Filed under: Our Earth
The National Audubon Society (among others) is organizing a wildlife rescue effort and letter-writing drive in response to the Gulf Oil Disaster. Here is what I sent to Secretary of the Interior Salazar:
I’m writing to comment on the Department of Interior’s remand of the 2007 – 2012 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, announced on March 31.
Let’s use this tragic accident to refocus our efforts on reduced use of petroleum products which an increase in the production and use of “green” energy sources (wind, hydro, solar) will result in with the added benefit of reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases.
Given the recent oil rig disaster in the Gulf Coast, I am alarmed that dangerous offshore drilling may be allowed in some of America’s most sensitive coastal ecosystems. As a Gulf Coast resident I am disappointed in the decision to expand oil and gas development in new areas, such as the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, and increase oil and gas exploration in the Arctic Ocean and the mid- and south- Atlantic. A long-term energy strategy should focus on clean, job-producing, renewable technologies, not expanded drilling in our oceans or elsewhere. I am particularly concerned about plans to allow risky offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Despite the acknowledged gap in scientific information, limited understanding of the effects of drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, the potential difficulty of removing oil spilled in icy waters, and the limited infrastructure available in the Arctic to respond to such spills, the plan still allows exploratory drilling as early as this summer on Chukchi Lease Sale 193.
I urge you to reject exploratory drilling in these sensitive waters. I thank the Department of Interior for this opportunity to comment on the revised 2007-2012 oil and gas leasing plan.
Filed under: Our Earth
It’s way too cold for Florida! Climatologists says it’s not just my imagination that the weather is getting more severe. Colder cold snaps, hotter heatwaves, drier drought, wetter hurricanes (and windier too.) Can we do anything about it or have we passed the tipping point? Who would know better than those who study climate and the forces acting upon it — climatologists.
James Hansen is one who thinks we’ve reached it. 6 • 2008–2009 State of the Wild. Agreeing with him are scientists at NOAA who report their belief that CO2 increases have already put into motion irreversible changes.
Professor Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia (that’s in the UK, by the way) thinks it could be about ten years out.
As with any scientific field there is continued discussion and some disagreement. But the consensus of the independent scientific community is that global climate change is occurring and human activity is a factor.
On a more postive note, some would argue that the coming changes in the climate will spur developments in new technologies that will rival those of the industrial and digital revolutions, bring a similar growth in wealth and global well-being. I, myself, like that view, though I’m not convinced that the change will not be too much too fast for us to adapt. We may not be able to develop the capability to do without water and food while evacuating our flooded coastal cities, if the worst of the projections pan out. Is this why I own 28 isolated acres in the woods? Could be, or could just be my love of the outdoors.
If you’re interested in more scientific material this website is a good starting point. I leave it to you to find the unscientific “facts.”
