naturalfeature:gulf of mexico

  • Environmentalism’s Racist History | The New Yorker
    https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history

    But Muir, who felt fraternity with four-legged “animal people” and even plants, was at best ambivalent about human brotherhood. Describing a thousand-mile walk from the Upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, he reported the laziness of “Sambos.” Later he lamented the “dirty and irregular life” of Indians in the Merced River valley, near Yosemite. In “Our National Parks,” a 1901 essay collection written to promote parks tourism, he assured readers that, “As to Indians, most of them are dead or civilized into useless innocence.” This might have been incisive irony, but in the same paragraph Muir was more concerned with human perfidy toward bears (“Poor fellows, they have been poisoned, trapped, and shot at until they have lost confidence in brother man”) than with how Native Americans had been killed and driven from their homes.

    #écologie #extrême_droite #wilderness #race #thoreau #muir #roosevelt #grant

  • Twelve Empty Supertankers Reveal Truths About Today’s Oil Market - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/twelve-empty-supertankers-reveal-truths-about-today-s-oil-market

    They are slowly plowing their way across thousands of miles of ocean toward America’s Gulf of Mexico coastline. As they do, twelve empty supertankers are also revealing a few truths about today’s global oil market.

    In normal times, the vessels would be filled with heavy, high sulfur Middle East oil for delivery to refineries in places like Houston or New Orleans. Not now though. They are sailing cargo-less, a practice that vessel owners normally try to avoid because ships earn money by making deliveries.

    The 12 vessels are making voyages of as much as 21,000 miles direct from Asia, all the way around South Africa, holding nothing but seawater for stability because Middle East producers are restricting supplies. Still, America’s booming volumes of light crude must still be exported, and there aren’t enough supertankers in the Atlantic Ocean for the job. So they’re coming empty.

    What’s driving this is a U.S. oil market that’s looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam. “At the same time, OPEC cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive.

    The U.S. both exports and imports large amounts of crude because the variety it pumps — especially newer supplies from shale formations — is very different from the type that’s found in the Middle East. OPEC members are likely cutting heavier grades while American exports are predominantly lighter, Patterson said.

    • Trois jours plus tard, Bloomberg remet une couche…

      des supertankers traversent l’Atlantique chargés d’eau de mer (sur ballast, quoi…)

      Rise of Shale Oil and OPEC Cuts Leave Supertankers Empty - Bloomberg
      https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-24/rise-of-shale-oil-and-opec-cuts-leave-supertankers-empty

      Supertankers hauling seawater across the Atlantic? That’s just one of the odder results of the U.S. shale boom.

      Crude oil has always flowed backwards and forwards across the world’s oceans. A typical voyage by one of the global fleet of around 750 of the giant ships currently in service might see it haul Middle Eastern exports across the Atlantic to a refinery on the U.S. Gulf coast, then pick up a cargo from Venezuela for delivery to China or India, before returning to the Persian Gulf.

      Vessels only earn money when they’re full, so being able to haul cargoes in both directions across the seas makes a great deal of sense for ship owners. But soaring U.S. production, OPEC output cuts and sanctions on Iran and Venezuela are turning the global crude oil trade on its head.
      […]
      Add to this a pickup in the flow of oil out of the Caribbean – Venezuela is shipping more of its crude east now that U.S. sanctions prevent it from targeting its traditional buyers on the Gulf coast.

  • U.S. Coast Guard to Tackle MC20 Oil Spill Containment Fourteen Years After the Leak Likely Began – gCaptain
    https://gcaptain.com/u-s-coast-guard-to-tackle-mc20-oil-spill-containment-fourteen-years-after-

    The U.S. Coast Guard has partially assumed federal control over the operation to contain an oil dishcarge from the site of MC20 platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that has likely been leaking since the platform toppled back in 2004.

    The platform, owned by Taylor Energy, LLC, was located in Mississippi Canyon Block 20, approximately 11 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It toppled in September 2004 during Hurricane Ivan after storm surge triggered an underwater mudslide. The incident left the platform well conductor pipes buried in more than 100 feet of mud and sediment, impacting 25 of 28 connected wells. The spill went unnoticed for years until 2008 when it was identified as the source of daily sheen reports.

    Now more fourteen years after the hurricane, crude oil continues to discharge from the site and surface on the Gulf waters.

