Royal Dutch Shell is seeking permission to extend its Arctic drilling season as it struggles with the logistics of exploring untapped oil reserves beneath icy waters off Alaska. [Reuters]
Sea-ice cover in the Arctic Ocean reached a record low this week, dropping below the previous record set in 2007, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported on Monday. It is expected to continue diminishing for at least the next week.
Long-term disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has inspired development boosters to look to the area for new oil finds. So far, Shell has been the company with the most ambitious Arctic oil-exploration plans.
The usually ice-clogged Chukchi Sea is considered a promising but daunting frontier for oil drilling. The U.S. Department of Interior estimates the Chukchi holds over 15 million barrels of recoverable oil.
But remoteness and harsh conditions have hindered development. There have been only five wells drilled in the Chukchi, four of them by Shell, and all were abandoned.
Hurricane Isaac will continue pelting Louisiana with heavy rains today and tomorrow as it marches up the Gulf Coast, unleashing damaging 80 mile-per-hour winds and causing widespread flooding in New Orleans and other coastal cities. [USA Today]
Isaac’s high winds and rains, experts speculate, could also stir up remnant crude oil from the BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill — exposing more residents and wildlife to its potentially toxic effects. [Huffington Post]
Brent crude oil slipped below $112 per barrel on Wednesday as Hurricane Isaac, which hit land in Louisiana, left U.S. Gulf Coast oil production facilities without significant damage. [Reuters]
The remnants of Hurricane Isaac could bring welcome rain to some states in the Mississippi River valley this week, but experts say it’s unlikely to break the drought gripping the Midwest. [Associated Press]
Some of the most widely accepted climate change models suggest that, by the end of this century, more than half of all western landscapes won’t be able to support the type of vegetation that exist there now. [Summit County Citizens Voice]
Four of the largest U.S. coal producers made $20 billion of acquisitions last year to reduce their dependence on the domestic power industry. Instead those deals have added to the companies’ pain. [Bloomberg]
Drought conditions are draining a reservoir used to cool the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant, but officials of the eastern Kansas plant say there are no worries about safety or the ability to provide electricity to customers. [The Witchita Eagle]
Australia and the European Union plan to link their “cap-and-trade” systems to create the biggest emissions trading market on the globe, energy and climate change officials announced Tuesday. [Los Angeles Times]
When the wind on Orkney is strong enough to blow the rain parallel to the pavement, the cluster of gently sloping islands becomes a green energy powerhouse. [Guardian]
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
An additional roundup of energy and climate news for 8/29 is posted at http://www.marcaccicomms.com/news/energy-and-environment-news-roundup-8-29-12/
Chukchi sea has over 15 million recoverable barrels? That should keep the USA going for a day.
That’s what I was thinking. It wouldn’t be worth it. Wikipedia says there are some 30 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves. This would make more sense considering how much trouble it will be for Shell to develop the area.
Just more gigatons of carbon we cannot afford to dump into the atmosphere.
If you look at Chinese stockpiles of steel, then coal’s pain may get worse.
The time has arrived….
http://www.nextecowarriors.com/
Sharkwater’s Rob Stewart sets out to save humanity (and sharks)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/29/rob-stewart-q-interview.html
The reaction to Sharkwater, a debut film by Rob Stewart, made the Toronto documentary maker into an optimist.
Made at great personal cost including a lost relationship, a stint in prison and a mountain of debt, Sharkwater became one of the highest-grossing Canadian documentaries ever made.
But more important to Stewart, who has loved fish ever since he was a child, it inspired hundreds of shark conservation groups and led to bans on shark fin soup around the world.
On Wednesday, Stewart talked to Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC’s Q current affairs show, about his newest projects – the documentary Revolution that will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and the memoir Save the Humans, released last week.
“At the time I thought saving sharks was the most important issue on the planet — we can’t undermine a form of life that’s 40 million years old,” he said.
“But I met all these scientists and conservationists who said ‘What you’re doing with sharks is great, but you’re missing the point. We’re going to lose everything and if we lose everything we won’t have any sharks left. By the middle of this century we could have no fish in the sea, no coral reefs, no rainforests and a planet that can’t sustain many forms of life.’”
400 million years, surely? No worries-the seas will be ravaged, but, after a couple of millions years to repair things, diversity will return. The architects of this mass extinction, Homo destructans, will be gone, of course.