Published: May 9, 2012

GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

That is the long-term outlook. But near-term, things will be bad enough. Over the next several decades, the Western United States and the semi-arid region from North Dakota to Texas will develop semi-permanent drought, with rain, when it does come, occurring in extreme events with heavy flooding. Economic losses would be incalculable. More and more of the Midwest would be a dust bowl. California’s Central Valley could no longer be irrigated. Food prices would rise to unprecedented levels.

If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. This is why we need to reduce emissions dramatically. President Obama has the power not only to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground.

The global warming signal is now louder than the noise of random weather, as I predicted would happen by now in the journal Science in 1981. Extremely hot summers have increased noticeably. We can say with high confidence that the recent heat waves in Texas and Russia, and the one in Europe in 2003, which killed tens of thousands, were not natural events — they were caused by human-induced climate change.

We have known since the 1800s that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. The right amount keeps the climate conducive to human life. But add too much, as we are doing now, and temperatures will inevitably rise too high. This is not the result of natural variability, as some argue. The earth is currently in the part of its long-term orbit cycle where temperatures would normally be cooling. But they are rising — and it’s because we are forcing them higher with fossil fuel emissions.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280 parts per million to 393 p.p.m. over the last 150 years. The tar sands contain enough carbon — 240 gigatons — to add 120 p.p.m. Tar shale, a close cousin of tar sands found mainly in the United States, contains at least an additional 300 gigatons of carbon. If we turn to these dirtiest of fuels, instead of finding ways to phase out our addiction to fossil fuels, there is no hope of keeping carbon concentrations below 500 p.p.m. — a level that would, as earth’s history shows, leave our children a climate system that is out of their control.

We need to start reducing emissions significantly, not create new ways to increase them. We should impose a gradually rising carbon fee, collected from fossil fuel companies, then distribute 100 percent of the collections to all Americans on a per-capita basis every month. The government would not get a penny. This market-based approach would stimulate innovation, jobs and economic growth, avoid enlarging government or having it pick winners or losers. Most Americans, except the heaviest energy users, would get more back than they paid in increased prices. Not only that, the reduction in oil use resulting from the carbon price would be nearly six times as great as the oil supply from the proposed pipeline from Canada, rendering the pipeline superfluous, according to economic models driven by a slowly rising carbon price.

But instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world’s governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year. This encourages a frantic stampede to extract every fossil fuel through mountaintop removal, longwall mining, hydraulic fracturing, tar sands and tar shale extraction, and deep ocean and Arctic drilling.

President Obama speaks of a “planet in peril,” but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course. Our leaders must speak candidly to the public — which yearns for open, honest discussion — explaining that our continued technological leadership and economic well-being demand a reasoned change of our energy course. History has shown that the American public can rise to the challenge, but leadership is essential.

The science of the situation is clear — it’s time for the politics to follow. This is a plan that can unify conservatives and liberals, environmentalists and business. Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can’t wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations.

James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is the author of “Storms of My Grandchildren.”

Special thanks to Sarah Frias-Torres, Coral-list @ noaa.gov

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/04/46224.htm

By CAMERON LANGFORD

HOUSTON (CN) – Exposure to chemical dispersants BP used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill left a commercial diver with seizures, unable to walk and going blind – and two members of his dive team committed suicide, the man claims in Harris County Court. David Hogan and his wife sued BP and NALCO Co. – which made the Corexit oil dispersants – and a host of other defendants, including Halliburton, Transocean, ConocoPhillips, Xplore Oil & Gas and Stuyvesant Dredging Co.

After BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, unleashing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, BP hired contractors to spray and inject more than 1.8 million gallons of Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the complaint.

“Between June 1, 2010 and the end of November, 2010, David Hogan performed commercial diving work from boats and vessels that were owned, leased, chartered, contracted for, and/or under the direction and control of Specialty Offshore,
ConocoPhillips, Xplore Oil, and the Stuyvesant defendants in the navigable water of the Gulf of Mexico. On every one of those dives during that period of time, David Hogan dove into waters that were contaminated with both the crude oil and the Corexit® dispersants,” the complaint states.

Hogan says that on his first dive, in June 2010, “he immediately noticed that something was different from his prior diving experiences,” and that “the oil seemed to have sunk considerably deeper into the depths of the Gulf waters than he had ever seen or experienced before. He immediately terminated his dive and returned to the surface, only to find that his wetsuit looked entirely different than it had ever looked before when he had dived into waters with an oil spill.”