    IN 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimated that oil continues to leak at a rate of approximately 1 to 55 barrels of oil per day. Satellite imagery and overflights have shown oil slicks on the surface varying in size, sometimes ranging up to 30 miles in length.

    Even still, the specific source, or sources of the discharge at the MC20 site are not fully known.

    Federal officials have directed Taylor Energy, as the Responsible Party, to remove the platform deck, remove sub-sea debris, decommission the oil pipeline, attempt to contain the leaking oil, and plug nine of the 25 impacted wells that were deemed highest risk.

    Following several scientific studies conducted over several years by federal and industrial experts, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) issued Taylor Energy an administrative order back in October requiring it to propose a final viable plan to install a containment system. Last month, however, the FOSC ultimately issued Taylor Energy a Notice of Federal Assumption, and assumed authority for containing the oil.
    […]
    As the Responsible Party, Taylor Energy, which is now defunct, is required to pay for oil spill recovery and response costs under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). It also has a continuing legal obligation to respond to the ongoing oil discharge and also must comply with the Coast Guard Administrative Orders.

  • 14-Year Oil Spill Shows No Signs of Slowing

    A massive oil spill off the coast of #Louisiana has been growing steadily for 14 years, as the company is suing the government to end its responsibility to the cleanup of the site.

    Since Hurricane Ivan bowled over an oil rig belonging to #Taylor_Energy in 2004, the site has been spewing between 300 to 700 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

    It could continue leaking oil into the ocean through this century, and the spill is on track to become one of the worst in U.S. history.


    https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/14-year-oil-spill-shows-no-signs-slowing
    #pollution #pétrole #Golfe_du_Mexique #marée_noire #USA #Etats-Unis

  • En Floride, une «marée rouge» décime la faune marine - Libération
    http://www.liberation.fr/direct/element/en-floride-une-maree-rouge-decime-la-faune-marine_86078

    Les autorités ont décrété l’état d’urgence en Floride, où une « marée rouge » dévastatrice noircit l’eau de mer et tue dauphins, tortues marines et poissons à un rythme effréné. Rien que ce mois-ci, plus de cent tonnes d’animaux marins ont été ramassées sur des plages désertes et empestées par une odeur nauséabonde autour de la ville de Sarasota, sur la côte ouest de la Floride, normalement très prisée des touristes.

    La #marée_rouge, « #red_tide » en anglais, est un phénomène naturel provoqué par le Karenia brevis, un organisme unicellulaire microscopique surtout présent dans le Golfe du Mexique. Il relâche une neurotoxine puissante pouvant se propager dans l’air, causant migraines, toux et crises d’asthme chez l’homme. Le #Karenia_brevis se retrouve tout au long de l’année en faible quantité. Mais si ces organismes se multiplient, le péril est grand pour les animaux.

    Florida red tides occur almost every year in the Gulf of Mexico and can harm marine animals and humans.
    http://myfwc.com/research/redtide/general/about

    Karenia brevis est un organisme unicellulaire photosynthétique dont le diamètre varie entre 20 et 40 µm, pour une épaisseur de 10-15 µm, de forme plus ou moins carrée3. Contrairement à d’autres espèces de dinoflagellés, il ne possède pas de thèque ni de péridinine3. Deux flagelles sont insérés sur la cellule, lui permettant de nager activement3. Karenia brevis peut se multiplier de manière asexuée ou se reproduire de manière sexuée. Dans le premier cas, il y a division binaire de la cellule. La reproduction sexuée s’effectue grâce à la production de gamètes mâle et femelle de même taille (isogamie). L’intervalle de températures optimales pour sa croissance est 22-28°C, et elle est adaptée à des intensités lumineuses faibles4. Ce dinoflagellé peut utiliser des composés azotés organiques et inorganiques comme source d’azote4.

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karenia_brevis

  • How the Rio Grande creates geographical—and legal—loopholes - Archpaper.com


    https://archpaper.com/2018/08/rio-grande-shifts-redraws-boundaries-citizenships

    The 1896 Heavyweight Championship in boxing was staged in an improbable location: on a sandbar in the middle of the Rio Grande River. Robert James Fitzsimmons knocked out Peter Maher in a fight that lasted 95 seconds and took advantage of the ambiguous administrative and enforcement conditions of the river boundary. Boxing, you see, was illegal in both Texas and Mexico at the time. After a series of territorial shifts and classic Texas wrangling, the fight promoters decided to stage the fight some 16 hours journey south of El Paso in a remote section of the river away from easy enforcement by Mexican police. In a fight attended by 182 people enclosed inside a canvas tarp fence, Fitzsimmons led with his left, and a minute-and-a-half later, “Maher measured his length on the floor.”

