first-date of ice encroachment over the drill site. Based on a five-year analysis of historic weather patterns, BOEM anticipates November 1 as the earliest anticipated date of ice encroachment. The 38-day period would also provide a window for the drilling of a relief well, should one be required.

Other conditions are concerned with Shell’s measures taken to mitigate oil spill risk and the availability of spill response equipment in the Chukchi Sea.

1991 Gulf War Oil Spill Finally Cleared (21 YEARS LATER)

In a report on infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia, Arab News notes in passing that the last bits of pollution from Iraq’s dumping Kuwaiti oil into the Gulf in 1991 during Gulf War (Desert Storm) have now been cleared from beaches in the Eastern Province.

The article also addresses projects sewage treatment and anti-desertification projects.

EP beaches now free of Gulf War pollution, says PME

ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: President of Meteorology and Environment Protection (PME) Prince Turki bin Nasser said beaches in the in Eastern province have been cleaned of all pollutions caused by the Gulf War.

Prince Turki, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Society for Environment, said in statement following the signing of agreement of cooperation between the society and the Ministry of Water and Electricity on in Jeddah on Saturday.

The prince said many projects are underway to combat desertification in some parts of the Kingdom.

It required over 20 years for the Persian Gulf oil spill from the Gulf War to be cleaned up. The weather conditions, worker housing and labor to perform the clean up was available in the area.

The EXXON VALDEZ oil spill in Prince William Sound Alaska was never cleaned up - even after four Summers of effort - its now been over 20 years and oil remains trapped in the beaches and is leaching out into the environment.

How did Exxon Oil company get a free pass? Can you spell P-O-L-I-T-I-C-S ?

There were inadequate laws to compel Exxon to complete a further clean up.

EXXON DID NOT CLEAN UP THE EXXON VALDEX OIL SPILL.

BP HAS NOT CLEANED UP THE GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL. OIL REMAINS ON THE OCEAN SEA FLOOR. BP CLAIMS THERE IS NO TECHNOLOGY TO CLEAN UP THIS POLLUTION. UNDOUBTEDLY SHELL WILL SAY THE SAME THING FOR CLEAN UP IN THE ARCTIC.

CHEVRON CORPORATION HAS SPILLED OIL IN EQUADOR AND BRAZIL WITHOUT FULL AND PROPER CLEAN UP.

CAN SHELL OIL COMPANY AND WILL SHELL OIL COMPANY CLEAN UP AN ARCTIC OIL SPILL? VERY DOUBTFUL - NO LABOR, INFRASTRUCTURE OR TECHNOLOGY. NONE! SHELL'S TRACK RECORD IN THE NIGER DELTA OIL SPILL SAYS CLEAN UP IS NOT A PRIORITY.

THE USA GOVERNMENT REGULATORS HAVE ACTED IN A RECKLESS MANNER BY APPROVING ARCTIC DRILLING AT THIS TIME WITHOUT DEMONSTRATED PROOF OF REASONABLE CLEANUP UP - NOT DISPERSANT SINK AND COVER UP - IN ARCTIC CONDITIONS - TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

APPROVALS ARE NOT JUSTIFIED BECAUSE THE POTENTIAL DAMAGES ARE NOT PREVENTABLE OR REVERSIBLE - SHELL IS ALSO ACTING AGAINST THE USA ENVIRONMENT AND USA CITIZENS - ALL IN THE NAME OF CORPORATE PROFITS.

HOW DO YOU CHANGE THIS SITUATION? VOTE FOR NEW REPRESENTATIVES WHO CAN MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN IN WASHINGTON DC.

SLIDESHOW - Gulf Oil Spill Photos by Mike Fritz and Gerald Herbert

2012-01-15T09:49:00.000-06:00

To commemorate the one year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, filmmaker Mike Fritz teamed up with Associated Press photographer, Gerald Herbert, to produce a short telling of the impact the oil spill has made on the Gulf Coast. The slideshow offers viewers a collection of photographs taken by Herbert over the past year to capture the affects of the spill and the progress that has been made to restore the Gulf. Herbert also delivers the narration for the film, as he expands on what it was like to cover the tragedy and the progress being made. Herbert shoots primarily on his Canon 5D Mark II. Take a moment and enjoy:

A Year in Photos: The Lingering Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill from Mike Fritz on Vimeo.

Herbert was part of a reporting team that provided the only shots of the immediate aftermath of the explosion and he has spent the majority of his time ever since criss-crossing the region, meeting with family members who lost loved ones aboard the Deepwater Horizon and documenting the effects of the spill’s reach on the local wildlife and ecology.

“Looking back over the last year, it’s been an exhausting process,” Herbert says of the efforts put forth by both, himself, and residents of the impacted region.

The oil spill has been called one of the largest ecological disasters in North America. It’s responsible for 11 casualties of BP workers and threatening countless sea life and coastal habitats.

Interview with Gulf Oil Spill Photographer

Herbert does an excellent job of portraying the current state of the Gulf Coast through his photography as he explores the area by helicopter, boat, and on foot.

Qualcomm Announces $10M Prize For Real Life Star Trek Gadget

2012-01-15T09:41:00.004-06:00

Ruthless times, when you were dragged to a doctor but cry no more because technology promises a better future. Qualcomm has announced a $10M prize for anybody who comes out with a Star Trek like real life medical Tricorder. For the unfortunate kind who have not watched Star Trek and don’t make sense of the Tricorder, it is used by doctors to help diagnose diseases and collect bodily information about a patient in a 23rd century fictional Star Trek universe.

Dr. Eric Topol, the chief academic officer of Scripps Health with Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs took the stage at CES 2012 to talk how ARM and smartphones are emerging as medical tools. Dr. Jacobs in particular does not appreciate the long waiting hours and the inaccuracy that comes with unreliable medical professionals. As an alternative, Qualcomm wants to introduce a mobile self-diagnosis device for accurate scanning of diseases.

Dr. Topol, who already has some experience in this field and is the author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine shared some successful devices like the clip-on smartphone electrocardiogram (EKG) reader, made by Qualcomm-funded AliveCor, an Android widget that received real-time, continuous information from a glucose monitoring device, and a slick device from DNA Electronics that is a handheld DNA analyzer.

The ‘Tricorder’ winner would take an X-Prize which is a well-known name for hosting competitions to find superior solutions to existing ones. The past ventures have included space travel, fuel efficiency, and oil spill cleanup. Qualcomm is expecting an ”easy to use” device capable of broad self-diagnosis and the device which perfects it would take home $10M. Though the real Star Trek gadget functioned without the need to touch the patient, Qualcomm is letting that slide to ensure real products on the market.

Source: DailyTech Image Credit: Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize

Has BP made it right? Company still has work remaining to right wrongs of oil spill

2012-01-15T09:36:00.000-06:00

Even while oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, British Petroleum, which was ultimately responsible for the rig that exploded, bought TV ads that claimed it would “make it right” for the people and the environment of the Gulf Coast.

BP now is running ads saying, in effect, that it has.

Let us be clear: BP has done more than many expected it would. It set aside $1 billion for coastal restoration and (with pressure from the White House) allocated $20 billion to compensate those who can show they were damaged by the spill. So far, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has paid out $6.3 billion collectively to nearly 200,000 claimants.

While some criticize how this has been carried out, others believe that when everything is settled, this will become a model for dealing with the effects of man-made environmental disasters.

But don’t believe the latest ads. BP has done a great deal, but it has not made it right — not yet.

Alabamians who go to the Gulf Coast generally go to the region known as the “Redneck Riviera,” the beaches and bays that hug the coast from Mobile Bay east to Panama City. As anyone who was there when the oil was coming in knows, the area was hit hard. As anyone who has been there recently knows, to the naked eye it looks like the spill never happened.

In that regard, BP has made it right.

However, to the west, between Mobile Bay and Texas, BP still has a way to go.

Oil remains in the marshes, some areas are still closed to fishermen and shrimpers, and despite claims that tourism is better than ever, people are not coming back to the Mississippi coast the way they are returning to the Alabama and Florida beaches.

True, the impact of the spill was not as great as some scientists and environmentalists predicted it would be, but neither has it been as easy to clean up as BP suggests it has been.

Shrimp harvests are still down, and studies are showing that the oil (and, in some cases, the dispersal agents used to break it up) may have caused long-term damage to fish and fauna.

George Crozier, former head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, wishes that BP’s ads were “a little more apologetic and a little less triumphant.”

So do we.

BP has done a great deal to “make it right,” and that should be recognized. But there is more to do. Remember that when you see the ads.

Read more: Anniston Star - Has BP made it right Company still has work remaining to right wrongs of oil spill

Call of Titanic will go out again

2012-01-15T09:30:00.003-06:00

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/51843-call-titanic-will-go-out-again

Larry Daley of Titanic Expeditions was invited to participate in a scientific expedition in 2003, when he got to visit the wreck in a submersi (ERIC WYNNE / Staff)

100 years ago, Jimmy Myrick, a 14-year-old Newfoundland boy, was one of the first people to hear RMS Titanic’s late-night distress call.

The transmissions from the stricken vessel and the resulting bustle of activity at the Cape Race Marconi Station that occurred after Myrick alerted the station’s wireless operators to the impending disaster will be re-enacted on April 14 as part of the 100th anniversary of the world’s most fascinating marine tragedies.

David Myrick, a relative of young Myrick and a ham radio operator, will participate in the re-enactment.

More than 1,500 passengers and crew went to an icy grave in the frigid North Atlantic in the early hours of April 15, 1912, when the ship sank about 350 nautical miles off of St. John’s, N.L.

"Jimmy Myrick was in the wireless shed the night of Titanic. He had to run out of the shed and get the radio operators," said Larry Daley, a member of Cape Race-Portugal Cove South Heritage Inc.

A non-profit group, the organization is devoted to raising the profile of the vital role the Cape Race-Portugal Cove South area played in spreading word of the disaster.

The Cape Race radio station was the first land-based site to receive word of the White Star liner’s pending disaster, caused when the famous ship collided with an iceberg. It relayed the news by radio to other ships at sea and to the local telegraph office, which alerted Europe and the rest of North America.

"They were bombarded that night," Daley said as he explained how the Newfoundland radio operators sent and received messages from those participating in the rescue and recovery efforts.

The transcripts of those messages are part of the Titanic exhibit at Halifax’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Many events are going on around the world marking the centennial of the Titanic’s sinking, including a commemorative cruise out of Southampton that will retrace the Titanic’s course.

When MS Balmoral reaches the spot where the Titanic sank, it plans on transmitting a message to the Cape Race radio station, where a radio operator dressed in period clothing will receive the Balmoral’s transmission.

The ship-to-shore recreation is just one of a number of Titanic-themed events organized by Cape Race-Portugal Cove South Heritage Inc. for April 14 and 15. More details can be found on the group’s website receivingtitanic.com.

Daley has been involved in Titanic-related tourism for years, first as a tour bus operator out of St. John’s and later selling bottled iceberg water. He now does the logistics for many Titanic expeditions.

In 2003, he was invited to participate in a scientific expedition and got to visit the wreck in a submersible.

"It was very emotional," Daley said as he recalled the moment he saw the ship.

The small sub’s search lights turned on "and here’s the bow of the Titanic sticking out of the sea floor. . . . The visibility was perfect."

Daley spent about four hours floating around the wreck observing the stern, the bow and the debris field.

"It was intense. It seemed like only 15 or 20 minutes."

He remembers seeing personal items including a hairbrush and a pair of shoes.

"It just hits you like a ton of bricks that you are at a gravesite where over 1,500 people lost their lives."

Daley is now an agent for company offering tourists submarine visits to Titanic for somewhere around $60,000. For upwards of another $40,000, Daley offers high-end luxury add-ons including a helicopter ride from St. John’s to Newfoundland’s iceberg alley, where travellers can get visit icebergs and even take home a chunk.

The package includes a side trip to Halifax to see the various Titanic graves and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic’s Titanic exhibit.

(djeffrey@herald.ca)

3 dead, 69 missing after cruise ship runs aground off coast of Italy

2012-01-14T19:48:00.000-06:00

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/13/cruise-ship-reportedly-runs-aground-off-coast-italy-at-least-3-dead/?test=latestnews

Eyewitnesses have described scenes of chaos on board the Italian cruise ship the Costa Concordia, which has run aground off Italy, killing three people.

A loud bang was the first indication that something was wrong.

It happened on Friday evening and marked the start of hours of panic among the 4,000 people on board the cruise ship.

The ship shuddered to a halt and was plunged into darkness.

"We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out. We heard a boom and a groaning noise. All the cutlery fell on the floor," Luciano Castro told Italy's Ansa news agency.

The passenger said people were told there were electrical problems.

Others described chaotic scenes as the liner began to move violently.

"The boat started shaking. The noise - there was panic, like in a film, dishes crashing to the floor, people running, people falling down the stairs," said survivor Fulvio Rocci.

Those on board said the boat suddenly tilted to the left.

Cabin steward: 'We jumped into the sea'

"We told the guests everything was ok and under control and we tried to stop them panicking," cabin steward Deodato Ordona recalled.

It was about an hour before a general emergency was announced, he said.

Then the ship rolled again, now listing to the right, and the captain ordered the ship to be abandoned.

Mr Ordona said his colleagues and passengers were waiting to use lifeboats but the change in the direction the boat was sinking prompted them to seek lifeboats on the other side of the ship.

Monica, a German passenger who was in the cruise liner's theatre when the ship began to suffer problems, said it was hard to reach the lifeboats.

"It was difficult to walk. First it moved once, then to the left and then more on the right. The boat was tipping one side. You could see the ship was sinking more and more. In half an hour it sank halfway into the water," she said.

Cruise ship shop worker Fabio Costa said when people realised there was a serious problem, there were scenes of desperation.

Elizabeth Nanni of the Isola del Giglio Tourist Information described ''desperate people looking for each other''

"Everything happened really fast. Everybody tried to get a life boat and people started to panic. A lot of people were falling down the stairs and some were hurt because things fell on them.

"Everybody was trying to get on the boats at the same time. When people had to get on the lifeboats they were pushing each other. It was a bit chaotic. We were trying to keep passengers calm but it was just impossible. Nobody knew what was going on."

He said children and women were given priority when it came to allocating places on lifeboats, but the system proved to be difficult to implement because many men "weren't accepting this" because they wanted to remain together as a family, prompting "huge confusion".

Some people decided it was too difficult to get on to a lifeboat and chose to swim, with a number safely reaching the nearby island of Giglio.

"We were on the same level as the water so some people started to swim because they weren't able to get on the lifeboats," said Mr Costa.

He said he saw some people jumping but could not get a sense of just how many people did so.

Elizabeth Nanni, of Isola del Giglio Tourist Information, said those who arrived on the island were survivors in a state of shock, ''desperate people looking for each other'' and people suffering from hypothermia after jumping into the sea.

"Usually there are 700 people on the island at this time of year, so receiving 4,000 people in the middle of the night wasn't easy," she said.

She said blankets and clothes were provided for those who arrived on the island, while churches and schools were opened to ensure that people had a roof over their head.

People were later moved to the mainland by ferries or airlifted by helicopter to the nearest hospital for emergency care.

But not everybody took a lifeboat or swam ashore.

Rescue teams searched for survivors and helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck.

Rose Metcalf, a dancer who had been performing on the ship, was one of the last people to be winched to safety by a helicopter after clinging to the stricken vessel.

The 22-year-old Briton told her father, Philip, it had "felt like the sinking of the Titanic".

Mr Metcalf, from Dorset, told the BBC his daughter had phoned to say she was safe but that she had feared she would have to jump into the sea.

He said: "The ship rolled over on its side so they had to get a fire-hose which they strung between the railings to stop them falling overboard.

"She thought she'd have to make a jump for it as it was dark and cold, like the sinking of the Titanic, but the helicopter then winched her off."

Mr Metcalf said his daughter, who was not hurt, had been airlifted to an air base in the Tuscany region of Italy.

OPINION: From the Editor: Icebreakers absolute necessity on many fronts

2012-01-14T09:28:00.001-06:00

http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1202from_the_editor_icebreakers_absolute

January 13th 1:57 am | Carey Restino

Start digging into the reason the United States' polar icebreaker fleet has dwindled to one small ship and there is little one can do but shake one's head. Like so many issues that require the wheels of government to turn, this one has obviously been shoved to the back burner for years now. The same things that were being said five, even 10 years ago, are being said now, and the arguments are solid. The only thing needed is for the nation to listen.

As it currently stands, the nation's sole operating polar icebreaker, the Healy, is headed now to Nome on a mission that diverted it from its path to Seattle to be worked on for several months. The Healy is a medium-sized icebreaker and suited and equipped to help with science missions, not pull grounded tankers from sandbars or move quickly to rescue a stranded crew. Those jobs are suited for heavy tankers, and the United States used to have two. But one had a massive engine failure and the other will be more than a year before it is operational. So that leaves the nation with nothing, essentially, during a time of huge Arctic activity. By comparison, our Arctic neighbors have anywhere from seven to 25 icebreakers operating.

The push to study, explore and extract resources from the Arctic's waters has been happening for years, and those efforts are going to reach an even more rapid pace this year if things continue on their current trajectory. But drilling for oil in the Arctic is a lot different than drilling for oil anywhere else. Look at the spills and disasters other Arctic nations, such as Russia, have seen in the past decade. The list is long.

It's not just ice, though ice certainly is a hazard. We all know how unpredictable the weather can be in the north, and when you get in trouble up there, it's a whole different ballgame. How many mariners driving ships in this region are going to have any experience with such conditions? Who is going to teach them?

Even the U.S. Navy, when asked to consider more activity in the north, said it would need substantial time and energy to devote to retraining and retrofitting vessels for those specific conditions. It's pretty likely that at some point in time, someone is going to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then what?

Given the current state of affairs, 'then what' will essentially look like everyone throwing their hands up in the air, running in circles and accomplishing nothing. Why? Because the resources needed to help fix a problem, rescue a ship or save a life, simply do not exist in our nation right now.

When the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred, it was the U.S. Coast Guard who ran the show, serving as the incident command for the entire cleanup effort, a monumental task at best. In the event of a disaster of any proportion in the Arctic, this would also be their job. Unfortunately, the chances of having the resources needed for this valuable organization to do its job are minimal at this point and years behind the curve at best. Estimates are that it will take years to build the ships needed to navigate these waters with any degree of certainty.

It's true that polar icebreakers are not cheap. During a time when money is tight and programs are being cut, it is hard, I'm sure, for the nation's officials to open up the wallet to the tune of $900 million. But this is probably one of those situations where you pay now or you pay later. The Coast Guard doesn't just respond to emergencies, it also tries to prevent them. Anyone who has had a boat in Alaska knows what that means - follow the rules or run the risk of getting caught out of line. A few polar icebreakers wandering around up in the Arctic waters making sure supply vessels, tourist boats and drilling operations are following the laws of the sea, not to mention common sense, is about the smartest investment the United States could make right now.