Hogan says neither ConocoPhillips nor Specialty Offshore provided him or his team with any information about NALCO’s Corexit dispersants. “Expressing concern for the safety of himself and his dive team, he contacted the ConocoPhillips onsite supervisor, who gave him a ‘BP Hotline’ to call if people had any concerns with respect to health and safety,” according to the complaint.

“Upon calling that number, a person answered, identifying themselves as being with BP. After expressing his concern with respect to what he had seen and experienced during his brief dive, that BP spokesperson told Mr. Hogan there was nothing for him to be concerned about, but that he would have one of BP’s health and safety people come out to the ConocoPhillips platform to talk to Mr. Hogan and his dive team.

“Within the hour, a helicopter landed on the platform and a man who introduced himself as being a BP representative got out of the helicopter came over to talk to Mr. Hogan.

“BP’s ‘health and safety man’ represented and assured Mr. Hogan and his dive that, notwithstanding the fact that they would be diving and spending a considerable amount of time in the Deepwater Horizon’s oil spill, there was absolutely nothing harmful or hazardous to their safety or health in the oil, in the water, or whatever was causing the oil to sink so deep beneath the surface.

“In fact, when this case is tried, the evidence will show that this BP ‘health and safety man’ made Mr. Hogan feel as though it was foolish for Mr. Hogan to have called at all, and it seemed as if the BP ‘health and safety man’ had wasted his time flying all the way out to where Mr. Hogan and his dive team were located, for such a trivial matter.

“Mr. Hogan and the BP ‘health and safety man’ specifically talked about whether Mr. Hogan and his dive team would need to change to ‘haz-mat’ dive gear if there was a concern for safety and health in what was in the water and oil spill; however, the BP ‘health and safety man’ reassured Mr. Hogan that ‘haz-mat’ diving gear was not necessary since there was absolutely nothing in the oil or anything mixed with the oil that was hazardous or of any concern, from a health standpoint to Mr. Hogan and his dive crew.

“Based on that information,” Hogan says, he and his crew worked 18- to 20-hour days for the next 1? to 2 weeks, in water that was “consistently contaminated with oil for a considerable distance below the surface.” Hogan says the water also was contaminated with Corexit.

He and his team worked in the oil- and Corexit-contaminated water for 5 months for a variety of defendants, Hogan says, including ConocoPhillips, Xplore Oil & Gas and Stuyvesant Dredging.

“Again, at the end of each diving day, Mr. Hogan and his dive team’s wetsuits would look like something they had never seen before prior to starting these diving operations back in June 2010,” the complaint states.

Hogan says at least one team member started having health problems before they finished their work for Stuyvesant Dredging.

“Two of the dive team members have since committed suicide,” the complaint states.
Hogan says due to the assurances they got from BP’s “health and safety man,” they did not initially blame their health problems on the contaminated waters.

“However, as Mr. Hogan’s health problems progressed and did not abate, he ultimately contacted a physician in Louisiana who had been treating hundreds of patients who had come into contact with the oil and Corexit® dispersants,” according to the complaint.

“By August, 2011, medical testing and medical evaluation by one or more physicians familiar with exposure to the oil spill and, particularly, exposure to the Corexit® dispersants, led physicians to inform Mr. Hogan that his progressing medical problems were caused by the contact with the oil spill during his diving operations between June and November, 2010.

“Through additional testing and medical evaluation, by November 16, 2011, Mr. Hogan had been diagnosed as suffering from neurotoxicity ‘related to chronic and cumulative exposure to chemical and heavy metals associated with the Gulf oil spill and dispersant.’

“At this time, Mr. Hogan is suffering from a myriad of health issues related to his exposure to the oil spill and NALCO Corexit® dispersants, including but not limited to the fact that he cannot walk, his vision has progressed to being legally blind in his left eye and his most recent eye examination shows that he continues to lose sight in his right eye, and for all intents and purposes, is a paraplegic.”

Hogan says that before his exposure to the chemicals he “was a very gregarious, healthy man” who climbed 14,400-foot Mount Rainier in May 2010.

“Since November 2010, he has lost 60 pounds and is wheelchair-bound. If that were not enough, David has also suffered cognitive problems, seizures, vertigo,” the complaint states. (Graph 63)

Hogan says he is rapidly losing vision in his right eye.