    And it is indeed this figurative floor, this once and future bed of the river where the fight was held, that was both the legal loophole that allowed this spectacle to take place as well as the ongoing challenge to bright-line models of international territoriality. In the contemporary media environment where border walls and military buildup occupy our imagination of the boundary, it is easy to forget that well over half of the length of this border is defined by the fluvial boundary of the Rio Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande). Article V of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reads, “The Boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande…from thence, up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel…to the point where it strikes the Southern Boundary of New Mexico.” Yet, as this and the dozens of subsequent treaties, commissions, and surveys attest, this very definition of the boundary is subject to the fundamentally dynamic and unsettled nature of the Rio Grande River.

    #frontières #mexique #états-unis #architecture

  • Shell Starts Production at Kaikias at $30 Break-Even Price – gCaptain
    http://gcaptain.com/shell-starts-production-at-kaikias-at-30-break-even-price

    https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Shell-confirms-Kaikias.jpeg
    carte de novembre 2015
    source : https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/shell-confirms-gulf-of-mexico-discovery

    Royal Dutch Shell has kicked off production at its deepwater Kaikias development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at a break-even price of less than $30 per barrel.

    Shell Offshore, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, announced Thursday the early start of production at the first phase of Kaikias, which has an estimated peak production of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), around one-year ahead of schedule.

    Shell says it has reduced costs by around 30% at this deep-water project since taking the investment decision in early 2017, lowering the forward-looking, break-even price to less than $30 per barrel of oil.
    […]
    Kaikias is located in the prolific Mars-Ursa basin around 130 miles (210 kilometres) from the Louisiana coast and is owned by Shell (80% working interest), as operator, and MOEX North America LLC (20% working interest), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd.

    The Kaikias development, located in around 4,500 feet (1,372 metres) of water, sends production from its four wells to the Shell-operated (45%) Ursa hub, which is co-owned by BP (23%), Exxon Mobil (16%), and ConocoPhillips (16%). From the Ursa hub, volumes ultimately flow into the Mars oil pipeline.

    In the first quarter of 2018, Shell deep water produced around 731,000 boe/d, globally.

  • Shell Makes Large Deepwater Discovery in U.S. Gulf of Mexico – gCaptain
    http://gcaptain.com/shell-makes-large-deepwater-discovery-in-u-s-gulf-of-mexico


    Shell’s Dover discovery was drilled by the Deepwater Poseidon, a new build rig, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
    Photo: Royal Dutch Shell

    Royal Dutch Shell has announced a large deepwater discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico approximately 170 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

    Shell Offshore Inc. said Thursday the exploration discovery was made in the Norphlet geologic play at the 100 percent Shell-controlled Dover well.

    The well was drilled in Mississippi Canyon Block 612, located approximately 170 miles (273 kilometers) offshore southeast of New Orleans, in a water depth of 7,500 feet (2,280 meters) to a total vertical drilling depth of 29,000 feet (8,839 meters) measured depth. The discovery was more than 800 net feet of pay (244 meters), Shell said.

    The Dover discovery is Shell’s sixth in the Norphlet.

    Shell says the discovery is located approximately 13 miles from the Appomattox host platform, making it an attractive potential tieback.

  • Meet Alberto…

    Year’s First Storm Alberto Heads Into Gulf, Triggering Watches - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-25/alberto-becomes-first-named-storm-on-path-to-drench-u-s-south

    The Atlantic hurricane season hasn’t even formally begun, and Subtropical Storm Alberto is already churning up the Gulf of Mexico, triggering storm watches from Florida to Louisiana and prompting companies to pull staff from offshore platforms.

    @cdb_77 @albertocampiphoto (!)

