Around the world on Global Warming Myth

Source: USA Today ()

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SEOUL (AP) — Coast guard boats and helicopters searched Wednesday for 14 sailors feared dead in chilly waters off South Korea after their cargo ship was thought to have sunk in high seas.

The ship, carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid, went missing after it sent out a distress signal early Tuesday off Yeosu, 280 miles south of Seoul. One sailor was rescued but the remaining 14 crewmembers had yet to be located.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t find any survivors,” coast guard spokesman Kang Byung-mun said after overnight search and rescue works. “We believe the ship sank.”

The nitric acid on board was not likely to cause environmental damage because it easily dilutes, coast guard officials said.

The coast guard has found 18 drum cans and several life jackets and boats believed to be from the ship, he said. No wreckage has been found yet, Kang said.

The survivor — a 28-year-old Burmese — told investigators he watched the vessel sink before he and the other crewmembers — 12 South Koreans and two Burmese — were swept away, Kang said.

A total of 34 ships, three helicopters and one aircraft were to continue searching Wednesday, he said.

The coast guard also planned to dispatch boats to measure the acidity of the water to determine whether or how much nitric acid was released, said an officer at the coast guard’s marine pollution bureau.

“Even though the ship has already sunk, the nitric acid will likely be kept in the ship’s storage facilities, which have good safety devices,” the official said on condition of anonymity, citing a bureau policy.

The news as South Korea battles to contain its worst-ever oil spill, which has blackened beaches and jeopardized …

Source: Trading Markets (press release) ()

College students, ministries reach out to help former tent city dwellers

Monday, December 24, 2007; Posted: 12:37 PM

Dec 24, 2007 (Chattanooga Times/Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — ZZIQM | charts | news | PowerRating — Melvin “Bo” Cook is looking forward to a warm, dry Christmas. Mr. Cook is one of 19 formerly homeless people displaced in early October from an encampment of tarpaulins near East 11th Street and the Community Kitchen. “I’m no longer in Tent City. That’s all that matters,” he said. “The good Lord blessed me.” Mr. Cook’s two-room apartment in Gateway Towers is sparse. Three months after he moved in, he finally has a couch, a chair and a mattress — donated to him from a local ministry. A neighbor loaned him a small television. But he has little else. His refrigerator, provided with the apartment by the Chattanooga Housing Authority, displays photos of some University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students. The young people befriended him and other homeless people when bulldozers razed Tent City. He said they celebrated his 54th birthday with him and gave him a coffee pot and toaster. “I still need a bed frame and a chest of drawers. For the first few weeks I just slept on the floor. It’s hard, too. … It don’t give — this old concrete,” said Mr. Cook, who recently landed a part-time job. As Chattanooga works to shape and implement its Blueprint to End Homelessness, the struggle to help people such as Mr. Cook rebuild their lives underscores what some say is a broken social services system. Others say the uneven efforts are indicative of a program’s growing pains. Ron Fender, an Episcopal monk and longtime minister to Chattanooga’s homeless, is worried that the words in the blueprint are just that — words. “We can put people in apartments all day long, but it’s not about just a place to live. It’s truly about community, and I don’t that we can drop that off and leave it at the front door. I think they’re …

Source: Xinhua ()

    SHANGHAI, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan on Sunday during an inspection tour to Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu Province that more efforts should be made to speed up the development of modern energy industry and comprehensive transport system, and improve infrastructure.
    Zeng said that energy structure adjustment should be oriented towards developing the new and renewable sources of energy, such as nuclear power and wind power.
    He said that developing nuclear power should always put safety and quality on the priority and that wind power generating facilities and technologies should be developed on the country’s own terms with focus on increasing market competitive strength.
    During the inspection on the transport infrastructure in Shanghai and Jiangsu, the vice premier said the eastern provinces should improve transport layouts, set up a modern comprehensive transportation system in order to back up the rural and regional economic development.
    Zeng also urged the of the growth mode of economy by relying more on domestic demand, independent innovation, energy saving and pollution reduction.

