Arctic melting may help parasites infect new hosts

Grey seals are encountering a killer microbe as they move north

NEW NEIGHBORS As the Arctic emerges from a deep freeze, parasites including Sarcocystis pinnipedi (shown, purple) are able to infect animals that they had never encountered before. M. Grigg

CHICAGO— Along with melting Arctic ice comes an erosion of natural barriers that once separated parasites from hosts.

That erosion has allowed at least two pathogens to infect marine mammals they were previously unknown in, said Michael Grigg, a molecular parasitologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He reported the findings February 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A newly identified parasite was once frozen safely away from grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). It has now infected some with disastrous consequences. In 2012, about 20 percent of healthy-looking grey seal pups born on Hay Island in Hudson Bay mysteriously died. The cause turned out to be a parasite that destroyed the livers of 404 pups and two adults, Grigg said.

ORIGINAL: Science News

by Tina Hesman Saey
February 14, 2014 

Is The Record Cold Arctic Outbreak Tied To Global Warming?

Video

Do the Hot and Cold Spells Have a Meaning?

Can extreme weather events like this weekend's historic outbreak of cold Arctic air across the U.S. be caused by the warming of the Arctic?

Though it seems counterintuitive – global warming bringing about extreme cold – the answer may be yes, according to scientists like Weather Underground's Dr. Jeff Masters and Dr. Jennifer Francis, a research professor at Rutgers University's Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences.

The cause is believed to lie in the jet stream, the fast-flowing river of air high above the Earth that marks the boundary between cold, polar air to the North and warm tropical air to the South.

As the jet stream shifts position back and forth over North America throughout the year, it plays a major role in the weather patterns and temperatures we experience in the U.S. In recent years, the movement of the jet stream has changed significantly, bringing "weather whiplash" with strange, out-of-season weather events more frequently than in the recent past.

Francis has been a leading voice in recent years for research that points to rapid changes in the Arctic – including a dramatic decline over the past 30 years in Arctic sea ice extent, which exposes more of the Arctic Ocean to the sun's rays in the summer – as the likely culprit behind the jet stream's increasingly odd behavior.

Average Monthly Arctic Sea Ice Extent in November, 1978-2013

NSIDC Including 2013, the linear trend in November ice extent is –4.9 percent per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 mean, or a loss of about 20,700 square miles per year. (Courtesy National Snow and Ice Data Center)

The cause is thought to be what scientists call Arctic amplification, the tendency of the polar region to experience more warming (and at a faster pace) than the rest of the Northern hemisphere. This heightened sensitivity is due to the Arctic's snow cover and sea ice, and the feedback loops triggered by their presence (or absence).

"As sea ice retreats, sunshine that would have been reflected back to space by the bright ice is instead absorbed by the ocean, which heats up, melting even more ice," Francis explained in a March 2012 article at Yale360.

"Extra heat entering the vast expanses of open water that were once covered in ice is released back to the atmosphere in the fall," she adds. "All that extra heat being deposited into the atmosphere cannot help but affect the weather, both locally and on a large scale."

Why? Because the Arctic is warming so quickly – about twice as fast as as the rest of the planet – the difference in temperature between the Arctic and the lower latitudes is narrowing.

That temperature difference drives the jet stream; when it shrinks, the jet stream slows and undulates more. It also moves more north-south than east-west (its usual flow), and can get stuck in patterns that last for much longer than they did even a few years ago.

And when that happens, the waves of the jet stream slow down and become larger and more sluggish. When they increase in size thanks to Arctic amplification, they move eastward more slowly, allowing the weather associated with them to stick around longer.

Still, not all climate scientists accept the linkages between long-term global warming, thinning Arctic sea ice, and weather events like this weekend's. The science around attributing weather events at lower latitudes to what happens in the Arctic is still very new, and scientists are far from consensus on whether such a link exists.

In August, a study published by Elizabeth Barnes of Colorado State University called into question Francis' research that links Arctic amplification with the recent changes in the jet stream. And In September, the National Academy of Sciences convened a workshop that drew dozens of climate scientists from around the world to discuss this topic.

But the possibility between what's occurring in the Arctic and what happens when extreme weather hits will undoubtedly continue to receive an increasing amount of attention.

For more, hear Dr. Jeff Masters and Jennifer Francis talk more about how Arctic warming is changing weather in the U.S. in this video:

ORIGINAL: Weather Channel

By Terrell Johnson

Jan 6, 2014

Slam Shell 2013 - Giant Oil Spill

SLAM SHELL!

RESPONSIBILITY IS SOMETHING ELSE

On December 11th, 2013, Shell opened the doors to the Science Slam, hoping to present young scientists` ideas about renewable energies and bolster their public image of corporate responsibility. They definitely did not expect this.

WHAT`S SO BAD ABOUT SHELL?

They consciously create socio-ecological damage and show no real commitment to changing this. They work hard to make it look like they care about the impact of their endless quest for oil, distracting the public with showy PR events like the Science Slam. This is called Greenwashing. It is the opposite of responsibility. Taking actual responsibility would be Shell cleaning up its mess and taking action to prevent further damage. Taking responsibility would mean not fulfilling plans to drill in the Arctic.

