eKos: Acidifying Oceans Endanger Web of Life

by FishOutofWater

Oceans acidifying at the highest rate since the last great mass extinction 65 million years ago, threaten marine life, coral reefs and nutrition for over a billion people according to a report (PDF)just released by the UN. Fossil fuel burning, cement production, deforestation and land use changes have increased atmospheric CO2 from 280 to 390 PPMs. Increasing atmospheric CO2 has dissolved in the oceans, increasing the acidity (decreasing the pH) by 30%. Increasing acidity is destabilizing shells and corals, threatening the web of life in the ocean.

Recent studies of a Mediterranean vent in shallow waters revealed key ecosystem changes in high CO2 areas compared to normal CO2 areas. Certain algae and seagrasses were found to grow more efficiently closer to the vents where there was also a large reduction in biodiversity, notably a loss of calcifying organisms adjacent to the vents where the pH was lowest.

continued at Daily Kos....

could affect tourism ... but finding the truth is more important

by jamess

Gulf Coast Communities Investigate Oily Sea Mist
by Debbie Elliott, NPR -- September 3, 2010

Orange Beach city hall has been inundated with calls from residents with complaints — foam that they think is dispersant, a gray-metallic slick in back bays or seaweed that looks oiled. There's a heightened sense of environmental awareness, and local officials are looking for a way to determine what's going on.

Mayor Tony Kennon says that's why the town hired independent scientists to test the air, water and soil.
[...]

Orange Beach is using grant money from BP for the testing, and posting the data on the town's website. Mayor Kennon says negative results could affect tourism in the short term, but finding the truth is more important.

Kudos to Mayor Kennon for taking a stand, for what's right!

The Major is a man of his word.

Monitoring, he is.

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Updated: NEW Study indicates Microbes ARE rapidly consuming the Gulf Oil

by jamess

I, for one, hope that this is true, and will be further substantiated:

Study: Petroleum-eating microbes significantly reduced gulf oil plume
David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer -- Tue, August 24, 2010

Petroleum-eating bacteria - which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor - proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing that reduced the amount of oil amounts in the undersea "plume" by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

The findings, by a team of scientists led by Terry C. Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California [...]

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Science Says: Those 3-D Underwater Oil Plumes Belong to BP

by jamess

Now for a little exercise in News Spin Cycles, vs the Scientific Process ...

When the Facts, finally come in, IS Anyone even still Paying Attention?

"What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is," said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. "It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe."
[...]

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

[link to follow]

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Gulf Citizens show their 'Signs of Trouble'

by jamess

Gallery: Signs of trouble
Oil spill victims find an outlet for anger about the crisis and resentment toward BP.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

A WashingtonPost Photo Gallery ... for many more, Citizen Statements, in art.

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BP withholding Payments, to Prevent Fraud

by jamess

Ed Schultz was stunned by the recent about face of BP --

First they promise to make everyone whole --
Now they are saying hold on, there a minute partner --
Where are your Papers?

Ed Schultz -- BP: Broken Promises -- Fisherman Not Getting Paid

summarized transcript over the fold

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“Greening” Fisheries Could Calm Troubled Waters

by BorderJumpers

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

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What 'Legitimate Claims' look like -- It's time to Raise the 75M Cap

by jamess

BP Hard To Pin Down On Oil Spill Claims NPR, Morning Edition - May 24, 2010 Yuki Noguchi BP has repeatedly said it would pay all legitimate claims resulting from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but such promises raise a crucial question: What exactly does "legitimate claim" mean? [...] BP has declined to define the term or provide examples. BP American President Lamar McKay remained steadfastly vague during a Senate hearing this month. Despite prodding from Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell, McKay would not veer off of his message: We're going to pay all legitimate claims. A BP spokesman declined to discuss the company's definition of "legitimate." In an e-mail, the spokesman said BP hired a firm called ESIS to assess all oil spill claims. As of last week, it had received nearly 16,000 claims. The spokesman said BP has in some cases paid some claims within 48 hours of receiving supporting documentation. What exactly does "legitimate claim" mean?   Good Question. Perhaps this can give us a clue:

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