Source: Trading Markets (press release) ()

Cliffside revisions proposed: N.C. official’s report recommends air permit for Duke’s plans to expand coal plant

Saturday, December 22, 2007; Posted: 08:50 AM

Dec 22, 2007 (The Charlotte Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — DUK | charts | news | PowerRating — A state official, responding to critics of Duke Energy’s plan to expand a coal-fired power plant west of Charlotte, recommends more than a dozen revisions be made before the project gets a final go-ahead. Duke would build an 800-megawatt boiler and retire four old units at the Cliffside plant in Rutherford County. Duke says the expanded plant will feature state-of-the-art pollution controls. Critics charge that it won’t be as clean as possible and will double Cliffside’s emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not regulated, making it outside the state’s jurisdiction. The N.C. Division of Air Quality got 1,865 written comments on the plan, two-thirds of them opposed. Among the critics are two federal agencies. The National Park Service has predicted “severe impacts” to Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the plant’s emissions, and challenged the lack of study of pollutants that cause visibility-robbing haze. The Environmental Protection Agency has questioned issuing a permit before a key enforcement case is resolved. Margaret Love, regional supervisor for the N.C. Division of Air Quality in Winston-Salem, presided over a Sept. 18 hearing on the expansion. In a report last week, she recommended Duke receive an air permit, but with revisions. She also responded to criticisms of a draft permit. They included: –A lack of review of the plant’s emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides, which form ozone and haze, to ensure that they won’t significantly worsen the region’s air. Duke met the terms of a 2006 state law, Love wrote, that the utility credit for pollution reductions at Cliffside under the state Clean Smokestacks Act. Those benefits …

Source: Fort Pierce Tribune (subscription) ()

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Restoration of the Indian River Lagoon moved another step forward, according to the South Florida Water Management District, as the district’s governing board approved a 1,772-acre land acquisition in St. Lucie County.

The site will be used in conjunction with other acquired lands for two storage reservoirs designed to improve the timing and quality of water flowing into the lagoon.

“The district’s investment in this land is an important milestone in the restoration of the Indian River Lagoon,” said Melissa Meeker, who represents the Treasure Coast on the water district board. “The C-23/24 project is critical to capturing and treating water currently going to tide and impacting one of Florida’s most important and beautiful estuaries.”

When complete, the two reservoirs will provide approximately 92,000 acre-feet of water storage to capture water from the C-23 and C-24 canals before it flows into the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. An acre-foot of water is the amount required to cover an acre one foot deep.

An adjacent storm water treatment area will be built to improve water quality, district officials said. Purchase of the 1,772-acre parcel completes the land acquisition necessary for the north or C-23 reservoir and achieves 80 percent of the land needed for the south or C-24 reservoir. All lands needed for construction of the 2,568-acre treatment area are in public ownership.

District officials said they are investing $50.5 million over three years for the newest land parcel. The owner will turn over title to the land at the closing, which is scheduled for next month. The district then will receive payments on the land while it remains in citrus production until construction of the reservoirs and treatment area begins.

The C-23 and C-24 reservoirs and treatment wetland are a part of $1.365 billion plan to restore the Indian River Lagoon, a series of projects included in the …

Source: United Press International ()

Environmentalists say a burglary took place recently at the office of the Ecuadorian court expert tallying the damages in a mammoth lawsuit against Chevron.

Amazon Watch said in a statement Wednesday that a laptop computer and various files relating to the multi-billion-dollar case were taken from the Quito office of Richard Cabrera.

Cabrera had been appointed by the judge in the case to come up with an estimate of the damages from oil pollution in the Amazon allegedly caused by Texaco prior to Texaco’s acquisition by Chevron.

The epic class-action suit seeks more than $6 billion in damages for allegedly widespread dumping and spilling of crude oil in the environmentally sensitive jungle that occurred over 30 years. All of the evidence has been submitted and the court’s ruling is pending.

Amazon Watch said Cabrera had earlier told the judge in the case that he being followed. The San Francisco-based conservation group called on Chevron to guarantee the safety of everyone involved in the lawsuit.