Named as defendants are British Petroleum Exploration & Production Inc.; BP America Inc.; BP America Production Company; BP Products North America Inc.; BP plc; Halliburton Energy Services Inc.; Transocean Ltd.; Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc.; Transocean Deepwater Inc.; Transocean Holdings LLC; NALCO Company; Specialty Offshore Inc.; ConocoPhillps; Xplore Oil & Gas LLC; Stuyvesant Dredging Company; and Stuyvesant Dredging Inc.

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig; Halliburton performed cement work on the Macondo well beneath the rig before the blowout.

Hogan seeks punitive damages for gross negligence and negligence under general maritime law and the Jones Act, from NALCO for products liability under general maritime law, and punitive damages for past and future physical pain and suffering, past and future mental pain, suffering and anguish, past and future medical bills and lost wages.

He and his wife are represented by Craig Lewis, of Houston.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Friday April 27, 2012

Atlantic City, NJ – On Friday, April 27th, in Atlantic City, the United States Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM), held the last in a series of East Coast hearings on a proposal to blast seismic shockwaves from Florida to the Delaware Bay searching for offshore oil to drill. The hearing was held at 1pm in room 301 of the Atlantic City Convention Center. Citizen groups held a press conference before the hearing to set the record straight. The only purpose for seismic exploration is to support drilling for oil.

These “seismic surveys” involve towing “airgun” arrays behind survey ships, regularly and repeatedly blasting sound waves through the ocean and deep into the ocean floor to pinpoint locations of sub-seabed oil and gas deposits. While the industry term “airgun” suggests an innocuous impact, these surveys generate intense marine noise pollution that propagates over vast areas of the ocean potentially causing significant damage to marine life and marine ecosystems. In addition to the exploratory tactic’s danger to marine life, it is the first step toward oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean – which threatens our clean ocean economy and community.

“The Atlantic Ocean is a vibrant ecosystem that supports extraordinarily diverse marine life, which in turn supports a clean ocean economy for people that fish, dive, surf, swim, or just enjoy,” said Cindy Zipf, Clean Ocean Action’s Executive Director. “We’ve worked hard to clean up our ocean. We will not stand by while our government opens the door to Big Oil. We are here to protect and defend our future,” she added.

Federal studies show if oil was found, it would take decades for oil production to come online, and even then would reduce gas prices by only $0.03 per gallon. However, there is no requirement that oil and gas found in the U.S. must stay here, and it could be exported overseas.

“This wasn’t about the price at the pump – this was about Big Oil making profits at the expense of the fishermen, businesses, and citizens of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Sean Dixon, Clean Ocean Action’s Coastal Policy Attorney. “Only two years after the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf, Big Oil seems to think we’ve forgotten just how dangerous oil drilling can be,” continued Dixon.

“Today citizens got the opportunity to voice their concerns over the dangers of these seismic surveys,” said Dr. Heather Saffert, Staff Scientist at Clean Ocean Action. Dr. Saffert continued: “There are data gaps in the government’s seismic plan big enough to drive oil rigs through. Destructive activities like these surveys will impact our fisheries, our tourism, and our resources – yet the push to find oil seems to be charging full-speed ahead – with or without any idea of what will happen next.”

###
About Clean Ocean Action
Clean Ocean Action is a coalition of over 130 boating, business, community, conservation, diving,
environmental, fishing, religious, service, student, surfing, and women’s groups. Based in Sandy Hook,
COA is the only full time regional coalition that works exclusively for a clean ocean off the coasts of New
Jersey and New York.

______________________________________

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Clean Ocean Action
18 Hartshorne Drive, Suite 2
Highlands, NJ 07732

P: (732) 872-0111
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http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/04/27/house-democrats-push-probe-oil-market-speculators

Fox News

Published April 26, 2012 | Your World Cavuto | Neil Cavuto
Special Guests: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

This is a rush transcript from “Your World,” April 26, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch the latest video at FoxNews.com

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF “YOUR WORLD”: All this as House Democrats are demanding a vigorous inquiry into whether speculators are manipulating these markets — 42 Democrats led by Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen firing off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
___________________

In it, they say — and I quote here — “We urge you to use every investigatory law enforcement tool at your disposal to ensure the proper functioning of our oil and gas markets.”

