CNN, July 29, 2010
By Catriona Davies
The oceans have become so depleted by over-fishing, pollution and climate change that they can only be saved by a large global network of reserves, according to a growing consensus among marine scientists.
Campaigners say that sea life -- particularly at the top of the food chain -- is suffering to such an extent that there will eventually be no fish left if action drastic action is not taken to protect the oceans.
More than 70 percent of the world is covered by oceans. There are currently more than 4,000 marine protected areas covering just over 1 percent of the oceans, but the vast majority of reserves have only limited protection.
According to Professor Callum Roberts, of the University of York, one of the leading campaigners and author of The Unnatural History of the Sea, only about 0.1 percent of the sea is completely protected from all exploitation. This should be between 25 and 45 percent to give marine species the best chance of recovery, he said.
The Global Ocean Legacy, a project of the Pew Environment Group, issued a statement to mark World Oceans Day in June signed by 257 marine scientists in 37 countries calling for a large network of highly protected no-take reserves.
Prof Roberts told CNN: "There's strong and ample evidence that the oceans' ecosystems are in trouble and need protection.
"Fishing now reaches every corner of the world's oceans, so the only refuges are those we have chosen to create.
"In the future climate change is going to loom ever more heavily as a factor in damaging marine life. The only way the oceans can remain resilient to climate change is by establishing more protection."
According to Greenpeace, 90 percent of the large predator fish stocks are gone or in trouble and 90 percent of exploited fish stocks in the European Union are in trouble.
Keep reading
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Exploring Algae as Fuel
By Andrew Pollock
New York Times, July 26, 2010
In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern biotechnology are being applied to lowly pond scum.
Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked.
Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains.
The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel.
“We’ve probably engineered over 4,000 strains,” said Mike Mendez, a co-founder and vice president for technology at Sapphire Energy, the owner of the laboratory. “My whole goal here at Sapphire is to domesticate algae, to make it a crop.”
Dozens of companies, as well as many academic laboratories, are pursuing the same goal — to produce algae as a source of, literally, green energy. And many of them are using genetic engineering or other biological techniques, like chemically induced mutations, to improve how algae functions.
“There are probably well over 100 academic efforts to use genetic engineering to optimize biofuel production from algae,” said Matthew C. Posewitz, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Colorado School of Mines, who has written a review of the field. “There’s just intense interest globally.”
Algae are attracting attention because the strains can potentially produce 10 or more times more fuel per acre than the corn used to make ethanol or the soybeans used to make biodiesel. Moreover, algae might be grown on arid land and brackish water, so that fuel production would not compete with food production. And algae are voracious consumers of carbon dioxide, potentially helping to keep some of this greenhouse gas from contributing to global warming.
But efforts to genetically engineer algae, which usually means to splice in genes from other organisms, worry some experts because algae play a vital role in the environment. The single-celled photosynthetic organisms produce much of the oxygen on earth and are the base of the marine food chain.
“We are not saying don’t do this,” said Gerald H. Groenewold, director of the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center, who is trying to organize a study of the risks. “We say do this with the knowledge of the implications and how to safeguard what you are doing.”
At a meeting this month of President Obama’s new bioethics commission, Allison A. Snow, an ecologist at Ohio State University, testified that a “worst-case hypothetical scenario” would be that algae engineered to be extremely hardy might escape into the environment, displace other species and cause algal overgrowths that deprive waters of oxygen, killing fish.
A week earlier, at an industry-sponsored bioenergy conference, David Haberman, an engineer who has worked on an algae project, gave a talk warning of risks. Many scientists, particularly those in the algae business, say the fears are overblown. Just as food crops cannot thrive without a farmer to nourish them and fend off pests, algae modified to be energy crops would be uncompetitive against wild algae if they were to escape, and even inside their own ponds.
“Everything we do to engineer an organism makes it weaker,” said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-founder of Sapphire. “This idea that we can make Frankenfood or Frankenalgae is just absurd.”
Dr. Mayfield and other scientists say there have been no known environmental problems in the 35 years that scientists have been genetically engineering bacteria, although some organisms have undoubtedly escaped from laboratories.
Even Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has been critical of biotech crops, said that if genetically engineered algae were to escape, “I would not lose sleep over it at all.”
