Home/Posts Tagged ‘drilling’
Posts Tagged ‘drilling’
Animal Rights, Pollution, Mar 13th, 2012,
In preparation for the eventuality of oil spills resulting from drilling in the icy Arctic region, Shell Oil might be enlisting the help of sniffer dogs as an inexpensive contingency plan. Shell plans to start drilling off the northwest coast of Alaska as early as June. Since there are as of yet no methods for detecting oil spills that are covered by ice and snow, the use of dachshunds and border collies could be the best the minds of Shell and other companies have been able to come up with. Personally, I have no idea if this is an effective…
Tags: arctic, dachshund, drilling, Greenpeace, oil, Shell, sniffer dogs, spill
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Oct 2nd, 2010,
The aborted 10:10 campaign film ‘No Pressure’ has elicited a lot of hate, anger – or at least pretend outrage – because of its questionable attempt at satire. Meanwhile, some actual, dangerous behavior is happening off the UK coast, near the Shetland Islands, in the form of deep sea oil drilling. Where is the outrage and vitriol about that? The Gulf of Mexico recently got fouled and workers died – actual people rather than pretend characters in a short film. Billions of dollars in livelihoods, an ecological catastrophe, blah blah blah… What? Oh yeah sure, go ahead and ‘drill baby…
Tags: Chevron, deep sea, drilling, government, Greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, oil, Shetland Islands, UK
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Sep 26th, 2010,
After four days of Greenpeace activists hanging in a survival pod attached to an oil drilling ship in the North Sea, a court in Edinburgh, Scotland issued an injunction yesterday ordering the campaigners to leave on grounds of safety. According to an article in the Observer, oil giant Chevron claimed the need to move their ship due to rough seas, though Greenpeace countered that Chevron simply intends to venture into another site for exploratory deep-sea drilling. Greenpeace announced that it would comply, nonetheless. Yet just one day later, Greenpeace has renewed its efforts to stop deep-sea oil drilling in the…
Tags: activists, Chevron, deep, deep sea, drilling, Greenpeace, North Sea, oil, ship, Stena Carron, swimmer, water
Politics, Pollution, Sep 22nd, 2010,
A Chevron vessel has been occupied by Greenpeace activists in an attempt to stop oil drilling in the waters of Scotland’s Shetland Islands. The US oil firm has dubious company in the region, which is deemed to have some 2 billion barrels of oil, in the form of the BP who also plan on drilling near Shetland for oil and gas. They are preventing the anchor from being pulled up and effectively blocking the ship from moving to its drill site. We are calling on North Sea governments to adopt a ban on all deep-water drilling. –Greenpeace (via UPI) According…
Tags: Chevron, deep-water, drilling, Greenpeace, islands, oil, Shetland, ship
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Sep 1st, 2010,
Early this morning Greenpeace activists occupied a Cairn Energy exploratory oil rig in the Arctic Ocean off of the coast of Greenland. Four Greenpeace activists, who are also expert climbers, avoided Greenland police and the Danish navy to climb the rig and suspend themselves in tents. The activists’ behavior has caused a temporary shut down of Cairn Energy’s drilling efforts. From a report in the Telegraph: The campaigners, who are protesting against what they claim are the ”huge risks” energy companies are taking with the environment by drilling for oil in deep water, say they have enough supplies to occupy…
Tags: activists, arctic, Cairn Energy, climber, Danish, deep sea, drilling, greenland, Greenpeace, Navy, oil, police, rig
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Aug 25th, 2010,
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is currently protesting deep sea oil drilling in the Arctic by UK firm Cairn Energy, the first company granted permission to drill in Greenland’s icy and environmentally sensitive waters. Cairn Energy is also one of the targets of the recent Climate Camp protests in Edinburgh, where the company is based. Greenpeace campaigner Leila Deen is quoted in an article in the Independent: To see a huge drilling rig in this beautiful and fragile environment is deeply shocking. The tragic oil disasters in the Gulf and in China this year clearly illustrate the need to go beyond…
Tags: arctic, Cairn, Danish, deep sea, denmark, drilling, energy, Esperanza, Greenpeace, Navy, oil, ship, vessel
Politics, Pollution, Aug 5th, 2010,
