Home/Posts Tagged ‘oil’
Posts Tagged ‘oil’
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 31st, 2012,
A new study by scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading attributes the dramatic reduction in Arctic summer sea ice since the 1970s to human activity. The study found that the 40% loss since the 70s is at least 70% man made, with the rest down to natural variability in the Atlantic. And that is only a conservative estimate, with as much as 95% of ice loss estimated to be caused by humans. The study’s leader, Jonny Day, is quoted in the Guardian on one of the accelerating causes of Arctic ice melt, which…
Tags: arctic, greenland, ice melt, oil, Shell, study
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 23rd, 2012,
A rainbow coalition of indigenous groups and social/political activists recently hit the streets of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, in protest of large-scale mining projects approved by the country’s president Rafael Correa. Correa praised the Chinese mining project, claiming they will bring 50,000 jobs and billions in revenue. Though Correa is popular in Ecuador, the project is facing opposition. Ecuador has already suffered a massive oil spill in the Amazon region, and some 50% of the country is already covered by mining and oil extraction projects. So Ecuadorans are understandably wary of more major mining operations. See the following video…
Tags: Correa, Ecuador, indigenous, mining, oil, park, potash, protest, video, Yorkshire
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, Feb 20th, 2012,
The oil reserves of the Canadian province of Alberta are second in size only to those of Saudi Arabia. They are also more polluting and expensive to extract. In response to the European Union’s plans to label oil imports from Alberta’s tar sands as ‘highly polluting’, which they are, Canada has threatened a ‘trade war’ with Europe. Recent revelations of collusion between the UK and Canadian governments with fossil fuel companies who source their oil from the tar sands show plans to use underhanded tactics to mitigate any damage to the ‘Canadian brand’ of oil. In short, they’d like to…
Tags: Alberta, Canada, EU, Europe, oil, pipeline, tar sands
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Dec 19th, 2011,
On Sunday a Russian oil platform capsized between Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk off far eastern Russia. The oil rig, which was manned by 67 people subcontracted by Russian oil giant Gazprom, was being towed during a storm when heavy winds toppled it into the sea. So far Russian authorities have confirmed 16 deaths and a rescue raft with 15 people has been spotted, but it is not known how many on the raft – if any – are alive. According to regional emergency services, the accident poses no environmental threat, since the drilling…
Tags: death, France, fuel, oil, okhotsk, platform, rig, Russia, ship
Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Oct 10th, 2011,
Oil leaking from the stranded container ship off New Zealand’s coast has washed up on local beaches and could continue polluting for weeks, according to authorities. Beautiful Mt Maunganui Beach in Tauranga has been hit with “tar balls”, aka toxic blobs of oil, prompting authorities to issue a public warning to stay away from the stricken beach. So far some 10-50 tons of oil are estimated to have leaked from the Liberian container ship, the Rena, since it hit Astrolabe Reef, near the city of Tauranga on Wednesday, poisoning local wildlife. Weather conditions this week are predicted to hamper rescue…
Tags: beach, leak, Maunganui, New Zealand, oil, ship, spill, tauranga
Pollution, Oct 7th, 2011,
A large container ship is stranded on a reef off the coast of New Zealand and is leaking oil. The ship, named the Rena, ran aground on Astrolabe Reef near the city of Tauranga on Wednesday, causing a 5km (3mi) long oil slick to leak into the Bay of Plenty. So far 4 sea birds have been found dead in the slick, while 4 blue penguins and 2 shags have been rescued by New Zealand Wildlife Response. From the New Zealand Herald: The Rena was carrying about 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and about 70 tonnes of marine diesel…
Tags: Astrolabe Reef, blue penguin, leak, New Zealand, oil, Rena, ship
Pollution, Aug 16th, 2011,
The oil leak in the North Sea, which was discovered by Shell last Monday – but not announced until Friday – has been mostly staunched, according to the UK government. Yet another, albeit much smaller, leak has been found stemming from the same offshore platform and it is spilling some 2 barrels of crude oil per day. The second leak is proving difficult to stop, according to Shell, due to its ‘awkward’ positioning. Last Monday’s oil spill is already being called the worst to occur in UK waters in the last 10 years. From an article in the Independent: An…
Tags: Greenpeace, leak, North Sea, oil, Shell, spill
Pollution, Aug 8th, 2011,
Lest we forget, Nigeria’s Ogoniland region is still poisoned and ecologically damaged by 50 years of unsafe, irresponsible oil drilling practices. A new UN study (paid for by the Shell and the Nigerian government) puts the damage to the area, located on the Niger Delta, at levels even worse than previously thought. Clean up could cost $1bn and take 30 years to complete. Meanwhile the local fishing community has seen their livelihood suffer and health issues linked to environmental toxicity plague residents. Drinking water is contaminated, with some areas experiencing benzene levels at 900 times acceptable levels. From BBC News:…
Tags: Niger Delta, Nigeria, Ogoniland, oil, Shell, spills
Climate Change, Conservation, Politics, Jul 18th, 2011,