  • New study shows seafloor #erosion now occurring like coastal land loss
    https://phys.org/news/2018-04-seafloor-erosion-coastal-loss.html

    @sinehebdo

    Scientists have discovered that the seafloor from the Mississippi River Delta to the Gulf of Mexico is eroding like the land loss that is occurring on the Louisiana coast. During the 20th century, thousands of dams were built on Mississippi River tributaries stopping the flow of fine silt, clay and other sediment from reaching the delta and seafloor to offset erosion. Without this sediment, land —in the form of wetlands and the seafloor— is lost, which threatens offshore and inland infrastructure in the face of waves, hurricanes and surge, or flooding, from storms. Land loss also affects marine plants and animals as well as how #pollution is absorbed and broken down. In this new comprehensive study, scientists have mapped the retreat of the seafloor from the Mississippi River Delta into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. This research was published recently in the journal Marine Geology.

    [...]

    “Given the similarities between the Mississippi River Delta and river systems worldwide, we expect other major delta systems are entering decline. This has implications for delta ecosystems and biological, geological and chemical processes worldwide,”

    #sols #barrages #écosystèmes #fond_marin

  • Historic Tropical Cyclone Tracks : Image of the Day

    https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7079

    Merci arthur @freakonometrics d’avoir signalé cet opus

    Like streamers of splattered paint, the tracks of nearly 150 years of tropical cyclones weave across the globe in this map. The map is based on all storm tracks available from the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center through September 2006. The accumulation of tracks reveals several details of hurricane climatology, such as where the most severe storms form and the large-scale atmospheric patterns that influence the track of hurricanes.

    Over time, the repeated passage of strong storms through the same regions creates solid swashes of color: bright red in the Western Pacific near the Philippines, where numerous Category 5 storms have traveled; orange and gold in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, where Category 3 and 4 storms often pass. The blues and light yellows reveal storms in a weaker state: near the equator, in their first stages of development; over land, as they run out of steam; in the mid-latitudes, where they encounter cooler waters.

    #climat #désastre #cyclons #ouragans #zone_inter_tropicale

  • Deepwater discoveries signal life in offshore sector - Houston Chronicle
    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Deepwater-discoveries-signal-life-in-offshore-12541700.php

    Some of the world’s biggest oil companies announced this week that they’ve made major deepwater discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea, signaling that the moribund offshore energy sector is coming back to life as rising oil prices and lower development costs hold the promise of new profits.

    Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and the French company Total revealed their discoveries within a 24-hour period Tuesday and Wednesday, shifting attention from the Permian Basin in West Texas, which has become the center of the industry’s rebound from the last oil bust. This new activity offshore could provide a much needed boost to the explorers, drillers and equipment makers that employ tens of thousands of people in the Houston area.
    […]
    Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major, said Wednesday that it struck a potentially major oil payload while drilling to 23,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles south of Houston. Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, owns a 40 percent stake in the well, dubbed the “Whale.”

    The discovery is near an area where Shell already has developed wells, about 10 miles from its massive Perdido platform, which is moored at 8,000 feet underwater.

  • Mexico Awards 19 Deep-Water Blocks in Oil Auction
    https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/TDJNDN_2018013115052/mexico-awards-19-deepwater-blocks-in-oil-auction.html

    Mexico awarded exploration rights to 19 oil blocks in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday, drawing a range of international oil investors in the second major deep-water auction since the country opened its energy industry to foreign investment in 2013.

    Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the world’s second-largest non-state oil company, was the most aggressive bidder, winning nine of the 19 blocks awarded, four of them alone, four in consortium with Qatar Petroleum International Ltd. and one alongside Mexican state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos.

    PC Carigali, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Petronas, was involved in six winning bids, the Qatari state oil company in five, and Pemex in four winning bids.

  • #Total Reinforces Its Position In Deepwater #Gulf_Of_Mexico By Entering The Anchor Discovery | total.com
    https://www.total.com/en/media/news/press-releases/Total-Reinforces-Its-Position-In-Deepwater-Gulf-Of-Mexico-By-Entering-The-Anc


    découvertes depuis 2013
    (depuis https://www.woodmac.com/news/editorial/deepwater-gulf-of-mexico-leaner-compete )

    Total has signed an agreement with Samson in order to acquire Samson Offshore Anchor, LLC, which holds a 12.5% interest in four blocks covering the Anchor discovery, one of the most significant recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), USA. The deal also includes a 12.5% interest in the nearby exploration block Green Canyon 761, where Total already has a 25% interest.
     