The problem is, we really are on the edge of something completely new here. We've never had this little ice or this much traffic in our Arctic waters. We don't know what the implications are and we haven't learned the mistakes the hard way yet. And Alaska, after all, is a long way from Washington, D.C. It isn't home to a large block of voters, and it isn't likely to have a large degree of political pull. That is, however, as long as everything goes OK.

If it doesn't, politicians from across the nation are going to have some pretty big questions to answer, like, "Why did you knowingly let the nation's only line of defense against an Arctic catastrophe age out of commission," and "Why didn't you heed the warnings of Alaska's elected officials, communities and even developers, who all called for more Coast Guard presence in the Arctic for years?"

Alaskans would be wise to pay attention to the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act Bill, which comes out of subcommittee this winter. It may take some convincing for elected officials far from Alaska and out of touch with the implications of Arctic development to understand the importance of this issue.

It's up to us to explain.

Shell’s Arctic Drilling Plan Clears Hurdle BUT SHELL IS NOT ABLE TO CLEAN UP AN ARCTIC OIL SPILL - WTHO?

2012-01-14T07:52:00.000-06:00

SHELL SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DRILL WHEN THE TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE TO CLEAN UP AN OIL SPILL IS DEMONSTRATED IN AN ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT, I.E. IN OHMSETT'S TANK DURING WINTER ICE. UNTIL THEN REGULATORYS SHOULD SAY "NO". YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY OR INFRASTRUCTURE TO CLEAN UP AN OIL SPILL. IF YOU THINK DIFFERENT - SAY SO. HOW WOULD YOU CLEAN UP AN OIL SPILL IN THE ARCTIC?

http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=Qm2ogSgYkpw&feature=related

http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=qS2FbvfnNDw

http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=cgwXsRq7fs0&feature=related

OIL SPILL PREVENTION and RESPONSE IN THE U.S. ARCTIC - Unexamined Risks, Unacceptable Consequences:

(Please read this very informative document if you wish to further understand the issues surrounding the Arctic and drilling there.)

http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life/PEW-1010_ARTIC_Report.pdf

Executive Summary:

This report examines the risks, challenges and potential consequences of oil spills associated with oil and gas exploration and production in the outer continental shelf (OCS) of the United States

Arctic Ocean. The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a reconsideration of the potential for a major blowout from proposed oil exploration or production in the Arctic OCS. This report was developed to contribute to the policy discussion regarding the risksand consequences of such spills.

Several key concepts underlie the technical information and analysis presented in this report:

• The Arctic Ocean is a unique operating environment, and the characteristics of the Arctic OCS—its remote location, extreme climate and dynamic sea ice—exacerbate the risks and consequences of oil spills while complicating cleanup.

• Oil spill contingency plans often underestimate the probability and consequence of catastrophic blowouts, particularly for frontier offshore drilling in the U.S. Arctic Ocean.

• The impact of an oil well blowout in the U.S. Arctic Ocean could devastate an already stressed ecosystem, and there is very little baseline science upon which to anticipate the impact or estimate damage.

• Oil spill cleanup technologies and systems are unproved in the Arctic Ocean, and recent laboratory and !eld trials (including the Joint Industry Program) have evaluated only discrete technologies under controlled conditions.

• Certain environmental and weather conditions would preclude an oil spill response in the Arctic Ocean, yet an Arctic spill response gap is not incorporated into existing oil spill contingency plans or risk evaluations.

This report recommends several areas in which additional work is needed to reach a level of sufficient planning and preparedness to minimize the potentially adverse e"ects of an oil spill resulting from offshore oil and gas exploration or production in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. Federal agencies should:

1. Conduct baseline studies to better understand the marine ecosystem and increase scienti!c knowledge regarding the Arctic ecology and sensitivity to oil spills before introduction of new offshore oil spill risks.

2. Improve spatial data and mapping of Arctic species, habitat and sensitive ecosystems.

3. Develop oil spill trajectory models with the capability to model oil fate and behavior in the presence of a range of sea ice conditions.

4. Require operators to plan for the possibility of a worst-case well blowout and adopt all available engineering and management measures to prevent blowouts.

5. Conduct full-scale deployment exercises under a range of o"shore Arctic conditions to determine the limits for safely and e"ectively mounting a large-scale offshore response in the U.S. Arctic Ocean.

6. Conduct an Arctic oil spill response gap analysis to delineate the upper operating limits of existing response technologies in the U.S. Arctic Ocean and then estimate the frequency and duration of periods when no oil spill response may be feasible.

Royal Dutch Shell has been on a six-year crusade to drill in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast, and has spent about $4 billion on the effort so far without drilling a single well.

But the company took one more bureaucratic baby step forward this week toward drilling in the Chukchi Sea later this year. An appeals board of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday rejected fourchallenges brought by Alaska Native entities and environmental groups likeEarthjustice to block Clean Air Act permits covering airborne emissions from industrial operations.

Opponents argued that nitrogen dioxide emissions from drilling would pollute the air of Native communities, but the appeals board concluded that the evidence presented was not robust enough to support the claim.

Nonetheless, Shell faces more hurdles, including a possible appeal of the decision to the federal courts.

But since delays in the air-permitting process was a principal reason Shell did not drill last year, Shell executives have expressed cautious satisfaction with the new ruling..

Four weeks ago the company received conditional federal approval to drill six exploratory wells in Arctic waters, but environmentalists say they will press on with their appeals. They argue a spill in freezing waters would be a disaster for endangered wildlife and challenging to clean up because of the region’s harsh climate, ice cover on the water, strong winds and long seasonal darkness.

“We look forward to continued progress on the permitting front and remain committed to working with regulators and stakeholders to achieve all of the permits necessary to drill in 2012,” Shell said in an optimistic statement late Thursday.

Eric Jorgensen, an Earthjustice lawyer, said: “We’re disappointed. The E.P.A. cut corners in issuing the permit and we don’t believe it complies with the Clean Air Act.”

As for an appeal, he said, “We’re looking at all options.”

Ultimate Satcom - Combined L/Ku-band service from KVH and Iridium

2012-01-13T19:10:00.001-06:00

Iridium and KVH are to partner to offer a broadband satellite communications service for the maritime market that will combine the companies’ respective L-band and Ku-band services.

Under the agreement, KVH will offer an integrated service package including its mini-VSAT Broadband and Iridium OpenPort.

The integrated shipboard system will use common below-deck user interface equipment for voice and data connections, combining the OpenPort and KVH’s TracPhone V3 or V7 terminals.

KVH's CommBox shipboard network management tool will be used to automatically select the mini-VSAT or the OpenPort when appropriate, using least-cost routing software.

If the mini-VSAT is ever unavailable, the system immediately switches over to the OpenPort service without operator intervention.

The OpenPort connection can also serve as a means to access the mini-VSAT terminal remotely for maintenance or troubleshooting, as well as for other shipboard maintenance tasks and calibration of equipment.

"KVH already has the largest Ku-band VSAT global coverage offering, and the addition of Iridium now adds even remote regions such as the polar areas," said Brent Bruun, KVH senior vice president of global sales and business development.

"The integrated system offers our customers an unbeatable combination of reliable, affordable broadband shipboard communications and seamless global connectivity."

"The lightweight, compact antenna units bring the benefits of low-cost broadband communications to both private yachts and fishing vessels as small as 30 ft (9 m) as well as large, ocean-going merchant ships."

Alternative? $1500/month worldwide use - http://www.marlink.com/Product.aspx?m=474

http://www.motorboating.com/news/iridium-and-kvh-team-provide-first-seamless-global-broadband-maritime-satellite-communications-

New Zealand braced for oil spill disaster as stricken container ship RENA splits in two

2012-01-12T07:14:00.000-06:00

A cargo ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split in two, spilling sea containers and debris and sparking fears of a fresh oil spill, maritime officials said.

The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away yesterday.

The ship previously spilled heavy fuel oil that fouled pristine North Island beaches and killed up to 20,000 seabirds, and despite salvage efforts nearly 400 tons of oil remain onboard.

Scroll down for video...

Split in two: The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship broke away

The stranded cargo ship Rena after its hull split into two, caused by heavy swells, wind and rain off New Zealand

Maritime officials said the front section of the wreck remains stuck in its original position, but the stern section slipped at least 100ft away from the bow and is 'moving significantly,' pounded by 19ft swells.

The storm that split the vessel will continue for another three to four days, Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson said.

Officials said up to 300 of the roughly 880 containers that had been on board were lost when the ship broke apart.

Of those, about 30 per cent had been fitted with monitoring devices and some 30 containers had already been located.

The storm that split the vessel will continue for another three to four days, Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson said

Environment Minister Nick Smith said there is roughly 385 tons of oil still aboard the ship

Oil has been seen leaking from the broken ship. Alex van Wijngaarden, on-scene commander for the national response team, said oil from the vessel could come ashore last night.

'While reports at this stage indicate there has not been a significant release of oil, with the Rena in its current fragile state, a further release is likely,' he said.

'While it is unknown at this stage exactly how much oil may be released, teams have been mobilized and will be ready to respond to anything that may come ashore.'

Afternoon stroll: Hundreds of bags of powdered milk have washed up on shore following the splitting in two of the wrecked cargo ship Rena

Clean up operation: Volunteers have been helping clear up Waihi Beach

Optimistic: But for some the washed up bags have provided plenty of enjoyment

Beached: Visitors point at a washed up container, as firemen walk alongside other debris on Waihi Beach

Environment Minister Nick Smith said that the 'risks for the environment are a fraction of what they were in October,' though the roughly 385 tons of oil still aboard the ship is about the same amount that leaked from the vessel soon after it ran aground.

Salvage crews previously removed 1,100 tons of oil from the ship.

Most of the oil is in tanks in the stern section, which could end up sinking. Some of that oil could end up dissipating in the ocean rather than washing up on beaches.

The containers, meanwhile, spilled goods including timber, wool, bales of recycled plastic and bags of milk powder. The debris could begin washing ashore later Sunday.

Some containers have been sighted floating up to 20 miles northwest of the stricken ship, Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns said.

'They have been caught in a strong coastal current' fueled by the storm, he said.

The Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour on North Island on October 5.

Salvage crews have plucked 389 of the ship's 1,370 loaded cargo containers from its decks since it ran aground, while some 98 have been washed over board in the past three months.

One eyewitness, Warwick Roberts, said the rear section was sliding along the reef.

The 'stern has reared up and center section is not visible. Large breaking waves observed on bow,' he said.

Clean up: Soldiers worked to clear away the oil spill from the beach in Taurange, New Zealand, as environmentalists warned of a potential wildlife disaster

Removal: Bulldozers and diggers have been drafted on to Waihi beach to take away the shipping containers

In trouble: Rescuers have been unable to properly reach the ship due to the severe structural damage it has suffered

Destruction: Washed up container roll slowly up to the beach

Investigators were unable to explain how the vessel managed to perch itself on a New Zealand reef before the split

A two-mile no-go zone is in force around the wreck.

Investigations last month revealed that Australian authorities impounded the vessel, but released it the next day after Liberian maritime authorities intervened, essentially saying the ship was safe to sail and the problems could be fixed later. The Rena, like many ships, is registered in Liberia.

Some 10 weeks later, the Rena ran full-steam into a well-marked reef off the coast of New Zealand. It's not clear whether the previously identified problems played any role.

The captain and Rena's navigating officer face criminal charges of operating a ship in a dangerous or risky manner, polluting the environment and altering the ship's documents after the crash.

Other items from the containers washed up in Tauranga, New Zealand included these deer skins

Rescuers have been trying to get near the vessel to transfer away the ship's oil since October

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084079/New-Zealand-braced-oil-spill-disaster-stricken-container-ship-splits-two.html

About that northern pipeline... oil is toxic... oil spills are toxic pollutions

2012-01-12T07:01:00.000-06:00

About that northern pipeline…

Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin. This is nothing new for Enbridge, the leak, that is. They happen all the time. From 1999 to 2010 Enbridge had 804 leaks, spilling more than 16,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into the environment per year.

(16,000 bbl x 42 gal/bbl = 672,000 gallons/year x 11 years = 7,392,000 gallons)

New research indicates that oil is a lot more toxic than we’d previously believed.

Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released in late December sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be inadequate. The report was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, spearheaded by the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NOAA, looked into the aftermath of the 2007 Cusco Busan spill, when that tanker hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.

The key finding involved the embryos of Pacific herring that spawn in the bay. The fish embryos absorbed the oil and then, when exposed to UV rays in sunlight, physically disintegrated. This is called phototoxicity, and has not previously been taken into account when talking about oil spills.

Maybe that’s why the HarperCon spin machine has hit warp drive.

More likely, though, as David Suzuki suggests, it’s a matter of profit. “The only real argument for Northern Gateway is that it will increase profits for the oil industry, and hand over more of our resources and the associated profits and jobs to China,” he says. The only jobs we’ll get here will be short-term ones during the construction of the pipeline and maybe 30-40 long-term jobs in Kitimat.

So, wtf, Harper et al. When ya gonna come clean?

President Obama, get ready, you are next.

NOAA Flexes Mussels for Tracking Pollution

2012-01-12T06:50:00.004-06:00

This is a post by Gunnar Lauenstein at NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment.

NOAA researchers Cliff Cosgrove and Gunnar Lauenstein collect samples of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes by using an epibenthic dredge. Credit: Andrew Yagiela (NOAA GLERL).

Mussels and oysters are a great natural tool for finding pollutants in the environment because they filter tiny food bits—along with fine pollutants—out of the surrounding water. They are capable of concentrating contaminants in their body tissues at levels up to 100,000 times above those in the water. This makes our job easier when we’re trying to determine whether those contaminants pose a threat to human health.

These useful traits of shellfish led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to start the first two national Mussel Watch programs. In 1965, the EPA began collecting mussels and oysters from around the U.S. to determine where pesticides such as DDT [leaves this blog] were concentrated in the environment. The second national program, funded by the EPA from 1976-1978, built on that previous work but broadened the list of pollutants studied to include trace elements, oil-related compounds, and radionuclides.

Researchers at the TDI-Brooks lab in College Station, Texas performing a silica and alumina cleanup of tissue samples collected through the Mussel Watch Program. Credit: Brad Bernard.

I’ve been involved with the NOAA Mussel Watch Program since NOAA took over from the EPA in 1986. I’m responsible for sample collection, methods documentation, and program direction.

NOAA researcher Gunnar Lauenstein and Todd Chamberlin, TDI-Brooks, collecting mussels in the rocks around Governor’s Island in New York Harbor during December 2001, three months after the attack on the World Trade Center. Credit: Roger Fay (TDI-Brooks).

The NOAA program expanded the 100 or so original EPA sample sites to more than 300 current sites. The additional sites increased the density of the areas covered in the Mussel Watch Program, particularly in Alaska and California. Starting in 1992, the program also expanded its range by sampling the infamous non-native zebra mussels in the Great Lakes.

Initially, NOAA intended to use the Mussel Watch Program to study how effective environmental management activities were as a result of 1970s-era legislation. The NOAA Mussel Watch Program successfully documented and tracked decreases of the pollutants DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)[leaves this blog] across the country through at least 2005. Since then, NOAA has added new contaminants to the watch list and also describes the overall health of the organisms being collected for study.

In recent years, the Mussel Watch Program has increased its collaboration both in and outside of NOAA in response to disasters by helping to determine the extent of environmental change. The program sampled New York Harbor after the events of 9/11[PDF], after the passage of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina along the Gulf Coast [PDF, pg. 23], and more recently before, during, and after the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill. The Office of Response and Restoration uses this data to help determine the effects of oil spills on the environment, comparing the levels of oil compounds found before and after spills. This helps zero in on hotspots for cleanup.

Each mussel symbol shows where Mussel Watch sampled in the Gulf of Mexico before and after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill. Click for larger view. Source: NOAA.

In addition to the national Mussel Watch programs, the concept has also expanded to regional and local levels, such as in Snohomish County, Wash. [leaves this blog], as well as across Washington state [leaves this blog], where Office of Response and Restoration ecologist Alan Mearns has helped bring in citizen scientists to sample mussels for pollutants such as flame retardants along the Washington coast. NOAA has expanded this level of collaboration to include most of the coastal states. States and other local organizations are now responsible for collecting samples and making recommendations about where new study sites need to be established. As a result, local citizens and state agencies are taking more ownership of the pollution data in their areas.

If you’re interested in learning more about NOAA’s Mussel Watch Program or other research happening at NCCOS, I’ll be blogging at the Coastal Ocean Science Blog athttp://noaaoceanscience.wordpress.com/.

Gunnar Lauenstein takes a break during sampling in the Great Lakes. Credit: NOAA/COAST Branch.

Gunnar Lauenstein is Acting COAST Branch Chief at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment [leaves this blog]. Dr. Lauenstein leads NOAA’s Mussel Watch Program [leaves this blog] at NCCOS and led a team of researchers to sample and collect mussels and oysters throughout the Gulf region before, during, and after the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill. You can contact him at gunnar.lauenstein@noaa.gov.

http://usresponserestoration.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/noaa-mussel-watch-program/

Letter to the editor - Imagine a spill (in the Arctic)

2012-01-12T06:41:00.000-06:00

December 31, 2011. A man dips his hands in crude oil during a protest in Nigeria against petro giant Shell, which is accused of spilling 40,000 barrels of oil off the West African nation’s coast.

Letter to the editor

Jan. 10, 2012

To the editor:

During their Herculean effort to break through sea ice and deliver fuel to Nome, the crews of the Coast Guard cutter Healy and the Russian tanker Renda are inching forward slower than a person can walk, with no guarantee they will reach their destination.

There is a lesson to be learned here, and the rest of Alaska and the nation should be paying attention. As oil companies, the federal government and our congressional delegation charge forward with plans to begin offshore drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, Nome’s crisis reminds us that nature — especially in northern oceans — routinely humbles us.

While the oil giant Shell promises to recover up to 95 percent of any oil it spills in the Arctic Ocean — something it has never achieved even under the best conditions anywhere in the world — the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill with 40,000 persons and good weather only achieved 9 percent recovery - does anyone really believe such a thing could be done at the end of a drilling season in icy, stormy Arctic seas a thousand miles from a Coast Guard base and with virtually no shore-based infrastructure to support a major spill response? The current Nigerian oil spill is a good example of Shell not cleaning up but covering up its own oily sea mess - if it cannot turns words into action then what is the magic they plan for the Arctic? Words are no indication of effective action - until Shell shows it can recover 95% they should not be allowed to drill. Federal regulators wake up - ask for hands-on proof - ask Shell to run demonstrations in the Ohmset tank ( http://www.ohmsett.com/ ) Either they do what they say or they cannot - show us!

