Ingeniero de petróleos explica sequía en Casanare

El profesor de hidrocarburos de la Universidad Industrial de Santander mostró con videos la responsabilidad de las empresas petroleras en la tragedia ecológica del norte de Casanare.

El ingeniero de petróleos con máster en hidrocarburos, Óscar Vanegas aseguro que la mortandad de más de 20 mil chigüiros y otras especies por la sequía en Paz de Ariporo, Casanare, no es un problema solo del cambio climático o del a siembra de la palma.

Según él, la responsabilidad la tienen las petroleras cuando sacan el crudo del suelo. Vanegas, asegura que en la sísmica la forma para detectar petróleo, se utilizan hasta 10 kilos de explosivos SISMIGEL, que al explotar dentro del a tierra, su onda dice donde hay crudo.

Explicó el profesor de la Universidad Industrial de Santander –UIS- que cuando se saca el petróleo, de paso se está extrayendo miles de litros agua que están por debajo de la tierra, provocando daños colaterales.

Vanegas, dijo que en el 2012, campesinos y ambientalistas registraron como era como era Paz de Ariporo antes de la extracción de crudo.

El profesor aseguró que muchas veces los operarios de las petroleras no tapan donde se produjo la explosión, creando una tierra movediza, convirtiéndose en trampa para los animales.

Óscar Venegas, dijo que es urgente una legislación sobre la política de petróleos o en 50 años no solamente Paz de Ariporo será un desierto.

ORIGINAL: Noticias UNO

NoticiasUno

Marzo 30, 2014

As Rover Lands, China Joins Moon Club

HONG KONG — China on Saturday became the third country to steer a spacecraft onto the moon after its unmanned Chang’e-3 probe settled onto the Bay of Rainbows, state-run television reported.

Cctv, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Chinese television broadcast images of the rover after it landed on the moon. China is the third country to reach the moon.

Wang Jianmin/XinHua, via Associated Press. The surface of the moon, in a photograph taken by the camera of the lunar probe, Chang'e-3, displayed on the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in China.

China Daily, via Reuters. A rocket carrying the Chang’e-3 probe was launched earlier this month from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The United States and the Soviet Union are the other countries to have accomplished so-called soft landings on the moon — in which a craft can work after landing — and 37 years have passed since the last such mission.

The successful arrival of the Chang’e-3 after a 13-day journey from Earth was reported on Chinese state television. At the time of the last soft landing, by the Soviet Union in 1976, Mao Zedong lay a month from death and China was in the twilight of his chaotic Cultural Revolution. Now China, much richer and stronger, aspires to become a globally respected power, and the government sees a major presence in space as a key to acquiring technological prowess, military strength and sheer status.

Chinese media celebrated the landing as a demonstration of the country’s growing scientific stature. Television reports showed engineers at the mission control center in Beijing crying, embracing and taking pictures of one another on their cellphones.

“The dream of the Chinese people across thousands of years of landing on the moon has finally been realized with Chang’e,” said the China News Service, a state-run news agency. “By successfully joining the international deep-space exploration club, we finally have the right to share the resources on the moon with developed countries.”

The Chang’e-3 landing craft carried a solar-powered, robotic rover called the Jade Rabbit, or Yutu in Mandarin Chinese, which was to emerge several hours later to begin exploring Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, a relatively smooth plain formed from solidified lava. According to a Chinese legend, Chang’e is a moon goddess, accompanied by a Jade Rabbit that can brew potions that offer immortality.

“It’s a very ambitious mission in the sense that it’s a rover with a fair amount of instruments on it,” Andrew Chaikin, a space historian and an expert on lunar travel who lives in Vermont, said in a telephone interview. The instruments include radar to gather information about what lies as deep as 300 feet below the surface, Chinese space scientists have said.

“There is the potential that some really interesting science could come out of this,” Mr. Chaikin said.

But the mission also embodies China’s broader ambitions in space, other experts said. The Chang’e-3 mission is honing technology for future missions while also emphasizing exploration. The landing craft appears capable of carrying a payload more than a dozen times the weight of the 309-pound rover, Paul D. Spudis, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, said in an email.

Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. A model of China's first robotic lunar rover, the Jade Rabbit, which will explore a plain on the moon. The Chang’e-3 mission is said to be the nation’s first “soft landing” on the moon, which allows a craft to operate after descending.

“Although it will do some new science, its real value is to flight-qualify a new and potentially powerful lunar surface payload delivery system,” Dr. Spudis said.

A later Chang’e mission, sometime before 2020, is intended to bring back rocks and other samples from the moon, and that will need a larger craft capable of sending a vehicle back to Earth. That mission will also need a more powerful launch rocket, which China is also developing.

Within a decade, China could also become the only country with an operating space station. The International Space Station, which has been open to astronauts from 15 countries, is due to be decommissioned by 2020, and China’s own, much smaller station could be ready to go up about the same time, if preparations go smoothly. China is not among the countries allowed to use the international station.

Despite its benign name, China’s Jade Rabbit rover could kindle anxieties among some American politicians and policy makers that the United States risks losing its pre-eminence in space in coming decades. China’s opaque space bureaucracy is overseen by the military, and that has magnified wariness. Legislation passed by Congress in 2011 bans NASA from bilateral contacts with China, although multilateral contacts are not proscribed.

Some Chinese space engineers have also enthusiastically endorsed eventually taking astronauts to the moon and back, which would make China the second country, after the United States, to achieve that feat. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and has since carried out four more manned missions.

A policy paper in 2011 said China would “conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing,” but the government has not made any decision on a manned mission, said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the United States Naval War College in Rhode Island who researches China’s space activities.

“Certainly, they are putting all the building blocks in place so that if they make that policy decision, they can move forward,” said Professor Johnson-Freese. “But the Chinese are not risk-takers. They are not going to approve that program until they are sure they are capable of all those building blocks.”

ORIGINAL: NYTimes

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

December 14, 2013
Follow@nytimesworldfor international breaking news and headlines.

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

El Lado Oscuro Del Amazonas (The Dark Side Of The Amazon)

ORIGINAL: Jonathan Gaitán

De la vida real. Una pareja descubre la verdad de la selva del Ecuador
Real life story. A couple finds out the truth about ecuadorian jungle.

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.

Lake Ellsworth Antarctic drilling project called off

ORIGINAL: BBC

Analysis David Shukman Science editor, BBC News

The team burned much of its fuel in a bid to connect the under-ice boreholes

Related Stories

Lake Ellsworth: Mission to the Antarctic's lost world

Antarctic lake bid set to restart

Antarctic lake drilling is halted

An ambitious mission to drill through 3km (1.8 miles) of Antarctic ice to a lake that has been sealed off for thousands of years has been cut short.

The team at Lake Ellsworth decided to call off the mission in the early hours of Christmas Day UK time.

They were unable to join the main borehole with a parallel hole that was to be used to recover drilling water.

The team is now "weatherising" the equipment and it is unclear when they will be able to resume the project.

The £8m ($13m) project, headed by the British Antarctic Survey (Bas), aimed to drill carefully down using near-boiling water to pierce the lake, which has been untouched for as much as half a million years.

The hope had been to find hints of simple life forms existing in the extreme conditions of pressure and temperature, and to find a record of climate in the lake's sediments.

Searching for life in the hidden waters of Lake Ellsworth was one of the most ambitious British science projects of recent years, so this failure in the drilling programme will come as a huge blow.

The team knew that the risks were high, but the idea of exploring an ancient and mysterious body of water isolated for hundreds of thousands of years had inspired passion and determination.

The challenge of designing and engineering equipment that could remain sterilised on the long journey to Antarctica, and then down through the 3km of ice-sheet, was immense and involved hundreds of people.

So the disappointment will be felt far beyond the 12 men at their remote camp on the ice. Engineers, technicians, support staff - and researchers eager for the results - will feel heavy disappointment. They may try again next year. But this was frontier science, a gamble, and it did not pay off.

Read more from David

The programme ran into trouble last week as the main boiler used to heat drilling water broke down, with a replacement part being flown from the UK reaching the remote site last Friday.

With the boiler working, the team aimed to make two parallel boreholes, intended to join 300m below the surface.

A first borehole was drilled and left for 12 hours to create a hot-water cavity. This was to be used to re-circulate drilling water and to balance pressures when the sequestered lake was finally breached.