Still, some algae researchers worry they will be engulfed by the same backlash aimed at biotech foods and say care must be exercised. “About 40 percent of the oxygen that you and I are breathing right now comes from the algae in the oceans,” the genetic scientist J. Craig Venter said at a Congressional hearing in May. “We don’t want to mess up that process.”
Dr. Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, is getting $300 million from Exxon Mobil to create fuel-producing algae, in part by using synthetic genes. When the two companies cut the ribbon on a new greenhouse here earlier this month, Dr. Venter assured local dignitaries in attendance that no algae would escape. “Nothing will go into the drains, Mr. Mayor,” Dr. Venter said, only half-jokingly. “San Diego is safe.”
In the long run, Dr. Venter said, the algae should be given “suicide genes” that would kill them if they escaped the lab or fuel production facility. Some companies are sticking with searching for and breeding natural strains. “Re-engineering algae seems driven more by patent law and investor desire for protection than any real requirement,” said Stan Barnes, chief executive of Bioalgene, which is one of those companies. But Dr. Venter and Mr. Mendez argue that there are huge obstacles to making algae competitive as an energy source and that every tool will be needed to optimize the strains.
Sapphire Energy seems one of the best-positioned companies to do that. The company, which is three years old, has raised $100 million from prominent investors, including Bill Gates. Sapphire is also getting $100 million in federal financing to build a demonstration project containing 300 acres of open ponds in the New Mexico desert.
Keep reading
Monday, July 26, 2010
Saving Nemo
Ever since I was a little girl, I was always fascinated by “The Big Blue”. I dreamt of being a marine biologist…training Shamu, swimming with dolphins, and diving with great white sharks. That’s exactly what a marine biologist does on a daily basis, right!? Well, rather than following through with my underwater fantasies, my life took a much different path. I went to college in middle-of-nowhere Indiana, worked for a large corporate retailer, and ended up on a TV show called The Bachelor (some of that involved working with sharks, but a much different species than the ones from my childhood dreams). Even though my most recent years have been inundated with Excel spreadsheets and television cameras, my passion for the ocean has never gone astray.
Recently, someone asked me, “What is it that makes you so passionate about the ocean?” For me, that was a very simple question to answer. Think about when you travel to Hawaii, Mexico, or any other coastal spot for a vacation. You most likely take a picture of you and your travel companions with the ocean and sunset in the background, right? It’s the typical, beautiful backdrop, to sum up a relaxing vacation. After returning from that vacation, you probably look back at that picture and think about how pretty it was or what you ate for dinner that night or even that you might need to go on a diet soon. But when I look back at that picture, I think about the nearly unimaginable world that is living below that blue surface. I envision the opening credits of Finding Nemo, where we see a rainbow of colors, hundreds of species breathing and living in a world that I couldn’t ever physically live in. It’s like another planet that is so unfamiliar to all of us, yet we see it every single day. To think that the most dangerous, largest, and most oddly shaped creatures on our planet are all housed under the surface of something many of us take for granted is beyond belief to me.
So what is my point in all of this? With the outpouring of news in relation to the recent oil spill, my passion for our oceans has only grown. Even though my days consist of crunching numbers or giving interviews about finding love on TV, I still feel that I can spread the word and help, even if only a little, to bring light to the magnificent underwater world that is so sadly being destroyed as we speak. All it takes is a little bit of knowledge on how we live our day-to-day lives, and how that might affect all of the Nemos out there.
To me, the beauty of that vacation photo isn’t the ocean’s ripples, the perfect sunset, or even the people in the photo…it’s the mystery of what is living and breathing below that surface, at that given moment.
Monday, July 19, 2010
‘Coral Triangle’ 10 Times as Biodiverse as Great Barrier Reef
The Hot Spring, July 17, 2010
By Joseph Robertson
The great Coral Triangle, a region of coral-dense seas demarcated by Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor L’Este, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Philippines, is said to be 10 times as biodiverse as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. 76% of all known species of coral are found in the Coral Triangle, and warming ocean temperatures are causing advanced coral bleaching and endangering the entire regional ecosystem.