We will respectfully keep watching Nome’s drama unfold while hoping the ships arrive safely. But we should all hope we never face similar circumstances when there is a gushing oil well or pipeline in the Arctic Ocean.

http://newsminer.com/bookmark/17062456-Imagine-a-spill

Amid BCS mania, BP pushes a PR blitz to paint a rosy picture in aftermath of Gulf oil spill

2012-01-09T07:30:00.004-06:00

I JUST RETURNED FROM THE HOLIDAYS BACK TO THE GULF COAST - THE OIL IS STILL HERE - THOUGH HIDDEN ON THE SEA FLOOR - TAR BALLS CONTINUE TO ROLL ONTO THE BEACH - CLEANUP? NOT IN ANY SENSE OF REASONABLENESS OR COMMON LOGIC TO PREVENT POLLUTION OF THE SEA OR THE INHABITANTS ALONG THE GULF COAST. CRUDE OIL IS TOXIC.

BP HAS NOT CLEANED UP THE OIL SPILL NOR THE ENVIRONMENT IT POLLUTED. THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS NOT ADEQUATELY ENFORCING U.S. LAWS OR ENFORCING THE REASONABLENESS OF PROTECTING THE PUBLIC.

UNTIL THERE ARE NEW POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON YOU SHOULD NOT EXPECT A MORE RESPONSIBLE LEVEL OF SERVICE FROM POLITICIANS FOR THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.

YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGE - PLEASE VOTE FOR NEW REPRESENTATIVES.

Nearly 20 months after its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill — and just as the nation focuses on New Orleans, host of the BCS title game — BP is pushing a slick nationwide public relations campaign to persuade Americans that the Gulf region has recovered.

BP PLC’s rosy picture of the Gulf, complete with sparkling beaches, booming businesses, smiling fishermen and waters bursting with seafood, seems a bit too rosy to many people who live there. Even if the British oil giant’s campaign helps promote the Gulf as a place where Americans should have no fear to visit and spend their money, some dismiss it as “BP propaganda.”

The PR blitz is part of the company’s multibillion dollar response to the Gulf oil spill that started after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and leading to the release of more than 200 million gallons of oil. As engineers struggled to cap the out-of-control well, it turned into the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Now, BP is touting evidence that the Gulf’s ecology has not been severely damaged by the spill and highlighting improving economic signs.

“I’m glad to report that all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy!” BP representative Iris Cross says in one TV spot to an upbeat soundtrack. “And the economy is showing progress, with many areas on the Gulf Coast having their best tourism season in years.”

The campaign, launched just before Christmas, has ramped up for the two-week period around the Sugar Bowl and Bowl Championship Series title game to be played on Monday between LSU and Alabama.

The company is paying chefs Emeril Lagasse and John Besh to promote Gulf seafood, it’s hired two seafood trucks to hand out fish tacos and seafood-filled jambalaya to the hundreds of thousands of tourists and fans pouring into the city for the football games and it’s spreading its messages at galas, pre-game parties and vacation giveaways.

But the ad campaign rings hollow to many folks here.

“They talk about areas being all open. There are areas that are still closed,” said A.C. Cooper, a shrimp fisherman in Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. He listed some bays and fishing spots that he says the state still has closed due to oil contamination. “It’s bogus, it’s not the truth.”

He added that last fall’s shrimp harvest was dismal. “The numbers on our shrimp are way down,” he said. “They (BP) make it sound like they’re doing a lot, but they’re not doing much to help the fishermen out ... I got good fishermen struggling to pay their bills right now.”

The head of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, a commercial shrimpers group, called it “BP propaganda.”

“When you have a lot of money, you can pretty much get any point across,” Clint Guidry complained. “It’s kind of like indoctrination.”

And businesses on the tourism-dependent Mississippi Gulf Coast say people aren’t flocking in.

For example, Bridgette Varone, head of the Gulf Coast chapter of the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association, said restaurants reported similar revenues in both 2010 and 2011 for the month of June, one of the busiest months

“I wish we had better news to report,” Varone said. “We didn’t blow any socks off.”

“They might not blatantly lie in the ad, but the true story is far less shiny, and far more troubling,” said Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group.

He said the spill may have caused a decrease in shrimp harvests and abnormalities in killifish, a minnow. He noted that oil was still marring some marshes and was buried under some beaches. He also said Congress had not done enough to regulate offshore drilling and assure the long-term recovery of the Gulf.

“BP needs to put these facts in their ads,” Viles said.

“They should be a little more apologetic and less triumphant,” said George Crozier, an oceanographer and former director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama.

However, Crozier said many others were guilty of “spin” just like BP, including scientists and environmentalists who tried, for their own reasons, to push the notion that the oil spill had devastated the Gulf. Crozier said the spill’s effects have not been as devastating as many argued they would be.

“The beaches are people-safe, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “I thought there was a hysterical reaction to tar balls — unless we started eating them.”

Tom Mueller, a BP spokesman, said the ad campaign was highlighting “facts,” not “anecdotes.”

“When you look at the tourism numbers, heads in beds, revenues, are generally up,” he said. “There are some exceptions, but when you step back and look at the coast as a whole, the tourism industry is recovering.”

He said BP’s commitment to the Gulf was sincere, noting that the company set aside $500 million for independent scientific research into the spill.

“We’re honoring our commitment here in helping promote the Gulf Coast and Gulf seafood and doing our best to help the region recover,” he said. “As Iris says in the ads, we have more work to do, and BP as a company fully recognizes that there is more work to be done.”

Fracking’s link to earthquakes isn’t ridiculous - injecting chemicals risky to water sources too

2012-01-08T08:23:00.000-06:00

More info - Google search - https://www.google.com/search?ix=hcb&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=fracking+chemicals+water+quality

In a Dec. 5 editorial, "Ohio must be wary of battle over gas drilling," The Times stated that "reasonable concerns, such a how large amounts of fluids used in 'fracking' must be disposed of have been raised. So have ridiculous ones, such as a claim that 'fracking' causes earthquakes." Oh really?

While there is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing by itself "causes" earthquakes, Columbia University seismologists have determined that 11 recent earth tremors near Youngstown, Ohio (including one 4.5 in magnitude) were "most likely" caused by the nearby injection of 'fracking' wastewater into wells in the region. Such fluids are trucked into Ohio from hydraulic fracturing operations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Exactly why southeastern Ohio has been chosen as a dumping site for toxic waste from other states has not been adequately explained.

In past letters I've written on the topic of "fracking." I've purposely refrained from mentioning earthquakes, but the evidence for the possibility is readily available to anyone who cares to look. One article I read (about similar earth tremors in Arkansas) describes the effect of fluids upon rocks two to three miles below the surface as "like an air-hockey table." Similar concerns have been expressed by a letter writer of Columbus in his Dec. 28 letter to The Times.

The point here is that no one - neither environmental activists nor gas company "experts" - seems to know exactly where earthquake fault lines exist beneath Ohio, or what the ultimate effects of gas company policies upon the land and surrounding environment. Until more accurate information is obtained, it might be a good thing for the over-eager industry and its politically-motivated enablers in the Ohio General Assembly to abide by the recent ODNR decision to put these "injection" operations on hold until all the information is in.

This might be a bitter pill for those who anticipate big profits from drilling into the Marcellus and Utica shale beds in Ohio, but incidents in Arkansas - as well as the BP oil spill in the Gulf and the recent Exxon-Mobil spill in the Yellowstone Valley - suggest that oversight over these risky operations is long overdue.

As the controversy over "fracking" and related industry actions like the "injection" process continues into the New Year, it also might be helpful if Times editorialists (or the industry public relations folks who may have "inspired" the Dec. 5 Times column, as well as its word-for-word "twin" printed earlier in The Columbus Dispatch) would refrain from using words like "ridiculous" or "extreme" to depict Ohio citizens with serious concerns about the effects of these possibly risky procedures on the environment. If the media wishes to be thought of as "neutral" in this matter, they might at least do a bit more homework before merely printing Ohio Oil and Gas Association hype as "fact."

As the 18th century English poet, Alexander Pope, said, "A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring."

http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/541206/Concern-about-fracking-s-link-to-earthquakes-isn-t-ridiculous.html?nav=5007

EPA research head who was opposed by Sen. David Vitter resigns

2012-01-08T08:07:00.000-06:00

DOES THE USA NEED A SENATOR DAVID VITTER? I DON'T THINK HE SERVED HIS COUNTRY'S INTEREST WELL BUT RATHER SUPPORTED HIS POLITICAL SUPPORTERS WHO FUND HIS ELECTIONS EFFORTS? CONGRESS NEEDS TO BE OVERHAULED BY USA CITIZENS NOT SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - PLEASE VOTE FOR CHANGE! I'D LIKE TO SEE A TWO TERM LIMIT FOR ALL POLITICIANS - NOT A LAW - YOUR VOTE COULD TRUMP LAW - JUST VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE AND ELECT A NEW REPRESENTATIVE!

Paul Anastas, whose appointment in 2009 to up research at the EPA was held up for several months by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., will be leaving the EPA in mid-February.

In a message to colleagues last week, Anastas wrote, "With deeply mixed emotions, I am writing to inform you that I will be stepping down from my position as assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development and as EPA science advisor in mid-February in order to return to my colleagues and students at Yale University and -- most importantly -- to my wonderful family in New Haven, Conn. While my wife and two young daughters have patiently and selflessly allowed me to pursue EPA's mission from Washington, D.C., for the past two years, it is now time for me to pursue the important work of raising my girls from home with my wife, Julie."

Anastas' appointment in 2009 was held up by Vitter, until EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promised to seek an expedited National Academy of Sciences review of the department's risk assessment for formaldehyde. The review subsequently concluded that the EPA's draft assessment in some cases went beyond the available evidence and required "substantial revision."

In a note to EPA staff on Anastas' departure, Jackson described Anastas as "a uniquely qualified scientist and manager and we are all fortunate he agreed to serve."

THE REST OF THE STORY...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson visited Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in his office Thursday to ask him to release his hold on the nomination of Paul Anastas to be the EPA's assistant administrator in charge of its Office of Research and Development.

But the meeting between the two Tulane University alumni did nothing to unstick the stalemate, which has nothing to do with the merits of Anastas, the man known as "the father of green chemistry, " whom President Obama nominated for the EPA post in May.

Instead, it has everything to do with the politics of formaldehyde.

Vitter wants the EPA to agree to have the National Academy of Sciences review its assessment of the risks posed by formaldehyde, which is best known to folks in the Gulf Coast because of respiratory complaints lodged by people who lived in FEMA trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde.

"Because of the FEMA trailer debacle, we need to get absolutely reliable information to the public about formaldehyde risk as soon as possible, " said the senator's spokesman, Joel DiGrado. "That's why Sen. Vitter started working with a bipartisan group over a year ago to have the National Academy of Sciences weigh in."

But EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy said the EPA has been studying the health risks of formaldehyde since 1997, and that the time had come to issue the risk assessment and establish safety standards. "This is not the time for more delay, " she said.

"It's just disappointing that anybody would try to get in the way of us finally adopting the kind of formaldehyde standards that exist in other counties that protect people," said Becky Gillette, the Arkansan who heads the Sierra Club's Formaldehyde Campaign. "It's ironic that this could come from somebody from Katrinaland, who has thousands of constituents who were exposed to excess formaldehyde level after being placed in government housing," Gillette said. "He should be the first to speak up for the people, instead of trying to prevent it from being regulated."

Gillette said Vitter was doing the bidding of the formaldehyde industry.

A spokesman for the industry group, the Formaldehyde Council Inc., said that "while we have no comment on Sen. Vitter's hold, an NAS review of formaldehyde has been a long-standing policy goal of the industry."

"This review should consider all existing research data on formaldehyde," the spokesman said. "FCI believes that the scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows that formaldehyde and formaldehyde-derived products are safe when used appropriately. FCI believes that an NAS review will confirm the parameters of formaldehyde's safe use."

A recent National Cancer Institute study linked exposure to formaldehyde with several forms of cancer. But some critics, such as Dr. Gary Marsh, a biostatistician at the University of Pittsburgh, who has reanalyzed an earlier NCI study and other large-scale formaldehyde studies, said "the problem is that the data from these large studies is inconsistent."

"It's very difficult to untangle what it all really means," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that this would benefit from a National Academy review."

DiGrado said that before the Obama administration took office, the EPA was agreeable to a bipartisan request for an NAS review and "now this new EPA -- which scuttled the plan -- wants to complain about delay? Were it not for them, the NAS would be well into their work, maybe even almost finished."

But an EPA official said that on taking command, Jackson streamlined a cumbersome process and that they now hope to have a draft document ready for public comment and peer review in time to have a completed assessment a year from now. The official said that an NAS review would probably take two years, cost $1 million dollars, and is not needed. He said the EPA is relying on "some of the top scientists" in the field, and their conclusions would be subject to rigorous peer review.

In May, Vitter exercised his senatorial prerogative to hold up the nomination of Craig Fugate to head FEMA over the issue of what he considered excessively restrictive rules on rebuilding in so-called V-Zones.

Anastas, who is director of Yale University's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, was assistant director for the environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology from 1999 to 2004.

Vitter earned his law degree from Tulane in 1988. Jackson received her chemical engineering degree from Tulane in 1983.

B.C. First Nations fear disastrous spill is inevitable - cleanup impossible

2012-01-08T07:48:00.002-06:00

WITHOUT NEW TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE THERE IS NO ACCEPTABLE CLEANUP FOR AN OIL SPILL. WHY DOESN'T THE OIL COMPANIES INVEST IN NEW TECHNOLOGY? BECAUSE IT IS MORE COST EFFECTIVE TO PAY THE FINE AND 'MOP' UP THE POLLUTION. UNTIL NEW LAWS EQUAL THE PLAYING FIELD THERE WILL NEVER BE AN ACCEPTABLE "CLEAN UP" - JUST LOOK AT THE MOST RECENT OIL SPILL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO - THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE OIL WAS SUNK INTO THE SEA WITH DISPERSANTS WHERE IT CONTINUES TO BE TOXIC TO MAN AND WILDLIFE. PLEASE VOTE FOR CHANGE.

The Gitga’at First Nation has been saying no to the Northern Gateway pipeline project since 2006.

The project will bring more than 200 huge tankers annually through the waters next to their tiny community of 160 in Hartley Bay at the entrance to Douglas Channel on B.C.’s northwest coast.

The risks and effects of an oil spill are simply not worth any economic benefits, which the First Nation view as nil, says Marvin Robinson, a spokesman for the community.

It’s a familiar refrain among B.C. First Nations.

Despite the argument that opening up a new market for Alberta oilsands in Asia will benefit all Canadians — and an offer of a 10-per-cent ownership stake in the pipeline for First Nations — almost all First Nations’ voices in British Columbia have been raised in protest.

Enbridge, the company behind the Northern Gateway project, says as many as 40 per cent of the First Nations groups directly along the proposed pipeline route are already taking the equity deal. Spokesman Paul Stanway does not expect to identify which groups, or whether they are in B.C. or Alberta, have signed on until later in the spring, but the company expects a majority of the nearly 50 First Nations with territory along the route to eventually sign on to its ownership offer.

However, the lack of resolved land claims in B. C., along the proposed pipeline route has some, including NDP aboriginal affairs critic Linda Duncan, comparing the upcoming Northern Gateway hearing process to the 1970s Berger Inquiry. Those hearings ultimately stymied the building of the Mackenzie natural gas pipeline through the Northwest Territories because of unresolved aboriginal claims.

“It’s not like Alberta where by and large (treaties are long settled), except for some specific claims where they feel that their treaties have not been lived up to,” said Duncan, Edmonton-Strathcona’s MP. “All along that line you’re not going to have treaties, you’re going to have unresolved claims. So it’s far more complex.”

Court decisions, including at the Canadian Supreme Court level, have stipulated that First Nations must be consulted and accommodated when their traditional lands are affected by industrial development. According to documents obtained by The Journal, even if the pipeline project is approved, Ottawa anticipates legal challenges from First Nations groups could hold construction back.

More than 60 First Nations along the pipeline route, Fraser River and west coast have signed their names to a declaration calling for an “unbroken wall of opposition” to pipelines and oil tankers along the coast. Among those are the Gitga’at, whose concerns increased following the sinking of BC Ferries’ Queen of the North in 2006.

The fallout from the sinking — the leaking of diesel fuel and oil onto surrounding beaches, including clam beds — woke band members up to the potential harm of a larger oil spill, said Robinson, who runs guided tours of the remote coastal area.

“It’s almost like a test run. You get to see little mistakes and things that shouldn’t happen. We’re talking about a really light oil — diesel — (from the Queen of the North). Imagine if it’s one of these (large oil tankers). That’s the part that really scares us,” said Robinson.

Some of the tankers that would feed off the Enbridge pipeline will be able to carry as much as two million barrels of oil. Called VLCCs — Very Large Crude Carriers — their length is longer than three football fields.

The Gitga’at are among nearly 20 First Nations from B.C. that have signed up as interveners in regulatory hearings. Thirteen Alberta aboriginal groups, including Edmonton-area First Nations and Métis settlements, have also applied for intervener status.

Only one B.C. First Nation has declared its support publicly. When Gitxsan hereditary chief Elmer Derrick announced the nation in northwest B.C. had signed an ownership deal that would provide $7 million over a 30-year period, it sparked an immediate battle with other leaders in the community who say they don’t support the project.

Unlike in B.C., most Alberta First Nations have not said whether they support or reject the 1,172-kilometre pipeline.

Rather, written evidence, affidavits and requests for more information generated by First Nations groups and submitted to the joint energy and environment hearing board show groups want to know more about the economic benefits of the pipeline, and they are concerned about its impact on traditional lands, cultures and hunting practices.

Pages of traditional knowledge reports ask how Enbridge will compensate for damages to traditional territory, whether beavers on certain trapping routes can be relocated, and what the effect on grizzly populations will be. Members of some Alberta First Nations have submitted lengthy affidavits listing animals, fish and plant life they expect could be compromised, from big horn sheep to chokecherries and traditional medicines like sweetgrass.

If most Alberta First Nations are mum on whether they ultimately will support the pipeline, at least one is saying no to the Northern Gateway, however.

Driftpile First Nation chief Rose Laboucan said that, following the recent completion of a traditional land-use study, the community of 2,000 has rejected the project. About 1,000 band members live on the Driftpile reserve, west of Edmonton.

“The permanent right of way will be about a 25-metre-wide scar running through the territory, harming the plants and animals, things we rely on,” said Laboucan.

She said it is ridiculous to believe there is not going to be an oil spill.

“I understand there has to be progress. I understand they want markets outside of Canada, to Asia. But at the same time, when do we balance our Mother Earth? In my opinion, it’s in pain now,” said Laboucan.