Despite low public opinion on deep sea drilling and an overall global shift away from the practice, including the Obama administration’s moratorium in the US, the UK government – the ‘greenest government eva’ – has decided to go against the grain and allow exploratory drilling in the North Sea. A spokeswoman for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change was quoted in an article in the Independent: We will not consent to the drilling of any well unless we are convinced that it is designed to the very highest standards, that the equipment used is fully tested and that…
Tags: ban, BP, coalition, deep, Deepwater, drilling, government, Greenpeace, Gulf, Italian, Libya, Mediterranean, Mexico, moratorium, North Sea, oil, sea, spill, UK
Politics, Pollution, Jul 18th, 2010,
As the world’s attention is still focused on the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster the EU’s energy commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, is calling for a moratorium on deep water oil drilling in Europe. The energy commissioner met with oil industry representatives on Wednesday and clearly stated that he is in favor of banning deep sea oil drilling and instituting a freeze on issuing new drilling permits. This would mostly affect drilling in around the UK. From a BBC News report: Mr Oettinger wants the Union’s member states to call a halt to drilling around Europe, including the Mediterranean and Black Sea,…
Tags: ban, BP, commissioner, deep, drilling, energy, EU, Europe, Gulf, Oettinger, oil, sea, water
Pollution, Jul 12th, 2010,
Does deep sea oil drilling amongst Greenland’s icebergs sound a bit dicey to you? Probably any deep sea drilling does these days, what with the ongoing and unprecedented disaster in the Gulf of Mexico still dominating much of the news. So it’s no wonder that Greenpeace and the WWF are concerned about recent developments in the Arctic Ocean, where British oil exploration and extraction firm Cairn Energy has recently begun drilling in waters up to 500 meters deep. From an article in the Guardian: We think it is completely irresponsible for Cairn to proceed with these operations when the US,…
Tags: alley, arctic, British, Cairn, deep, drilling, greenland, Greenpeace, Gulf, iceberg, Mexico, oil, sea
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 3rd, 2010,
Gasland is a documentary film written and directed by Josh Fox which explores the practice of hydraulic fracturing, a widespread method used in drilling for natural gas in the United States. Hydraulic fracturing, often referred to as ‘fracking’ (yes, like in Battlestar Galactica), fractures rock in order to get at natural gas deposits in shale reservoirs. Environmental concerns associated with fracking include the contamination of groundwater, issues with air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and areas surrounding sites becoming polluted with natural gas and toxic chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. Gasland starts out a bit haphazard, as if Fox…
Tags: drilling, environment, environmental, film, fracking, fracturing, gas, Gasland, Halliburton, Health, hydraulic, natural
Politics, Pollution, Jun 28th, 2010,
The long dark and gooey shadow of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is shining a gruesome light on offshore drilling, its toll on the environment and the true cost of oil. Yet the Gulf spill is also getting all the attention, while other environmental issues or injustices suffer from neglect or overshadowing. Bhopal activists have juxtaposed the attention being given to the spill against their unfortunate plight, for instance. Ironically, new remote – and potentially catastrophic – frontiers are being explored for oil at this very moment, yet this is receiving little attention from the mainstream…
Tags: arctic, Cairn, Canada, coast, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, energy, greenland, Gulf, ice, oil, spill
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 27th, 2010,
On Saturday a national protest against offshore drilling took place on America’s beaches. The protest, called Hands Across the Sand, harkens back to the mid 80s phenomenon known as Hands Across America, which I took part in, but can’t quite remember what it was about. A quick Google search has reminded me that it was to feed starving people in Africa and was part of the whole USA for Africa campaign that included the ‘We Are the World’ single. Sorry, I was just a kid at the time and it was like 25 years ago. Anyway, Hands Across the Sand…
Tags: BP, deep, drilling, Hands Across the Sand, judge, offshore, oil, protest, stocks, water
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 16th, 2010,