Congressman Van Hollen joining me right now.
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-MD.: Good to be with you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Congressman, do you really think that it is speculators running amok here? Or is this just a convenient excuse to take the attention off the drilling critics of the president and all this other stuff?
VAN HOLLEN: Neil, I think a lot of factors go into the prices of oil and gas. The biggest driver, of course, are the forces of supply and demand. But there’s no doubt that a component of the cost of gas today, and one of the things that helped drive up prices to where they are, has to do with excessive speculation in the marketplace. That’s been found by…
CAVUTO: When you say it’s a component, how big of one?
VAN HOLLEN: Yes.
Well, the figures I’ve seen range from 50 cents to a dollar per gallon of the cost. And we just had a case, recently, as you probably know, where a company settled for having manipulated the price back during the last oil spikes we saw back in 2008.
CAVUTO: But they’ve done — as you know, Congressman, they’ve done an investigation. Believe me; I am not apologizing for the oil companies. Everyone says, oh, Neil, you must own oil stock. I don’t own any oil stock. I don’t care one way or the other. But I will say this, Congressman. The president’s interior secretary, Ken Salazar, confirmed that the administration has gotten a lot more strict denying oil drilling permits since Deepwater Horizon. And he contended that the president is pursuing an effective all of the above energy strategy. But he did go on to say — and I quote here, sir — “We have new sets of regulations that have been put into place. I have been focusing on these reviews. And they are rigorous. We make sure that any company that is going to be operating in the waters of the United States complies with these rules that we set out.” In other words, he’s saying we have been cutting back. So, there’s your supply and demand thing going kablooey.
VAN HOLLEN: Well, a couple of things, Neil.
First of all, as you know, we are dealing with prices on the world market. Right?
CAVUTO: Right.
VAN HOLLEN: So, there are a lot bigger sources of supply in other parts of the world. And we should try and maximize the U.S. supply to the market consistent with environmental protection. After the huge oil spill in the Gulf, I think it’s very reasonable and I think the American people agree it’s reasonable that we should ensure that oil companies that are drilling in deep water comply with environmental regulations, so that we don’t have a big spill.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: You are absolutely right. I don’t think anyone will doubt that — how important that is.
But if we look at it in the aggregate stepping back, three years, these latest three years vs. the prior three years, it is down markedly, 37 percent. Now this speculator might be very germane, but then again it could be something far simpler. Right?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think it’s a combination of events. It is the world demand as well. So, for example, as the Chinese economy continues to chug along at about 8 percent growth, as you continue to have some growth in India and other markets, more and more people are using oil and gas. And you’ve got more people driving and that, obviously, creates a pull on demand.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But do you think you and your colleagues though are to blame? Not you specifically, congressman. But by not coming up with a budget better than three years, both sides playing this game, Republicans and Democrats, on never getting this financial house in order, that it’s walloped our dollar, oil is priced in dollars, and it costs more dollars to buy oil, that it might be as simple as you, in Washington, not getting your job done.
We look like a joke to the world. It cheapens our dollar. It cheapens our image. And it sends gas and oil prices soaring.
VAN HOLLEN: Neil, now, you’re mixing a couple of things. I totally agree that we should get our fiscal house in order. That’s why I support the approach that bipartisan groups have recommended. We’ve got to get our budget deficit down through a combination of cuts, but also through revenue, including a lot of big tax loopholes. But I do not think that the current budget situation in Washington is what’s setting the world oil prices. I think that is a big, big reach.
CAVUTO: Not at all, not at all. Oil is priced in dollars. If we had a normal, stable currency, oil would be 30 percent less than what it is now. Now, I’m not saying that’s the sole reason, as I told you at the outset, but I am saying that we overlook something that is right beneath our nose, that priced in dollars, as it is, and the dollar gets cheaper, and it costs more dollars to get — I readily agree with you that’s not the sole reason, but it is contributing to this. And it is setting in stages here an inflationary spiral that goes way beyond whatever speculators are doing.
VAN HOLLEN: Well, no, I disagree with you there. I think if you look at the number of folks who are speculating in the oil markets, it goes way beyond the people who are simply hedging for their own business reasons. So it goes way beyond, say, the airline industry.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: I don’t want to belabor this point, Congressman.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/26/1086617/-Gulf-Coast-Waters-Closed-to-Shrimping

THU APR 26, 2012 AT 10:34 AM PDT

“We’re continuing to pull up oil in our nets. People who live here know better than to swim in or eat what comes out of our waters.”