Australia is a key supporter of conservation efforts in the Coral Triangle, through the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), but at least one scientist says the Australian management system for retaining diversity in the Triangle will not work. Professor Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, a world leader in the field, says “There is no single recipe for how to manage a reef well and the Great Barrier Reef model is not exportable to a poor country”.
The ARC Coral Reef Centre (CECRS) is a collaboration between several research institutions and governmental bodies, aimed at fostering the best possible scientific understanding of the ecology of coral reefs and the ecological interrelationship of such natural systems and their surrounding environment.
Though the CECRS remains in need of added funding and sustained intergovernmental support, the Great Barrier Reef is an example of how coordinated conservation efforts can protect a fragile reef ecosystem from sustained environmental degradation. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority advises the Australian government on the best regulatory, environmental and zoning measures to protect and heal the largest reef system in the world.
The Coral Triangle is, however, a more complicated issue: covering 5.7 million square kilometers and incorporating more than 1/3 of all the world’s coral reefs, it includes over 600 different species of reef-building coral and more than 3,000 species of reef-dwelling fish, each of which shows different sensitivities to subtle environmental change. 75% of all mangrove species are also found in the Coral Triangle, as well as 58% of all tropical marine mollusk species and 45% of known seagrass species.
All of that biodiversity, along with 22 distinct species of marine mammals, occurs in an area that spans less than 1% of the world’s oceans. At least 97 species of Indonesian reef fish and 50 species of Philippine reef fish are found nowhere else on Earth. The value of those species to their specific habitats is, to some degree, incalculable, because their specific evolutionary qualities and habits cannot be replaced. Observing and preserving the richness of the Coral Triangle is a massive undertaking fraught with scientific and logistical complexity, and the effort requires a significant commitment of time, funding and personnel from the region’s governments.
Keep reading
By Joseph Robertson
The great Coral Triangle, a region of coral-dense seas demarcated by Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor L’Este, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Philippines, is said to be 10 times as biodiverse as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. 76% of all known species of coral are found in the Coral Triangle, and warming ocean temperatures are causing advanced coral bleaching and endangering the entire regional ecosystem.
Australia is a key supporter of conservation efforts in the Coral Triangle, through the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), but at least one scientist says the Australian management system for retaining diversity in the Triangle will not work. Professor Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, a world leader in the field, says “There is no single recipe for how to manage a reef well and the Great Barrier Reef model is not exportable to a poor country”.
The ARC Coral Reef Centre (CECRS) is a collaboration between several research institutions and governmental bodies, aimed at fostering the best possible scientific understanding of the ecology of coral reefs and the ecological interrelationship of such natural systems and their surrounding environment.
Though the CECRS remains in need of added funding and sustained intergovernmental support, the Great Barrier Reef is an example of how coordinated conservation efforts can protect a fragile reef ecosystem from sustained environmental degradation. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority advises the Australian government on the best regulatory, environmental and zoning measures to protect and heal the largest reef system in the world.
The Coral Triangle is, however, a more complicated issue: covering 5.7 million square kilometers and incorporating more than 1/3 of all the world’s coral reefs, it includes over 600 different species of reef-building coral and more than 3,000 species of reef-dwelling fish, each of which shows different sensitivities to subtle environmental change. 75% of all mangrove species are also found in the Coral Triangle, as well as 58% of all tropical marine mollusk species and 45% of known seagrass species.
All of that biodiversity, along with 22 distinct species of marine mammals, occurs in an area that spans less than 1% of the world’s oceans. At least 97 species of Indonesian reef fish and 50 species of Philippine reef fish are found nowhere else on Earth. The value of those species to their specific habitats is, to some degree, incalculable, because their specific evolutionary qualities and habits cannot be replaced. Observing and preserving the richness of the Coral Triangle is a massive undertaking fraught with scientific and logistical complexity, and the effort requires a significant commitment of time, funding and personnel from the region’s governments.
Keep reading
New Species!
From: CTV
HALIFAX — Researchers are getting a first-ever glimpse of the watery depths off Newfoundland and Labrador, seeing species that are likely new to science and collecting data that could unlock centuries-old mysteries of the sea.
The team from three Canadian universities and a Spanish institute is looking at life three kilometres below the surface and have found sponges and other species clinging to steep cliffs never seen before.