    The entry in the Anchor discovery further increases Total’s footprint in deepwater Gulf of Mexico. It follows our entry in seven exploration prospects located in the promising Wilcox (Central GoM) and Norphlet (Eastern GoM) plays thanks to an agreement signed with Chevron last September, and in the Jack field where the Group will acquire a 25% interest as part of the Maersk Oil deal”, stated Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production at Total. 
     
    Discovered in the Wilcox play in 2014, Anchor is located approximately 225 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in more than 1,500 meters of water. Additional prospective resources have been identified in the Anchor vicinity, strengthening the potential of the asset.
     
    Anchor is operated by Chevron (55%) alongside Cobalt (20%), and Venari (12.5%).
     
    Total Exploration & Production in the United States
     
    Total has been active in Exploration & Production in the United States since 1957.
     
    In the Gulf of Mexico, Total focuses on the deepwater domain with participations in two producing fields, Tahiti with 17%, operated by Chevron, and Chinook with 33.33%, operated by Petrobras, as well as in the discovery of North Platte with 40%, operated by Cobalt International Energy. As part of the acquisition of Maersk Oil company, Total will become a 25% partner in the Chevron operated Jack field. Total also holds participations in over 160 exploration leases.
     
    Onshore, Total operates about 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (shale gas production) in the Barnett play and is a 25% participant in a JV operated by Chesapeake in the Utica shale play.


    (carte globale un peu ancienne, découvertes avant 2005, avec Deepwater Horizon)
    issue de https://thes.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/gulf-of-mexico-oil-rigs

    pour mémoire…


    The location of oil rigs/platforms in the Gulf of Mexico (with Rita’s and Katrina’s listed)
    issue de https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6836825

  • Fire engulfs casino shuttle boat off Florida coast, 15 injured
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-boat-fire/fire-engulfs-casino-shuttle-boat-off-florida-coast-15-injured-idUSKBN1F400N


    A shuttle headed to a casino boat in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire on Sunday off the coast of Pasco County, forcing the passengers to swim ashore in freezing waters. One of the passengers, a 42-year-old woman, died Sunday night of her injuries, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
    [Photo Courtesy Christine Hashim]

    At least 15 people were injured when a fire engulfed a boat off the coast of Florida on Sunday, causing the 50 people aboard to jump into the Gulf of Mexico and swim to shore, local officials said.

    A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out at about 4:17 p.m. EST from an apparent engine issue, said Shawn Whited, division chief with Pasco Fire Rescue.

    The captain of the boat said there was an issue with the engine. He said he noticed smoke coming form the engine room and turned the boat around,” Whited said.

    The 60-foot shuttle boat was on its way to the Sun Cruz Casino boat, a little more than three miles away in international waters. It had only made it about 100 yards from where it originated in Port Richey, about 30 miles north of downtown Tampa.

    Casino hors des eaux territoriales,…

  • About-Face Tweet on Florida Drilling May Backfire on U.S. Agency - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-10/about-face-tweet-on-florida-drilling-may-backfire-on-u-s-agency

    Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke just handed offshore drilling foes ammunition for lawsuits by declaring the Florida coast off limits.

    Zinke declared he would dial back a proposal to auction drilling rights in as much as 90 percent of U.S. coastal waters less than a week after the plan was unveiled. The decision, announced Tuesday in a tweet, appeared to circumvent a detailed process laid out in federal law and came without any detailed explanation to justify the changes.

    It’s politically unwise and legally unwise,” said Michael Livermore, an administrative law professor at the University of Virginia. "They have a draft out there, and there is a formal process for making changes to the draft. And they’re circumventing that."

    Zinke’s declaration followed a meeting with one of the plan’s top Republican opponents, Florida Governor Rick Scott.
    […]
    At least 11 governors have asked the Interior Department to leave their states out of any new leasing plan. Some of them responded to Zinke’s pronouncement by demanding meetings with the Interior secretary to argue against new offshore drilling near their shores.

    New York doesn’t want drilling off our coast either,” the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said on Twitter. “Where do we sign up for a waiver?

    Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said Zinke did “not justify discriminatory agency action in favor of Florida over other states” and offered “no evidence other governors can’t be trusted.

    Il y a 23 états côtiers aux É.-U. (dont 4 (hors Floride) sur le Golfe du Mexique pour lequel l’appel d’offres pour les permis d’exploration à déjà été publié.

