GreenWatch

B. McPherson Climate change is happening. What are we going to do to survive? NOAA has released temperature figures for the contiguous US for 2012. It is the warmest on record and records go back to 1895. The average temperature beat any previous year by one degree Fahrenheit. One degree doesn’t seem like much, but previous high years were only fractions of a degree warmer. People may debate the causes of a warming Earth, but the evidence is mounting that we are headed into a climate crisis. Prudent people would take steps to minimize the amount and speed of the changes if they can.   “The heat we saw in the U.S. is consistent with what we expect in a warming world,” Deke Arndt, chief of the climate monitoring branch at NOAA's center, said on a conference call. “It’s a huge exclamation point on the end of several decades.” Bloomberg News Drought, fires, extinctions, climate refugees – those are a few of the consequences of a changing world . 2012 saw massive drou...

B. McPherson NOAA   has released to the public images showing the dead and dying animals when the Deepwater Horizon, BP’s oil drilling platform devastated the Gulf of Mexico with its months long oil blowout. Until now only a few photos of oiled birds have been shown to the public. Emphasis was placed on the rescue and release of oiled animals and beach clean up so tourists would return. Millions of gallons of dispersants were released into the Gulf waters to try a quick clean up. Volatile fractions of the surface oil slick evaporated into the atmosphere. There has been little information given about the health implications on the sea life or people exposed. BP has agreed to pay US $7.8 billion for its part in the environmental disaster. People who feel they have a claim against the corporation can line up for a settlement handout or go it alone in trying to get redress. People died directly when the drilling platform exploded in flames. People were sickened ...