Ellen Kenchington of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax said biologists are using a submersible robot to beam up images of tulip-shaped sponges, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms.
"It's been really spectacular," she said from her office at the institute, as pictures from the robot streamed on her computer. "It's really changing our perception of the diversity that's out there ... We're seeing new species in deeper waters."
The 20-day research mission is being carried out near the Sable Gully marine protected area, the Flemish Cap and the Orphan Knoll until the end of the month.
Marine biologists from Halifax, St. John's, N.L., and Quebec are doing a variety of research projects aimed at getting a handle on what life forms lay below, how they're affecting currents and if they could explain what the ecosystem was like hundreds of years ago.
Using a remotely operated vehicle with manoeuvrable arms, they've already captured samples or images of prehistoric looking deep-sea cucumbers, bright pink starfish, leggy sea pens and tall organisms that look like denuded trees.
Since setting out July 8, their work has focused on the gully and the Flemish Cap, a shallow area about 560 kilometres east of St. John's that's an important fishing ground.
"Finding this many new or rare species in a single mission is extremely exciting," Andrew Cogswell, the chief scientist, said in an email Saturday.
"The next area we go to, Orphan Knoll, has never been visited and is at 1,800 metres deep. This area has never been fished ...The bottom is very interesting."
The robot, being operated by crew aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Hudson, is allowing the crew to go about 500 metres further than they have before -- to about 3,000 metres.
Kenchington said their images and samples will help fisheries managers understand the ecosystem and document life forms that might need protection.
Almost a dozen areas around the Flemish Cap and the Orphan Knoll received protections by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization after the United Nations passed a resolution on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Research from this trip will be used to determine if those protected areas need to be refined or expanded when they are reviewed next year, and could determine future fishing policy.
Kenchington said the research will also help them evaluate areas that are still too deep for current fishing technologies but could be accessible in years to come.
"This will enable us to give advice in the future about what types of organisms are in these areas before they're fished," she said.
Scientists will also be able to reconstruct the marine ecosystem by dissecting certain species that can indicate what the water temperatures up to 1,000 years ago.
This week, the team plans to head to the Orphan Knoll, which has unique seamounts that have never been studied on the bottom before.
The video from the robot is being streamed at the Bedford institute, a cultural centre in St. John's and the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
HALIFAX — Researchers are getting a first-ever glimpse of the watery depths off Newfoundland and Labrador, seeing species that are likely new to science and collecting data that could unlock centuries-old mysteries of the sea.
The team from three Canadian universities and a Spanish institute is looking at life three kilometres below the surface and have found sponges and other species clinging to steep cliffs never seen before.
Ellen Kenchington of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax said biologists are using a submersible robot to beam up images of tulip-shaped sponges, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms.
"It's been really spectacular," she said from her office at the institute, as pictures from the robot streamed on her computer. "It's really changing our perception of the diversity that's out there ... We're seeing new species in deeper waters."
The 20-day research mission is being carried out near the Sable Gully marine protected area, the Flemish Cap and the Orphan Knoll until the end of the month.
Marine biologists from Halifax, St. John's, N.L., and Quebec are doing a variety of research projects aimed at getting a handle on what life forms lay below, how they're affecting currents and if they could explain what the ecosystem was like hundreds of years ago.
Using a remotely operated vehicle with manoeuvrable arms, they've already captured samples or images of prehistoric looking deep-sea cucumbers, bright pink starfish, leggy sea pens and tall organisms that look like denuded trees.
Since setting out July 8, their work has focused on the gully and the Flemish Cap, a shallow area about 560 kilometres east of St. John's that's an important fishing ground.
"Finding this many new or rare species in a single mission is extremely exciting," Andrew Cogswell, the chief scientist, said in an email Saturday.
"The next area we go to, Orphan Knoll, has never been visited and is at 1,800 metres deep. This area has never been fished ...The bottom is very interesting."
The robot, being operated by crew aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Hudson, is allowing the crew to go about 500 metres further than they have before -- to about 3,000 metres.
Kenchington said their images and samples will help fisheries managers understand the ecosystem and document life forms that might need protection.
