Earth ChangesS


Fish

"Unprecedented" fish kill in Jacksonville, Florida not related to annual cycle: Brain lesions point to toxicity

Jim Sutton
Jacksonville.com
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:47 UTC
dead fish
© Jon M. Fletcher/The Times-UnionA dead red fish floats belly up in the St. Johns River north of the Buckman Bridge Monday, June 7, 2010. A multitude of dead red fish have been reported for the past two weeks with the cause being unknow at present.
Fish kill in St. Johns isn't related to annual cycle

If you think the month-long fish kill on the St. Johns River is an annual event that just came early this year - think again.

That's the message that two men with close ties to the river want you to know.

The persistent plague of dead fish on the St. Johns that began around Memorial Day isn't caused by a cycle of summer oxygen depletion, insists Jimmy Orth, the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

"This kill is unprecedented," he said. He explained that fish kills due to low oxygen levels are typically confined to smaller areas, not as widespread as the problem has become.
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Extinguisher

Bill Clinton: 'We may have to blow up the well'

John Byrne
Raw Story
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:47 UTC
clinton
© na
Little noticed comments from former President Bill Clinton over the weekend which he made in South Africa are perhaps -- well -- a bit explosive.

"Unless we send the Navy down deep to blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris, which may become necessary - you don't have to use a nuclear weapon by the way, I've seen all that stuff, just blow it up - unless we're going to do that, we are dependent on the technical expertise of these people from BP," Clinton said.

Clinton was speaking about British Petroleum's efforts to staunch a massive leak that erupted after one of the oil rigs it was leasing blew up Apr. 20. His remarks about the explosion solution come at about 2:30 into the recording, posted below.
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Attention

Kangaroos Being Poisoned by Fluoride in Australia

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Margaret BurinFluoride from a nearby alumininum smelter is making Portland kangaroos ill.
Hundreds of kangaroos have been euthanized due to acute fluoride poisoning in the Australian state of Victoria, the country's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has announced.

The poisonings appear to be occurring due to emissions of fluoride from the Alcoa aluminum smelter at Portland and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn, the state's first and second biggest emitters of fluoride dust, respectively. According to Bruce Dawson of the EPA, the toxic chemical is being absorbed by nearby plants that kangaroos and other animals forage on. The animals may also be breathing in the chemical directly.

The levels of fluoride being emitted by Alcoa and Austral are fully legal under Australian law. The smelter emits 120 tons of the dust per year, while the factory emits 66 tons.
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Bad Guys

The Real BP Gulf Tragedy: What If There Had Been No Spill?

Mike Kaulbars
News Junkie Post
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:35 UTC
Image
© Igor Golubenkov
What if there had been no spill? What if the oil had simply been loaded on to tankers and gone into processing by the petrochemical industry as intended? That's the situation we're trying to create when we talk about preventing such accidents, right? We don't want the oil spilling into the ocean and killing the ecosystems there. So if there were no spill, what would have happened instead?

Some of the oil would undoubtedly wind up as the petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides which are creating the dead zones in the Gulf when they are washed off of agricultural land. Also contributing to this killing of the oceans is all of the oil based cleaners, solvents and other products that we send down our drains.

Naturally a good proportion would go into the plastics that are so ubiquitous in our lives. Many of those wind up dumped into the oceans where they kill wildlife and form the huge garbage patches at the centre of the circulation gyres (the North Pacific patch is larger than Texas).

Some would help power the industrialized fishing that is destroying the worlds oceans. There is some evidence that the collapse of all fisheries could come in as little as three or four decades . Most of the oil would be burned for power, thereby producing more of the CO2 that is acidifying (i.e., killing) the oceans.
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Red Flag

Gulf oil spill: Could 'toxic storm' make beach towns uninhabitable?

Patrik Jonsson
Christian Science Monitor
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:50 UTC
Residents fear mass relocations should a hurricane kick the Gulf oil spill onto resort towns. 'Hazmat cards' are a hot commodity among residents, since they could be the key to return.

Image
© Dave Martin/Associated PressMark Woodward of Daphne, Ala., looks for tar balls as he walks along the beach at dawn in Destin, Fla., Saturday, June 26. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has started coming ashore in Destin and other beaches on the Florida and Alabama coasts.
Orange Beach, Alabama - Ron Greve expects the worst is yet to come in the oil spill drama that is haranguing beach towns all along the US Gulf Coast. So, like a growing number of residents, the Pensacola Beach solar-cell salesman took a hazardous materials class and received a "hazmat card" upon graduation.