However, the team were unable to reach the cavity during the course of drilling the second, main borehole.

"We kept trying for over 24 hours to reach that connection but we couldn't do it," said principal investigator of the project Martin Siegert, from the University of Bristol.

"All that time we were losing fuel and water from the ice sheet surface and we got to a critical condition where our calculations showed us we simply didn't have enough fuel to continue any further down into the ice sheet to hit the top of the lake," he told BBC News.

The team is now starting the long process of gathering up its equipment for eventual return to the UK, where it will be serviced.

Once back on UK soil, the team will have to develop a report on what went wrong, and only then can the thought of a return trip be considered.

"It will take a season or two to get all of our equipment out of Antarctica and back to the UK, so at a minimum we're looking at three to four, maybe five years I would have thought," Prof Siegert said.

But he remained hopeful about the future, and said that this year's mission was far from a complete loss.

"We still want to do that testing, they were compelling scientific drivers a few years ago and they remain so. It's very important that we take stock of what we achieved here," he said.

Given the long time that it may take to fund and mount another mission to Ellsworth, it may be that other nations aim for other sealed-off Antarctic lakes in the nearer term.

"We have never depicted it as a race, but it may well happen that others get there first," Audrey Stevens, Bas spokesperson, told BBC News.

More on This Story

Related Stories

Lake Ellsworth: Mission to the Antarctic's lost world19 DECEMBER 2012, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Antarctic lake bid set to restart21 DECEMBER 2012, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Antarctic lake drilling is halted17 DECEMBER 2012, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Images emerge from polar drilling13 DECEMBER 2012, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

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.

Talisman is the fifth oil company that the Achuar have forced to leave

ORIGINAL: Amazon Watch

Late last week I called Achuar leader Peas Peas Ayui with terrific news: Our long and hard campaign has forced Talisman Energy to abandon oil drilling plans in Achuar territory in the Peruvian Amazon.

“I thank you and our allies for standing with us in solidarity to confront this problem,”Peas exclaimed. “It brings me great happiness to have achieved what we set out to do.”

It's your support of Amazon Watch that makes victories like these possible.

Please continue to help us support the Achuar!

Talisman is the fifth oil company that the Achuar have forced to leave. It demonstrates that together we can stop the destruction of the rainforest. Here's how: 

• The Achuar remained strong and united with support from around the world. 
• Over 10,000 of you signed a petition demanding Talisman to leave. 
• Hundreds supported Achuar leaders' travel to Canada. 
• Dozens turned out to protest outside Talisman's offices in Calgary, Canada. 

“It does not end here, we have to remain awake.

We ask that our allies do not forget us and do not leave us.”

— Peas Peas Ayui 

We cannot walk away now. Peru and Ecuador are poised to auction new oil concessions in and around Achuar territory. In response Amazon Watch is building international solidarity for the Achuar cause, pressuring the Peruvian government to abandon oil drilling plans, and supporting the Achuar's own vision of development with sustainable income projects, traditional medicine centers and bilingual education.

Our combination of hard-hitting international campaigns and direct support for the Achuar is working. Help support an Amazon without oil drilling: Donate today.

For the Achuar,

Gregor MacLennan

Peru Program Coordinator

NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery

ORIGINAL: NASA

September 14, 2012

Puzzling Little Martian Spheres That Don't Taste Like 'Blueberries'. Small spherical objects fill the field in this mosaic combining four images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The view covers an area about 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) across, at an outcrop called "Kirkwood" in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.
The individual spherules are up to about one-eighth inch (3 millimeters) in diameter. The Microscopic Imager took the component images during the 3,064th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (Sept. 6, 2012). For a color view of the Kirkwood outcrop as Opportunity was approaching it two weeks earlier, see PIA16128 .
Opportunity discovered spherules at its landing site more than eight-and-a-half years earlier. Those spherules were nicknamed "blueberries." They provided important evidence about long-ago wet environmental conditions on Mars because researchers using Opportunity's science instruments identified them as concretions rich in the mineral hematite deposited by water saturating the bedrock. A picture of the "blueberries" from the same Microscopic Imager is PIA05564 .
The spherules at Kirkwood do not have the iron-rich composition of the blueberries. They also differ in concentration, distribution and structure. Some of the spherules in this image have been partially eroded away, revealing concentric internal structure. Opportunity's science team plans to use the rover for further investigation of these spherules to determine what evidence they can provide about ancient Martian environmental conditions. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College

Small spherical objects fill the field in this mosaic combining four images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian surface that is puzzling researchers. 

Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Opportunity reached last week differ in several ways from iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" the rover found at its landing site in early 2004 and at many other locations to date.

Opportunity is investigating an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The spheres measure as much as one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter. The analysis is still preliminary, but it indicates that these spheres do not have the high iron content of Martian blueberries.

"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," said Opportunity's principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "Kirkwood is chock full of a dense accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries, but this is something different. We never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock outcrop on Mars."

The Martian blueberries found elsewhere by Opportunity are concretions formed by action of mineral-laden water inside rocks, evidence of a wet environment on early Mars. Concretions result when minerals precipitate out of water to become hard masses inside sedimentary rocks. Many of the Kirkwood spheres are broken and eroded by the wind. Where wind has partially etched them away, a concentric structure is evident.

Opportunity used the microscopic imagern its arm to look closely at Kirkwood. Researchers checked the spheres' composition by using an instrument called the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer on Opportunity's arm. 

"They seem to be crunchy on the outside, and softer in the middle," Squyres said. "They are different in concentration. They are different in structure. They are different in composition. They are different in distribution. So, we have a wonderful geological puzzle in front of us. We have multiple working hypotheses, and we have no favorite hypothesis at this time. It's going to take a while to work this out, so the thing to do now is keep an open mind and let the rocks do the talking."

Just past Kirkwood lies another science target area for Opportunity. The location is an extensive pale-toned outcrop in an area of Cape York where observations from orbit have detected signs of clay minerals. That may be the rover's next study site after Kirkwood. Four years ago, Opportunity departed Victoria Crater, which it had investigated for two years, to reach different types of geological evidence at the rim of the much larger Endeavour Crater. 

The rover's energy levels are favorable for the investigations. Spring equinox comes this month to Mars' southern hemisphere, so the amount of sunshine for solar power will continue increasing for months. 

"The rover is in very good health considering its 8-1/2 years of hard work on the surface of Mars," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Energy production levels are comparable to what they were a full Martian year ago, and we are looking forward to productive spring and summer seasons of exploration."

NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of 2003, and both completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004. They continued bonus, extended missions for years. Spirit finished communicating with Earth in March 2010. The rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. 

JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

To view the image of the area, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/pia16139.html

For more information about Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at:
http://twitter.com/MarsRovers andhttp://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .

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.

Contralora alerta por riesgos de daño ambiental en los páramos

ORIGINAL: El Colombiano

Colprensa

27 de agosto de 2012

Foto: El Colombiano

La Contralora General de la República, Sandra Morelli Rico, advirtió al ministro de Ambiente, Frank Pearl y al Gobierno Nacional por los riesgos de daño ambiental sobre los páramos del país por la ejecución de proyectos, obras y actividades de explotación y exploración minera, labores agropecuarias, de explotación maderera e incluso de construcción.

El ente fiscal, consideró que se podrían estar presentando actividades de exploración minera en zonas prohibidas y es urgente que las autoridades ambientales protejan las áreas de su jurisdicción. Según algunos académicos se pueden generar daños ambientales sobre la calidad del agua, el paisaje y los ecosistemas de los páramos.

Según esta alerta, la afectación de los páramos por la ejecución de obras, proyectos y actividades de diverso tipo puede poner en riesgo a :

• Bogotá, con los páramos de Chingaza y Sumapaz>
• Medellín, páramo de Belmira;>
• Bucaramanga y Cúcuta, páramo de Santurbán
• Tunja, páramo de Rabanal
• Ibagué, Armenia, Pereira y Manizales, con los páramos del Parque de los Nevados y en
• Popayán el páramo de Puracé.

La función de advertencia de la Contraloría, también incluye a la directora general del Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt , los miembros de los Consejos Directivos de las Corporaciones Autónomas Regionales y en general los directores de las autoridades ambientales.