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources acted this week to close waters along the Gulf Coast to shrimping due to [EDIT: amidst] widespread reports from scientists and fishermen of deformed seafood and drastic fall-offs in populations two years after the BP oil spill.

[‘Official’ reason is now reported to be smaller than average shrimp.]

All waters in the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay, and some areas of Bon Secour, Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon were closed to shrimpers. Reports of grossly deformed seafood all along the Gulf from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle have been logged with increasing urgency, but Alabama is the first state to actually close waters to the seafood industry.

And it’s not just the shrimp. Commercial fishermen are reporting red snapper and grouper riddled with deep lesions and covered with strange black streaks. Highly underdeveloped blue crabs are being pulled up in traps without eyes and clawsŠ

Commercial fishers Tracy Kuhns and Mike Roberts from Barataria, LA reported to Al Jazeera when showing samples of eyeless shrimpŠ
“At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these. Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.”

And there’s no question that the leftover mess from BP’s disaster can affect human health. The dispersants BP used to ‘hide’ the extent of their blow-out contain solvents that are notoriously toxic to people and include known mutagens. Pathways of human exposure include inhalation, skin and eye contact as well as ingestion, and exposure causes headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, chest pain, respiratory system damage, skin sensitization, hypertension, CNS depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage. They also cause fetal deformities and cancer.

The FDA and EPA refused public comment, sending Al Jazeera to NOAA for comment. Which NOAA refused to do because its investigation for a lawsuit against BP concerning the spill is ongoing. BP, however, wasn’t so shy as not to deliver a statement on the presence of deformed and polluted seafoodŠ

“Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident.”

So there you have it. State officials in Alabama have taken action, and other states need to take action to keep dangerous seafood from the Gulf off the dinner tables of Americans. While the feds are busy helping British Petroleum cover up the damage they’ve done, even if it means poisoning innocent American citizens, deforming babies, causing cancers, etc.

Once again our government chooses to lie and do great harm to American citizens in order to protect a foreign gigacorp from the consequences of their criminal business practices. Who is surprised?

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO JOIEAU ON THU APR 26, 2012 AT 10:34 AM PDT.
ALSO REPUBLISHED BY GULF WATCHERS GROUP.

http://www.stuarthsmith.com/
Looming Crisis: Officials Close Gulf Waters to Shrimping As Reports of Deformed Seafood Intensify
Alarmed by widespread reports of visibly sick, deformed seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, state officials have closed area waters to shrimping this morning (April 23). The waters will be closed indefinitely as scientists run tests in an effort to get a handle on a situation that is fast becoming a full-blown crisis on the Gulf Coast.

The closures – including all waters in the Mississippi Sound, Mobile Bay, areas of Bon Secour, Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon – mark the first official step in responding to increasingly urgent reports from fishermen and scientists of grotesquely disfigured seafood from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.

The move is yet another major setback for the once-legendary Gulf seafood industry as it continues to struggle under the devastating impact of the BP oil spill, which began in April 2010.

Two years later, reports of severely deformed shrimp with bulging tumors – and no eyes – have become common.

And it’s not just the shrimp. Commercial fishermen are reporting red snapper and grouper riddled with deep lesions and covered with strange black streaks. Highly underdeveloped blue crabs are being pulled up in traps without eyes and claws (see link at bottom to my previous post on seafood deformities).

For those who thought 205 million gallons of oil and 2 million gallons of toxic dispersant weren’t going to have an impact on Gulf seafood, you need to check back in with reality.

As for the impetus for the shrimping closures, consider this from an April 18 Al Jazeera report by Dahr Jamail, who has doggedly covered the BP spill since the early days of the disaster:
Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.

“At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these,” Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: “Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.”

Disturbing indeed. I am deeply saddened but not surprised by the shrimping closures. I applaud the courageous move by state officials to put consumer safety first. There’s no doubt in my mind – as I’ve said for months on end – that seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico is unfit for human consumption.

We will bring you updates on water testing and any word on when these areas of the Gulf will be re-opened to shrimping.

Read my April 20 post on seafood deformities here: http://www.stuarthsmith.com/a-taste-of-the-grotesque-in-the-gulf-eyeless-shrimp-clawless-crabs-and-lesion-covered-fish
Special thanks to Richard Charter