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Offshore Oil Drilling: An Environmental Bonanza
28 APR, Tuesday, 2009
by Humberto Fontova
Louisiana produces
almost 30 per cent of America's commercial fisheries. Only Alaska (ten
times the size of the Bayou state) produces slightly more. So
obviously, Louisiana's coastal waters are immensely rich and prolific
in seafood.
Marine life had exploded around
these huge artificial reefs: A study by LSU's Sea Grant college shows
that 85 percent of Louisiana fishing trips involve fishing around these
platforms. The same study shows 50 times more marine life around an oil
production platform than in the surrounding Gulf bottoms. An
environmental study (by apparently honest scientists) revealed that
urban runoff and treated sewage dump 12 times the amount of petroleum
into the Gulf than those thousands of oil production platforms. And oil
seeping naturally through the ocean floor into the Gulf, where it
dissipates over time, accounts for 7 times the amount spilled by rigs
and pipelines in any given year.
The
Flower Garden coral reefs lie off the Louisiana-Texas border. Unlike
any of the Florida Keys reefs, they're surrounded by dozens of offshore
oil platforms. These have been pumping away for the past 50 years. Yet
according to G.P. Schmahl, a Federal biologist who worked for decades
in both places, "The Flower Gardens are much healthier, more pristine
than anything in the Florida Keys. It was a surprise to me," he admits.
"And I think it's a surprise to most people."
"A
key measure of the health of a reef is the amount of area taken up by
coral," according to a report by Steve Gittings, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration's science coordinator for marine
sanctuaries. "Louisiana's Flower Garden boasts nearly 50 percent coral
cover. In the Florida Keys it can run as little as 5 percent."
Schools of fish filled
the water column from top to bottom -- from 6-inch blennies to 12-foot
sharks. Fish by the thousands. Fish by the ton.The
cameras were going crazy. Do I focus on the shoals of barracuda? Or
that cloud of jacks? On the immense schools of snapper below, or on the
fleet of tarpon above? How 'bout this - WHOOOAA - hammerhead!
We
had some close-ups, too, of coral and sponges, the very things
disappearing off Florida's (that bans offshore oil drilling) pampered
reefs. Off Louisiana, they sprout in colorful profusion from the huge
steel beams -- acres of them. You'd never guess this was part of that
unsightly structure above.
The
panorama of marine life around an offshore oil platform staggers anyone
who puts on goggles and takes a peek, even (especially!) the most
worldly scuba divers. Here's a video peek at this seafood bonanza:
America desperately needs more domestic oil. In the process of
producing it, we'd also get dynamite fishing, dynamite diving, and a
cheaper tab for broiled red snapper with shrimp topping.
If a picture's worth a thousand words of proof, then this video should be worth ten million. Humberto Fontova is the author of four books including Exposing the Real Che Guevara.
Researchers hope to clear mystery from cloudsWed Apr 22, 2009 8:12pm EDT
By Catherine Hornby
DELFT, Netherlands (Reuters) - Wearing 3-D viewing goggles,
scientists peer at virtual pink, blue and purple clouds billowing in
cyberspace at a research laboratory in the Dutch city of Delft.
By tracking how particles move in and around computer-simulated
clouds, they hope to shed light on one of the unknowns of climate
forecasting: how these masses of water droplets and ice crystals
influence changing temperatures.
The research, at Delft University of Technology, was undertaken
because of the growing urgency for scientists to improve ways of
forecasting climate change.
To Read Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE53M00N20090423
Antarctic Ice Growing, Not Shrinking
18 Apr 2009, 2127 hrs IST,
ANI
|
|
According to Australian Antarctic
Division glaciology program head Ian Allison, sea ice losses in west Antarctica
over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea
region, just one sector of east Antarctica.
"Sea ice conditions have
remained stable in Antarctica generally," Dr Allison said.
The
melting of sea ice - fast ice and pack ice - does not cause sea levels to rise
because the ice is in the water.
To Read Full Article:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Global-Warming/Antarctic-ice-growing-not-shrinking-/articleshow/4418558.cms