The band had reached a deal earlier with the Pembina Pipeline Corp. to build a safe house in the community over a different project, noted Laboucan.

But she said Enbridge’s take-it-or-leave-it approach of its ownership offer in Northern Gateway turned the community off.

Driftpile’s study, a draft of which was submitted to the hearing board last month, carried 43 recommendations, including that a community interpreter be hired to work with the Northern Gateway consultation team to assist community understanding of the project, that members of Driftpile “receive employment opportunities or monetary compensation as a result of project effects” on traditional territory, and that more field visits and research be done prior to construction.

First Nations who oppose the Enbridge project stress they are not opposed to economic development — but it depends on the development.

The Nadleh Whut’en First Nation, located in north-central B.C., has signed on to an ownership deal with the $1.2-billion Pacific Trails natural gas pipeline, but is opposed to the Enbridge oil pipeline.

The community of 470 supports the natural gas pipeline because if there was a rupture the gas would dissipate, says chief Larry Nooski.

But he points to the more than 22-year-old Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska, where research has shown that oil remains in the environment.

Copies of briefing notes to federal Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan, generated by his department in June 2011 and obtained by The Journal in December, offer some insight as to what the federal government is weighing in terms of effects on aboriginal communities in both provinces.

“The Northern Gateway would cross key watersheds that are home to salmon stocks on which the local Aboriginal communities rely. Some First Nations insist that the risk of an oil spill is too great and some have also expressed opposition to the (review panel) processes and alleged a lack of adequate Aboriginal consultation,” researchers write in a four-page document, a set of briefing notes provided to the minister over a year-long period. “The First Nations feel the reliance on the (joint National Energy Board and Environmental Assessment Agency panel) process to act as a one-time opportunity for Aboriginal groups to provide information about Aboriginal interests will undermine consultation in a very serious way.”

The document indicates Aboriginal Affairs contributed $270,000 to the hearing panel to support Aboriginal consultation and public participation.

Ottawa counts just two reserves as being crossed by the pipeline: Alexis Nakota Sioux in Alberta and the McLeod Lake First Nation in B.C. Traditional territories are also to be crossed, however, which is why Alberta groups like the Enoch Cree, Alexander, East Prairie Métis, Montana, Samson Cree, Whitefish (Goodfish) Lake, and others have applied to be heard.

taudette@edmontonjournal.com

With files from Dave Cooper
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/First+Nations+fear+disastrous+spill+inevitable/5962644/story.html#ixzz1isFqYiMo

The Sea Claims Containership M/V RENA off New Zealand

2012-01-08T07:13:00.000-06:00

MV Rena splits in two on a New Zealand reef, image courtesy Maritime New Zealand

Severe weather overnight has separated the MV Rena into two pieces, which are now about 20-30m apart on the Astrolabe Reef, Maritime New Zealand says.

Both sections of the vessel still remain on the reef, with the forward section remaining firmly wedged, while the aft section has separated and moved clockwise (or to starboard) about 13 degrees, after the ship was hit by seas of over 7m overnight, further worsening the damage it sustained following its grounding on the reef just over three months ago. The current bad weather is forecast to slowly ease over next 3 – 4 days.

MNZ Salvage Unit Manager David Billington said the fresh damage to the ship had resulted in the loss of a large number of containers and debris.

“While the two sections of the Rena currently remain on the reef, there’s no question the ship is badly damaged with the severe movement breaking off many of the hatch covers and releasing containers from the holds. Salvors are now working to assess the state of the vessel so that naval architects can undertake further calculations get gain a clearer picture of its ongoing stability.”

Mr Billington said the vessel Go Canopus was currently connected to the aft section of the Rena and was continuing to monitor its status.

At least 23 containers had been confirmed as being lost from the ship, which were floating or partly submerged, with another 7 (unconfirmed) thought to be in the water. However, Mr Billington said more were likely to be lost. There was also a large debris trail, including wood, around the vessel.

Container recovery company Bramear Howells had tugs en route to tag containers with buoys as it was currently too rough to tow or safely recover them, while vessels with trawl nets would also be sent out to collect debris once weather conditions improved.

Navigational warnings had also been issued to shipping, with the port company communicating with individual ships via port radio and warnings issued to recreational vessels via Coastguard radio. Shipping lanes were also being monitored for containers and debris. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council Harbour Master is considering extending the 3nm exclusion zone due to the large debris field from Rena.

National On Scene Commander Alex van Wijngaarden said the National Response Team had been mobilised, which included trained oil spill response and wildlife experts, who were preparing for the likelihood of more oil coming ashore.

“While reports at this stage indicate there has not been a significant release of oil, with the Rena in its current fragile state, a further release is likely. While it is unknown at this stage exactly how much oil may be released, teams have been mobilised and will be ready to respond to anything that may come ashore. The wildlife response had also been increased to help deal with any affected wildlife.

“At this stage, preliminary trajectory modelling predicts that any oil released will come ashore around midnight tonight, landing on beaches south east of Mt Maunganui – however, this could change at any time depending on the weather and wind conditions. We also remind people that there may be large amounts of debris or containers that could come ashore so they need to exercise common sense and please keep clear. Instead, if people do see any oil or container debris, please report it to us via the 0800 OIL SPILL number (0800 645 774).”

Image courtesy Maritime New Zealand

DEBATE - rules - Is it Still Called a Conversation When One Person Won't Listen?

2012-01-08T06:56:00.000-06:00

source

Oil Spills And Sunlight More Toxic To Marine Life Than Previously Thought; 'A Change In The Paradigm'

2012-01-06T08:43:00.002-06:00

http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=32110657094

The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study by the University of California, Davis, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The study, to be published the week of Dec. 26 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even small oil spills can have a large impact on marine life, and that common chemical analyses of oil spills may be inadequate.

"Our research represents a change in the paradigm for oil spill research and detecting oil spill effects in an urbanized estuary," said Gary Cherr, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and a study co-author.

On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, when the containership collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, bunker oil contaminated spawning habitats for the largest U.S. coastal population of Pacific herring — a month before spawning season.

The new study, which analyzed Pacific herring embryos following the spill, highlights the effects of bunker oil on fish embryos in shallow water, the potential significance of sunlight interacting with oil compounds, and the extreme vulnerability of fish in early life stages to spilled oil.

Specifically, the study found that components of Cosco Busan bunker oil accumulated in naturally spawned herring embryos, then interacted with sunlight during low tides to kill the embryos. Laboratory-fertilized eggs, caged in deeper waters, were protected from the lethal combination of sunlight and oil, but still showed less severe abnormalities associated with oil exposure.

Crude oil is naturally occurring, liquid petroleum. Bunker oil is a thick fuel oil distilled from crude oil and burned on ships to fuel their engines. It is contaminated with various, sometimes unknown, substances.

The study builds on research following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which released up to 32 million gallons of crude oil into the comparatively pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. That research established a new paradigm for understanding the effects of oil toxicity on fish at early life stages.

The new study suggests that this old paradigm is inadequate to explain the dramatic, lethal effects of very low levels of oil on fish embryos, even in an urban estuary with preexisting background pollution.

"Based on our previous understanding of the effects of oil on embryonic fish, we didn't think there was enough oil from the Cosco Busan spill to cause this much damage," Cherr said. "And we didn't expect that the ultraviolet light would dramatically increase toxicity in the actual environment, as we might observe in controlled laboratory experiments."

Researchers began the new study in February 2008. They analyzed the levels of oil-based compounds in caged herring embryos at four oiled and two non-oiled subtidal sites, all of which were at least 1 meter below the water's surface. Naturally spawned embryos from shallower sites were also analyzed.

Three months after the spill, caged embryos at oiled sites showed nonlethal heart defects typical of oil exposure.

But embryos from the shallower, intertidal zone not only exhibited the nonlethal heart defects, they also showed surprisingly high rates of dead tissue and mortality unrelated to heart defects.

"These embryos were literally falling apart with high rates of mortality," said Cherr.

In 2008, almost no live larvae hatched from the natural spawn collected from oiled sites.

The high death rates did not seem to be caused by natural or manmade causes unrelated to the spill, the researchers report. No toxicity was observed in embryos from unoiled sites, even those near major highways.

Embryos sampled two years later from oiled sites showed modest heart defects but no increased death rates.

Pacific herring is a commercially and ecologically important species. The fish travel in large schools, typically from the San Francisco Bay north to the Bering Sea, and serve as a forage fish for humpback whales, other mammals, birds and salmon. After two years at sea, they spawn in shallow areas of bays and estuaries.

"In San Francisco, herring is one of the last urban fisheries, and herring is an indicator for the health of the Bay," said Cherr.

Big Oil Wants to Drill in Arctic Ocean without cleanup capability - impossible conditions

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-06:00

The BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico was truly devastating " but an oil spill in the Arctic`s extreme, icy conditions would be much worse!

So why is the Obama Administration pushing forward a plan that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean?

They`ve asked for our input on this risky offshore drilling plan " but we only have until this coming Monday, January 9th, to speak out.

Ask the Obama administration to heed the lesson of the Gulf spill and stop this dangerous plan before tragedy strikes in the Arctic Ocean.

After the BP disaster in the Gulf, President Obama stood before the American people and promised safer, cleaner offshore drilling. But the newly proposed 5-year offshore leasing plan falls short of this promise, allowing potentially risky drilling in America`s pristine and fragile Arctic Ocean habitat.

Here are the cold, hard facts " there is no proven way to clean up an oil spill in a region where icecaps cover the ocean waters and with no boats or equipment nearby to help clean up the mess.

An Arctic spill would devastate many species, including polar bears, walruses, bowhead whales, and more. Even the Coast Guard has admitted that it`s response capability in the Arctic would be like "starting from zero."

Will you speak out to protect the polar bears and whales? Ask the Obama administration to leave the Arctic out of the final offshore drilling program BEFORE the January 9th deadline.

If this risky offshore Arctic drilling plan is approved as is, we could be facing the next major oil spill disaster and the devastation of a marine ecosystem that is vital to the health of our planet. But, if we speak out together now, we can make sure that the plan does NOT include risky Arctic drilling.

Please submit your comment by January 9th to protect the Arctic from dangerous drilling. Don`t delay " we won`t get another chance to stop this. http://soe.salsalabs.com/o/1/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=250&track=2012_0104_Arctic_Drilling_Alert

Thank you again for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Mike Town
Director, SaveOurEnvironment.org
info@saveourenvironment.org

http://thesop.org/story/20120105/big-oil-wants-to-drill-in-arctic-ocean.html

Coast Guard mission to Nome exposes U.S. limits in ice-breaking capability

2012-01-05T21:05:00.000-06:00

The USCG Cutter Healy will plow a 300-mile-long path for a Russian-flagged tanker this week
In what may be the furthest thing from a pleasure cruise, the U.S. Coast Guard's only operating Arctic icebreaker is escorting a Russian-flagged tanker this week on an emergency fuel run to the ice-blocked town of Nome, Alaska.

The USCG Cutter Healy will plow a 300-mile-long path for a Russian-flagged tanker this week

The mission: Deliver 1.1 million gallons of diesel fuel and 300,000 gallons of gasoline to Nome (population 3,598), where storms prevented a fuel shipment in the fall.

Midweek, the two ships left Dutch Harbor, in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Friday, the ships are expected to encounter the ice, and USCG Cutter Healy will take the lead, plowing a 300-mile-long path for the Russian-flagged tanker Renda.

If all goes well, the two ships will arrive at Nome on Sunday or Monday. The Healy will stop a half mile short of the harbor to avoid scraping the bottom, while the tanker Renda will push on, stopping next to stable ice to off-load fuel using a lengthy hoses.

Officials are calling the trip historic.

It is the first time fuel has been delivered through ice-covered waters to a western Alaska community, they say. While it is possible to exaggerate Nome's plight -- fuel could have been flown in -- officials say it is difficult to exaggerate what this mission says about the dismal status of the Coast Guard's ice-breaking fleet.

The nation's two heavy polar icebreakers -- the Polar Star and the Polar Sea -- are out of commission, with the Polar Sea unlikely to see service again. The 420-foot Healy, meanwhile, is a medium-sized icebreaker and it does not have the capabilities of its larger predecessors.

The Nome mission has lengthened the eight-month deployment of its 80-person crew, robbing them of a Christmas holiday. And it is delaying scheduled repairs to the ship, possibly affecting its scientific mission scheduled for next summer. This further underscores just how thin the nation's ice-breaking capabilities have become.

By contrast, Russia has 25 polar icebreakers (including eight heavy ones), according to a Congressional Research Service report. Finland and Sweden have seven icebreakers each. Canada has six.

"The United States needs icebreakers, and this incident proves it," said Alaska's Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell. Treadwell said the dearth of icebreakers means the U.S. is not competitive with other Arctic nations, which are exploiting new water passages created by climate changes. Icebreakers could extend the seasons for some state industries, he said.
But many people in the Lower 48 just don't understand, Treadwell said.

"The United States has been an Arctic nation since 1867, but most people still think of Alaska as Seward's Folly," he said.

The Nome mission "brings awareness that there is a bigger issue there," said Nome Mayor Denise Michels. "It really does."

"There is more of a need now than ever before in our history for new ice-breaking ships capable of reaching the shores of our communities," wrote Jason Evans, chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corporation, Nome's village corporation.

Slow-motion crisis

If the Nome situation is a crisis, it's a "crisis that's kind of unfolding in slow motion," Evans told CNN.

The stage was set in November when a major storm swept through the region, delaying a barge carrying 1.6 million gallons of fuel to Nome. After the storm cleared, sea ice blocked the harbor.

The village corporation, one of two main suppliers of fuel for the town, quickly determined its existing fuel would likely run out before another barge could reach the town in the spring.

There was a chance that home heating fuel would run out by March, when Nome is still subject to freezing temperatures. Diesel fuel for the police department and heavy equipment ran out a week ago, though the town's other supplier has helped fill that void. And gasoline is expected to run out in early February, Evans said.

Corporation officials considered flying in fuel. But it would have taken more than 300 flights, each carrying 4,000 to 5,000 gallons, to meet the town's needs, Evans said. Shipping costs would have added $3 or $4 to the price of a gallon of gasoline, which already approaches $6 a gallon, he said.

The corporation considered hiring local ice-breaking tugs, Canadian tugs and barges, Norwegian ice-breaking ships and Russian ships, finally settling on Russian ships that were "close, capable and possibly available."

Vitus Marine LLC contracted with the Renda, a Russian-flagged, double-hulled vessel. Since the Renda is an ice-breaking tanker, "we were confident, cautiously confident, that they could do it unassisted," Evans said. But Evans said he sought assistance from the Coast Guard icebreaker to ensure the mission's success.

"This has never been done before and when you do something that's never been done before, having an organization like the U.S. Coast Guard is a huge relief," Evans said.

Officials said legal and regulatory obstacles were as formidable as the ice.

Evans and officials worked with the Coast Guard to get a waiver from the Jones Act, which requires goods being transported from one U.S. port to another to be transported by a U.S.-flagged ship. The Coast Guard inspected the Renda so it could operate in U.S. waters. And they worked out a plan to off-load the fuel at Nome.

State officials invoked a law signed by President Franklin Roosevelt that allows the Coast Guard to conduct operations for commercial enterprises. Though commonly used to justify Coast Guard operations in the Great Lakes and Hudson River, it had not previously been used to assist businesses in Alaska, officials said.

"The same protections that Americans enjoy in the Great Lakes, western Alaskans ought to enjoy," Treadwell said.

To the rescue

Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of the Coast Guard's district that includes Alaska, said the Coast Guard had wanted to be part of the operation from the beginning.

"Clearly having Healy there in the event that something were to (go wrong), just a simple mechanical problem on Renda, the Healy's there to help her out," Ostebo said. "It's a 300-mile transit in ice close to our shores and the prudent thing to do."

Ostebo said the Cutter Healy can cut through "first year" ice at close to 10 knots, but that the speed of the Renda may be the limiting factor.

He said he is confident that mission will be successful.

"We're not relying on hope or chance here. We've spent a lot of time with all of our partners, whether that's state, federal, tribal partners, as well as the city of Nome, to ensure that we look at all of the details of how this operation is going to go down," he said. "I think we're going to do fine on this."

Village corporation chairman Evans agreed. "I've done everything but celebrate yet," he said.

M/V RENDA Departs Dutch Harbor with Fuel for Nome

2012-01-05T10:48:00.000-06:00

ALERT - Fuel tanker RENDA bound for Nome turns back for minor repairs

There's a new twist in the saga of a Russian fuel tanker trying to reach ice-bound Nome. The Coast Guard said the Renda was just 15 miles out from the Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor when it turned back Wednesday to make minor repairs. Petty Officer Erik Ihle said the tanker was anchored just outside Dutch Harbor Wednesday night and plans called for it to head for Nome once again on Thursday. He didn't know the exact nature of the repairs. The Renda, a tanker that can break through ice, left the Aleutian Islands port Wednesday morning. Bering Sea storms prevented a fuel barge from making its final delivery to Nome late last year. Vitus Marine arranged the trip by the Renda on behalf of Bonanza Fuel, a subsidiary of the Sitnasuak Native Corp. KTUU reported the Renda is loaded with more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel and 400,000 gallons of gasoline. The voyage to the Seward Peninsula is about 700 nautical miles and the last 300 are expected to be through ice about 2 feet thick. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy will escort the Renda on the four- to five-day trip.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/04/1969742/fuel-tanker-leaves-dutch-harbor.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2012/01/04/renda-departs-for-nome/

Photo by Matthew Smith, KNOM - Nome: Andy Mahoney, an Assistant Research Professor at UAF and part of the Sea Ice Group at UAF's Geophysical Institute, takes ice core samples.

The Renda is on its way to Nome. The tanker departed Dutch Harbor Wednesday morning at 9:50 with the icebreaker Healy close behind. They are now steaming north through 380 miles of open water before hitting the ice edge. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow says the vessels will be near each other for the open water transit, cruising at up to 10 to 12 knots.

Wadlow says the vessels will have 340 miles of ice to plow though. The fuel could arrive in Nome sometime around Sunday, depending on the progress through the ice. Vitus Marine CEO Mark Smith says his team is putting their efforts towards the final delivery in Nome.

What happens at port however, is still not finalized. The ice conditions for the final stretch and a ruling by the Department of Environmental Conservation will determine the details of offloading fuel.

Five days before the anticipated delivery, researchers from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks were drilling ice cores to get a better understanding of ice conditions. Assistant Research Professor Andy Mahoney said his priority was assessing a pressure ridge that formed at the very end of the breakers, at the entrance to the harbor. Above the surface it’s 5 feet high, but below the surface it extends further down.

Ice stability is crucial as delivery plans could include offloading fuel with the tanker moored outside the harbor with hosing running across the ice.