HOW DOES SHELL DO GREENWASHING?

Add caption

Every day in Nigeria, approximately 350,000 liters of oil are spilled, destroying the livelihood of much of the population. Shell pays off warlords and corrupt governments to continue drilling there. The corporation is the worldwide biggest producer of CO2 and other chemicals damaging the world`s climate. In Europe, it tries to divert attention from the harm it causes elsewhere, producing campaigns like the "Eco Marathon". It props up the contemporary myth that technology will solve our global problems. It is about time this company started taking responsibility for its actions.

This action is by Peng! Collective. If you want to see more actions ilke this, donate to the group. They pull off creative and subversive pranks, causing trouble in politics and business.

Corporate responsibility is something else

Slam Shell! Activists hijack the oil giant's greenwashing event in Berlin. With an ingenious prank, a local group reminded Shell that their plan to drill in the Arctic is potentially disastrous for the environment. Holding 'Green' conferences and pretending to support renewable energies is not good enough.

These activists may not have the money Shell has. They may only have a 300 euro budget for what should be a 3 million dollar campaign, but they have a passion and they will not stand by and watch while companies like Shell continue to do what they want, at the expense of our environment.

If you want more videos like this one, more direct action, please visit the website www.SlamShell.com, inform yourself and donate to cover the costs of the stunts.

Made by Peng! Collective - www.peng-collective.net

with a little help of Leftvision - www.leftvision.de

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ORIGINAL: Slam Shell
Dec 12, 2013

10,000 walrus come ashore in northwest Alaska

This Sept. 27, 2013 image provided by NOAA Fisheries shows thousands of walruses hauling out on a remote barrier island in the Chukchi Sea near Point Lay, Alaska.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

The walrus have been coming to shore since mid-September. The large herd was spotted during NOAA's annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, an effort conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that conducts offshore lease sales.

An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 walrus were photographed at the site Sept. 12. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that manages walrus, immediately took steps to prevent a stampede among the animals packed shoulder to shoulder on the rocky coastline. The agency works with villages to keep people and airplanes a safe distance from herds.

Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.

The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.

Pacific walrus spend winters in the Bering Sea. Females give birth on sea ice and use ice as a diving platform to reach snails, clams and worms on the shallow continental shelf.

As temperatures warm in summer, the edge of the sea ice recedes north. Females and their young ride the edge of the sea ice into the Chukchi Sea. However, in recent years, sea ice has receded north beyond continental shelf waters and into Arctic Ocean water 10,000 feet deep or more where walrus cannot dive to the bottom.

Walrus in large numbers were first spotted on the U.S. side of the Chukchi Sea in 2007. They returned in 2009, and in 2011, scientists estimated 30,000 walruses along one kilometer of beach near Point Lay.

Remnant ice kept walrus offshore in 2008 and again last year.

The goal of the marine mammals survey is to record the abundance of bowhead, gray, minke, fin and beluga whales plus other marine mammals in areas of potential oil and natural gas development, said NOAA Fisheries marine mammal scientist Megan Ferguson in an announcement.

"In addition to photographing the walrus haulout area, NOAA scientists documented more bowhead whales, including calves and feeding adults in the Beaufort Sea this summer compared to 2012," said Ferguson. "We are also seeing more gray whale calves in the Chukchi Sea than we have in recent years."

Environmental groups say the loss of sea ice due to climate warming is harming marine mammals and oil and gas development would add to their stress.


ORIGINAL: Yahoo

Science Says: No Ice in the North Pole by 2016

ORIGINAL: The Guardian

By Alison Fairbrother

September 20, 2012

Record low Arctic Ice will impact climate change, sea level rise, and food security.

Is that the saddest yellow line you've ever seen? (Photo: NASA/Reuters)

The summer ice cap in the Arctic will be gone within four years, a leading expert has predicted, calling the imminent melt a “global disaster.” 

“Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades’ time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO2 emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geoengineering ideas that have been put forward,” Dr. Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, told the Guardian. 

Wadhams has collected years of data on the thickness of sea ice from submarines that motor under Arctic ice. The cause of the melt, he says plainly, is global warming.

The Arctic will be ice-free by 2015 or 2016, Wadhams told the Guardian, and “the final collapse towards that state is now happening.” 

MORE: Dear Mr. President: Why on Earth Are You Allowing Shell's Arctic Drilling?

SEE MORE ACTIONS

There Is Still Time: Protect the Arctic From Drilling!

Earlier estimates predicted that summer ice in the Arctic would last another 50 years. But the accelerating rate of ice melt has surprised climatologists. 

On September 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the sea ice cover had reached a record low of 1.32 million square miles—the smallest amount of Arctic ice ever documented, and about half the average recorded between 1979 and 2000.

“We are now in uncharted territory,” NSIDC director Mark Serreze wrote in a press release. “While we’ve long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur.”

The center had previously announced a record low of 1.58 million square miles on August 26, only to see that record shattered a few weeks later.