    • Waters Near Florida Still Being Considered for Oil Drilling - Bloomberg
      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-19/waters-near-florida-still-being-considered-for-oil-drilling

      Despite Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Jan. 9 declaration that Florida is “off the table” for offshore oil drilling, that activity is actually still on the table.

      The acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made clear Friday that Zinke’s decision, announced on Twitter and described to reporters in the Tallahassee airport, doesn’t stop a formal process of considering whether to sell drilling rights in waters near the Florida coast.

      It is not a formal action,” Walter Cruickshank told a House subcommittee. That means waters around Florida, including the south Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico, remain under consideration. “They are still part of the analysis until the secretary gives us an official decision otherwise.

      Une chose est sure, la bataille de lobbies bat son plein.

      Et cette déclaration ressemble bien à une tentative de désamorçage des recours auxquels la déclaration de R. Zinke a ouvert un boulevard.

  • The Spark - The Latest Editorial : Climate Change Bombs the World
    https://the-spark.net

    The country has been hit by extreme weather yet again.

    For two weeks, extreme cold swept over the eastern United States, from Minnesota with temperatures of 30 below zero, all the way down to Florida, where “frozen iguanas” were falling out of trees. This long cold snap culminated in a “bomb cyclone,” a winter storm that moved up the east coast, hitting Georgia with freezing rain and South Carolina with half a foot of snow before dumping several feet of snow on New England.

    Some people (including, of course, Donald Trump) may say that “global warming” can’t be real if such cold weather reaches the American South. In fact, these extreme weather events, even the ones bringing unusually cold weather, can indeed be attributed to human-caused climate change.

    Climatologists explain that while no single weather event can be attributed to climate change, the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events can be. And we’ve seen a very rapid increase in that frequency. Over the course of the last 30 years, the average number of “billion-dollar weather events” in the U.S. had been 5.5 per year. For the past five years, the average jumped up to 10.5. Last year? Fifteen! These events took place all over the country, from drought in the northern Plains states, to raging wildfires in California, to several extremely powerful hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

    There are not only more extreme events, but the events themselves are more extreme. Higher average temperatures mean greater moisture in the air, which translates into heavier rain. Higher temperatures also mean higher sea levels and higher storm surges and more flooding. These changes in temperature and moisture also have an effect on the Jet Stream, making these air currents less stable and more “wobbly” – meaning that cold air can more easily spill down from the Arctic, while warmer air moves north and takes its place. And sure enough, while the Southeast has had record cold temperatures, Alaska has been experiencing record warm weather.

    These changes in the Jet Stream also mean that weather patterns can “stall” in one place for longer – contributing to record rainfall and flooding when Hurricane Harvey stalled over Houston, for example, and unbroken drought and more extreme fires in the West.

    While the earth’s climate has changed in the past, getting both warmer and colder than it is now, those changes used to happen over much longer periods of time – thousands or even tens of thousands of years. But today’s changes, brought on by increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, have been squeezed into just over 100 years. That’s far more quickly than human societies are used to reacting – especially a society based on the production of profit above all else.

    Changes that rapid demand rapid response and reorganization from a society – both to reverse the problem and to deal with the consequences of those changes. And there ARE things that can be done, right now, to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and start repairing the damage. But this capitalist system, and the people who run it, are not about to jeopardize the profit of their top corporations by completely rearranging how energy is produced, how transportation flows, where people live, how food is produced. It is not even going to rebuild homes and cities to be able to withstand these more extreme events that carry more risk to the general population. If profit will not be made, these corporations, and the governments that represent them, are completely uninterested.

    And ordinary working people, with no other options and nowhere else to go, will be the ones to suffer disproportionally. Just ask the working class people of Houston, of Puerto Rico, of the fire-swept areas of California – and the frozen cities of South Carolina.

    Capitalism is completely unequipped to deal with the climate change that it has brought about. If humanity is to survive – if life as we know it is to continue on this earth – it is up to the working class to sweep capitalism aside.

  • U.S. to Roll Back Safety Rules Created After Deepwater Horizon Spill - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/trump-offshore-drilling.html

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is poised to roll back offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in American history.

