Environment

VOA reports that the oil skimming ships are gone. The booms protecting islands and marshes have been torn from their anchors. Sand bags have been overwhelmed. The headline is that Hurricane Alex is delaying the clean-up. But what is really going on is that Hurricane Alex is making a real clean-up unlikely. Reuters has more, […]

Environment

Walthen: I saw 100 Dolphins in the Oil, some Dying

Juan Cole

John L. Walthen and companions take a helicopter trip out over the Gulf of Mexico. “This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done! A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all […]

Environment

Jindal idles National Guardsmen He Demanded

Juan Cole

CBS reports that after jumping up and down demanding Federal government resources for Louisiana to deal with the BP Gulf oil gusher, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has only put to work about 1,000 of the 6,000 national guardsman provided by the Pentagon in response. CBS also has a video report: Watch CBS News Videos Online […]

Environment

Blue Planet

Juan Cole

Sam Lardner, “Blue Planet”:

Environment

Hurricanes could Threaten BP Ships, Relief Well Operations

Juan Cole

Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico could force oil recovery ships to seek a safe harbor for as much as two weeks starting early July. since the upward estimate for oil flow from the BP site is 60,000 barrels a day, wouldn’t that mean an unimpeded volcano of petroleum spewing for the subsequent two weeks? […]

Environment

Aerial footage of tar on Pensacola Beach

Juan Cole

Aerial footage of tar on Pensacola Beach from Escambia County Sheriff’s Office helicopter.

Environment

Bhopal Victims Protest, Draw Contrast with US Treatment of BP

Juan Cole

T.L. Caswell on how Union Carbide’s negligence in the Bhopal chemical leak near Agra in the 1980s was punished late and lightly, whereas BP was forced by the US to establish a $20 billion payout fund right away. Aljazeera English reports on the ongoing Bhopal protests by victim families, and their new resentments about how […]

Environment

Raining Oil in Louisiana

Juan Cole

OK Rachel Maddow says it isn’t so. Raining oil in Louisiana:

Energy

Obama Launches Green Equivalent of Moon Mission

Juan Cole

President Obama for the first time addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, on the Gulf of Mexico oil volcano. The address came as scientists revised upward their estimate of how much petroleum is daily gushing into the Gulf, deciding it is between 35,000 and 60,000. Only 18,000 barrels a day is […]