“The six lowest September ice extents have all been in the past six years,” Serezze told NBC News. “I think that’s quite remarkable.” Sezerre said he believes summer ice will have melted completely by 2030—a slightly longer time frame than posited by Dr. Wadhams. 

But they seem to agree that the impacts of the great Arctic melt will be drastic—and should serve as a sober warning to policymakers.

Warmer Arctic conditions will likely release huge amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas currently trapped under permafrost. When released, as much as four billion tons of methane will pollute the atmosphere, further contributing to global warming.

The melting at the top of the world will also cause sea level rise, threatening the security and health of coastal communities.

As the Arctic heats up, many fish species will travel north, seeking colder ocean temperatures. This, in turn, will alter the availability of food sources.

Not everyone is recoiling in horror at the idea of an ice-free Arctic. Some see the melting as a chance to enrich magnates and investors in shipping and oil companies.

Breakaway Oil Rig, Filled With Fuel, Runs Aground

ORIGINAL: NYTimes

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Published: January 1, 2013

An enormous Shell Oil offshore drilling rig ran aground on an island in the Gulf of Alaska on Monday night after it broke free from tow ships in rough seas, officials said.

Petty Officer 1St Class Sara Francis/United States Coast Guard, via Associated Press

The Kulluk is one of two rigs that Shell has used to drill test wells off the North Slope of Alaska as part of the company’s ambitious and expensive effort to open Arctic waters to oil production.

The rig, the Kulluk, which was used for test drilling in the Arctic last summer, is carrying about 139,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 12,000 gallons of lubricating oil and hydraulic fluid, the officials said.

A Coast Guard helicopter flew over the rig after the grounding at 8:48 p.m. and “detected no visible sheen,” said Darci Sinclair, a spokeswoman for a unified command of officials from Shell, Alaskan state agencies and other groups that has been directing the response since the troubles with the rig began last Thursday.

Ms. Sinclair said that more overflights were planned after daybreak on Tuesday, and that the unified command would be monitoring the fuel situation as it planned further actions. “The focus will be around salvage,” she said.

The 266-foot diameter rig ran aground on the east coast of Sitkalidak Island, an uninhabited island that is separated by the Sitkalidak Strait from the far larger Kodiak Island to the west. The nearest town, Old Harbor, is across the strait on Kodiak Island; it has a population of about 200 people.

Ms. Sinclair said the coast where the Kulluk ran aground has a combination of rocky and sandy terrain.

Earlier Monday, a Shell spokesman had said that the rig had been brought under control after towlines were reconnected to two ships during a break in what had been several days of extremely rough seas and high winds.

But late Monday afternoon the line from one of the ships, the Aiviq, became separated. Then several hours later, the other ship, the Alert, was ordered to disconnect its towline, out of concern for the safety of the ship’s nine-person crew. At the time, Ms. Sinclair said, swells were as high as 35 feet and winds were gusting up to 65 miles an hour.

The Kulluk, one of two rigs that Shell used to drill test wells off the North Slope of Alaska as part of the company’s ambitious and expensive effort to open Arctic waters to oil production, was being towed by the Aiviq to a Seattle shipyard for off-season maintenance when the towline initially separated during a storm on Thursday.

The Aiviq then lost power, and other support ships and a Coast Guard cutter were brought in to help with engine repairs and to reconnect towlines to the Kulluk, which does not have its own propulsion system. The 18 workers aboard the rig were evacuated by Coast Guard helicopters on Saturday.

Over the weekend, support crews struggled in 25-foot swells to reconnect towlines, succeeding several times. But each time the lines separated again, leaving the rig in danger of drifting toward land.

The Kulluk, which was built in Japan in 1983 and upgraded over the past six years at a cost of $292 million, is designed for icy conditions in the Arctic. It can drill in up to 400 feet of water and up to 20,000 feet deep. During drilling season it carries a crew of about 140 people, Mr. Smith said.

Shell has spent six years and more than $4 billion in its effort to drill in Arctic waters, one of the last untapped oil-producing regions in the United States. But the effort has faced regulatory hurdles and opposition from American Indian and environmental groups.

Last summer, the Kulluk drilled a shallow test well in the Beaufort Sea while another rig drilled a similar hole in the Chukchi Sea to the west.

But Shell announced in September that it would be forced to delay further drilling until this year after a specialized piece of equipment designed to contain oil from a spill was damaged in a testing accident.

The episode was one of a number of setbacks for the Arctic drilling program last year.

Shell now says it hopes to drill five exploratory wells in the region during the 2013 drilling season, which begins in mid-July.

US Navy Releases Roadmap For Global Climate Change

ORIGINAL: Navy.mil Story Number: NNS100524-01

By Bob Freeman, Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy

Release Date: 5/24/2010 12:33:00 PM

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, released an overarching roadmap on May 21 that will guide Navy policy, strategy and investment plans related to a changing global climate.