Ice cores taken by the team will be melted and tested for salinity. By knowing the composition of the ice, officials will be able to determine the best course of action and equipment for unloading the fuel from the Renda into Nome’s tanks.

Opposing view: Say no to Arctic drilling

2012-01-04T16:17:00.001-06:00

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/story/2012-01-03/no-Arctic-drilling/52369328/1

For the people of America's Gulf Coast, BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster and the 4.9 million barrels of crude oil that gushed for three straight months are still an everyday fact of life.

Up north, the people of America's Arctic have watched the BP disaster and its aftermath with a sense of foreboding about the future of their home — also known as the planet's air conditioner and vital habitat for polar bears, ice seals, beluga whales, walrus and millions of birds.

As long as the Obama administration allows Royal Dutch Shell to push forward with plans to drill in the Arctic's Chukchi and Beaufort seas, the closer America's Arctic comes to a disaster that could eclipse the tragedy in the Gulf.

What the people of America's Arctic know is that cleaning up an oil spill in the Arctic with current technology is "Mission Impossible," and even the Obama administration concedes the job would be extremely difficult. The Arctic Ocean is prone to hurricane-force storms, 20-foot swells, pervasive sea ice, frigid temperatures and months-long darkness.

What's more, the Arctic has almost no infrastructure — no roads or deep water ports and only a few small airports — and the nearest Coast Guard station is 1,000 miles away. And the last public spill drill in the Arctic was deemed a total failure.

How will Shell deal with a spill in the Arctic's extreme conditions? Shell makes wild claims of removing 95% of oil spilled in open water (comparatively, 3% of the oil in the Gulf was cleaned up using skimmers and booms, and in the Exxon Valdez spill it was 8%-9% — both in calmer waters, close to infrastructure). In addition, the oil giant plans to leave any oil trapped under sea ice in place until the ice thaws. That is no plan at all.

After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, President Obama promised a new way of making decisions about drilling in this country. Now, just a year and a half later, the president is setting himself up to be left with the next major oil spill disaster on his hands — and the destruction of one of our planet's most vital ecosystems.

Cindy Shogan is executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League.

- - - snip - - -

Editorial: Proceed with caution in Alaska

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-01-03/drill-for-oil-in-Arctic-Ocean/52369600/1

After what happened last year when BP's oil well blew out and dumped millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, the idea of drilling for oil in the frigid Arctic Ocean off northern Alaska sounds risky.

Even in the relatively placid and temperate Gulf, it took 86 days to cap BP's damaged well, and by then raw crude had spread for hundreds of miles. Further, the frigid arctic waters aren't as rich in the oil-eating bugs that limited damage in the Gulf. The Beaufort and Chukchi seas, where Royal Dutch Shell wants to drill next summer, are covered with ice two-thirds of the year.

But despite those risks — and the fact that the Shell bid is shaping up as an election-year controversy — other factors say Shell should be allowed to drill. And, in fact, the Obama administration has granted the company a conditional go-ahead.

There are at least three reasons for moving ahead:

• The Arctic Ocean is much shallower than the Gulf of Mexico. Shell would drill in 160 feet of water or less, compared with the mile-deep water where BP was drilling in the Gulf. And well pressures off Alaska are just a third to a half what they are where BP drilled. If something did go horribly wrong, Shell would benefit from BP's experience.

• Shell and other companies have drilled more than 100 wells in the Arctic waters off Alaska and Canada without serious incident, which suggests that drilling there, safely, is possible. Shell also has a better safety record than BP, and with $4 billion already invested in Arctic operations would face significant losses if it caused a serious spill.

• The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the area holds more than 20 billion barrels of oil, which would rival some of the mega-fields in the Middle East— a serious consideration for a nation that still imports almost half its oil.

In an ideal world, there'd be no need to drill in Arctic waters, just as there'd be no need to build the controversial Keystone pipeline to bring tar sands oil through the United States from Canada, or even to resume drilling in the ultra-deep Gulf of Mexico. But until most of America's 250 million motor vehicles run on something other than gasoline, pretending that the nation doesn't need more domestic oil is foolish.

Americans shouldn't stand for another disaster like the one that a careless, clueless BP caused last year, but neither can their energy needs be ignored.

Give Shell the go-ahead, but keep it on a short leash.

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Alaska farmer starts milling flour to address food security concerns

2012-01-02T10:59:00.003-06:00

A historic moment occurred Dec. 7 in a tucked away barn on a Delta Junction farm.

No bells, fireworks or champagne marked the occasion, but it was a joyous moment for Bryce Wrigley and his family when they ground barley to make flour. The news of the first time in decades a commercial flour mill has operated in Alaska has been met with enthusiasm. Not long after Wrigley set up his Alaska Flour Co. Facebook page he attracted nearly 500 fans and had calls from as far away as Nome, Dillingham, Cordova and Valdez requesting flour.

“We won’t be extending that far this first year,” Wrigley said. Asked why he chose to invest in such an expensive operation, Wrigley said he and his wife Jan wanted to do something to provide food for Alaskans. They started their journey by visiting flour mills around the Lower 48 when on vacation last year.

This fall he ordered equipment for the mill from Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan and has been working hard ever since to get the business up and running.

“The food security stuff really kicked it off,” Wrigley said. “Since Hurricane Katrina, it’s been on my mind.”

When looking at the food pyramid, Alaska can grow something in every category he said.

“Why can’t we get to the point of raising enough food in the state for three months?” he asked. In the event of a pandemic, Wrigley said the government has addressed masks and rubber gloves but not food.

“It takes 90 days for a pandemic to run its course,” he said. “We have a one-week supply of food in state, so all we need is two months and three weeks.”

Wrigley has high hopes that the state and university can continue agricultural research. “We are the most vulnerable state,” he said. “We have to take care of ourselves, otherwise the time will come when we can’t.”

Wrigley, who is a grain farmer and president of the Alaska Farm Bureau, said he tried to get other folks interested in starting a mill. His research included all the details of not only grinding grain but also packaging and marketing flour.

The impressive electricpowered mill can produce a 20-, 40- or 100-mesh grain (the higher the number, the finer the grain) and Wrigley is working with Ingal wheat and Sunshine hull-less barley to produce flour. He grows both on his own farm and is hoping to convince neighbors to join the endeavor. “It will change the crops we raise,” Wrigley said. He plans to plant 200 acres of barley and 300 acres of wheat this year.

The mill capacity is 700 to 1,000 pounds of flour per hour. He hopes to produce 100 tons the first year, 900 the next and 1,500 in five years.

“We’re going to ramp up production as fast as we can sell it. If I can’t keep up with store demand, I’ll be tickled.”

Pricing will be similar to other specialty flours, Wrigley said. “I’m not trying to complete with Gold Medal.”

Through the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service studies, it has been found that mixing half barley flour with half wheat flour produces the best baking results. It’s better to mix the two because barley holds moisture.

For barley flour recipes, including cornbread, brownies, banana bread, pancakes, carrot cake, cookies, crackers, muffins, noodles and pie crust, visit the Extension publications website.

For the future, Wrigley is considering the production of brownie, cake and pancake mixes. The flour is sold in Fairbanks at Alaska Feed and Homegrown Market and in Anchorage at the Natural Pantry.

One huge bonus to opening the mill has been that while the Wrigley farm hadn’t been making enough money to keep the adult children employed and they had all moved Outside, the eldest son Dallen has moved home from Idaho with his wife and four children to help with mill operations.

“I’m excited to pass this farm to subsequent generations,” Wrigley said, beaming.

This column is provided as a service by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Nancy Tarnai is the school and station’s public information officer. She can be reached at ntarnai@alaska.edu.
Contact info:

www.alaskaflourcompany.com

907-895-4033

bryce@alaskaflourcompany.com and on Facebook

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/16958341/article-Alaska-farmer-starts-milling-flour-to-address-food-security-concerns?instance=home_features_bullets1

Cross Slot No-Till Grain Drill

We have switched to a no-till operation on our farm to improve the soil structure, retain moisture, and reduce the amount of fuel needed on our farm. For those of you who may not know much about growing grain, the video below may be interesting. Ultra low disturbance planting preserves the microbial colonies in the soil that are necessary for good soil health.

Back of a Napkin Quick Economics:

If 20 bushels/acre x 60 lbs/bushel x 200 acres = 240,000 lbs barley

Plus

If 15 bushesl/acre x 60 lbs/bushel x 300 acres = 270,000 lbs wheat

Summary:

Barley = 240,000 lbs

Wheat = 270,000 lbs

========

Total about 500,000 lbs +/-

If Alaska flour sells for $4/lb then Gross Sales $2,000,000

Business proposition? Time will tell.

U.S. Coast Guard Top 10 Videos of 2011

2012-01-01T18:11:00.000-06:00

This is a compilation of the Coast Guard's Top 10 Videos of 2011. Tune in through the end of the year, Dec. 22 through Dec. 31, so you can watch each individual video and vote for your favorite.

Visit www.uscgnews.com, facebook.com/UScoastguard, ‪http://coastguard.dodlive.mil or www.uscgnews.com for more information.

Snapshot of Alaska seafood industry in 2011

2012-01-01T16:36:00.001-06:00

http://www.adn.com/2011/12/31/2241063/snapshot-of-alaska-seafood-industry.html

By Laine Welch

Alaska's seafood industry continued its mission to ramp up its message to policymakers, especially those from rail belt regions who tend to overlook its economic significance.

How important is the seafood industry to Alaska and the nation?

How important is the seafood industry to Alaska and the nation? At a glance: 62 percent of all U.S. seafood landings come from Alaska, as does 96 percent of all U.S. wild-caught salmon. Seafood is by far Alaska's No. 1 export, valued at nearly $2 billion (next in line: zinc and lead exports at $785 million); and Alaska ranks ninth in the world in terms of global seafood production. The industry provides more than 70,500 Alaska jobs, more than oil and gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. The seafood industry is second only to Big Oil in revenues it generates to Alaska's general fund each year. Alaska's abundant and sustainable fishery resources are the envy of all other seafood producers, and its fishery management is regarded as a model around the world. Here are some fishing notables from 2011, in no particular order, some of which are included in the annual "Fish Picks and Pans":

• Halibut catches continued to tumble -- the Pacific coastwide catch limit was cut by 19 percent to 41 million pounds. Fishery managers put the industry on notice that catches could be reduced drastically in the very near future.

• Kodiak toppled Homer as the No. 1 halibut port for landings the first time since 1996. • Polls continued to show that a majority of Alaska voters oppose the Pebble Mine project, and lack trust in both foreign mining and Alaska's permitting process.

• It took six years, but NOAA Fisheries/ Financial Services Branch finally began accepting loan applications for skippers and crew who want to buy into the Bering Sea crab fisheries.

• For the first time, researchers caught sperm whales on video biting long lines at one end and shaking the fish free, similar to shaking apples from a tree. The video is part of SEASWAP, the Southeast Alaska Sperm Whale Avoidance Project.

• The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released draft national aquaculture policies that aim to "increase the U.S. supply of healthy seafood.

• For the first time, fishery managers set a cap on the number of salmon that can be taken as bycatch by Gulf trawlers.

• Recycled seawater instead of oil began warming the Ted Stevens Research Institute in Juneau.

• The value of Alaska fishing permits and catch shares took a big jump along with fish prices. At Bristol Bay, most drift permits were being offered at $160,000 -- up from $132,000 in 2010, and more than double the price in 2009. In prime fishing regions of Southeast Alaska and the central Gulf, halibut shares ranged from $30 to $36 per pound.

• Hundreds of one-ton sacks of pollock bone meal were shipped from Dutch Harbor to California to remove lead from neighborhoods. The calcium phosphate in the fish neutralizes the toxic metal.

• Fish tags with iPhone technology were used for the first time to track halibut migrations based on the earth's magnetic field. The invention of the iPhone and its advancements made the pitch and roll detectors small enough to put in fish tags.

• Dock prices for Alaska halibut and black cod (sablefish) broke records, topping $7 and $9 per pound, respectively. Likewise, advance prices for Bristol Bay red king crab were $9 a pound. A reduced harvest of just 8 million pounds had buyers scrambling for crab. Crabbers in Southeast Alaska also dropped pots for red king crab for the first time in six years when a fishery opened on November 1.

• Bering Sea crabbers were shocked at a catch increase for snow crab, Alaska's largest crab fishery. The harvest for the 2011/2012 season was boosted by 64 percent to nearly 90 million pounds. Shrimp, canned tuna and salmon remained as America's seafood favorites, although seafood consumption dropped slightly to 15.8 pounds per person.

• The state took nearly two years to deny a citizens' petition aimed at protecting Cook Inlet fisheries from coal mining. The petition asked that buffer zones be required to protect salmon streams of the Chuitna River should Alaska' largest coal mine be built in the region.

• State officials said there was "no reason to panic" and that Alaska salmon are "relatively safe" from a deadly fish virus that appeared for the first time in Pacific waters. British Columbia said it will test 8,000 wild and farmed salmon for signs of the virus.

• Anchorage ranked No. 1 for Alaska cities with the most resident skippers and crew at more than 1,800.

• At $603 million, Alaska's 2011 salmon catch is the third most valuable since 1975 and likely to end up at No. 2 after final sales are reported by processors and buyers next spring. (Alaska's most valuable salmon season was $725 million in 1988.) Southeast Alaska ranked first in the state with the most valuable salmon harvest at $203 million ex-vessel, a $70 million increase over 2010. Bristol Bay came in second with a value of $137 million, compared with $185 million the previous year. The 2011 pink salmon harvest of 116 million fish was valued at more than $170 million, a record. Chum salmon range in at $93 million, the third highest value; sockeye salmon were worth almost $296 million, ranking at sixth place among historic sockeye harvests. Chinook and coho harvests, at $20 and $23 million, were in the middle of their historic values.

• Alaska processors continued to ramp up their output of customer-friendly salmon fillets. Production approached 20 million pounds, an increase of 26 percent. More than 6 million pounds of salmon fillets went out fresh this summer, a gain of over 30 percent. For the first time ever, fresh and frozen pink salmon wholesaled for virtually the same price this summer, both at about $1.45 per pound.

• A new McDowell Group analysis revealed that sea otter predation on local fisheries has cost Southeast Alaska's economy more than $28 million in direct and indirect effects since 1995. • Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, along with Rep. Don Young, introduced legislation to stop genetically modified salmon, the so-called "Frankenfish," from getting to U.S. markets, and to require labeling if it gets federal approval.

• Marubeni Corporation, parent company of North Pacific Seafoods, purchased the Yardarm Knot seafood processing plant at Naknek, making it Japan's largest sockeye salmon buyer.

• Dutch Harbor ranked as the nation's No. 1 port for seafood landings for the 22nd year in a row.

2011 Fish Picks and Pans Best fish partnerships: The fishermen financed and operated Regional Seafood Development Associations for Bristol Bay and Prince William Sound/Copper River Best Alaska seafood cheerleaders: ASMI (Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute) Best fish outreach: Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Agents Best "future fish eaters" ambassador: GAPP (Genuine AK Pollock Producers) for getting top-quality seafood onto America's school lunch trays Best Fish Samaritans: UFA and AFIRM (Alaska Fishing Industry Relief Mission) Best fish invention: NanoIce from Iceland, made of crystallized ice particles that can be pumped into a hold or container to cover fish. The generators use 90 percent less refrigerant and 70 percent less power than conventional ice-making machines. Best celebrates its local fish town: Cordova Best fish feeders: Sea Share and Kodiak processors and fishermen who partnered to donate bycatch to food banks Fishiest "best available science" snafu: NMFS' questionable biological opinion on effects of Steller sea lions on western Aleutian fisheries. Resulting closures to the cod and Atka mackerel fisheries cost the industry $200 million a year. Biggest fish shocker: Arne Fuglvog Best fish cleanup: The Juneau-based Marine Conservation Alliance, in partnership with local communities, hauled away more than 2 million pounds of coastal debris since 2003 from Southeast to the Pribilofs (including a derelict fishing vessel). Best She Fish: Cora Campbell, commissioner, ADF&G Best fish byproducts booster: Peter Bechtel, UAF/USDA, and Scott Smiley, Kodiak Fisheries & Marine Science Center. Biggest fish blunder: Trading 11 miles of productive salmon streams on the Chuitna River for low-grade coal for China Scariest fish story: Ocean acidification Best fish news site: www.seafood.com Best fish PR: Norton Sound Seafood House at Ted Stevens International Airport/Anchorage Biggest fish slam: The state siding with Pebble Partnership in court to prevent Lake and Peninsula residents from voting on the Save Our Salmon initiative Biggest fish snub (3rd year in a row): Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American/Pebble Mine, who told Bristol Bay residents, "If the people don't want the mine, we won't build it." Biggest fish waste: Alaska spending $20 million on Peruvian fish feed for its 33 salmon hatcheries while sending 200,000 tons of homemade fish feeds to Asia. Biggest fish stall: The U.S. still not signing on to the Law of the Sea Treaty, meaning it has no claims to the Arctic Best fish advocates: Alaska congressional delegation: Lisa, Mark and Don Trickiest fish solution: Sea otters vs. fisheries in Southeast Alaska Most troublesome fish dilemma: Millions of pounds of halibut taken as bycatch while sport and commercial catches get trimmed. Biggest fish story of 2010: Federal guidelines for the first time recommend that Americans eat two seafood meals a week. That means new fish meal guidelines are required for schools, military mess halls, VA hospitals, prisons and other federally backed institutions. Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Her Fish Radio programs can be heard on stations around the state. This material is protected by copyright. For information on reprinting, contact msfish@alaska.com. Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2011/12/31/2241063/snapshot-of-alaska-seafood-industry.html#storylink=cpy

Why Arctic Ocean oil drilling is a risky choice

2011-12-31T23:34:00.000-06:00

It's not a question of ‘if' a major spill will occur in the Arctic, but ‘when and where', says conservation biologist and oil industry expert Rick Steiner

As we enter the end of the age of oil, it is clear that most of the world's easily accessible oil has already been produced. Oil companies are now moving offshore into the last hydrocarbon frontiers - deepwater and the Arctic Ocean.

The dangers of deepwater drilling came into sharp focus in 2010 with the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, where 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over a 3-month period. Another high-risk environment is the Arctic Ocean, which geologists suggest may be the last significant oil and gas frontier left. As decisions are made on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, we need to understand and acknowledge the risks.

First, even if nothing goes wrong, there would be unavoidable impacts from each phase of oil development in the Arctic Ocean - seismic exploration, exploratory drilling, production platforms, pipelines, offshore and onshore terminals, and tankers.

Offshore oil development will include airplanes, helicopters, support ships, drill ships, platforms, artificial islands, icebreakers, waste streams from ships and rigs, lights and noise, extensive coastal infrastructure construction (ports, roads, causeways, staging areas), subsea pipelines, geotechnical coring, and noise from underwater seismic surveys. These industrial activities will add significant disturbance in an Arctic ecosystems already suffering terribly from warming.

