Environmental News

[Glenn]

The Drought Of 2012

Here's the drought map updated weekly
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/monitor.html
Instead of July it looks like September here with leaves falling and brown lawns. Even the bugs are dying of thirst, so they eat everything the drought does'nt kill. Even the bee's are starving for nectar and are raiding each other's hives and getting more aggressive near their own. The commercial crops are looking miserable. and the price will go up. Corn is already at a high price due to using it for ethanol. You'd think Congress would drop the ethanol mandate when it gets too high. Natural gas is getting a little cheaper though due to fracking.

[Hollylane]

Efforts to save grounded Shell Arctic rig postponed


Attempts to rescue a Shell drill rig grounded off the Alaskan coast have been delayed because of high seas and strong winds.

The rig, named Kulluk, ran aground on Monday after drifting in stormy weather as it was being towed.

The rig is grounded on the south-east side of Sitkalidak Island.

The US Coast Guard said the rig, carrying about 143,000 gallons of diesel and about 12,000 gallons of other oil products, appears stable.

A Coast Guard plane and helicopter flew over the Kulluk on Tuesday to assess the rig and said it did not appear to be leaking.

"There is no sign of a release of any product," Coast Guard Capt Paul Mehler said.

He said a team made up of Shell, Coast Guard and local officials aimed to get salvagers aboard the Kulluk to assess it and then refloat the rig.
Endangered species

Shell has said that the design of the Kulluk - with fuel tanks isolated in the centre of the vessel and encased in heavy steel - means that a significant spill is unlikely.

However, spill response equipment was being prepared in the event of a leak in the area which is home to at least two endangered species, as well as harbour seals, salmon and sea lions.

Environmentalists have said the incident illustrates the risk of drilling for oil in a fragile region.


"Shell and its contractors are no match for Alaska's weather and sea conditions either during drilling operations or during transit," Lois Epstein, Arctic program director for The Wilderness Society told Reuters.

The rig was being moved for maintenance and upgrades when it broke away from one of its tow-lines on Monday afternoon.

Its 18-member crew had already been evacuated by the Coast Guard on Saturday because of the risk of storms.

Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Shell Alaska, could not explain why the Kulluk had been caught in the weather.


"I can't give you a specific answer, but I do not believe we would want to tow it in these sorts of conditions," he said.

[femmeInterrupted]

Hope it's Ok to post this here. I definitely consider it to be a world issue. It's such an emotional trigger for me, because something about dolphins are so sentient.
I can't believe Japan won the bid to host the 2016 summer Olympics with the Dolphin slaughters still going on.
WTF.




http://www.opsociety.org/issues/dolp...ghter-in-taiji

http://savejapandolphins.org

[Toughy]

San Francisco Experiencing Driest Start To Year Since 1850s

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...r-since-1850s/

[femmeInterrupted]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...llowed-plastic

[Hollylane]

10 March 2013

Jonathan Kathrein was surfing on the California coast when he was attacked by a great white shark. The high school student battled to free his leg from the 12ft fish's jaws as it dragged him underwater.

Today, Mr Kathrein is fighting to save the same fish that nearly took his life.

Though great whites have been off-limits to commercial and sport fishers since 1994, their populations have continued to decline. Environmentalists estimate only 340 of the sharks are left in the north-western Pacific.

This month the state of California added the great white shark to its list of protected animals.

Since surviving the 1998 attack, Mr Kathrein has written books about his experiences and the threat to sharks around the world.

[Hollylane]

Cash shortage stretches to sea bed
By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

The government has admitted moving slowly to protect wildlife in the seas because of the cost.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said that in the current financial squeeze he could not designate as many areas for protection as he would like.

He said he was hoping to confirm the designation of the current tranche of 31 Marine Protected Zones under a consultation that ends on Sunday.

Environmentalists have accused the government of dragging its feet.

This is because 127 zones were originally nominated for protection after a compromise deal agreed with other users of the sea.

Jolyon Chesworth from the Wildlife Trusts said: "We are disappointed at the rate of progress. The government has an international obligation to protect wildlife in the seas.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can”

Richard Benyon Environment minister

"The marine environment is not as obvious to people as it is when they see wildlife walking through a woodland or downland but it's just as important and equally worthy of protection.

"The 127 zones were only nominated after very long discussions with anglers, sailors and the fishing industry. We are now being asked to compromise on a compromise."

But Mr Benyon told the BBC that with cuts to the Defra budget, the cost of making scientific assessments and then developing rules for the use of different areas could not be dismissed.

"We are constrained by a hugely expensive process at a time when we have little money in government", he said.

"I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can. People have waited many years for this; we will designate the first tranche in September and will announce the next lot for consultation then."

Environmentalists are worried that the UK might slither back from its international commitment to create an ecologically coherent network of sites.

They are angry that several key sites have been left out of the first tranche on the grounds that insufficient evidence was supplied to justify them.
Sailors' fears

Mr Chesworth said that in his south of England region there was a cast-iron case for designating, among others, Bembridge Levels on the Isle of Wight - home of the stalked jellyfish and Poole Harbour - a key breeding ground for sea horses.

But both of these zones have been contested by sailors who fear that new rules will prevent them anchoring on sensitive sites. One boat owner on the Isle of Wight told Mr Benyon that the designations were "bonkers".

Boaters are the mainstay of the local economy and have lived in harmony with wildlife for decades, he said.

John Pockett from the Royal Yachting Association told the BBC: "We fear we won't be able to anchor our yachts; we fear we won't be able to train our next Ben Ainslie (the Olympian) because we won't be able to anchor marker boats."

Sailors are not the only ones protesting. In some areas fishing crews object to MPZs, even though they are supposed to provide a breeding ground for fish stocks to recover.

Conservationists warn that recently revealed chalk arches off the North Norfolk coast could be destroyed by one careless pass of a trawl net.

A further complication is the fact that UK jurisdiction ends six nautical miles from the shore, even though its responsibility for wildlife stretches further.

"It would be terrible to stop our own fishermen from exploiting a sensitive areas then allow boats of other nationalities to come in", Mr Benyon said. "We are trying to negotiate this with Brussels."

The proposals stem from the 2009 UK Marine Bill. If all the sites had been approved, just over a quarter of English waters would end up under some kind of protection. Currently, the total is way under 1%.

Globally just 0.6% of the world's oceans have been protected, compared to almost 13% of our planet's land area.

Marine author Callum Roberts told the BBC: "There's no way you'll have an effective network of marine-protected areas the way we are going. It's undermining trust."

But public sector cutbacks are a reality. And the government insists that the state of the economy will inevitably be felt on the sea bed, like everywhere else.