Entitled the U.S. Navy Climate Change Roadmap, this guidance was developed by the Navy's Task Force Climate Change, a matrixed organization that includes representatives from various naval staff and program offices and the operational fleet, with the close collaboration of the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"We must ensure our Navy is fully mission-capable and ready to meet national requirements in the future. That responsibility includes anticipating the impact of changing climatic conditions on mission requirements, force structure and infrastructure," explained Rear Adm. Dave Titley, director of Task Force Climate Change and Oceanographer of the Navy.

The Climate Change Roadmap is intended to be a companion document to the Navy Arctic Roadmap, released in November 2009. While the Arctic Roadmap serves to promote maritime security and naval readiness in a changing Arctic, the new Climate Change Roadmap examines the broader issues of global climate change impacts on Navy missions and capabilities.

Official U.S. Navy file photo.

"We issued the Arctic Roadmap first because that is where the most significant evidence of climate change is occurring," Titley remarked, "but the Arctic is not a vacuum. The changes that are occurring there, from both an environmental and political standpoint, reflect changes that will occur in the rest of the world."

The roadmap lays out a chronological approach divided into three phases.

Phase 1, focusing on near-term goals, includes defining the requirements for improved operational and climatic prediction capabilities through cooperative efforts within the U.S. government and scientific and academic communities. 

Phase 1 also calls for inclusion of climate change impacts on national security in Naval War College coursework and in strategic "table top" exercises.

Phase 2, which is targeted for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, identifies as a priority the development of recommendations for Navy investments to meet climate change challenges. These challenges include protecting coastal installations vulnerable to rising sea levels and water resource challenges and being prepared to respond to regions of the world destabilized by changing climatic conditions.

Phase 2 also calls for the formalization of the cooperative relationships defined in Phase 1, and targets incorporation of climate change considerations in strategic guidance documents and fleet training and planning.

Phase 3, looking out through fiscal year 2014, addresses the execution of investment decisions and the initiation of intergovernmental, multilateral and bilateral activities with various partners to better assess and predict climate change, and respond to the military impacts of climate change.

"Climate change will affect the type, scope, and location of future Navy missions, so it's essential that naval force structure and infrastructure are delivered at the right time and at the right cost," Titley explained. "That will depend upon a rigorous assessment of future requirements and capabilities, and an understanding of the timing, severity, and impact of the changing climate, based on the best available science," he added.

The Roadmap, which incorporates guidance from national maritime and defense strategies, will be updated to reflect future guidance after the next Quadrennial Defense Review.

For more news from Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command visit
www.navy.mil/local/cnmoc.

La petrolera Shell anunció el abandono de sus planes de perforación en los mares de Chukchi y Beaufort por el resto de este año.

ORIGINAL: Greenpeace Colombia

Hoy te traigo excelentes noticias: La petrolera Shell anunció el abandono de sus planes de perforación en los mares de Chukchi y Beaufort por el resto de este año.

Durante los últimos meses la empresa estuvo bajo la lupa de millones de personas en el mundo entero. Sólo en Colombia se unieron al movimiento polar más de 140.000 personas como tú, convirtiéndose en uno de los países con más alta participación. Y no pasó un día sin que los directivos de Shell supieran de alguien protestando contra sus planes de explotación petrolera en el Ártico.

Por eso, cuando días atrás una de sus plataformas resultó dañada por hielos polares, y eso se hizo público, no tuvieron más remedio que cancelar sus operaciones durante este año.

El Ártico necesita que lo protejamos de forma permanente. Haz hoy tu donación para que continuemos trabajando por la protección de esta frágil región del planeta. Haz click aquí.

Éste es el desenlace de un proceso que empezó meses atrás con una protesta en su barco petrolero en Nueva Zelanda y continuó con un gigantesco movimiento mundial contra sus peligrosos planes.

Esto significa que el Ártico recibirá un pequeño respiro de los desmanes de la industria petrolera por este año. Sin embargo aún hay mucho por hacer.

Shell intentará volver a Alaska – y junto a tí- haremos todo lo posible para detenerlos. Ya hay 1.800.000 personas en el movimiento para salvar el Ártico, pero para ponerlo a salvo definitivamente debemos ser muchos más.

Gracias por ser parte de este movimiento. Ayúdanos a crecer haciendo hoy tu donación a Greenpeace. Haz click aquí.

Un abrazo,

Hernán.

'El Ártico perderá su hielo en verano dentro de 4 años'

ORIGINAL: El Mundo (España)

Carlos Fresneda (Corresponsal) | Londres

18/09/2012

Según uno de los mayores expertos mundiales

Océano Ártico durante la temporada de verano. | EM

El experto Peter Wadhams, de la universidad de Cambridge, lanza la voz de alarma

Advierte que el colapso ya está en marcha y se consumará entre 2015 y 2016

Foto: NY Times

El hielo del Ártico puede desaparecer por completo en verano en el 2015 o en el 2016, de acuerdo con el profesor de la Universidad de Cambridge Peter Wadhams, uno de los mayores expertos mundiales en la evolución de las capas polares.

Wadhams ha dirigido un mensaje urgente al diario 'The Guardian' en el que advierte de la inminencia de un 'desastre global' por la desaparición del hielo en las latitudes nórdicas y critica la falta de acción de los Gobiernos ante las señales cada vez más visibles del cambio climático.