Almost a dozen areas around the Flemish Cap and the Orphan Knoll received protections by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization after the United Nations passed a resolution on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Research from this trip will be used to determine if those protected areas need to be refined or expanded when they are reviewed next year, and could determine future fishing policy.
Kenchington said the research will also help them evaluate areas that are still too deep for current fishing technologies but could be accessible in years to come.
"This will enable us to give advice in the future about what types of organisms are in these areas before they're fished," she said.
Scientists will also be able to reconstruct the marine ecosystem by dissecting certain species that can indicate what the water temperatures up to 1,000 years ago.
This week, the team plans to head to the Orphan Knoll, which has unique seamounts that have never been studied on the bottom before.
The video from the robot is being streamed at the Bedford institute, a cultural centre in St. John's and the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Deep-ocean cameras capture ‘living fossils’
MSNBC, July 15, 2010
Remote-controlled cameras sent down to depths of more than 4,500 feet in the Coral Sea have brought back unprecedented views of six-gilled sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and nautiluses that have been compared to "living fossils."
The images were captured at Osprey Reef, off the coast of northeast Australia, 220 miles (350 kilometers) from Cairns. The Deep Australia research team, led by Justin Marshall of the Queensland Brain Institute, said the findings will contribute to deep-sea conservation as well as neurobiology.
"Osprey Reef is one of the many reefs in the Coral Sea Conservation Zone, which has been identified as an area of high conservation importance by the [Australian] federal government," Marshall said in a news release. "Therefore, it is paramount that we identify the ecosystems and species inhabiting the area."
The team developed deep-sea cameras and instrument platforms to document the creatures of a deep-sea realm beyond the reach of sunlight.
"We simply do not know what life is down there, and our cameras can now record the behavior and life in Australia's largest biosphere, the deep sea," Marshall said.
The scientists focused their attention on nautiluses, relatives of squids and octopuses that still live in shells, as they have for millions of years. "Learning more about these creatures' primitive eyes and brain could help neuroscientists to better understand human vision," research student Andy Dunstan said.
Marshall pointed out that squid nerve cells gave scientists their first insights into how nerve cells function and communicate. "We are now returning to these original model systems, both for their own intrinsic interest and also to better understand brain disorders which lead to conditions such as epilepsy," he said.
In September, the researchers are scheduled to travel to the Peru Trench, off South America's western coast, where they plan to film and capture deep-sea species more than a mile beneath sea level. One creature they hope to encounter is the giant squid, which has the largest nerve cells found in nature.
Keep reading & see the photos
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Scientists find ‘alien’ coral species off Fourchon's coast
The Daily Comet, July 14, 2010
By Robert Zullo
Two Cocodrie-based scientists have found a hardy and voracious species of invasive coral clinging to an oil-and-gas platform off the coast of Port Fourchon, though it remains unclear whether the “alien” coral poses a threat to native varieties in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
Paul Sammarco and Scott Porter, marine scientists at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium research center in Cocodrie, identified the species of coral, called Tubastraea micranthus, after Porter found it on a platform about 20 miles southeast of Port Fourchon, near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Working together and separately, the two scientists have spent nearly 10 years surveying 83 platforms in the Gulf to document the types of coral growing on the structures. Sammarco was working on a study for the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Porter, a marine ecologist who worked as an oilfield and oyster science consultant, was doing private research to explore the possibility of using the platforms for coral aquaculture.
Since the new species has only been spotted on a single rig, near the intersection of two major shipping lanes, the scientists guess the coral was recently brought to the Gulf on a ship’s hull or in its bilge water.
Though they may resemble rocks or plants, corals made up of tiny living organisms generally separate into two types — reef-building and non-reef-building coral.
Sammarco, who has a doctorate in ecology and evolution, said T. micranthus, a non-reef-building coral, may be even more adept at growing and reproducing than another closely related invasive coral that has already swept through the western Atlantic.
Keep reading
Monday, July 12, 2010
Green firms uniting to flex political muscle
The Boston Globe, July 11, 2010
By Mark Arsenault
Stonyfield Farm is slapping its familiar cow logo on more than just containers of yogurt these days. The New Hampshire-based organic food maker is one of more than 50 local companies to lend its corporate name to a political lobbying campaign aimed at persuading Congress to support climate and energy legislation on Capitol Hill.
