For more information on the condition or status of a beach, please visit: Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Texas To report oiled shoreline: Please contact the hotline at 866-448-581 To report oiled wildlife: To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call 866-557-1401. Please do not attempt to rescue or clean wildlife yourself.
As national and state governments, as well as BP, along the Gulf Coast assess the potential impacts of oil on the coastline, government agencies remain on high alert to protect our coastline, natural resources and abundant wildlife and fish. Most states are installing protective barriers, called booms, along the shorelines and workers and volunteers are constantly monitor the wildlife, water and air quality. Additionally, the National Guard is assisting with some of the state’s responses. Federal US Response Federal Coordinated Response Site EPA British Petroleum Official Oil Spill Site Response Details Response Maps Response Images Louisiana Emergency.louisiana.gov is the state’s online [...]
By Ben LiebermanAmerica’s most serious offshore oil spill in 20 years is currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, and massive cleanup efforts are underway to cap the leak and contain the oil. This comes at a time when Washington had been considering expanding domestic oil production, including the Gulf and other offshore areas.For the most part, President Obama’s initial response has been sensible, calling for a freeze on any plans to allow new leasing while not interfering with ongoing energy production contracts or calling for permanent policy changes before the facts are in. No doubt, this spill can and should [...]
Transocean’s semi-submersible drilling vessel Deepwater Horizon was finishing work on a wellbore that had found oil 18,000 feet beneath the seafloor, in mile-deep water fifty miles off the Louisiana coast. Supervisors in the control cabin overlooking the drilling operations area were directing routine procedures to cement, plug and seal the borehole, replace heavy drilling fluids with seawater and extract the drill stem and bit through the riser (outer containment pipe) that connected the vessel to the blowout preventer (BOP) on the seafloor.Suddenly, a thump and hiss were followed by a towering eruption of seawater, drilling mud, cement, oil and natural gas. [...]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A large group of UN delegates and journalists attended the Copenhagen Climate Challenge Conference at a famous historical building in downtown Copenhagen. CFACT Executive Director Craig Rucker chaired the conference, which brought together accomplished scientists and policy experts to present scientific evidence that suggests the debate over the human influence on the climate is not settled. From the beginning, the two day conference exceeded expectations and the mood was very upbeat. The crowd was so large it flowed out the door and into the hallway. Attendees heard world renowned climate scientist and Science & Environmental Policy Project President [...]
Many people are concerned that man-made global warming is causing sea levels to rise and threatening coastal communities. But are these concerns justified? Well not according to Dr. Patrick Michaels, author of the new book Climate of Extremes, who has this to say: “We have two ways of measuring sea levels. We can do it with tide gauges along coastal regions or we can do it with satellites. Both of these records tend to show in general that sea level rise has been fairly constant – obviously the satellite record is much shorter. Interestingly, as the planetary warming [...]
For years, many have been establishing new homes in Florida. But one new resident recently caused quite a stir and has government officials seeking his deportment. That newcomer is not a person, strangely enough, but a new class of wild python snakes that are now infesting the Everglades National Park. According to CNS News, these Burmese pythons, which were originally native only to Southeast Asia, have been let loose in the wild by pet owners and are now adapting quite easily. But since they can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 250 pounds, these animals are [...]
As debate continues to heat up surrounding America’s need for more domestic energy, the state of Utah is once again thrust onto center stage. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, wilderness areas around the Grand-Escalante Staircase National Park contain roughly 65 million barrels of recoverable oil and another 1,500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The problem is, such oil drilling has met with widespread opposition by environmental groups which have supported legislation to close off nearly nine million acres of crucial energy development. With nearly 40% of Utah possibly closed off as wilderness area, only time will tell [...]
Siting a nuclear power plant in the United States has proven to be difficult. But now, according to scientists, there might be another solution – namely, siting one on the moon. Yes, believe it or not, Japanese space officials recently unveiled an important discovery at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Conference that uranium does indeed exist on the moon. Uranium, of course, is a key radioactive element in the creation of nuclear power, which naturally led the scientists to speculate the moon could possibly be mined for uranium to either be shipped back to earth for nuclear fuel or [...]
Could a warming of the ocean lead to the destruction of our world's coral reefs? Well such is the assertion of global warming advocates, but according to the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide, such contentions regarding coral are pitted with many small holes. Among them is a recent study in India, where researchers examined coral reefs experiencing a significant warming trend. While they observed a nearly 50 percent bleaching of the reefs initially, within a couple of years the corals began to quickly recover - and today the successive incarnations of coral reefs are even more resistant [...]