"No podemos aplazar la acción ante el cambio climático unas décadas", advierte el científico de Cambridge. "Debemos actuar urgentementeno sólo para disminuir las emisiones de CO2, sino para estudiar otras formas de ralentizar el calentamiento global, como algunas de las soluciones de geoingeniería que ya se han propuesto".

Pérdida de un millón de kilómetros cuadrados de hielo

Wadhams ha pasado varios años estudiando el grosor de las capa de hielo del Artico a partir de los datos enviados periódicamente por submarinos. Ya en el 2007 predijo el inminente resquebrajamiento de la capa de hielo y la aceleración en la reducción de la superficie ocupada por el hielo, que pasó de un mínimo de 4,1 millones de kilómetros cuadrados ese año a 3,5 millones este año.

"Llevo muchos años prediciendo el colapso", advierte Wadhams en 'The Guardian'. "La causa principal es simplemente el calentamiento global: con temperaturas más elevadas se forma menos hielo durante el invierno y se derrite más rápidamente en verano".

"Al principio, esta tendencia pasó inadvertida y llegamos a creer que habría hielo en invierno durante otros 50 años", asegura el científico, quearremete incluso contra las más recientes proyecciones de hielo hasta el 2030. "En los veranos del 2015 o del 2016 el Artico se puede quedar sin hielo: el colapso final hacia está sucediendo y probablemente se completará en esas fechas".

"La desaparición del hielo tendrá un lado positivo, como la mayor facilidad para el transporte y acceso a las reservas de petróleo y gas", concluye Wadhams. "Pero las implicaciones serán terribles, pues contribuirá al calentamiento del agua y a la aceleración del cambio climático, con el derretimiento del permafrost (el subsuelo helado) y la liberación de grandes cantidades de metano".

Shell Halts Arctic Drilling Right After It Began

ORIGINAL: NYTimes Green Blog

By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — A day after it began drilling its first well in the Arctic Ocean, Shell has been forced to temporarily abandon the work because of sea ice moving into the area.

The delay was the latest setback for Shell, which has invested six years and more than $4 billion

Has invested six years and more than $4 billion to win the right to drill for oil and natural gas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the North Slope of Alaska.

The company has been repeatedly stymied by equipment problems, regulatory hurdles, persistent sea ice and legal challenges from Alaska Natives and environmental groups. Shell had hoped to complete as many as four wells in the Arctic this summer. It now expects to begin one or two wells and finish next year.

Early Sunday, Shell’s Noble Discoverer drill ship sank a bit into the Burger Prospect, about 70 miles off the Alaska coast, the start of a 1,400-foot pilot hole that will form the basis for a mile-deep exploration well.

But late Monday, Shell announced it was pulling the floating drill rig’s multiple anchors and moving it off the well because of encroaching sea ice. The company said it had based its decision on satellite images, radar and on-site reconnaissance.

“We began monitoring this ice when it was more than 100 miles away,” Shell said. “The wind began to shift, and we made the call to disconnect from the well. Part of working in ice is having the ability to temporarily relocate.”

Shell said it expected to move the rig back over the well once the ice passed.

The company is still awaiting federal certification of its spill containment vessel before its wells can penetrate oil-bearing formations. The spill response barge is undergoing trials and inspections in Bellingham, Wash., and could win Coast Guard certification this week.

Even if regulators give the ship final approval, it will take two weeks to sail to the well site, leaving little time to finish the well.

Under terms of its drilling permit, Shell must cease drilling in the Chukchi Sea by Sept. 24 to allow time to drill a relief well if needed before ice sets in for the winter. Shell has asked for an extension because its projections show a later ice season this year.

Arctic Sea Ice Hits New and Early Summer Low for Satellite Era

ORIGINAL: NYTimes

By ANDREW C. REVKIN 

August 27, 2012

Sunsets started to tease the Arctic horizon as scientists on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy headed south in the Chukchi Sea during the final days collecting ocean data for the 2011 ICESCAPE mission.  The ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," is a NASA shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. The bulk of the research took place in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in summer 2010 and 2011. Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen

NASA/GSFC The extent of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean has reached a new low for the satellite era.

11:44 p.m. | Updates from several scientists below |

The planet is warming and the Arctic is warming the most, as long foreseen by scientists in a climate system pushed out of balance through the rapid buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. One result is greater loss of Arctic sea ice in the annual summer warmup.

Today, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the annual summer retreat of Arctic Ocean sea ice had reached a new low for the 33-year satellite era of careful monitoring (1.58 million square miles, or 4.1 million square kilometers), and there is still another week or two of melting before the typical summer ice minimum occurs.

This quote in the release from Walt Meier of the ice center efficiently encapsulates the context:

"By itself it’s just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set. But in the context of what’s happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it’s an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing."

The animated sea-ice imagery above — from one of two autonomous cameras set on ice near the North Pole each spring — gives a close-focus view of the slushy conditions that develop on the shifting ice when the summer sun is at its peak. (This is part of the annual North Pole Environmental Observatory project that I reported on in 2003; the cameras drift with the ice through the summer and are currently over the shoulder of Greenland. You can track their position here.)