    A proposal by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which was established after the spill and regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, calls for reversing the Obama-era regulations as part of President Trump’s efforts to ease restrictions on fossil fuel companies and generate more domestic energy production.

    Doing so, the agency asserted, will reduce “unnecessary burdens” on the energy industry and save the industry $228 million over 10 years.

    Il faudra boire la coupe jusqu’à la lie.

    Environmental groups warned that reversing the safety measures would make the United States vulnerable to another such disaster.

    “Rolling back drilling safety standards while expanding offshore leasing is a recipe for disaster,” Miyoko Sakashita, director of the oceans program at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “By tossing aside the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Trump is putting our coasts and wildlife at risk of more deadly oil spills. Reversing offshore safety rules isn’t just deregulation, it’s willful ignorance.”

    #Forage #Pétrole #Régulation #Environnement

  • U.S. to Roll Back Safety Rules Created After #Deepwater_Horizon Spill - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/trump-offshore-drilling.html

    The Trump administration is poised to roll back offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in American history.

    A proposal by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which was established after the spill and regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, calls for reversing the Obama-era regulations as part of President Trump’s efforts to ease restrictions on fossil fuel companies and generate more domestic energy production.

    Doing so, the agency asserted, will reduce “unnecessary burdens” on the energy industry and save the industry $228 million over 10 years.

    This proposed rule would fortify the Administration’s objective of facilitating energy dominance” by encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production, even as it strengthens safety and environmental protection, the proposal says.

    In April Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to “reconsider” several oil rig safety regulations. Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, at the time did not specify which specific equipment regulations would be reviewed, saying only the review would apply “from bow to stern.

    C’est vrai quoi #l'environnement_ça_commence_à_bien_faire

  • The Most Overlooked Environmental Crisis of 2017 | New Republic
    https://newrepublic.com/article/146195/overlooked-environmental-crisis-2017

    Une synthèse sur le rôle néfaste de l’#élevage et de l’#alimentation_animale par le #maïs sur le #climat, la #potabilité, l’#environnement_aquatique, l’#extinction, la #santé...

    The meat industry’s main problem is its reliance on corn to feed animals. In 2016, corn crops caused most of the 1.15 million metric tons of nutrient #pollution —excess nitrogen and phosphorus, mostly from fertilizer runoff—that was released into the Gulf. Thirty-six percent of those corn crops are used to feed chicken, cows, and pigs, most of which are eventually eaten by humans. As meat production increases, corn demand rises, producing more nutrient pollution and a bigger dead zone. The dead zone is bad for obvious reasons—as a concerned citizen once told Scavia, “8,000 square miles of no oxygen has got to be a bad thing”—but it also has consequences for humans, as it could decimate the Gulf shrimp industry.

    This map provided by NOAA shows how water pollution from farmland flows downstream into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a “dead zone” that cannot support marine life. The red dots indicate cities; lime green areas indicate farmland; and the yellow area is the dead zone.

    #agriculture #bétail #engrais_chimiques #zone_morte #carbone #politique

  • The midwives helping women on the US-Mexico border | Mexico | Al Jazeera
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/09/midwives-helping-women-mexico-border-170906090026379.html

    Tijuana, Mexico - Ximena Rojas drives through the streets of Tijuana, Mexico at the wheel of an old station wagon that can become a mobile ambulance if necessary.

    She often gets lost, but she always arrives where she needs to be.

    Rojas has just turned 35 years old. She wears her long hair tied in a braid and she speaks with a soft tone.

    She is native of Veracruz, a port city located along the Gulf of Mexico, but she studied nursing and obstetrics at the National University of Mexico City (UNAM) and began assisting home births in 2010.

    In 2013, she moved to Baja California, a Mexican state on the US border, to study sex education and she decided to stay.

    “The border attracts me,” she tells Al Jazeera. “It is a complex area, but also very vital,” she says.

    Rojas is a “partera”, a midwife, and her role is to accompany mothers during their pregnancy and to stand by their side when they give birth.

    Midwifery was only officially recognised as a profession in Mexico in 2011, but Rojas says midwives are still not typically allowed to accompany their patients in the delivery room. In public hospitals, women are often not allowed to have anyone, not even a family member, present with them while they give birth.

    But Rojas, who is determined to help those most in need, has assisted in more than 350 births.