The green-friendly businesses — including many young tech companies not yet household names — are the regional face of a multimillion dollar lobbying effort aimed at key senators across the country. Their effort is backed by some of the world’s most recognizable consumer brands and Fortune 500 companies, and guided by experienced political hands with deep connections to the Obama and Clinton administrations.
The TV, radio, and print campaign, bolstered by in-person jawboning of legislators, demonstrates the political reach of green-technology and alternative energy companies, which have progressed from the cluttered basements of inventors and entrepreneurs into an emerging political force seeking to apply pressure at the highest levels of government.
“We’re among those businesses saying let’s get on with it’’ and pass climate and energy legislation, said Ken Colburn, environmental policy director for Stonyfield Farm, where efficiency efforts the past three years have cut carbon outputs while saving $7.8 million. “What will it take for Congress to get that message? Gosh, I really don’t know.’’
Solar companies, wind-energy developers, battery manufacturers, and others want the federal government to establish a system of raising money from emitters of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change — either through a direct carbon tax or vouchers purchased by polluters — and steer some of that money into the development of clean energy technologies.
The businesses are backing proposed climate and energy legislation sponsored by Senators John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent. The Kerry-Lieberman proposal calls for an auction of carbon-emission permits and would use the money generated to provide billions in incentives to reduce greenhouse gasses.
“Green groups and alternative energy companies view this as a cash cow,’’ said Ron Bonjean, a Washington political consultant and former top Republican adviser on Capitol Hill. “And with that they want to take the power in their own hands and start engaging, with either new lobbying or more intense lobbying.’’
But in the political arena, alternative energy groups are up against some of the most powerful lobbies in American politics — coal miners, oil producers, and electric utilities.
“The small green groups are definitely overshadowed,’’ said Bonjean. “It’s hard for them to make a dent in the process.’’
Keep reading
By Mark Arsenault
Stonyfield Farm is slapping its familiar cow logo on more than just containers of yogurt these days. The New Hampshire-based organic food maker is one of more than 50 local companies to lend its corporate name to a political lobbying campaign aimed at persuading Congress to support climate and energy legislation on Capitol Hill.
The green-friendly businesses — including many young tech companies not yet household names — are the regional face of a multimillion dollar lobbying effort aimed at key senators across the country. Their effort is backed by some of the world’s most recognizable consumer brands and Fortune 500 companies, and guided by experienced political hands with deep connections to the Obama and Clinton administrations.
The TV, radio, and print campaign, bolstered by in-person jawboning of legislators, demonstrates the political reach of green-technology and alternative energy companies, which have progressed from the cluttered basements of inventors and entrepreneurs into an emerging political force seeking to apply pressure at the highest levels of government.
“We’re among those businesses saying let’s get on with it’’ and pass climate and energy legislation, said Ken Colburn, environmental policy director for Stonyfield Farm, where efficiency efforts the past three years have cut carbon outputs while saving $7.8 million. “What will it take for Congress to get that message? Gosh, I really don’t know.’’
Solar companies, wind-energy developers, battery manufacturers, and others want the federal government to establish a system of raising money from emitters of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change — either through a direct carbon tax or vouchers purchased by polluters — and steer some of that money into the development of clean energy technologies.
The businesses are backing proposed climate and energy legislation sponsored by Senators John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent. The Kerry-Lieberman proposal calls for an auction of carbon-emission permits and would use the money generated to provide billions in incentives to reduce greenhouse gasses.
“Green groups and alternative energy companies view this as a cash cow,’’ said Ron Bonjean, a Washington political consultant and former top Republican adviser on Capitol Hill. “And with that they want to take the power in their own hands and start engaging, with either new lobbying or more intense lobbying.’’
But in the political arena, alternative energy groups are up against some of the most powerful lobbies in American politics — coal miners, oil producers, and electric utilities.
“The small green groups are definitely overshadowed,’’ said Bonjean. “It’s hard for them to make a dent in the process.’’
Keep reading
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells
Associated Press, July 7, 2010
By Jeff Donn & Mitch Weiss
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.
The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells — those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."
Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s — eveb though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.
As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells — history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.
Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.
"You can have changing geological conditions where a well could be repressurized," said Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer for the American Petroleum Institute trade group.
Whether a well is permanently or temporarily abandoned, improperly applied or aging cement can crack or shrink, independent petroleum engineers say. "It ages, just like it does on buildings and highways," said Roger Anderson, a Columbia University petroleum geophysicist who has conducted research on commercial wells.
Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.
Oil company representatives insist that the seal on a correctly plugged offshore well will last virtually forever.
"It's in everybody's interest to do it right," said Bill Mintz, a spokesman for Apache Corp., which has at least 2,100 abandoned wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
Officials at the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the agency that regulates federal leases in the Gulf and elsewhere, did not answer repeated questions regarding why there are no inspections of abandoned wells.
State officials estimate that tens of thousands are badly sealed, either because they predate strict regulation or because the operating companies violated rules. Texas alone has plugged more than 21,000 abandoned wells to control pollution, according to the state comptroller's office.
Offshore, but in state waters, California has resealed scores of its abandoned wells since the 1980s.
In deeper federal waters, though — despite the similarities in how such wells are constructed and how sealing procedures can fail — the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service — the regulatory agency recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement — relies on rules that have few real teeth. Once an oil company says it will permanently abandon a well, it has one year to complete the job. MMS mandates that work plans be submitted and a report filed afterward.
Unlike California regulators, MMS doesn't typically inspect the job, instead relying on the paperwork.
The fact there are so many wells that have been classified for decades as temporarily abandoned suggests that paperwork can be shuffled at MMS without any real change beneath the water
Keep reading
By Jeff Donn & Mitch Weiss
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.
The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells — those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."
Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s — eveb though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.
As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells — history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.
Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.
"You can have changing geological conditions where a well could be repressurized," said Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer for the American Petroleum Institute trade group.
Whether a well is permanently or temporarily abandoned, improperly applied or aging cement can crack or shrink, independent petroleum engineers say. "It ages, just like it does on buildings and highways," said Roger Anderson, a Columbia University petroleum geophysicist who has conducted research on commercial wells.
Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.
Oil company representatives insist that the seal on a correctly plugged offshore well will last virtually forever.
"It's in everybody's interest to do it right," said Bill Mintz, a spokesman for Apache Corp., which has at least 2,100 abandoned wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
Officials at the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the agency that regulates federal leases in the Gulf and elsewhere, did not answer repeated questions regarding why there are no inspections of abandoned wells.
State officials estimate that tens of thousands are badly sealed, either because they predate strict regulation or because the operating companies violated rules. Texas alone has plugged more than 21,000 abandoned wells to control pollution, according to the state comptroller's office.
Offshore, but in state waters, California has resealed scores of its abandoned wells since the 1980s.
In deeper federal waters, though — despite the similarities in how such wells are constructed and how sealing procedures can fail — the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service — the regulatory agency recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement — relies on rules that have few real teeth. Once an oil company says it will permanently abandon a well, it has one year to complete the job. MMS mandates that work plans be submitted and a report filed afterward.
Unlike California regulators, MMS doesn't typically inspect the job, instead relying on the paperwork.
The fact there are so many wells that have been classified for decades as temporarily abandoned suggests that paperwork can be shuffled at MMS without any real change beneath the water
Keep reading
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Scientists Unveil "Honolulu Declaration" To Address Ocean Acidification
Life Style, July 5, 2010
By Misty Herrin
The increase in global carbon dioxide emissions is not just damaging the Earth's climate, but also threatening the very fabric of our oceans. Today, The Nature Conservancy, along with the support of a dozen of the world's top marine scientists, presented key findings and recommendations to tackle ocean acidification in the "Honolulu Declaration on Ocean Acidification and Reef Management," which was first introduced to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Kona, Hawai'i in late August, and presented today to delegates attending the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The Nature Conservancy Logo"Coral reefs are at the heart of our tropics, and millions of people around the world depend on these systems for their livelihoods. Without urgent action to limit carbon dioxide emissions and improve management of marine protected areas, even vast treasured reefs like the Great Barrier Reef and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will become wastelands of dead coral," said Lynne Hale, director of The Nature Conservancy's Marine Initiative.