¶Justin Gillis has more on this development over on the news side of The Times. This excerpt echoes the thinking of quite a few ice researchers I’ve interviewed over recent years:

¶“It’s hard even for people like me to believe, to see that climate change is actually doing what our worst fears dictated,” said Jennifer A. Francis, a Rutgers University scientist who studies the effect of sea ice on weather patterns. “It’s starting to give me chills, to tell you the truth.”

¶Still, there are many other veteran sea-ice scientists (this is not false balance) who note that the complexity of this system has consistently defied predictions in either direction (see this year’s Sea Ice Outlook forecasts to get the range of forecasts).

Activistas de Greenpeace defienden el Ártico de la explotación petrolera.

ORIGINAL: Greenpeace

Sigue el enlace en esta imagen para poyar esta causa

24 de agosto de 2012, Mar de Pechora, Rusia- Esta mañana un grupo de activistas de Greenpeace, entre los que se encuentra el Director Ejecutivo de Greenpeace Internacional, Kumi Naidoo, abordaron la plataforma Prirazlomnaya, propiedad de Gazprom, el gigante energético ruso, para exigirle que abandone sus planes de perforación en el Ártico.

A las 4 de la madrugada, hora local, el equipo conformado por activistas de todo el mundo, partieron en tres gomones desde el Arctic Sunrise, uno de los rompehielos de Greenpeace. El equipo de escaladores subió y ocupó la plataforma para demandar que Gazprom abandone sus planes de perforar el Ártico en busca de petróleo. Los activistas tienen suficientes suministros para durar varios días.

A principios de esta semana, los científicos del Centro de Datos sobre la Nieve y el Hielo de EE.UU. predijeron que el hielo marino del Ártico pronto igualaría su record más bajo, registrado en 2007 y establecería un nuevo récord en septiembre. 

Esta es la segunda vez que el sudafricano Naidoo forma parte de una acción para evitar la perforación del Ártico, en junio del 2011 escaló una plataforma de perforación en Groenlandia, operada por la británica Cairn Energy.

"Escalamos esta plataforma petrolera en nombre de las más de un millón de personas que dejaron su firma para proteger el Ártico", dijo Naidoo. "Estamos de pie y trabajando junto a los pueblos originarios de Rusia, quienes la semana pasada declararon su oposición a la extracción de petróleo en su territorio ancestral", manifestó Naidoo y agregó: "Al igual que ocurre con los planes de Shell para perforar en Alaska,  es sólo cuestión de tiempo para que ocurra un derrame de petróleo en el  Ártico. Estas empresas inyectan dinero en la política para bloquear las  alternativas de energía limpia. Estamos aquí para dibujar una línea límite en el hielo y decir 'no vengas más', por el bien de las personas y la vida silvestre de esta región".

Gazprom comenzaría sus operaciones a principio del 2013, convirtiéndose en la primera compañía en iniciar la producción comercial de petróleo en alta mar en el Ártico. La semana pasada Greenpeace descubrió que la plataforma de Gazprom está operando sin un plan oficial de respuesta ante derrames de petróleo.  Su plan aprobado, data de julio de 2007 y abarca un período de cinco años, pero el Ministerio de Emergencias ruso admitió a Greenpeace que no existe un plan vigente y aprobado.

El lugar donde Gazprom pretende perforar, está cubierto por gruesa capa de hielo de durante dos tercios del año, mientras que las temperaturas inferiores a -50 ˚ C  son frecuentes y el mar de Pechora sufre fuertes tormentas y durante el invierno boreal se hunde en meses de oscuridad casi total. Lo que lo convierte en uno de los ambientes más extremos y hostiles para reparar un posible derrame de petróleo.

La semana pasada, Greenpeace Rusia y Rusia WWF publicó un informe independiente realizado por expertos en el centro de Rusia Riska Informatica, quienes plantearon decenas de miles de escenarios posibles y llegaron a la conclusión de que, de producirse un derrame, el área contaminada abarcaría más de 140.000 kilómetros cuadrados de aguas y más de 3.000 kilómetros de costa.

Actualización:

Los activistas debieron retirarse, luego de 15 horas de resistir las temperaturas bajo cero y el embate de los trabajadores de la empresa quienes los regaron constantemente con agua helada. Los activistas decidieron bajar para evitar riesgos innecesarios en las heladas condiciones. La valentía que demostraron los escaladores en esta acción es sólo una parte de un nuevo movimiento para salvar el Ártico, que no se dejará intimidar por cañones de agua u otras formas de brutalidad empresarial.

Súmate tú también con Greenpeace a la defensa del Ártico. Haz click aquí

"Esta mañana subí a bordo de una plataforma rusa, propiedad de la empresa petrolera Gazprom para exigirle que abandone sus peligrosos planes de perforación en el Ártico. Un derrame de petróleo en los hielos causaría un desastre ecológico de proporciones aún mayores que las del Golfo de México. Y sabemos que Gazprom no está preparada para solucionarlo.