The history of oil drilling and oil spilling in the United States is riddled with disasters, political decisions as reactions to those disasters and then subsequent resumptions of drilling. The US has drilled deeper and further offshore as drilling technology has developed. Unfortunately, cleanup technology has not likewise progressed. Proper offshore oil drilling in the US began after the Second World War. Previously, ocean drilling was carried out on wharfs, the longest of which stretched 1,200 ft (400 meters) into the Pacific. By 1949 there were 44 exploratory oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. By the 1950s oil production…
Tags: cleanup, drill, drilling, Gulf, history, Maddow, Mexico, ocean, offshore, oil, Rachel, Santa Barbara, spill, spilling, technology, United States, US
Nature, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, May 3rd, 2010,
Environmental disasters tend to happen at really inconvenient times. Just after you open up a coastline to offshore drilling, a bothersome oil rig explodes and starts spilling a daily volume of hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into a wildlife sanctuary. Awk-ward! US President Barack Obama’s cross-party overture regarding offshore drilling didn’t please many of his core supporters when he enacted it. Now that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is looking worse and worse every day, those feelings are strengthened. Obama has understandably put drilling plans on hold, effectively also putting domestic energy policy reform even more in…
Tags: disaster, drill, drilling, Gulf, inconvenient, Obama, offshore, oil, Politics, spill, US
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 16th, 2010,
When US President Barack Obama opened up large areas of America’s Atlantic coastline to new oil drilling two weeks ago, some astute observers suggested that it might not be much more than a political maneuver. There is a distinct lack of knowledge concerning how much oil is out there; estimates put the amount of the Atlantic coast at 2 billion barrels (or 100 days of consumption) to 10 billion. According to a Newsweek article, it will be decades until we know how much oil, if indeed any, the Atlantic coast is hiding. By contrast, the still off-limits Pacific coast is…
Tags: Atlantic, Brazil, cleavages, Climate change, coast, crude, drilling, Espírito Santo, offshore, oil, region, rio, Rio de Janeiro, Southeast, state, states, US, Virginia
Climate Change, Pollution, Apr 7th, 2010,
It has been 2 days since the explosion occurred at the West Virginian coal mine and there is still no sign of the 4 missing miners. Rescue teams are drilling 3 holes into the mine in an attempt to ventilate the poisonous gas from the mine so they can continue the search. After the first hole was finished, rescue workers banged on a drill pipe for nearly 15 minutes, but there was no response. The miners are trained to bang on the drill’s casing in return, as well as on metal bolts connected to the mine roof, as a response….
Tags: 4 missing people, blast, coal mine, drilling, explosion, Massey energy, methane, MSHA, poisonous gas, rescue work, Upper Big Branch, West Virginia
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Apr 2nd, 2010,
I just knew everyone was going to resurrect Sarah Palin’s gung-ho pro-oil mantra from the 2008 US presidential campaign as soon as I read about Barack Obama opening up America’s coastlines for oil drilling. Apparently both John McCain and Palin tweeted it. McCain was simply supportive, while Palin snuck in some barbs about ‘job-killing’ and ‘Cap & Tax’. Sarah: chill, baby, chill. Cap and trade was renounced by interior secretary Ken Salazar and besides, isn’t this what you wanted? In contrast President Obama’s other fruitless attempts at bipartisanship, the move is being heralded as politically brilliant by some. From an…
Tags: baby, Barack, drill, drilling, environmental, environmentalists, Obama, oil, Palin, President, republicans, Sarah, US
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 30th, 2010,
State Department climate change representative to the UN Todd Stern formally announced that the U.S. would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In a letter to the UN, Stern confirmed the moderate emission reduction target of 17% of 2005 levels by the year 2020. This is the same number that was announced by the Obama administration prior to the Copenhagen climate talks in December, a statement that received mixed reactions. A further commitment to cut emissions by 42% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 is also specified in the letter. Official announcement or not, the American political system requires that the…
Tags: American, climate, drilling, emission, nuclear power, Obama, Stern, U.S., UN