    She primarily helps Mexican women who decide to give birth in their homes to avoid public hospitals in Tijuana, and the obstetric violence, she says, pregnant women often face.

    But she also has found that Haitian women who wait along the border with the hopes of getting to the US are in much need of care.

  • The Coastal Sustainability Studio – A Collection of Works: 2009-2015

    The challenge of sustaining the ecological, settlement, and economic framework of the coast is one of the Gulf South’s most pressing issues.

    At CSS, scientists, engineers, and designers come together to intensively study and respond to issues of settlement, coastal restoration, flood protection, and the economy. CSS was conceived as a laboratory to develop new strategies that reduce risk to social, economic, and natural resources. The results of this design experimentation provide a sound basis for major policy decisions for adaptation through more sustainable land-use planning, protection, and education.

    The CSS approach centers on supporting resilient human communities in the dynamic Gulf of Mexico environment. These communities face tremendous challenges, many of which are not being solved because the various disciplines alone cannot cope with the complexity and enormity of the problems. CSS was created as a trans-disciplinary institute for this reason. We work to envision and design sustainable systems that reduce vulnerability to increased storm strength, coastal hazards, habitat degradation, and global environmental change.

    #Louisiana is a working coast home to two million residents who face tremendous risks including climate change, sea level rise, land subsidence, habitat degradation, marsh collapse, threat of inundation, wetlands loss, and change in rainfall patterns, to name just a few. Through our innovative, trans-disciplinary approach, CSS aims to serve as a national and worldwide model for addressing coastal sustainability.


    http://css.lsu.edu/concept-principles
    #côtes #littoral #risques #cartographie #visualisation #Golfe_du_Mexique #USA #Etats-Unis

    http://css.lsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CSS-Collection-of-Works-2009-2015-UPDATED.pdf

  • Trump Administration Proposes Largest Oil and Gas Lease Sale in U.S. History – gCaptain
    https://gcaptain.com/trump-administration-proposes-largest-oil-and-gas-lease-sale-in-u-s-histor

    The U.S. Department of Interior has proposed the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States, which will offer up over 79.9 million acres in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, to oil and gas exploration and development.

    The proposed region-wide lease sale covers an area about equivalent to the size of New Mexico and includes all available unleased areas on the Gulf’s Outer Continental Shelf. The sale is scheduled for March 2018.

    Proposed Notice of Sale 250 Package
    https://www.boem.gov/Proposed-Notice-of-Sale-250-Package

    détail des zones (avec diverses contraintes ou exclues de l’appel d’offres) (pdf plutôt lourd 5,3 Mo…)
    https://www.boem.gov/Sale-250-PNOS-Stipulations

  • Republican Tactic Aims to Open Eastern Gulf, Arctic to Oil Rigs - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/republicans-may-use-budget-to-open-arctic-atlantic-to-oil-rigs

    Congressional Republicans have found a way to use the federal budget to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling — and they don’t plan on stopping there. 

    GOP leaders in the House and Senate are exploring ways to also expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans through congressional budget rules that allow them to pass major policy changes on a simple majority vote.

    There are other opportunities for us,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview. “There is a significant way that we can help with the budget process.

    Money from selling drilling rights and royalties from oil and gas production would be a revenue-raiser that could help offset some of the tax cuts Republicans are proposing. The House has instructed its Natural Resources Committee to find ways to generate $5 billion in revenue over the next decade. And the Senate is set to vote as soon as this week on a budget plan imposing a $1 billion target on Murkowski’s natural resources committee.

  • Hot Water Ahead for Hurricane Irma : Natural Hazards

    https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=90912

    On September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma slammed into the Leeward Islands on its way toward Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the U.S. mainland. As the category 5 storm approaches the Bahamas and Florida in the coming days, it will be passing over waters that are warmer than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit)—hot enough to sustain a category 5 storm. Warm oceans, along with low wind shear, are two key ingredients that fuel and sustain hurricanes.

    The map above shows sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico on September 5, 2017. The data were compiled by Coral Reef Watch, which blends observations from the Suomi NPP, MTSAT, Meteosat, and GOES satellites and computer models. The mid-point of the color scale is 27.8°C, a threshold that scientists generally believe to be warm enough to fuel a hurricane. The yellow-to-red line on the map represents Irma’s track from September 3–6.

    #climat #océans #réchauffement #ouragans #cyclones