A la madrugada en el mar de Pechora, partí junto a cinco activistas desde nuestro barco rompehielos “Arctic Sunrise” hacia la plataforma Prirazlomnaya, propiedad de Gazprom. Salimos con gomones, escalamos y nos colocamos en lugares estratégicos para mostar nuestros reclamo.

Gazprom comenzaría sus operaciones a principio del 2013, convirtiéndose en la primer compañía en iniciar la producción comercial de petróleo en alta mar en el Ártico. Y lo más alarmante es que hasta el día de hoy la empresa no cuenta con ningún plan de respuesta oficial y aprobado para hacerle frente a un derrame de petróleo en el hielo.

Por eso, subí a la plataforma en tu nombre y en nombre de las más de 1,4 millones de personas que ya se indignaron con la destrucción del Ártico. Si realmente queremos detener a las petroleras necesitamos ser aún más. ¡Ayúdanos a difundir nuestro reclamo entre tus contactos! Copia y pega el siguiente texto en un e-mail:

¡Hola!

¿Ya te has sumado al movimiento global para salvar el Ártico?

www.salvaelartico.org

Casi un millón y medio de personas en los cinco continentes se unieron a esta campaña para detener a las petroleras que pretenden hacer perforaciones en el Polo Norte, poniendo en serio riesgo el hogar de los osos polares y otras especies únicas.

Un derrame de petróleo en estas latitudes sería catastrófico para el planeta. Sé parte de esta campaña mundial para defender el Ártico. Ingresa a este link y suma tu firma. 

www.salvaelartico.org

Empezamos a generar un cambio real. Y no podemos detenernos ahora.

¡Gracias!

También puedes compartir esta noticia en redes sociales:

En Facebook. Haz click aquí. 

En Twitter. Haz click aquí.

En Sónico. Haz click aquí.

Ya somos millones de voces para defender a quienes no tienen quién los escuche. Somos la voz de los osos polares y de los hielos del Ártico.

Gracias por estar junto a nosotros ,"

Kumi.

PS: Greenpeace no recibe dinero de gobiernos, partidos políticos o empresas. Sólo de personas comprometidas en la defensa del medio ambiente como tú. Haz hoy tu donación a Greenpeace. Haz click aquí.

La campaña de Greenpeace Salva el Ártico alcanza el millón de firmas

ORIGINAL: Greenpeace

23 julio, 2012

Súmate a nuestra campaña y salva el Ártico de la destrucción de las petroleras. Haz click aquí.

23 de julio de 2012, Internacional- Mucho antes de lo esperado, nuestra campaña Salva el Ártico alcanzó el millon de firmas, entre las cuales se encuentran las de celebridades del mundo del arte, el cine y la música. A continuación compartimos con ustedes un texto redactado por Kumi Naidoo, Director Ejecutivo de Greenpeace Internacional, en ocasión de haber alcanzado el millón de adhesiones:

"Ayer en Amsterdam, recibí un fax urgente de Shell, la petrolera más rica del mundo, en contra de la cual estuvimos realizando en todo el mundo nuestra extensa campaña Salva el Ártico. El comunicado era un duro aviso de los abogados de Shell, que están muy preocupados con que las acciones de Greenpeace en todo el mundo la semana pasada“hayan puesto en serio riesgo a los puntos de venta de Shell… y al público en general”.

La carta cierra con una advertencia sobre el inicio de “acciones” contra nosotros en “cualquier” momento en el futuro. No se ustedes, pero para mí hay una gran ironía en ser acusados de constituir un riesgo para el público. Y Shell y sus abogados no lo entienden.

Después de todo, Shell es una empresa que, en la última semana, perdió el control de una enorme nave perforadora en Alaska, que quedó a la deriva hacia la orilla hasta quedar aparentemente encallada en la playa. En el estado de Washington, incluso los ingenieros estuvieron pidiendo que se termine la barca de respuesta ante un derrame de Shell, una vieja nave oxidada aquejada por todo tipo de problemas técnicos, sólo para que la empresa pueda seguir con sus planes de perforar el Ártico. Esta actitud descuidada a duras penas puede ser vista como un bastión de la seguridad pública.

Tras el desastre del Deepwater Horizon en 2010, la respuesta ante un derrame ha sido un tema candente, y está bien que lo sea. Shell es una empresa que es responsable del mayor derrame en la historia reciente del Reino Unido en el Mar del Norte, y actualmente está enfrentando una multa de cinco mil millones de dólares por derramar 40.000 barriles de crudo en aguas nigerianas el pasado diciembre. Ahora hablemos de seguridad pública y ambiental.

El Noble Discoverer, una embarcación que para nada merece su nombre de “noble descubridor” – cuyas actividades no tienen nada de nobles – es de 1966 y ya tuvo problemas en Nueva Zelanda el año pasado. Digamos que no estaría muy a la altura de las circunstancias. Y todo eso antes de que Shell empiece a perforar en el Ártico, uno de los entornos más frágiles del planeta. La región del Ártico es hogar de pueblos indígenas que dependen de un océano saludable para sobrevivir, así como ciertas especies de zorros árticos, narvales y el oso polar.

