Environment

I’d like to show my child the mountains

The peaks, the clouds, the storms, the animals, the streams. A hummingbird, a pine cone, a bugling elk, white water, clouds forming in a valley far below, driving into the clouds. The wind sighing in the pines, the streams roaring and burbling, aspen leaves clacking together in the breeze, the sights and sounds of nothing … Continue reading »

Great idea, except for that last part

Scientists have come up with a new idea for protecting Louisiana’s coastal marshlands from encroaching oil — release more water into the Mississippi River. Water flowing from the mouth of the river creates a current that has been helping to keep the oil away from the coast. But as the seasons change, the current will … Continue reading »

Eight presidents and umpteen promises later

Jon Stewart is probably my favorite news commentator these days. I know, he really hosts The Daily Show on the Comedy Network. But his faux news program hits the mark so often and so well that you really aren’t news if he doesn’t mention you. When President Obama used his oil-spill–inspired Oval Office address the … Continue reading »

Let’s un-retire Gen. Honore

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré did a CNN interview on June 14, a day before Pres. Obama gave his pathetic Oval Office address. He said the kinds of things I wanted to hear from Obama, and didn’t. As I’ve written before, Honoré is the man I would put in charge of the oil spill … Continue reading »

If I ran the zoo

If I ran the zoo that is the Gulf oil disaster response, I’d have put Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré in charge. I’d have done it back on April 29, when I first said this spill was going to be far worse than the Exxon Valdez. No doubt you’ll remember Honoré as the U.S. Army general … Continue reading »

Hayward, take your ads and go home

Oh, yes, Tony Hayward, you and BP “will get this done” and you “will make it right.” Meantime, stop spending your millions to spread your unctuous, ill-timed, ill-conceived advertising all over my TV and newspapers. Get off American television and out of America’s face and go back to England where, maybe, they still like you. … Continue reading »

Coming soon to a beach near you

(Visualization by Tim Scheitlin and Mary Haley, NCAR; based on model simulations.) NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, right up the road in Boulder, CO, has released this computer-simulated dye study showing where ocean currents would likely carry BP’s runaway oil over a typical April-July period. The colors represent a dilution factor and are … Continue reading »

June 1 brain dump

Lots of stuff going on in the world, almost everywhere but here. * * * BP today is going to be cutting off and removing the collapsed, kinked riser pipe from its leaking well in preparation for the installation of a cap on the blowout preventer, which should significantly reduce the amount of oil escaping … Continue reading »

BP CEO Hayward wants his life back

BP CEO Tony Hayward has suggested the oil spill clean-up workers who were hospitalized this week might have been suffering from food poisoning. (This while BP continues to insist workers don’t need to wear respirators.) He went on camera to say “I’m sorry” and directly contradicted numerous marine scientists on the scene by claiming there … Continue reading »

Appropriate punishment for BP

What do you do with people who have committed one of history’s most egregious crimes against the environment? Realistically, when this BP mess is all over, the best punishment I’ve been able to dream up is some hard time in prison for those responsible. Not a Martha Stewart country club gig, but a year or … Continue reading »

The odd couple

For years I’ve been fascinated by James Carville (D) and Mary Matalin (R). It’s a love/hate thing really, depending on the issue at hand. They are both so politically active, so high profile, and so outspoken — on opposite sides of the political fence. I surmise theirs is probably not a dull marriage. They have … Continue reading »

Words fail

Coming to you live from the Gulf of Mexico

Why wait till it reaches a beach near you to see BP’s greatest oil extravaganza? Now you can watch it live, as it happens, on the ocean floor, thanks to live streaming video disarmingly labeled “plume monitoring.” Isn’t technology wonderful? It seems it can do almost anything these days — except cap a blown-out well. … Continue reading »

Hair booms won’t be used in Gulf

Engineers have ruled out the use of hair booms in the fight to contain oil spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. They say tests show the hair booms do not absorb as much oil as commercial booms, and sink too quickly. Organizations collecting the hair have been asked to stop. The engineers referred to test … Continue reading »

Rand Paul on BP’s mess: ‘Accidents happen’

Rand Paul, Kentucky’s new Republican Senate candidate, has a decidedly minority view of the current Gulf oil mess. On “Good Morning America” this morning he said: What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.’ I think that sounds really un-American in … Continue reading »

Oil (in the wrong place) is not healthy

The message here, as I first saw it, is that the BP oil now drifting in the Gulf is hazardous to everything living there. Others, however, have interpreted this more generally, as a blanket condemnation of oil in our society. What do you think?

What a reasonable person would do

I just heard BP will start spraying oil dispersant under water, “something that hasn’t been done before,” according to the report. Is it just me, or is everything BP tries to do to stop their oil flow “unprecedented,” “never tried before,” “experimental,” “untested at this depth,” “new,” etc. It’s almost as though no one, anywhere … Continue reading »

BP leak not bad enough to stop Shell in Alaska

Shell Oil today received permission from U.S. federal court to go ahead with their plans to drill five exploratory wells off the Alaska coasts. According to The Huffington Post: Shell’s Chukchi exploration plan concluded that a large oil spill, such as a release from a blowout, would be rare. MMS agreed and said the probability … Continue reading »

Just a flesh wound …

… a 210,000-gallon-a-day flesh wound: Today BP finally released video of their spewing 21″ wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. The brown effluent is oil, still flowing at the rate mentioned above. The white effluent is presumed to be gas, which dissipates as it rises. Never fear. Today BP is lowering its “top hat” to … Continue reading »

Deepwater Horizon gone, photos still emerging

I just came across these photos, reportedly of the Deepwater Horizon burning and sinking in the Gulf of Mexico (click on photos to enlarge). They were credited to a DOE employee. Even with pictures like these, it’s difficult to imagine how big the platform was, or that it could have been there at all, or … Continue reading »