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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-ARS
Plum 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/Reuters
The 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/Reuters
A 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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Binoculars

US: Raccoon Blamed for 5-Hour Outage in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee


The Associated Press
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:00 UTC
A raccoon described as acrobatic and mean-spirited knocked out power to a section of downtown Memphis that included two hospitals and the newspaper for more than five hours.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division president Jerry Collins told The Commercial Appeal said the raccoon climbed more than 30 feet, over barriers intended to keep animals out, and short-circuited a switch on a substation.

Overall, about 8,000 customers were without city power late Thursday and early Friday.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning Sparks New Wildfires Across Alaska

Jeff Richardson
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
A barrage of lightning strikes across Interior Alaska sparked a handful of new fires on Friday, including a fast-growing blaze near Stevens Village.

The Pat Creek Fire, about 12 miles north of the Yukon River village, has exploded in size since it was detected late Friday afternoon. Fire information officer Sarah Saarloos said the blaze has "definitely grown a lot" since it was mapped at 325 acres on Saturday morning, although the size estimate hadn't been updated.

Gusty winds and dry fuels in the area contributed to the rapid growth, despite a heavy response by firefighters.

Less than 24 hours after it was reported, Saarloos said about 160 personnel were working on the fire, including 32 smokejumpers and five 20-person crews. An incident command center has been established in Stevens Village.
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Cloud Lightning

India: Lightning Strikes School in Gondal, Six Kids Injured


Times of India
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:45 UTC
Six students sustained injuries after lightning struck them while they were playing at a school in Gondal on Friday night.

Sources said that lightning struck Swaminarayan Gurukul School in Gondal which received 12 mm of rainfall in two hours.

"The lightning struck down six students between the age group of 10 to 15 years who were playing in the school ground at 8 pm. The students identified as Pushparajsinh Gohel, Sidhdharthsinh Jadeja, Hitendrasinh Chawda, Pratik Bhikhubhai, Hardik Vavadiya and Bhagirath Mangalubhai received burn injuries and were rushed to a hospital, where their condition is said to be stable," said an official from Rajkot district administration.
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Bizarro Earth

Russian Shiveluch Volcano in Far East Spews Ash Over 3 Miles


RIA Novosti
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:21 UTC
Image
© Y. Demyanchuk
Russian Shiveluch volcano in Far East spews ash over 3 miles
The northernmost active volcano in Russia's Far East Kamchatka Peninsula is currently spewing plumes of ash at a height of more than 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Geophysical Service said on Sunday.

The 3,283-meter (10,771-foot) Shiveluch volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula increased its volcanic activity in May 2009 and periodically spews ash from three to eight kilometers (1.9-5 miles). Scientists have registered more than 180 local earthquakes near the volcano.

Scientists have said the volcano does not pose any significant danger to villages in the area, the nearest one, Klyuchi, only 40 kilometers (around 25 miles), except for the possibility of some ash fall.
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Bad Guys

The Coming Gulf Coast Firestorm: How the BP Oil Catastrophe Could Destroy a Major U.S. City

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:00 UTC
Image
© NaturalNews
It's hurricane season in the Atlantic, and that means Mother Nature could be whipping up fierce storms and sending them charging into the Gulf Coast any day now. In a normal hurricane season, that's bad enough all by itself... remember Katrina? But now there's something even more worrisome in the recipe: There's oil in the water.

So what happens when a Katrina-class hurricane comes along and picks up a few million gallons of oil, then drops that volatile liquid on a major U.S. city like Galveston or New Orleans?

Now, before we pursue this line of thinking any further, let's dismiss the skeptics out there who think oil can't drop from the sky because oil doesn't evaporate. Actually, if you look at the history of hurricanes and storms, you'll find thousands of accounts of lots of things that don't evaporate nonetheless falling out of the sky. The phrase "raining cats and dogs" isn't entirely metaphor, you know: There are documented accounts of all sorts of things raining down from the sky: Fish, frogs, large balls of ice, and so on.
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Hourglass

Arctic Birds are Contaminated with Pesticides and Heavy Metals

Kim Evans
Natural News
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:29 UTC
Image
On an isolated island high in the Arctic, biologists recently tested the toxicity of birds by testing their droppings. The conclusion? The birds' poop was loaded with environmental poisons. In these remote birds, they found high concentrations of pesticides and heavy metals including lead, mercury, aluminum and cadmium. The source of these poisons was determined to be the birds' diet of fish and shellfish and the source of the pollution of the fish and shellfish was human pollution. After these toxins were released via their excrement, they were recycled onto the earth producing toxic and contaminated areas.

The testing was done in a remote, isolated area far from industrial and agricultural pollution. In fact, there is little industry and few people anywhere close by. However, over 45 years ago atomic weapon testing was done in the area.

The media is reporting that the people who are eating the eggs of the birds are perfectly safe, but the birds' eggs weren't even tested. And if the birds' droppings contain elevated levels of these contaminants, so do the birds - and the birds' eggs. Eating mercury, lead, cadmium and aluminum is never safe and since these are in birds from isolated areas of the Arctic, it's curious to wonder what contaminants are in birds from more populated industrialized areas. Since the birds obtained these toxic poisons from the fish and shellfish they ate, it's also safe to assume that fish from less isolated areas - closer to industries and toxic agricultural runoff - are equally as polluted and likely far more so. Yet, many people are eating those fish regularly - and their poisons too.
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