Source: Economic Times ()

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Source: Reuters UK ()

NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Chalmette Refining LLC is seen
taking down the fluid catalytic cracking unit at its 192,000
barrel per day refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, for about 40
days beginning in January, traders said.

The refinery, which is a joint venture between Exxon Mobil
Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Venezuela state oil company PDV, is under a
consent decree from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to
undertake the installation of air pollution control equipment.

A spokeswoman for Exxon Mobil said she was unable to
provide comment or dates that the work would be done.

The refinery has fluid catalytic cracking of
71,000 barrels per day, according to Energy Information
Administration data.
(Reporting by Janet McGurty; editing by Jim Marshall)

Source: Houston Chronicle ()

ANNAPOLIS, Md.
— Billions of dollars have been spent to restore the polluted Chesapeake Bay since the rallying cry “Save The Bay” was plastered on a popular blue-and-white bumper sticker 30 years ago.

But for the scientists and activists working to revive the nation’s largest estuary today, it’s clear the bay has not been saved. Conservationists say the job is more difficult than they imagined, and they’re battling fatigue.

The Chesapeake teemed with oysters and blue crabs when European settlers arrived but is now plagued by algae blooms and fish kills. Oysters are nearly wiped out. Miles-long swaths of the bay are called “dead zones” because summertime oxygen levels are too low to support most life.

When the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania met recently in Annapolis and announced they wouldn’t meet the cleanup goals that had been set for 2010, conservationist Will Baker wrote them a letter expressing his frustration.

“What the bay needs now is your leadership to get the job done,” wrote Baker, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “It does not need more public signings of directives. It does not need more photo ops.”

Conservationists agree that the six states with streams flowing into the Chesapeake have made great strides in improving water quality. Maryland and Virginia have set aside hundreds of millions to upgrade sewage treatment plants. Pennsylvania planted more than 600 miles of forest buffers along waterways last year. Farmers in the region get paid to plant winter cover crops and take other steps to reduce excess fertilizer from entering the water. Maryland even requires lower-phosphorus laundry detergent.

Despite the improvements, the bay foundation has given the bay a “D” grade for the ninth consecutive year.

“For the first 15 years, we truly believed the Chesapeake Bay could be But with the population growth in the area, as fast as we took two strides forward, …

Source: Sydney Morning Herald ()

The river started turning purple 10 years ago, but the people in
the small Greek town of Oinofyta who were losing loved ones to
cancer never thought of blaming the water.

Factories have been dumping waste in the Asopos River for
decades, and nearby tourist beaches were declared unfit for
swimming, but there were no official warnings to the people of the
town, in an industrial zone about 60kilometres north of Athens.

It took until this year for official tests to show drinking
water was contaminated with high levels of a carcinogen, chromium
6. The revelation spread shock and anger in Oinofyta, and beyond,
even to US advocate Erin Brockovich - the single mother whose
crusade against chromium 6 contamination of groundwater in Hinkley,
California, was portrayed by Julia Roberts in the hit film Erin
Brockovich.

Used as an anti-corrosive in the production of stainless steel,
paint, ink, plastics and dyes, chromium 6 is on the European
Union’s list of restricted substances and listed as a carcinogen by
the World Health Organisation. It poses health risks if inhaled or
orally ingested or comes into contact with skin.

Since 1989, the proportion of deaths in the town caused by
cancer has risen to 32per cent from 6per cent previously,
Oinofyta’s priest, Father Yannis says.

“When I heard it was so dangerous that you’re not even supposed
to come into contact with it I was terrified,” says Dina Fouki, a
35-year-old mother of two who has lost her father and in-laws to
cancer in the past five years. She and her neighbours will no
longer brush their teeth with tap-water. “I have lost loved ones
and will lose more. Something must be done,” she says.

It is a sorry demise for the Asopos River, which was the scene
of one of the great battles of ancient history.

In 479BC a Greek army led by the Spartan king Pausanias crushed
the forces of the emperor Xerxes at the Battle of Plataea,
saving the Greeks from the hegemony of the east.

Ironically …