The acoustic disturbance to marine mammals from offshore oil development is of particular concern, as underwater noise can affect communication, migration, feeding, mating, and other important functions in whales, seals, and walrus. As well, noise can affect bird and fish migration, feeding and reproduction, and can displace populations from essential habitat areas. Some of these impacts can be reduced or mitigated with lease stipulations, but most cannot.

And of course, beyond these unavoidable operational impacts, there is the very real risk of a large oil spill from exploration drilling, production, pipelines, terminals, and tankers. While government and industry ritually understate the risk of oil spills and overstate their preparedness, for high-risk environments such as the Arctic Ocean, we should assume that a large marine oil spill will occur.

In fact, for development off Alaska's Arctic coast, U.S. government authorities project the risk of a major spill at about 30 - 50 per cent, and that a worst-case blowout could release some 1.3 million barrels (58 million gallons) of oil.

So if drilling proceeds in the Arctic Ocean, then everything possible to reduce risk should be required. The risk reduction standard for the Arctic should go well beyond industry's preferred standard of ‘As Low As Reasonably Practicable' (ALARP), to ‘As Low As Possible' (ALAP), regardless of cost.

This highest safety standard would include best available and safest technology for all components of an offshore drilling program - blowout preventers with redundant shear rams, well design and integrity verification, proven seabed well capping equipment, independent well control experts on rigs, rigorous cementing and pressure testing procedures, dual well control barriers, immediate relief well capability on stand-by, state-of-the-art seabed pipeline design and monitoring, tanker traffic monitoring, strict seasonal drilling windows allowing sufficient time for response to late-season spills, robust spill response plans, rigorous government permitting and inspection, and Citizens Advisory Councils to provide effective citizen oversight. As well, financial liability for offshore oil spills in the Arctic should be unlimited, thereby motivating companies to incorporate the highest safety standards possible.

Not "if" but "when" a spill will occur

But regardless how safe we make offshore drilling in the Arctic, there will still be a significant risk of a major oil spill, and policy makers and industry need to be honest about this. People will make mistakes, and equipment will fail. It's not a question of ‘if' a major spill will occur, but ‘when and where.'

A major spill will travel with currents, in and under sea ice during ice season, and it would be virtually impossible to contain or recover. Even with robust oil spill response capability, in most scenarios far less than 10 per cent will be recovered, and a major spill could easily become a transnational event.

VIDEO - Tug ARIES Sinking/Rescue in Bering Sea

2011-12-31T22:42:00.000-06:00

On June 26, 2011, the Tug Aries sunk in the Bering Sea, about 109 miles East of St. Paul Island. After the crew managed to get from the sinking tug to the barge they were towing, Captain Doug Pine pulled out his iPhone and began taking footage of the rescue. All four members of the crew were safely rescued by the USCG. The Aries was a 68-ft tugboat owned by C&K Marine and was towing a barge bound for Nome, AK when she sunk.

For additional details, visit http://www.jgp1.com/tugaries

Stricken 361m VALE BEIJING Ore Carrier off Brazil

2011-12-31T22:20:00.001-06:00

Vale Beijing on her maiden trip and fully loaded suffered cracks in the hull and a leak in a ballast tank

Brazil’s navy on Thursday called off an operation to unload fuel oil from the damaged Vale Beijing large iron-ore transport ship due to unfavorable ocean conditions, Brazil’s UOL online news service reported.

A fresh attempt to remove about 7,000 metric tons of fuel oil from the ship will occur in the near future, UOL said, citing Calmon Bahia, captain of ports of Maranhao state in Brazil’s northeast, where the vessel was moored offshore. The oil must be removed from the stricken vessel to reduce the risk of an oil spill, Bahia told the news service.

Vale Beijing, reportedly the world’s largest iron ore carrier, and which has been leased to Brazil iron ore miner Vale SA (VALE, VALE5.BR), developed cracks in its hull on Dec. 3 while it was loading iron ore at Vale’s Ponta da Madeira export terminal in Maranhao for export. The vessel, which was on its maiden voyage, is owned and operated by South Korean company STX Pan Ocean Co. (028670.SE, GZ9.SG).

The ship is still loaded with 260,000 tons of iron ore.

The navy hasn’t yet managed to remove the oil from the ship due to strong winds and tides which would make the operation unsafe, according to the UOL report. After the oil is removed, an operation will start to unload the iron ore from the vessel, and only then will there be a decision on where the ship will be taken for repair, Bahia told the news service.

A Vale press officer in Rio de Janeiro referred enquiries on the matter to the ports captaincy, noting that Vale is neither the owner nor the operator of the vessel.

STX Pan Ocean told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday that a salvage team is still looking at the ship to determine the cause of the accident and to decide where the repairs would be carried out.

It is still hard to predict how long the repairs will take, an STX spokeswoman said.

-By Diana Kinch, Dow Jones Newswires

Alaska: The Last Frontier on Discovery Channel tonight

2011-12-30T11:42:00.003-06:00

Alaska: The Last Frontier premieres tonight on the Discovery Channel at 10 p.m. You can check out the preview below.

A Slice of Heaven Shared.... KUDOS!

2011-12-30T11:37:00.002-06:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirsten-dixon/postcard-from-the-alaska-_b_1171496.html

Kirsten Dixon

Postcard From The Alaska Wilderness (PHOTOS)

After an extended period of travel, I'm heading home to Winterlake Lodge, where I live in the backcountry of Alaska. Most of my family will be there when the skiplane circles the house and flies low over the frozen lake in preparation to land. A couple of snow machines will fire up and head out towards the packed-ice runway and my black Labrador, Willow, will follow close behind. We'll unload hundreds of pounds of provisions brought in from Anchorage. Fresh vegetables and fruit are the most coveted cargo and the highest priority to get over to the lodge before they freeze. It's a scene we've repeated countless times in the nearly 30 years I've lived here.

Our lodge lies far from any road and the nearest grocery store is about 200 miles away in Anchorage. It might sound complicated, but my husband Carl and I have long ago adapted our lives to living in the wilds. We've raised two daughters here, and they both now work for our small family-run business.

In the seclusion of living "away from the things of man," time seems to bend and curve in unusual ways here. The world spins without us even noticing. I think Carl and I completely missed the '80s as far as popular culture goes. We live in a place where wolves can still howl at night and bears can wander into our yard.

The rhythm and pace of our winter lives are not necessarily less work than in the summer but days are certainly shorter. The sun comes up around 10 a.m. and it sets a little after 3 p.m. That's in contrast to the nearly perpetual daylight and intense pace we keep in the summer months.

Lodge life offers a kind of comforting routine. Carl is the first one up in the morning. He stokes the fires and then he makes the first morning coffee. He does this in the dark using his LED headlamp to illuminate the scene. He'll sit by the glow of the woodstove and read until the rest of the crew begins to wake and the lodge comes to life.

Since there are no nearby communities, we have to provide our own electricity and we have a well for our water. We cut firewood for the woodstoves and the outdoor crew head out on daily expeditions looking for naturally dead-standing trees we can chainsaw into manageable pieces. We constantly groom and maintain trails around the lodge so our snow machines won't get bogged down in the deep snow.

I spend the majority of my day in the kitchen, cooking, thinking or talking about food or looking through cookbooks designing future menus. The kitchen is a large, comfortable, well-lit and warm place with a large table where lodge guests sometimes sit and chat while I cook.

Our sled dogs are the superstars of the wintertime. We take two teams out twice a day for exercise and training along our trails. They love to run, and the seemingly frenetic harnessing of a dog team takes all hands on deck. Why do we have sled dogs? There's an addictive quality to gliding silently through the woods powered only by natural energy.

And, besides, our dogs are part of our family. At the end of the day, sitting around the kitchen table, we talk about our dogs as if they are a collection of colorful and quirky people: Rosie had a good day today, Axel doesn't like Boomer and so on. It's funny how Willow the Labrador picks her favorite sled dogs to interact with. The dogs have such vivid personalities, sometimes evident right from birth, and they seem no less complicated than we are.

We live at Mile 198 along the Iditarod Trail, a historic 1,000-mile trail that commemorates the dramatic story of how diphtheria medicine was relayed by dog mushers to reach the town of Nome during an epidemic in 1925. The trail is only passable in the winter and has become a destination for adventurers traversing it by dog team, snowmobile or sometimes by bike, skis or snowshoe.

In the depth of winter, when the snow is higher than the windows of the lodge, I feel as if I am living along a hobbit trail where at any moment a strange and magical character can knock on my kitchen door and ask for help or food. Sometimes buffalo hunters on snow machines stop in on their way across the rugged Alaska Range to McGrath. More than one walking-around-the-world person has trudged with backpack and skis across the frozen lake on their way to or from Russia, recounting wondrous tales of adventure and human generosity along the way.

This holiday season, my family and I will spend time together playing games, sledding down the big hill, running the sled dogs, skiing, eating crab and salmon and laughing often. We'll keep an eye out for northern lights and, on January 1, we'll watch the sun rise over our lake, washing us with opportunity for a new year.

We'll take trips away from this place in the new year as often as we can but we'll recognize that sometimes the greatest value of travel is being able to appreciate returning home.

Best 'Great Loop' Videos - S/V FREEDOM - Thank You!

2011-12-29T12:13:00.002-06:00

WOW - job well done ! My hat goes off to you for producing GREAT videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CruisingFreedom?feature=watch

Anyone thinking about cruising the GREAT LOOP should view these videos.

Want to follow along as S/V FREEDOM cruises? Click HERE to go to the blog.

Bon Voyage FREEDOM !!!

Freedom Launch 2011

S/V Freedom Underway At Last

Bound For Mackinaw

Cruising from Chicago to Mobile

VIDEO - Spectacular Time Lapse Dam "Removal" - Salmon win 33 miles of spawning habital - KUDOS!!!

2011-12-28T09:19:00.000-06:00

The October removal marked another step in ongoing efforts to restore habitat for threatened and endangered fish in the Pacific Northwest.

The more than 12-story Condit Dam on the White Salmon River is the second-tallest dam to be demolished in U.S. history to be breached for fish passage, according to the advocacy group American Rivers

NOAA issues draft study for Arctic Sea oil drilling - PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS

2011-12-27T07:49:00.002-06:00

Obama administration under political pressure to permit new drilling in fragile Arctic Ocean ecosystem; public comment taken through Feb. 13

By Bob Berwyn (http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/12/27/noaa-issues-draft-study-for-arctic-sea-oil-drilling/ )

RED by Captain on GREY GOOSE

Federal officials say plans to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska will cause only “minor to moderate” impacts to rare bowhead and beluga whales — despite the potential for another spill on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and no good way to clean it up.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a draft environmental impact statement on the drilling plan just before Christmas, outlining the potential impacts, as well as mitigation measures that could be implemented to minimize effects on the marine environment. The draft EIS is open for public comment through Feb. 13. All the documents for the project are online here.

The mitigation measures include closures during whale migration and feeding and during traditional whale and seal hunts. If adopted, these measures could reduce the effects on marine mammals and ensure they remain available to the communities that depend on them for their diets and cultural traditions, according to the draft EIS. The executive summary is online here.

“We know how important marine mammals are to healthy Arctic ecosystems and the people who depend on them for food and cultural traditions,” said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “We want to hear comments on these proposed alternatives to lessen any effects of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.”

The conservation community has already voiced its outspoken opposition to Arctic drilling, charging that the federal government doesn’t have enough background science on the Arctic Ocean ecosystems to make a good drilling decision.

Additional criticism has been aimed at inadequate response plans for possible spills or leaks in the harsh environment. There is nothing to suggest that either the oil companies or the Coast Guard have the capability to clean up any significant oil spill in the region.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act directs the Secretary of Commerce to allow the incidental and unintentional take of small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens if their actions will have only a negligible effect on the species and will not reduce the availability of the mammals to the Alaska Natives who rely on them.

“We know how important marine mammals are to healthy Arctic ecosystems and the people who depend on them for food and cultural traditions,” said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “We want to hear comments on these proposed alternatives to lessen any effects of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.”

NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will travel to eight North Slope communities to hold public hearings in late January and February on the draft environmental impact statement. The times and building locations of the public hearings in Barrow, Kaktovik, Kivalina, Kotzebue, Nuiqsut, Point Hope, Point Lay and Wainwright will be announced early in 2012 in the Federal Register and through a public notice.

ITS A DONE DEAL EVEN IF THE PUBLIC COMMENTS SAY "NO" BECAUSE THE U.S. GOVERNMENT RECEIVES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN ROYALTIES FROM OIL DRILLING - THERE IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST WHEN PERMITS ARE APPROVED BY A GOVERNMENT THAT RECEIVES OIL DRILLING ROYALTIES - WE NEED NEW REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS TO CHANGE THE LAWS TO BETTER PROTECT OUR CITIZENS AND NATIONAL RESOURCES AND INTERESTS.

DRILLING WITHOUT PROVEN CLEAN-UP TECHNOLOGY, ASSETS AND INFRA-STRUCTURE IS IRRESPONSIBLE - THIS ALONE SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT REASON TO WAIT.

PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS - THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS

After receiving public comments during the 45-day comment period and from the public hearings, NOAA will finalize the environmental impact statement in 2012. It will then be used to guide decisions by BOEM about permitting of oil and gas exploration and by NOAA about incidental take authorizations that allow unintentional take of small numbers of marine mammals.

To comment on the draft EIS, the public can submit written comments via mail, fax, or email by Mon., Feb. 13.

Comments may be mailed to:

James H. Lecky
Director, Office of Protected Resources
NOAA / NMFS
1315 East West Highway, Room 13704
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Comments may also be faxed 301-713-0376, or emailed to arcticeis.comments@noaa.gov

U of Washington School of Fisheries lands a Ray Troll

2011-12-25T18:08:00.000-06:00

99 species of fish on the wall
99 species of fish
They swim round and round
Mostly in Puget Sound
99 species of fish on the wall
- Sing to tune of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”

People know about sharks but they might be surprised at some of the other toothy, carnivorous fish calling the Salish Sea home.

Take the longnose lancetfish, some which grow 5 feet long with 2-inch daggerlike teeth.

Sporting a dorsal fin like a sail, it’s one of 99 species gliding and snaking across a supersized 15-foot mural by Alaskan artist, author and confessed fish groupie Ray Troll, whose style has been described as “scientific surrealism.” The mural was unveiled last month at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

To go:
Fisheries Sciences Building
1122 NE Boat Street
Building hours: Weekdays, 7am-5:30pm. Closed weekends and holidays
Borrow 3D glasses: Room 116, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It’s on display in the lobby of the Fisheries Sciences Building. Be sure to grab a pair of loaner 3-D glasses from Chris Yoder in the main office down the hall in order to see the yelloweye rockfish, grunt sculpin, red Irish lord, showy snailfish and other brightly colored fishes emerge from the painting’s depths.

The 3-D effect in the mural takes advantage of the fact that, to our eyes, warm colors seem to come toward us while cool colors recede, Troll said. He’s used the effect in other paintings, although never in such a large piece has he made it so pronounced. Through 3-D glasses, all the warm-colored fishes seem to float off the art work. While painting, Troll said he needed to put on such glasses from time to time and note which fish needed more warm tones and which needed more blue wash to cause them to recede.

At the water’s surface, above the fishy fray, there’s Seattle with its Space Needle, Mount Rainier and a sky where even the clouds are fishy.

Look close – can you spot the submarine periscope? The three orcas? The Boeing 737?

What about items displaying Troll’s signature quirkiness? Is that a No. 2 pencil in the salty sea? A paintbrush, a tiny slice of pizza . . .

Uh, pizza?

“I couldn’t paint a northern anchovy and not put pizza in front of it,” Troll said.

“That's what you get with Ray Troll: rigorous scientific detail, odd juxtapositions, and an appreciation for diner food,” said a Seattle Post-Intelligencer review about a 2009 fossil exhibit at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture on which Troll collaborated.

Most all the species depicted in the mural are found in the Salish Sea, a name coined in recent years for the inland marine waters of Washington and British Columbia comprised of Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Mary Levin/University of Washington

UW's Ted Pietsch was a driving force to get the Ray Troll piece for the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Ted Pietsch, professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and curator of the UW’s fish collection, provided Troll with a list of the 240 species found in the Salish Sea. Pietsch and Troll got to know each other 30 years ago and Troll has sought Pietsch’s insights and made use of specimens over the years from the fish collection as one way to ensure his drawings are biologically accurate.

Troll worked on the painting at his Ketchikan studio for a year selecting species from Pietsch’s list, trying to get at least one representative of each family and just “letting the thing fill itself up until I couldn’t fit anything more.” Noticing that a number of species were named forTrevor Kincaid, who established the UW’s zoology and botany departments in the early 1900s, Troll painted Kincaid’s image, in a frame, floating with the fishes.

Troll created a key listing everything in the order he painted it.

The mural was commissioned with donations from aquatic and fishery sciences faculty -- an effort kick started with $1,000 each from Pietsch and fellow fisheries professor Ray Hilborn-- as well as alums and friends of the school.

Several species are represented more than once, bringing the total images in the water to 111. For example, under the belly of the striking sockeye salmon, all bright red and making its way back from the sea to spawn, are a couple of little smolts heading in the other direction and “looking up at dad,” Troll said.

Pietsch, who also is curator of fishes for the UW Burke Museum, said he’s already dreaming up some kind of fish identification challenge using the mural for his “Biology of Fishes” next quarter.

NOTE ABOUT SLIDE SHOW: Images by Mary Levin, University Photographers, unless otherwise indicated.

A Sea Change - Imagine a World Without Fish?

2011-12-25T11:56:00.003-06:00

A Sea Change, a feature length documentary produced by Niijii Films, premiered March 14, 2009 at the Environmental Film Festival, Washington, D.C. to a full house - it was the first time in the festival's history that every seat and all standing room was taken during a screening.

This poignant film tackles the probability of a world without fish should humans continue to act and behave environmentally as we have for the past century.

According to scientists, such as Dr. Richard Feely of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this catastrophe will play out in coming generations unless widespread awareness is raised about ocean acidification, its causes, and how to slow or stop it.

A Sea Change explores the ecological, cultural, and economic effects of this alarming phenomenon. It is the first documentary to focus public attention on this impending but little-known crisis - the side effect of carbon dioxide emissions. Public concern about the warming of our atmosphere is widespread, while the other half of the global equation - the fate of our oceans and their falling pH - remains virtually unknown in the public domain. This film broadens the discussion about the dramatic changes in the chemistry of the oceans, and conveys the urgent threat those changes pose to our survival.

By raising awareness about this important issue, viewers are moved to understand the consequences of inaction, and to consider the wide range of practical steps that individuals, corporations and the government can take to help address this phenomenon.

