Saturday, April 24, 2010

4/25/10

Search Ends for Missing Oil Workers
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: April 22, 2010

Summary: The Coast Guard called off its search Friday for 11 oil rig workers who had been missing since an explosion on the rig Tuesday night in the Gulf of Mexico. They thought that the workers may have been very close to the explosion.

Response: This is sad for the families, and unfortunate that such a tragic event occured because our need for fossil fuels.

4/25/10

State Decision Blocks Drilling for Gas in Catskills
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: April 23, 2010

summary: New York State environmental officials announced on Friday that they would impose far stricter regulations on a controversial type of natural gas drilling in the upstate area that supplies most of New York City’s drinking water, making it highly unlikely that any drilling would be done there.

response: This is good because damaging ground water could be really bad and there are so many people in NYC that it could cause huge problems.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

4-18-10

Florida: A Bad Winter for Slithering

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 16, 2010

Summary:An unseasonably cold winter may have taken care of what python hunters could not. Not one python has been caught since the state started allowing hunters to track them on state-managed lands around the Everglades. The season started March 8 and ends Saturday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says cold weather may have killed up to 50 percent of the state’s pythons.

Response: The overpopuation of snakes could be dangerous so the fact that the numbers are dwindiling is a good thing.

4-18-10

U.S. Leads New Bid to Phase Out Whale Hunting

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: April 14, 2010

Summary:The United States is leading an effort by a handful of antiwhaling nations to broker an agreement that would limit and ultimately end whale hunting by Japan, Norway and Iceland, according to people involved with the negotiations.

Response: Protecting whales is important and stopping hunting of themselves is a good thing.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

4/1/10

E.P.A. Delays Plants’ Pollution Permits
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: March 29, 2010


Summary:The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it would not require power plants or other industrial sites to obtain federal pollution permits for emitting greenhouse gases before next January.

Response : I wish they would have passed this because it is dangrous and needs to be monitored.

4-1-10

Among Weathercasters, Doubt on Warming
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: March 29, 2010


Summary:The debate over global warming has created predictable adversaries, pitting environmentalists against industry and coal-state Democrats against coastal liberal.
But it has also created tensions between two groups that might be expected to agree on the issue: climate scientists and meteorologists, especially those who serve as television weather forecasters.

Response: Global warming has caused huge problems all over. Nobody can seem to agree and I just wish there was someway to know the truth.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

3/28/10

Radioactive Leak Is Fixed at Vermont Plant
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: March 25, 2010


Summary;Technicians have found and fixed two holes in an underground pipe that were allowing radioactive tritium to flow into the groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The leak did not contaminate any drinking water, but it did cause a political uproar in Vermont; the State Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure last month that will force the plant to shut in 2012.

Response: Good thing this was caught before anyone was hurt or it caused serious damage.

3-28-10


Audit Finds Vulnerability of EnergyStar Program
BY MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: March 25, 2010

Summary: In a nine-month study, four fictitious companies invented by the accountability office also sought EnergyStar status for some conventional devices like dehumidifiers and heat pump models that existed only on paper. The fake companies submitted data indicating that the models consumed 20 percent less energy than even the most efficient ones on the market. Yet those applications were mostly approved without a challenge or even questions, the report said.

Response: This is complely ridiculous. So many consumers have been fooled into making what they thought were smart choices for the planet when they were no different.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

3-21-10

Safety Issues Linger as Nuclear Reactors Shrink in Size


Summary:When the Soviet Union introduced its Alfa class submarine — at the time, the world’s fastest — the subs were the bane of American sailors. Now, the reactors that powered those submarines are being marketed as the next innovation in green power.Environmentalists say the technology is outdated and potentially dangerous, and marketing it as green energy is an abuse of nuclear power’s good green name.

Response: This is bad because people think it will be better for them but in actuality it could be much worse for them and the planet.

3-21-10

U.N. Rejects Export Ban on Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Summary: Delegates at a United Nations conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears. Bluefin tuna unloaded in Japan in September. A trade ban on the species has been rejected.
Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of bluefin, a fish prized especially by Japanese sushi lovers for its fatty belly flesh, have been severely depleted by years of heavy commercial fishing

Response: This is not a very good thing because what if this fish goes extinct.

Friday, March 12, 2010

3-12-10

Sushi Spot Is Charged With Serving Whale Meat
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: March 10, 2010

Summary:Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint accusing a Japanese restaurant in Santa Monica and its chef of serving whale meat, a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Fish and wildlife service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the federal Custioms and border protection agency, which all concluded that the restaurant was serving endangered Sei whale as sushi. The meat was discovered in visits to the restaurant by undercover agents and environmental advocates who pocketed the meat for testing.

Response: Why people would need to go against the law and hunt whales so they could serve them is beyond me. We have laws to protect them for a reason and I dont get why people would want to eat endangered whales.

3-12-10

Los Angeles Electric Rate Linked to Solar Power
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: March 10, 2010

Summary:Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a yearIt would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here but that has never been the case, and cost is the main reason.Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is going to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on electricity use. The proceeds would be earmarked for renewable energy purchases and programs, including one that would repay people or businesses that use solar panels to contribute to the power grid.

Response: This is good and bad because if you think of it economically it would suck if your electric bill went up, especially now when money is so tight, but overall it will have a positive effect and maybe cause people to stop wasting energy.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

2-28-10

As Clock Ticks, Nuclear Plant Searches for Leak

2-28-10

Underwater Plate Cuts 400-Mile Gash

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Feb 7,2010 #2

In Texas, Resistance Over Stricter U.S. Smog Limits
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: February 3, 2010

Summary:Environmentalists squared off against business groups and Texas state officials on Thursday at a hearing on the Obama administration’s proposal to tighten standards for smog-producing pollutants, a change that could improve the health of millions but would impose burdensome costs on industry and local governments. The hearing, before a panel of federal environmental officials, was one of three being held around the country on the proposed new standards, which would replace those set by the Bush administration in March 2008.


Response: This is funny because we just learned about this and it is also good because air pollution is a serious thing our government should really crack down.

Feb. 7, 2010 #1

In a California Town, Birth Defects, Deaths and Questions
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: February 6, 2010

Summary:State and federal officials are scrambling to determine what caused the deaths of three children in this Central California farming town, which shares a ZIP code with the largest hazardous waste treatment site west of the Mississippi. Over a 15-month period in 2007 and 2008, six children of mothers from Kettleman City were born with serious birth defects, including cleft palates, deformities and brain damage. Half of those infants subsequently died.

Response: I think this seems like a very serious problem. This seems very dangerous and something is seriously wrong. They need to figure this out and fix it before it hurts any more babies or people get hurt.