Ocean acidification is the change in ocean chemistry driven by the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other chemical compounds released into the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs approximately one-third of the CO2 in the atmosphere, which then combines with seawater to form carbonic acid that lowers the pH of the oceans and disrupts marine ecosystems and species.
In July 2008, scientists at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Florida declared acidification as the largest and most significant threat that oceans face today and conveyed that coral reefs will be unable to survive the projected increases in ocean acidification, leading to potentially massive coral loss that would cause severe declines in the abundance and diversity of fish and other marine species and damage the global economies dependent on ocean health and productivity.
In fact, current estimates show that we could lose all coral reefs by the end of the century - or, in the worst case scenario, possibly decades sooner.
"The reefs of the world are at risk, and are especially vulnerable to the rapidly emerging stress brought on by climate change," said Paul Marshall, Climate Change Program manager of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. "Recognizing the potential irreversibility of ocean acidification impacts, it has never been more imperative to improve the management and adaptability of coral reef ecosystems."
Responding to this challenge, the Conservancy convened a group of leading climate and marine scientists and coral reef managers from around the globe in early August of this year for a workshop in Honolulu to chart a course of action to address ocean acidification.
Hale and Marshall noted that this landmark "meeting of minds" created a solid foundation for a new era of coral reef conservation, and that action steps proposed by the group, if enacted, will help to save coral reefs from escalating destruction. Two major strategies emerged as the backbone of the Declaration resulting from the workshop:
Limit fossil fuel emissions - stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is the most logical step to address ocean acidification impacts; and
Build the resilience of tropical marine ecosystems and communities to maximize their ability to resist and recover from climate change impacts, including ocean acidification.
Keep reading
By Misty Herrin
The increase in global carbon dioxide emissions is not just damaging the Earth's climate, but also threatening the very fabric of our oceans. Today, The Nature Conservancy, along with the support of a dozen of the world's top marine scientists, presented key findings and recommendations to tackle ocean acidification in the "Honolulu Declaration on Ocean Acidification and Reef Management," which was first introduced to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Kona, Hawai'i in late August, and presented today to delegates attending the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The Nature Conservancy Logo"Coral reefs are at the heart of our tropics, and millions of people around the world depend on these systems for their livelihoods. Without urgent action to limit carbon dioxide emissions and improve management of marine protected areas, even vast treasured reefs like the Great Barrier Reef and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will become wastelands of dead coral," said Lynne Hale, director of The Nature Conservancy's Marine Initiative.
Ocean acidification is the change in ocean chemistry driven by the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other chemical compounds released into the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs approximately one-third of the CO2 in the atmosphere, which then combines with seawater to form carbonic acid that lowers the pH of the oceans and disrupts marine ecosystems and species.
In July 2008, scientists at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Florida declared acidification as the largest and most significant threat that oceans face today and conveyed that coral reefs will be unable to survive the projected increases in ocean acidification, leading to potentially massive coral loss that would cause severe declines in the abundance and diversity of fish and other marine species and damage the global economies dependent on ocean health and productivity.
In fact, current estimates show that we could lose all coral reefs by the end of the century - or, in the worst case scenario, possibly decades sooner.
"The reefs of the world are at risk, and are especially vulnerable to the rapidly emerging stress brought on by climate change," said Paul Marshall, Climate Change Program manager of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. "Recognizing the potential irreversibility of ocean acidification impacts, it has never been more imperative to improve the management and adaptability of coral reef ecosystems."
Responding to this challenge, the Conservancy convened a group of leading climate and marine scientists and coral reef managers from around the globe in early August of this year for a workshop in Honolulu to chart a course of action to address ocean acidification.
Hale and Marshall noted that this landmark "meeting of minds" created a solid foundation for a new era of coral reef conservation, and that action steps proposed by the group, if enacted, will help to save coral reefs from escalating destruction. Two major strategies emerged as the backbone of the Declaration resulting from the workshop:
Limit fossil fuel emissions - stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is the most logical step to address ocean acidification impacts; and
Build the resilience of tropical marine ecosystems and communities to maximize their ability to resist and recover from climate change impacts, including ocean acidification.
Keep reading
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