Around 35% of Ecuador’s residents live below the poverty line. The economy of this South American nation depends overwhelmingly on its natural resources and agriculture. Half of the area of Ecuador is covered by the Amazon rainforest. The Ecuadoran Amazon is one of the richest, most bio-diverse place on the planet and the “lungs of the Earth”, supplying crucial oxygen and taking in vast amounts of CO2. However, beneath this extremely important carbon sink and treasure of natural life that the entire world benefits from is a huge amount of oil – $7bn worth. From a piece by Johann Hari:…
Tags: amazon, Ecuador, oil, rainforest
Conservation, Politics, Jul 12th, 2011,
The International Whaling Commission is currently holding talks on the British island of Jersey. Issues being dealt with at the IWC talks include the effects of oil and gas exploration on gray whales in Russia’s far eastern waters. Western gray whales are an endangered species and number only 130. Seismic guns, used to find underwater oil and gas deposits off the coast of the Russian island of Sakhalin, have been shown to disturb the whales. The gray whales’ only summer feeding ground is located in a small area off of Sakhalin. Read more on that story in this BBC News…
Tags: gas, gray, hunt, Iceland, IWC, japan, oil, whale meat, whales
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2011,
As the Philippines moves forward in cleaner energy production and away from power sourced from oil and coal, the streets of its capital city, Manila, are choked with emissions from diesel and petrol-burning vehicles. According to the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) recent years have seen the Philippines experience a sharp rise in the production of energy from hydro and natural gas, and especially from geothermal and other renewable sources. At the same time, power generated from coal and oil peaked and began a somewhat steady decline during the last decade (though figures are only shown up to 2005). What’s…
Tags: coal, electric, energy, jeepney, Manilla, oil, Philippines, Pollution, power
Politics, Pollution, Apr 15th, 2011,
Documents accessed under the Freedom of Information Act show BP attempting to influence independent research into the effects of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental activist group Greenpeace got a hold of incriminating emails and passed them on to the Guardian. Those concerns go far beyond academic interest into the impact of the spill. BP faces billions in fines and penalties, and possible criminal charges arising from the disaster. Its total liability will depend in part on a final account produced by scientists on how much oil entered the gulf from its blown-out well, and the…
Tags: BP, Gulf, Mexico, oil, protest, research, spill
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 23rd, 2011,
Time Magazine has cited a source close to Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya claiming that the North African dictator may sabotage oilfields and pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea. In the first Gulf War of 1991, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered engineers to burn oil fields and blow up wells in Kuwait, burning one billion barrels of crude and creating an ecological catastrophe which killed vegetation and wildlife, polluted groundwater and poisoned the local human population. Besides cutting oil supplies to Europe, if Gaddafi carries out such an act of wanton destruction, a serious environmental tragedy may add to the human…
Tags: dictator, Gaddafi, Libya, Mediterranean, oil, pipelines, sabotage, war
Pollution, Feb 15th, 2011,
An Ecuadoran court has found oil giant Chevron guilty of contaminating the South American country’s Amazon basin. A judge in an Ecuadoran court levied a fine of $8bn (€6bn) against Chevron for deaths, illnesses and monetary losses sustained by the local inhabitants of the rainforest from spills of toxic waste and crude oil. The spills are estimated by a Swedish University study to total 30bn gallons (113bn liters). This amount dwarfs the 205m gallons spilt by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Though the suit is being touted as a hard fought victory for the indigenous people of Ecuador, the…
Tags: amazon, Chevron, court, Ecuador, Ecuadoran, oil, Pollution, rainforest, spill, TOXIC
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Oct 7th, 2010,
Members of the Cree Nation have come to London in order to draw attention to the plight of their native lands in Canada. Alberta, Canada’s oil sands or ‘tar sands’ are the world’s largest deposits of bitumen, a heavy, black form of crude oil, previously considered too costly and difficult to extract. Yet with pressure to get off ‘foreign’ oil and the high fuel prices of the last decade, extracting bitumen via surface mining has become more economically viable, despite its high environmental and human costs. What’s happening in Alberta is shocking when witnessed: dirty stretches of smoking wasteland, dotted…
Tags: Alberta, bitumen, Canada, Cree, oil, oil sands, tar sands
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
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, ,
The environmental and geopolitical ramifications of melting Arctic glaciers and the rush of different nations for the region’s mineral wealth is fraught with conflict and change. Melting ice in the Arctic spells trouble for some of Greenland’s traditional indigenous Inuit and for low-lying nations vulnerable to rising sea levels. A warming climate will also change shipping routes in the region, contributing further to the opening up of the region for economic exploitation. The Arctic is becoming the new battleground for the environment. Groups such as Greenpeace, the WWF and Climate Camp actively confront the activities of oil companies, like Scotland’s…
Tags: arctic, change, climate, gas, glacier, greenland, ice, melting, mineral, oil, Russia
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