Those cards, says Mr. Greve, could become critical in coming weeks and months. In the case of a hurricane hitting the 250-mile wide slick and pushing it over sand dunes and into beach towns, residents fear they'll face not only mass evacuations, but potential permanent relocation.
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Hourglass

Oil washes onto big Mississippi tourist beach

Matthew Bigg
Reuters
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:23 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Oil from a BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico washed ashore at one of the largest tourist beaches in Mississippi on Monday, forcing tourists to pack their bags and evacuate the shore.

Sludgy brown oil, light sheen and tar balls arrived at a series of points in small towns in the Gulf state on Sunday, the first time oil has hit Mississippi's mainland. On Monday, it reached Biloxi, a major resort city famous for its casinos.

One day after state and local officials complained vehemently about the slow pace of cleanup efforts, just three people from a private contracting company hired by BP were working on Biloxi's shore, putting tar balls into containers.

Some children on holiday in Biloxi stepped into tar balls before their parents whisked them away from the beach.

"We are leaving today. My child stepped in oil yesterday as we were playing on the beach. Obviously we are cutting our vacation short. This is a complete shame and very sad," said Susan Reed, who came with her family from Texas on vacation to Biloxi.
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Cloud Lightning

Thick oil soils Mississippi shore as storm looms

Leigh Coleman and Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:03 UTC
oily bird
© AP

Ocean Springs, Mississippi/Toronto- Gluey gobs of thick oil from BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico spill washed ashore in Mississippi for the first time on Sunday as Russia called for a special levy on oil companies to finance a fund to help clean up environmental disasters like this one.

BP and the U.S. Coast Guard kept a close watch on tropical depression Alex as it moved into the southwestern gulf.

Forecasters expect Alex to make landfall again as a hurricane early on Thursday between Brownsville, Texas, and Tuxpan de Rodriguez Cano in Mexico, sparing BP's oil collection efforts at its ruptured deep-sea well.
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Document

US: Documents Show Vast Cleanup of Plum Island Land

Frank Eltman
The Associated Press
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/USDA-ARSPlum Island, off the northern shore of New York's Long Island
Government documents obtained by The Associated Press show extensive efforts since 2000 to remove vast amounts of waste and contaminants from Plum Island, site of top-secret Army germ warfare research and decades of studies of dangerous animal diseases.

Yet some environmentalists remain concerned about the secrecy surrounding the 840-acre, pork chop-shaped island off northeastern Long Island - and they're dubious of any claims that pollution has been remedied.

"We are highly concerned that when the government acts alone they may not be doing the best job," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Every government cleanup needs the public's involvement and independent oversight to ensure its validity."

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to sell the island 100 miles east of Manhattan and build a new high-security laboratory in Kansas to study animal diseases.
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Arrow Up

Oil Spill Efforts Ramp Up as Storm Eyed Anxiously

Ernest Scheyder
Reuters
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 06:12 UTC
Image
© Daniel Beltra/ReutersThe Q4000 multi-purpose oil field intervention vessel (L) and the drillship the Discoverer Explorer (C) burn off material from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead near the disaster site June 24, 2010.
The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is posing an uncertain threat to the Gulf of Mexico, even as efforts to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history are set to ramp up.

For now, Tropical Storm Alex, which is hitting the western Caribbean with rain and high winds, is not expected to pass close to BP Plc.'s blown-out well off the Louisiana coast.

But even a miss that only generates large waves could greatly complicate clean-up efforts from Louisiana to Florida

Current official estimates suggest between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day are leaking from the rogue well. BP collected over 24,000 barrels on Friday and about 11,640 barrels in the first half of Saturday, the company estimated.

New equipment being moved to the site of the leak in the coming week could raise the daily collection rate to 53,000 barrels a day, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is coordinating the U.S. oil spill response, said on Saturday.
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Bizarro Earth

Death Toll in Flood-Stricken South China Nears 400


Reuters
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:49 UTC
Image
© China Daily/ReutersA local resident navigates his boat in a flooded area in Luozhen Town of Fuzhou, Jiangxi province
Workers struggled to repair a broken dyke in south China where persistent heavy rains and devastating floods have so far left at least 379 people dead, state media and government agencies said.

Bulldozers dumped rocks and soil to repair a breach in the dykes hemming in the Fu River, in Jiangxi province, which forced over 100,000 people from their homes earlier this week.

More water may be on its way, as a flood crest passed through Xiang River in Hunan Province, making its way to the swollen Yangtze River.

"In some villages and counties along the Xiang River, farmlands and homes are flooded," Jiang Yongpeng, an official at the Hunan Environmental Protection Bureau, told Reuters.
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