The audience learns about ocean acidification as the on-camera guide embarks on a journey to revisit the communities of his childhood including Norway, Alaska and Seattle. Along the way, he meets scientists, activists, entrepreneurs and politicians, all working to research ocean acidification and to take steps to address it.

With its multigenerational and international storylines, coupled with an educational outreach plan and curriculum component, A Sea Change reaches broad audiences. The accompanying outreach will further address the chemistry and biology of ocean acidification, encourage young people to consider careers in science, and provide specific examples of activities that people can do to make a difference in reducing their personal carbon footprint.

Learn more about the film and view the trailer at www.aseachange.net.

If your organization would like to host a screening of the movie, please contact Ben Kalina at ben@aseachange.net

Read more about ocean acidification's effect on coral reefs here.

Brochure link is here: http://www.aseachange.net/_literature_51809/English_Brochure

Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Clouds Over Birmingham Alabama

2011-12-24T23:41:00.001-06:00

Ride the wild waves (Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama)

http://news.yahoo.com/giant-tsunami-shape-clouds-roll-across-alabama-sky-192102289.html

For a morning, the sky looked like a surfer's dream: A series of huge breaking waves lined the horizon in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday (Dec. 16), their crests surging forward in slow motion. Amazed Alabamans took photos of the clouds and sent them to their local weather station, wondering, "What are these tsunamis in the sky?"

Experts say the clouds were pristine examples of "Kelvin-Helmholtz waves." Whether seen in the sky or in the ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when a fast-moving layer of fluid slides on top of a slower, thicker layer, dragging its surface.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcwOn4VeJOE

http://ozreport.com/15.252

Shell deployed ships and aircraft with dispersants to SINK Nigerian oil spill - Nigeria Government must be asleep after BP Gulf of Mexico fiasco

2011-12-24T23:17:00.000-06:00

Shell on Friday deployed ships with dispersants and planes in a bid to mop up (sink out of public sight) one of Nigeria's worst offshore oil spills in recent years, a spokesman said, amid fears it could soon reach the shoreline.

A Shell spokesman in Nigeria said five vessels and two aircraft had been deployed to attack the oil slick, with the company estimating the amount of the spill at its Bonga field at less than 40,000 barrels.

The leak has been stopped since the company became aware of it on Tuesday.

"Investigation is going on," Tony Okonedo said. Asked whether ships had been deployed as planned on Friday, he said, "Five vessels, two aircraft ... oil spill response specialists and other personnel are involved."

The company says the slick has been thinning and breaking up, but the information was difficult to verify independently.

Shell became aware of the leak Tuesday at its Bonga field some 120 kilometers off Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer and an OPEC member. Production has halted at the field, which has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.

The company said the source of the leak was a flexible line linking a production vessel to a tanker.

It was Nigeria's worst offshore spill since a 1998 Mobil incident, officials said, though onshore leaks have been estimated at levels far worse since that time in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Environmental group SkyTruth, using satellite imagery from Wednesday morning it published on its website, estimated the slick was 70 kilometers long and 17 kilometres wide at its widest.

It said it covered 923 square kilometers (356 square miles) of ocean.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0520/EPA-scolds-BP-in-Gulf-oil-spill-dispersant-is-too-toxic-change-it

EPA scolds BP in Gulf oil spill: dispersant is too toxic, change it

After saying last week that it had no authority to tell BP which disperant to use for the Gulf oil spill, the EPA on Thursday told BP to switch dispersants to one that is less toxic.

IF THIS IS HOW SHELL INTENDS TO HIDE OIL SPILLS IN ALASKA THEN THEY BETTER THINK IT THROUGH AGAIN - THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WILL NOT ACCEPT DISPERSANTS USE NOW THAT THEY HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE TOXIC AND CONTAIN CARCINOGENS CAUSING CANCER.

UN Experts Make The Case That CO2 Has No Effect On The Climate

2011-12-24T14:12:00.002-06:00

http://www.real-science.com/experts-case-co2-effect-climate

Global warming gases have increased beyond the worst predictions of the UN’s climate experts – exceeding the worst of seven emissions predictions laid down by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Greenhouse gases are rising faster than Scenario A, but temperatures (green below) are trending below Scenario C (the zero emissions scenario.) What they are telling us is that climate sensitivity is essentially zero, and that it is time to shut down their global warming scam. CO2 has essentially no effect on the climate.

http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1988/1988_Hansen_etal.pdf
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt

Kolskaya Oil Rig Sinking Sparks Doubt Over Arctic Plan

2011-12-24T14:01:00.000-06:00

The sinking of a floating oil rig that left more than 50 crew dead or missing is intensifying fears that Russian companies searching for oil in remote areas are unprepared for emergencies – and could cause a disastrous spill in the pristine waters of the Arctic.

Only four months ago, Russian energy giant Gazprom sent Russia's first oil platform to the environmentally sensitive region, and industry experts and environmentalists warned it is unfit for the harsh conditions and is too far from rescue crews to be reached quickly in case of an accident. They are demanding Russia put Arctic oil projects on hold.

Russia is the world's largest oil producer, but it extracts most of its oil onshore, with no more than 2 percent of its production coming from mature offshore fields in the warm Black and Caspian seas and relatively new fields just off Sakhalin Island in the far east.

As Russia's core oil fields in Eastern Siberia are depleted, companies are looking north. The government hopes that up to 80 million tons of oil will be produced annually in the Arctic by 2030.

Russia is trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to hold up to a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas. By speeding up the Arctic oil project, the government is strengthening its bid.

The Kolskaya floating oil rig that capsized and sank in the Sea of Okhotsk on Dec. 18 had done exploratory drilling for Gazprom Neft Shelf, a subsidiary of Gazprom. It was being towed back to an eastern Russian port in a fierce storm when a strong wave broke some of its equipment and portholes, and it capsized in the choppy water.

Gazprom is now pioneering the oil development of Russia's sector of the Arctic and was the first Russian company to dispatch a drilling rig to the Pechora Sea in northwest Russia.

Russian oil companies have never operated in weather conditions as harsh as those found in the ice-bound Arctic, where ice ridges are meters (yards) deep and storms are frequent. The Kolskaya accident has reinforced fears that they are unprepared to meet the challenges.

"This tragedy has once again reminded us of how high the risks of offshore accidents are," said Alexei Knizhnikov, an oil and gas policy officer with the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF, Greenpeace and five regional Russian environmental organizations signed a petition on Thursday calling for a parliamentary investigation and urging the government to suspend the oil projects for now.

The petition accuses government agencies of failing to enforce environmental and safety regulations and says that current laws are inadequate for dealing with the magnitude of risk in the Arctic.

Environmentalists first raised their concerns when Gazprom announced in August that it was sending its platform to the Arctic for exploratory drilling in the Pechora oil field, which holds some 6.6 million tons of oil.

The platform's underwater section was built in Russia in the 1990s, while its upper part comes from a platform built in Scotland in 1982 and decommissioned from the North Sea in 2002.

Gazprom insists the Prirazlomnaya platform, billed as the first to be ice resistant, is safe and contains no old equipment except for its frame.

"We've done our best to implement the latest technology and regulations to prevent any accidents," Vladimir Vovk, chief of Gazprom's department for the management of equipment and technologies in developing marine fields, said at a news conference in September.

Environmentalists question both the state of the equipment and the platform's design. Because the Prirazlomnaya is situated hundreds of kilometers (miles) offshore, it is designed to store huge quantities of oil until tankers can arrive to collect it. The platform's storage tanks can hold up to 120,000 tons (840,000 barrels).

Unlike the Kolskaya, which was carrying no oil when it sank, the Arctic platform could potentially cause a disastrous spill if it capsized in icy, rough seas.

The distance from shore would also complicate any rescue or cleanup mission. The nearest port of any size is in Murmansk, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.

Even in warmer, more hospitable waters, accidents at oil platforms have been disastrous.

A giant oil slick was approaching the coast of Nigeria on Friday after what Royal Dutch Shell said was a spill during the transfer of oil from its floating platform in the offshore field to a waiting tanker. The spill came less than a week after Shell received approval from the U.S. government to drill exploratory wells off Alaska's northwest coast, in the Chukchi Sea near Russian waters.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the 2010 explosion of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and led to more than 200 million gallons (4.8 million barrels) of oil spewing from a well deep beneath the sea.

Russia's parliament gave preliminary approval in September to a bill intended to tighten regulations on oil companies working in the Arctic.

Yekaterina Khmelyova, an environment law officer at the WWF, said the bill does not do enough to hold the oil companies publicly accountable or to guarantee a full assessment of the environmental risks. She said environmentalists and the business community are working on a new draft that among other things would provide for the creation of clean-up funds.

Oil industry experts also have expressed doubts about Gazprom's expertise in offshore drilling in the Arctic as well as the platform's design.

They have questioned the economic justifications for the project. The oil in the Pechora field is of low quality and the project will be loss-making without tax breaks, said Valery Nesterov, a senior analyst with the Moscow-based investment bank Troika Dialog. For state-controlled Gazprom, the Arctic project appears to be more of strategic importance than about any immediate economic benefits, he said.

"This is clearly a strategic task that the company is executing," Nesterov said. "It looks like Russia is not going to give up that strategy since the interests of ship yards, machinery producers and, possibly, the military are involved."

Four years ago, Russia staked its claim to supremacy in the Arctic by planting a titanium flag on the ocean floor and arguing that an underwater ridge connected the country directly to the North Pole. The United States does not recognize the Russian assertion and has its own claims, along with Denmark, Norway and Canada.

Russia, Canada and Denmark are planning to their respective file claims to the ridge to the United Nations.

In past years, Russian ship yards and machinery producers have been able to stay afloat largely thanks to large orders coming from state-owned plants and government-sponsored projects. A large-scale oil and gas development of the Arctic is likely to give a welcome boost to both industries.

Canada's Arctic Oil Drilling - Meet or Exceed the National Energy Board’s policy to kill an out-of-control well - The ball is in the Industry's court to demonstrate - USA? Alaska? Shell et al?

2011-12-24T13:33:00.001-06:00

Companies planning to explore Canada’s Arctic offshore region have been given a chance to show they can “meet or exceed” the National Energy Board’s policy to kill an out-of-control well, otherwise the federal regulator will stick with its same-season relief policy.

In updating its rules, which included consideration of BP’s Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the NEB said in a 53-page report it remains determined to “minimize harmful impacts” to the Arctic environment by requiring operators to sink a relief well in the same summer season that a well begins to leak uncontrollably.

But it has given companies a de facto exemption to demonstrate that they can apply new technologies to cap a blowout.

It is not yet clear whether that will open the way for Imperial Oil, ExxonMobil, BP and Chevron to file exploration applications in 2012 to explore their Beaufort Sea leases.

“Filing requirements set out the technical information we will need to see in future applications for offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic,” said NEB chair Gaetan Caron.

“These new requirements provide clarity to future applicants and to those who will provide input into the board’s decision to approve or deny an application for a well in the Arctic.”

Chevron says not feasible

Imperial, as operator, and ExxonMobil each hold 25 percent of the Ajurak-Pokak joint-venture covering two deepwater exploration blocks in the Beaufort, with BP holding the remaining 50 percent. The partnership secured the rights by making combined work commitments of almost C$1.8 billion.

Chevron has two exploration licenses covering a total 1,200 square miles immediately west of the joint-venture properties and is hoping to start seismic work in the 2012-14 period.

In its submission to the NEB’s 18-month consultation with northern communities, the industry and environmentalists, Chevron said the same-season relief well requirement “would likely not be feasible as drilling moves into deeper water areas, with more complex wells and with more challenging ice conditions than were experienced in the initial phase of Canadian Beaufort exploration 20 to 35 years ago.”

It said the NEB should require drillers to stop uncontrolled flows in the same season that they started, but not necessarily with a relief well.

Chevron has already indicated it is developing a new-generation blowout preventer which it believes would make relief wells unnecessary.

Imperial focused on prevention

James Hawkins, Imperial’s Arctic operations manager, said in a letter to the NEB that his company’s “primary approach to well control is prevention.

“While it is important to have a relief well plan that has been subject to rigorous review and approval by the NEB, a requirement for same-season relief well capability is generally neither practical nor necessary,” he said.

But the leaseholders, along with ConocoPhillips, say they need more time to study what impact the new stipulations will have on their exploration plans.

However, the NEB does not rule out the use of enhanced prevention technology to avoid the same-season rule, although it said prevention alone will not suffice.

It said NEB panels will now determine whether companies can “depart from” the relief well rule.

CAPP: Some flexibility

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the new rules offer some flexibility for companies to “innovate and apply new technologies.”

In its submission, CAPP said 132 wells have been drilled in the Canadian Arctic, 89 in the Beaufort, with no significant oil spills.

Bharat Dixit, the NEB’s technical leader of exploration and production, told the National Post that the ice pack makes the Beaufort a “closed ocean” for much of the year, which prompted the NEB to introduce its single-season relief well policy to prevent uncontrolled wells from leaking through the winter.

He said the NEB is confident drilling can be conducted safely in the Arctic provided companies follow recommendations on proper management and training, use a measured pace on development that includes “pauses” before critical or dangerous work and have a proper spill response plan in place.

Trevor Taylor, policy director at the Pew Center’s Oceans North Canada group, said the NEB’s review is a “positive first step,” although it is not clear “what you need to do in order to drill in the Arctic.”

“The industry has been saying they can do it safely, so I think the ball is in industry’s court right now when it comes to demonstrating to regulatory bodies, the NEB in particular, that they’re able to meet requirements,” he said.

However, Taylor warned that “there’s always going to be the risk” of a spill, adding: “We’re not saying you shouldn’t drill at all. The risk has to be minimized to that extent that is reasonable.”

—Gary Park

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/932511350.shtml

Shell Announces Huge Oil Spill Off Nigerian Coast, Worst In A Decade - ALASKA in 2012 could be the same? SHOW THE WORLD YOU CAN RESPOND TO AN OIL SPILL - I DARE YOU TO PROVE ME WRONG - SHOW US!

2011-12-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

WHY DOESN'T SHELL DEMONSTRATE THEY CAN RESPOND TO AN OIL SPILL IN NIGERIA SO WE KNOW THEY LIKEWISE COULD RESPOND IN ALASKA. IF THEY CANNOT RESPOND IN NIGERIA THEN IT STANDS TO FIGURE THEY ALSO CANNOT RESPOND IN ALASKA AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO OPERATE.

ARE ANY OF THE ALASKA REGULATORS AWAKE UP NORTH - HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY ISSUING PERMITS TO A COMPANY WHICH HAS A TRACK RECORD OF NOT RESPONDING AND CLEANING UP OIL SPILLS IN NIGERIA? THE UNITED NATIONS SAYS NIGERIA WILL REQUIRE A BILLION DOLLARS AND 30 YEARS TO REVERSE THE SHELL OIL SPILL POLLUTION.

WHAT HAS SHELL DEMONSTRATED THAT ALLOWS IT TO ATTEMPT DRILLING IN ALASKA? WHO WILL BE ON-SITE MONITORING WITH AUTHORITY TO SAY "STOP" IF THERE IS A PROBLEM?

Shell has just alerted Nigerian coastal communities that up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday off the coast of the Niger delta while it was being transferred to a tanker about 120 kilometres off the coast. The spill is likely to be the biggest in a decade.

Satellite images have suggested that the spill is 70 kilometres long and is spread over a total of 923 square kilometres.

The Bonga oil field, where the spill is said to have occurred, and which produces 200,000 barrels a day, has had all production suspended as of Wednesday night, as authorities decide how to move to curb the potentially devastating environmental damage that could now occur.

Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, a leading Nigerian human rights group based in Lagos, isn’t so sure we should trust Shell’s estimation of the spill:

Shell says 40,000 barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them because past incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts and impacts of its carelessness.

We are alerting fisher folks and coastal communities to be on the look out. It just adds to the list of Shell’s environmental atrocities in the Niger delta.

In August, Shell admitted responsibility for two major spills in the Bodo region of the delta that took place in 2008, but it hasn’t yet paid out any compensation to those affected by those spills.

Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman, issued a standard response:

Early indications show that less than 40 000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running.

Shell is likely to face major criticism from this latest debacle because a major UN study said it could take Shell and other oil companies 30 years, and $1 billion to clean other oil spills in Ogoniland, one small part of the oil-rich delta.

[Source: Guardian]

Bob McDonald's top science stories of 2011

2011-12-23T10:57:00.002-06:00

By Bob McDonald, Quirks & Quarks

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/quirks-quarks-blog/2011/12/bob-macdonalds-top-science-stories-of-2011.html

This year was another remarkable year in science, with space shuttles retiring and new particles being detected (perhaps). Here is a partial list of the more interesting science stories of 2011.

ENVIRONMENT

1. Fukushima Nuclear Accident/Tsunami

On March 11, following astounding video footage of ships passing over farmers' fields, as the tsunami washed over the Japanese landscape, came news that the nearby nuclear reactor had been compromised. Immediately, news stories recalled Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Fear washed over North America and Europe, as explosions ripped through the reactor buildings. But in fact, no one died from the reactors themselves, and what could have been a major disaster was averted.

Thanks to heroic efforts on the part of the workers at the plant, sea water was poured on the overheated reactor cores and the melting nuclear fuel was prevented from escaping. Radiation that did get out was carried by steam into the atmosphere and water running into the sea, but while it was detectable around the globe, the levels were so low they were less that what we are exposed to naturally.

It will take years to clean up the site, and the accident renewed fear of nuclear power in the public mind, just at a time when many believed the industry was about to experience a renaissance as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

2. 7 Billion and Counting

On Oct. 31 (an arbitrary date chosen by the UN), world population reached seven thousand million, a number that is hard to fathom. If we all joined hands with our arms outstretched, we would form a line that would circle the Earth about 175 times, or reach all the way to the moon and back about nine times. If everyone on Earth lived to the same level of consumption as Canadians, we would need several more Earths to provide all the food, water and energy. It was a time to take a serious look at our impact on the planet, as we continue to gobble up everything in sight and drive species to extinction at a rate similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

To ensure our survival, consumption must come down, which is not happening, and most experts say that people living in developing regions need better access to family planning. But the latter issue is more of a cultural and religious issue than a scientific one.

3. Arctic Retreat

Ice in the Arctic Ocean continues to retreat, with this year's loss greater than it has been in the last 1,450 years. More than half of the polar ice cap has now disappeared.

At the same time, permafrost around the shorelines of the Arctic Ocean is melting, releasing methane gas, which is another greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide.

When the ice completely vanishes during summer, which may happen in less than 30 years, what was formerly white ice will become dark sea water, which absorbs sunlight, prompting further warming. This is good for shipping through the Northwest Passage and drilling for natural gas, but it adds to the overall warming of the planet and related problems for those living further south.

