Oceans
Melting the Ice (But Not in a Fun, Life-of-the Party Way)
The Ny Times has a lengthy article about glacial melting and sea level rise, with bad news: But researchers have recently been startled to see big changes unfold in both Greenland and Antarctica. As a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to …
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CONTINUE READINGMeet the new BOEMRE, same as the old MMS
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Minerals Management Service within the Department of Interior was responsible for overseeing offshore oil development in federal waters from its creation in 1982 until its demise earlier this year. MMS was always a troubled agency, to put it mildly, dogged by scandals and a revolving door with the industry it regulates. …
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CONTINUE READINGKing Canute Meets the BP Spill
King Canute famously ordered the waves to retreat from the shore. In a gesture of nearly equal futility, the State of Louisiana is building giant sand berms. Unlike King Canute’s gesture, however, Louisiana’s is not only futile but harmful. Also, Canute knew his gesture was pointless; his explanation was that he wanted to illustrate the …
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CONTINUE READINGThe BP Deepwater Horizon Blowout and the Social and Environmental Erosion of the Louisiana Coast
In a lecture that I gave last week at the University of Minnesota, I discussed how the Louisiana Coast was under grave threat from erosion, rising seas, and pollution even before the explosion on the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon platform. Whole communities have vanished under the rising water, and the livelihoods and communities of …
CONTINUE READINGAnd Caldron Bubble
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Or in this case, vast quantities of natural gas bubbled into the Gulf of Mexico: A vast majority of the natural gas that billowed out of BP PLC’s failed well in the Gulf this summer did not escape to the surface and atmosphere. Instead, the …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and El Nino
From dot.earth: Federal researchers have published work concluding that a particular variant of the periodic El Niño warmups of the tropical Pacific Ocean is becoming more frequent and stronger. The pattern appears to fit what is expected from human-driven warming of the global climate, said the researchers . . . The 2009-2010 El Nino event …
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CONTINUE READINGNew NEPA procedures for offshore drilling
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Today the White House Council on Environmental Quality issued a report on the NEPA analysis that preceded exploratory drilling at the ill-fated Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, together with recommendations for improving NEPA analysis in the future. According to CEQ, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (successor to the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornians still support action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to new report
California, for better or worse, is still a bellwether state on many public policy issues. Public opinion here matters, not just as a predictor of our state’s future political direction, but also nationally. And California’s residents’ opinions about environmental issues are particularly important, given our state’s leadership on environmental issues. Right now, there is a …
CONTINUE READINGIt’s the little things
People tend to pay a lot of attention to large animals and plants, which we find interesting and attractive. We know that bias affects policy decisions; we preferentially protect “charismatic megafauna.” But the big appealing creatures wouldn’t exist without the tiny, uncharismatic ones that form the base of the food web. And those little things …
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CONTINUE READINGThere’s always a trade-off . . .
Trying to solve or prevent one environmental problem often causes another. The aftermath of the Gulf oil spill continues to illustrate that truism. First, there was the argument between Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and the US Army Corps of Engineers over whether to allow the state to build berms to protect its shores from oiling, …
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