Esta región ha quedado prácticamente virgen de desarrollo industrial, pero ahora una de las empresas más peligrosas del mundo quiere perforar todo lo que pueda antes de que los hielos – y meses de oscuridad – cierren la región durante el invierno. Su irrisorio plan de contención ante un derrame incluye perros que huelen petróleo y dibujos hechos a mano que harían sonrojar a un niño de siete años. Shell está patinando sobre hielo muy delgado.

Mientras tanto, en todo el mundo activistas de Greenpeace han estado protestando de manera pacífica los planes de Shell en el Ártico, en estaciones de servicio, oficinas y en Internet. Desde Londres hasta Houston, Budapest a La Haya, cientos de personas apasionadas le están diciendo a Shell (con el hashtag #TellShell en Twitter) que se vaya de esta región de manera segura y considerada. Anoche, la campaña alcanzó el millón de firmas en una ciberacción global para Salvar el Ártico en www.salvaelartico.org.

El resultado llegó mucho antes de lo esperado, muestra de que cada vez más gente se moviliza para defender al planeta. Entonces, ¿cuál podría ser la motivación detrás del enojo de los abogados de Shell? A lo mejor es que Greenpeace está exponiendo de manera demasiado incómoda la verdad de la competencia de Shell para perforar el Ártico.

Tal vez un millón de nombres que apoyan y la cobertura global de los medios del activismo es demasiada exposición. O tal vez, tal vez, son las acciones desesperadas de una empresa que es un barco que se hunde lentamente, si quieren, uno cuyas estrategias comerciales están limitadas, a medida que más y más personas se amotinan, descubriendo que ya no podemos seguir como siempre a la hora de extraer recursos del planeta". 

Súmate a nuestra campaña y salva el Ártico de la destrucción de las petroleras. Haz click aquí.

Tell the EPA: Shell's latest bait and switch should be the last straw.

ORIGINAL: CREDO Action

Weeks away from starting the first major offshore drilling operations in the Arctic, Shell is pulling a major bait and switch - telling the EPA its drilling rigs can't meet the air pollution rules the company had already agreed to in order to get a drilling permit.¹

Shell has known since 2010 it would have problems meeting the rules.² But officials still told the EPA they could. Now Shell wants the EPA to weaken the rules at the last minute?

It's clear that Shell simply cannot be trusted. The company's last minute request gives the EPA the option to cancel Shell's permit. That's exactly what EPA must do.

Tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: Don't fall for Shell's bait and switch. Reject Shell's permit to drill in the Arctic.

This bait and switch is the latest in a long list of broken promises, walk-backs and mishaps which should serve as clear signs to the Obama Administration that allowing Shell to drill in the Arctic is a recipe for disaster.

Just this weekend, Shell literally lost control of its Discoverer drilling rig, which either ran aground or very nearly did so, when its anchor broke while harbored a thousand miles south of the Arctic.³Moderate winds are being blamed -- yet these winds are mild compared to what it will encounter in the Arctic. The rig, one of the oldest in the world, had a similar anchor malfunction just last year, while it was stationed in New Zealand.

Shell is also having problems with its nearly forty-year-old oil spill recovery barge. While Shell promised the Coast Guard it would upgrade it substantially to withstand stronger weather, Shell now says those upgrades aren't necessary. The Coast Guard hasn't yet decided if it will weaken these standards for Shell.⁴

And of course -- while we've known for some time that the Obama Administration was being hoodwinked by Shell's hopelessly inadequate oil spill response plan -- now Shell has come out and admitted its initial spill response claims were overstated. Shell initially said it could "recover" 95% of oil in the case of a major spill. Now Shell is saying that what it actually meant is "encounter" 95% of the oil -- whatever that means.⁵

Tell the EPA: Don't fall for Shell's bait and switch. Reject Shell's permit to drill in the Arctic.

Shockingly, the Department of Interior has put the probability of an oil spill in the Arctic at 40%.⁶

That is simply unacceptable. With Shell in the driver's seat, it's clear that it would be unwise to even bank on those unacceptably high odds.

Shell's request to EPA is a major opportunity for President Obama and the EPA to revisit the undeserved trust they have put in Shell thus far. It's time for EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to be a hero, and draw a line stop the next major drilling disaster in the Arctic.

EPA's response could come any day. Please sign the petition now.

Tell the EPA: Don't fall for Shell's bait and switch. Reject Shell's permit to drill in the Arctic.

1. "Shell Seeks to Weaken Air Rules for Arctic Drilling," New York Times, 7/13/12
2. "Shell Application to Revise Discover Chukchi Permit," EPA
3. "Shell Loses Control of Arctic Drilling Rig in Alaskan Harbor," Think Progress 7/16/12
4. "Shell may be ready for the Arctic, but its oil spill barge isn't," LA Times, 7/5/12
5. "Shell Clarifies: It Can 'Encounter' 95 Percent Of An Arctic Oil Spill, Not Collect It," Think Progress, 7/2/12
6. "What if an oil spill happened at an Arctic well?," LA Times, 5/6/10

Sign the petition