4. Climate Talks in Durban

The United Nations held yet another round of climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in late November to discuss a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol, which is about to expire. Since that agreement was signed in 1997, overall greenhouse gas emissions among the developed nations have actually dropped. This is mainly due to conservation and green technology efforts in Europe and the collapse of industrial economies in the former Soviet Union.

But it is certainly not because of Canada. Even though we signed and ratified the agreement, we have now officially backed out and our emissions have risen by 17 per cent, more than the U.S. This is mainly due to activities in the oil sands.

On the international scene, Canada is viewed as the bad guy because we are not making efforts to curb our emissions and refuse to sign new international treaties. The good news is that changes are happening at the grass roots level, rather than from the top down.

PHYSICS

5. Faster than Light?

Scientists in Switzerland fired a beam of neutrinos to a receiving lab in Italy, more than 700 kiometres away, and the sub-atomic particles seemed to arrive a few billionths of a second early, suggesting they had traveled faster than the speed of light. If that is true, the longstanding theories of Einstein would be proven wrong, shaking the very foundations of physics.

The scientists themselves admit their measurements could be wrong, even though they have done the experiment twice. They are calling for other labs in the U.S. and Japan to try the same experiment.

If the results match, we could witness a fundamental change in the way we look at the universe, or at the very least, refine our measurements of it. It won't likely lead to time travel. Then again, we could just be wrong. New results should come in the next year.

6. Award for The Dark Side

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of Dark Energy, a mysterious force that is pushing the universe apart.

This is the only force known to work against gravity and it is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. The odd thing is that Dark Energy, along with Dark Matter, make up 95 per cent of the known universe, yet no one has a clue what either of them is.

Interesting that here in the 21st century, when we think we have so much figured out, most of the universe is still unknown to us. Further work at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which glimpsed the mysterious Higgs Boson, may also discover the nature of Dark Matter.

7. Not the "god Particle"

After half a century of searching for the hypothetical Higgs Boson, scientists at CERN say they got thefirst glimpses of the particle believed to have been responsible for all the mass in the universe.

Proof of the existence of the Higgs particle validates what is called the Standard Model of the universe, describing events at the very first moments of the Big Bang. The Higgs Boson was suggested as a missing piece of the mathematical model. If it is not proven to exist, physicists would have to re-write the theories of how the universe, as we know it, came into being.

SPACE

8. End of an Era

After 30 years and more than 100 flights, the space shuttle program ended with the landing of Atlantis last July. Coincidentally, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first human in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Almost to underline the point, now that the shuttles are retired, the only way for Americans to fly up to the International Space Station is to hitch rides on Russian Soyuz rockets, their former rivals.

The shuttles accomplished a lot in space, building the Space Station, launching and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. But they were also hugely expensive and dangerous. Two shuttles were destroyed in accidents killing 14 astronauts. In the end, each launch of a shuttle was costing more than $1 billion. It was time to let them go.

NASA unveiled plans for a new heavy lift rocket, but it won't be ready to fly for years. Now it's up to the Private Sector to take over.

9. Back To Mars and Beyond

While humans are restricted to spaceflight around the Earth, unmanned robotic probes continue to go where no one has gone before. The largest rover ever sent to another planet, Curiosity, was launched to Mars with the goal of looking for signs of life on the Red Planet. It will land next August.

Sadly, an equally ambitious Russian mission to one of the moons of Mars, Phobos, failed to leave Earth orbit and is expected to fall back to Earth in mid-January.

Another probe went beyond Mars to the largest asteroid, named Vesta, revealing a strange-looking round world that is a leftover remnant of the original material that built the planets, including Earth.

And in the opposite direction, a probe named Messenger arrived at Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

ANTHROPOLOGY

10. The Hybrid Human

Geneticists sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal and compared it to that of a human. They discovered that we all carry about 3 per cent of Neanderthal genes, which means that during the time when humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe, there was a little cross-cultural activity.

The scientists also discovered genes from a previously unknown species of humans, called Denisovans, who migrated south. People living today in Papua New Guinea and Aboriginal Australians carry Denisovan genes. So, the Neanderthals really didn't go extinct, they live on in part of us.

If someone calls you a Neanderthal ... it's true.

VIDEO - Insane Helicopter Landing in Rough Seas

2011-12-22T22:01:00.001-06:00

We don’t know much about this video except:

The helicopter pilot is bad ass and;
It was released by Prism Defence, an Australian-owned company that specializes in ship helicopter integration.

Actually through some research we found out that the video is presumably taken during system testing aboard the HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Royal Danish Navy patrol vessel. Check it out.

An Urgent Message for HELP - Will you make a difference in time to help?

2011-12-22T13:27:00.000-06:00

Visions of the Arctic from Florian Schulz on Vimeo.

In a move that has Alaskan environmentalists increasingly wary, ConocoPhillips and Shell's recent Arctic exploration announcements could renew the oil industry's interest in the region and in its vast oil reserves.

Royal Dutch Shell is a major integrated oil company, and it could by next summer, discover new pockets of oil deposits reviving the oil industry in Alaska. Last week the company had its plan to drill in the Chukchi Sea conditionally approved.

Whether or not ConocoPhillips and Shell can prompt an Arctic oil boom depends on multiple factors.

Richard Ranger, senior policy advisor with the American Petroleum Institute said the API is encouraged by the recent decisions, but that the the industry's interest is currently chilled by both the high of uncertainty inherent with operating in such remote regions, as well as the amount of time needed for a project's permitting.

Shell, for example, acquired its leases in the Chukchi Sea in 2008, but is only getting its permits approved three years later, according to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management release published last week.

Ranger said interest in Arctic oil has climbed in recent years as industry, government and third party researchers each independently realized the amount of recoverable world-class oil deposits was greater than previously thought. That view, Ranger clarified, has yet to be properly tested with a drill bit.

Depending on how well Shell and ConocoPhillips do in striking black gold, the companies' findings could indeed act as an industry barometer, prompting greater interest and maybe increased permits and drilling, Ranger said.

Other companies could reevaluate their cost-benefit analysis, but risks still associated with dedicating hundreds of millions of dollars on a well that could not lead to oil -- coupled with tight restrictions from permitting agencies -- could dampen the industry's optimism.

"The less optimism, the less certainty, the less valuable the project will be in comparison to other projects [in other areas of the globe] that will offer greater certainty," Ranger said.

Steve Hicks, Executive Director of the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts, said the tightened restrictions placed on the industry by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other regulatory agencies, is personally frustrating.

He said he thinks it makes more sense for oil companies to develop domestic deposits rather than those in foreign countries, and that he personally cannot wait for ConocoPhillips and Shell to start exploring for oil.

"I think it's great, we're a resource state," Hicks said, who added people sometimes invent problems associated with oil exploration in Alaska.

Hicks, whose association sometimes helps conduct surveys for oil companies, said those operating in the U.S. are outfitted with the best equipment in the world, and said he is not worried about oil companies causing environmental damage.

"They are good people, they are good people for the state, they are conscientious," he said. "There is really nothing bad that I can say about them."

But environment groups point outed out that the best available equipment did not prevent the Macondo spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, and some are understandably worried Shell's two oil leaks this week alone provides a glimpse of what could happen in the Arctic after 2012.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production company is battling a 40,000 barrel oil leak off the southern coast of Nigeria. The leak likely happened Tuesday while offloading oil from the company's storage vessel to an awaiting tanker, the company states.

That same day, and in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell reported 319 barrels of drilling fluid and oil started leaking from a rig's supporting line, designed to inject synthetic chemicals to facilitate well drilling. Both leaks have been plugged, but in the case of Nigeria, thousands of barrels of crude still threaten the country's coastline.

Despite company assurances, groups like Alaska's Wilderness Society is worried Shell does not have the capability, or the right strategy, to properly clean up a massive oil spill in the Arctic, and the group is also worried there is not enough scientific knowledge available to predict how drilling will affect local ecosystems.

The BOEM is conducting a comprehensive study, but the results won't be published until 2016, four years after Shell intends to drill in Chukchi Sea.

Thomas Jefferson

This is amazing. There are two parts. Be sure to read the 2nd part in RED but the first part in BLUE is important since it sets the basis for understanding the second part in RED …

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

� At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.

� At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

� At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

� At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

� At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

� At 23, started his own law practice.

� At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

� At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America " and retired from his law practice.

� At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

� At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence

� At 33, took three years to revise Virginia ’s legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

� At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

� At 40, served in Congress for two years.

� At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

� At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

� At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

� At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of
Republican Party.

� At 57, was elected the third president of the United States

� At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation’s size.

� At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

� At 65, retired to Monticello

� At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

� At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

� At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement:

"This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe , we shall become as corrupt asEurope .”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”

--Thomas Jefferson

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
-- Thomas Jefferson

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Please pray for America and please vote for change. Your vote can make a difference - we desperately need IT!

Merry Christmas Tree of Friends

2011-12-22T10:46:00.002-06:00

Sail Green 2011 - Harry does boat bottom painting RIGHT

2011-12-21T09:52:00.000-06:00

While others focus on what’s wrong with the environment, Cruising World editors choose a different tack for the 2011 Sail Green issue: people engaged in making things right. From our December 2011 issue.

Harry Ruppenicker: His Battleground Is the Boatyard

Harry Ruppenicker has seen a lot of boat bottoms since his days in his boatyard in Cos Cob, Connecticut, when mercury was mixed in paint and he used a bandana to cover his face.

“It was very effective at keeping the bottom clean,” the boatyard owner says. “We didn’t know better.”

Mercury, the stuff that drove Connecticut’s hatters mad and killed World War II submariners, was beloved by sailors for the white gloss it gave paint that looked good when a boat was heeled over. It was still in use in 1961 on Long Island Sound when Ruppenicker opened his yard.

Half a century later, mercury is history, tin is banned, and copper is fixed in the crosshairs. But at Harry’s Marine Repair, now situated in Westbrook, Connecticut, on the Patchogue River, the copper residue is long gone. Five years ago, his boatyard became the first in Connecticut, and perhaps the United States, to stop using copper antifouling paints.

“In 1993 we noticed people sanding bottoms, with dust and paint going over the ground and into the air. I felt it wasn’t healthy for people here, or people working for me, and it made a mess,” Ruppenicker says.

He bought two large sanders that collect 98 percent of the dust, installed filter fabrics to collect residue on the ground, and graded the yard to raise the edges and drain to the middle, where he installed a filter. With more research, he decided that copper, a toxic heavy metal, “was bad,” and he turned to bottom paints made by ePaint, a small Massachusetts company that, with U.S. Navy underwriting, created the first non-copper anti-fouling paint. (See “Phasing Out Copper Bottom Paint.”)

The paints use a variety of pesticides to ward off fouling, including zinc pyrithione, a compound used in dandruff shampoos. They also employ a chemical reaction triggered by sunlight that creates hydrogen peroxide and deters barnacles, according to Mike Goodwin, a senior staff scientist for ePaint.

The result today is that Harry’s boatyard runoff, even though zinc is present, can drain into the river and Long Island Sound without treatment. Under state regulations that took effect at the end of 2010, all Connecticut boatyards must meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for copper runoff, which will require them either to install treatment plants or to haul wash water away.

Harry’s switch away from copper paint also means that he can dredge the channels to his marina without special permits and expense. Tests using living insects placed in the water show that 100 percent of them survive and propagate, says Ruppenicker.

“In fact, we discovered that Harry’s wash water met drinking-water standards,” says ePaint’s Goodwin.

Ruppenicker says he lost only one customer who didn’t want to make the switch. To sweeten his rule, he discounts his ePaint to $165 a gallon, a price that’s lower than some of the more reputable copper paints. “The little bit you make on the paint—it’s cheaper in the long run,” he says.

Working with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, which awarded Harry’s Marine Repair its first Clean Marina Award in 2003, Ruppenicker continues to make innovations. He’s now testing a strainer with microbes “that will eat hydrocarbons and other stuff.”
- Jim Carrier

http://www.cruisingworld.com/how-to/sail-green-2011?page=0,2

Epic battle expected to pit Alaska fishing jobs against sea lion protection

2011-12-20T11:23:00.000-06:00

It's nearly guaranteed to be a monumental showdown, the kind Alaska seems to spawn regularly. On Wednesday, a handful of lawyers will volley before a federal judge over whether the U.S. government properly chose to shut down cod and mackerel fisheries in Southwest Alaska, giving the well being of an endangered marine mammal preference over the livelihood of scores of fisherman.

Alaska joined forces with 23 fishing-related coalitions, companies and boats, all of which are headquartered Outside, most in Washington and one in Maine, in order to fight a 2010 decision to clamp down on fishing in areas frequented by a Western Alaska population of Steller sea lions, marine mammals listed since 1997 as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

The state has argued the National Marine Fisheries Service data shows Alaska could lose as much as $83.2 million and as many as 750 fishing-related jobs from the decision. Adding to the tension is a racial argument that the closures disproportionately affect Aleuts, the Alaska Natives who live in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island regions where the closures are to take effect.

Aleut Corp. and Aleut Enterprises have chimed in to express how the closures will financially harm the communities they represent. Speaking up for the Steller sea lion are at least two environmental groups, which will argue the federal decision had merit and should stand.While the emotional arguments of loss of livelihood and economic hardships are compelling, the nuts and bolts of the lawsuit appear to hinge on whether correct procedures were followed for allowing the state of Alaska to have a say in the evaluation process; and further, whether federal regulators arrived at the correct scientific conclusion about the overall wellness or jeopardy of the Steller sea lion.

The Steller sea lion population that around 1960 sat near 140,000 plummeted in the following three decades to just 30,500, prompting a threatened listing. In later years, marine managers would separate two distinct groups of the sea lions living in the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula -- a western species and an eastern one -- and declare the western population endangered. In recent years, however, the western population of Steller sea lions has seen steady growth.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell described the population as being 70,000 strong when he announced this lawsuit a year ago. And the state has argued it is wrong to associate cod and mackerel harvests with the slower-than-hoped-for rebound of the western sea lion population.

Both sides will each get about 45 minutes to argue their case. The Aleut Corp. and the environmental groups -- Oceana and Greenpeace, Inc. -- will get about 10 minutes each.

Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com

Who does BC’s coast belong to?

2011-12-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

BC Premier Christy Clark. Photo by Ewa Chruscicka.

BC Premier Christy Clark said the west coast "doesn't just belong to British Columbia", but some British Columbians disagree.

"British Columbia's coast does not just belong to British Columbia,” BC Premier Christy Clark said last week. The statement has sparked both environmental and economic discussions about responsibilities and rights to British Columbia’s coast.

“It belongs to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces and it's essential that our ports and our infrastructure all across the west are functioning as well as they possibly can, because that's what allows trade to flow outside our country and that's what puts people to work," Clark said.

She made the controversial comment during a discussion with other provincial leaders from Alberta and Saskatchewan over energy strategy and the Northern Gateway pipeline.
Encyclopedia of Canadian pipelines: Keystone XL and Northern Gateway
Naomi Klein and First Nations leaders unite at anti-pipeline forum

Clark has consistently avoided taking a position on the Northern Gateway project, saying she is waiting for the results of environmental assessments and the upcoming Joint Review Panel hearings to formulate her position.

Other organizations with high stakes in the fight against Northern Gateway, such as the Dogwood Initiative, questioned the notion that other provinces should have a say in risks taken on British Columbians’ territory.

“Our supporters responded strongly to the insinuation that BC's coast belongs just as much to Alberta or Ontario as it does to BC. It's clear that British Columbians don't want their premier to pass the buck — they want her to stand up for their province,” said Dogwood Initiative spokesperson Emma Gilchrist.

“The real question here is who stands to be most affected by an oil spill?” she said.

“If an oil spill happens, it will be British Columbians heading down to their local beaches with shovels and buckets. Yes, this is Canada's coast too, but B.C. stands to lose the most, so the final decision should be made here.”

After Clark's comment appeared in a Vancouver Sun story, the Dogwood Initiative encouraged supporters to “strike back” and vocalize their opinions about Clark’s comment, asking people to write in to the paper in response.

One Victoria-based reader, Rob Delaney, wrote a letter that was published in the Victoria Times Colonist.

“I would like to correct our premier,” he said in his response. “British Columbia's coast belongs to British Columbia and British Columbians. It is not hers to give away.”

Other comments from users on Facebook pages and blogs have also shown passionate reactions to Clark’s remarks.

One blogger from Powell River said, “I don’t believe the BIG OIL Tar Sand lobby should dictate what happens on our coast, I don’t believe Ontario, Quebec or Atlantic Canada should dictate what risk we should take.”

Additional comments made note of the assumption that if BC’s coast belongs to all of Canada, the same should be said of Alberta’s tar sands.

Matt Horne, director of BC energy solutions for the Pembina Institute, agrees with Clark's position that the coasts of BC belong to all of Canada, however. “I would tend to totally agree with the sentiment. I think BC has a responsibility to protect its coast for the rest of Canadians, along with British Columbians," he said.

The Truth Behind the GCCF and the General Frenzy Created by its Mode of Operation Now Revealed on BPClaim.com

2011-12-19T22:14:00.000-06:00

People who have suffered loss of income and revenue, or physical injury as a direct result of the BP oil spill are definitely disappointed by the GCCF (Gulf Coast Claims Facility). The majority of them are struggling with denied bp claims or underpayment offers. Those who want to know the true story of the GCCF, what its role should be and how it operates in reality, should visit the following website for more information: www.bpclaim.com

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility is basically an organization which is working under the jurisdiction of the BP. The BP has seen it much more efficient if there was such an organization existent which’s main responsibility is to review the BP claims and then distribute the available funding (more than $20 billion!) to businesses and individuals who were severely affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The problem is that the gccf has been extremely slow in processing these claims. When individuals or businesses are affected by such a tragedy, they definitely need the funding as soon as possible, so that they can get back on track with their life. However, when their files are continuously put off, and when most of them are ignored or blocked, certainly people become outraged.

Even with several legitimate BP claims, it has happened that the gulf coast claims facility center tried to offer underpayment. What does this mean? That if the business owner was left with damages accounting to half a million dollars due to the oil spill, he was actually offered as little as 10% as lump sum. So what several business owners did, was to accept this amount, even though they knew they are underpaid. Out of fear of not receiving anything, they were signing to accept such low amounts as compensation.

The majority of them are saying that the gulf coast claims center either have rejected their claims, or the organization keeps getting in touch with them every 3 months only to ask for more documents, thus delaying the entire process. The professional attorney firms can help people get a fair resolution quickly and efficiently.

Those interested to speed up the bp claims process, should call for immediate assistance at the following number: 1(888) 888-5924; alternatively they can get in contact with the expert attorneys through online contact forms that can be found at www.bpclaim.com