También se señaló que existen irregularidades en el otorgamiento o inscripción en el Registro Minero de títulos luego de la expedición de la Ley 1382 de 2010,que prohibió de manera expresa la exploración y explotación minera en los páramos, precisó el ente fiscal

El fascinante hallazgo geológico de Curiosity en Marte

ORIGINAL: BBC

Redacción BBC Mundo

Martes, 28 de agosto de 2012

Curiosity detectó una "discordancia" en las capas del Monte Sharp.

El explorador de Marte, Curiosity, está dedicado a un frenesí de actividad de multimedios, antes de su misión científica propiamente dicha.

Por lo pronto, envió la primera foto de su teleobjetivo de 100 milímetros, que ya detectó una intrigante "discordancia" geológica.

Contenido relacionado

Curiosity envía impactantes imágenes de Marte

Marte, el vecino misterioso que despierta nuestra curiosidad

Primeras imágenes del Curiosity desde Marte

La Nasa también dio a conocer una foto panorámica en colores del Monte Sharp, la meta definitiva del explorador.

Este lunes, el robot transmitió "la primera grabación de una voz en ser enviada a otro planeta", y el martes transmitirá una canción del artista will.i.am, como parte de un evento educativo.

Pero junto a estas manifestaciones, Curiosity -también conocido como el Laboratorio de Ciencia de Marte- ya está afinando sus instrumentos para una misión científica de un alcance sin precedentes en el planeta rojo.

La Nasa dijo que el explorador ya ha enviado más información de Marte que todos los anteriores vehículos combinados de la agencia.

Eventualmente rodará hasta la base del Monte Sharp, la montaña de 5.000 metros de altura en el centro del cráter Gale, en el que aterrizó hace poco más de tres semanas.

Herramientas de lujo

Por ahora está examinando las "marcas de la erosión" dejadas por la grúa propulsada por cohetes que descendió al explorador hasta la superficie del planeta, dando así una visión de lo que se encuentra justo debajo de él.

El explorador empleará ahora su albedo dinámico de neutrones o instrumento Dan, que dispara las partículas subatómicas en la superficie para examinar los niveles de hidrógeno y minerales con hidroxilo, que podrían dar indicios de una previa historia de Marte rica en agua.

Las fotos fueron tomadas el 23 de agosto con una cámara de 34 milímetros.

Otra herramienta de su arsenal, el espectrómetro ChemCam, que usa un láser para vaporizar rocas y luego examinar químicamente el vapor, también mirará las marcas de la erosión.

Y el Análisis de muestras en Marte o instrumento Sam, un paquete de tres herramientas de análisis, ya está encendido y se está probando en anticipación a su "olfateo" de la atmósfera marciana. Las pruebas incluyen el análisis de una muestra de aire de la Tierra que quedó adentro en el lanzamiento.

Pero lo que ya ha capturado el interés de los ingenieros de la Nasa es la llamada "discordancia" detectada en las primeras imágenes del Monte Sharp enviadas por el explorador.

El término se refiere una pieza evidentemente ausente en el registro geológico, donde una capa de sedimento que no se alinea geológica y perfectamente con la de encima.

Las imágenes desde la órbita indicaron que las colinas más bajas del Monte Sharp consistían en sedimentos planos ricos en minerales "hidratados", formados en presencia de agua, pero las capas encima parecían carecer de los minerales.

Ahora bien, el Mastcam del explorador -que brinda la nueva imagen panorámica en color- ha tomado una imagen de la brecha, que muestra sedimentos aparentemente depositados en un ángulo marcadamente diferente de aquellos debajo de ellos. Depósitos similares sobre la Tierra pueden surgir debido a actividad tectónica o volcánica.

clicVea también: Curiosity muestra el paisaje de Marte como nunca antes

Los puntos blancos marcan la línea entre dos diferentes estratos geológicos.

Desvío

Sin embargo, investigaciones posteriores tendrán que esperar un tiempo, mientras Curiosity hace un pequeño desvío.

La actividad de multimedios del explorador continuará mientras realiza un trayecto corto de 10 metros y se dedica el martes a tomar estereogramas: como nuestros ojos, combinando dos imágenes para lograr información acerca de profundidad y distancia.

A las 20:00 GMT, transmitirá una nueva canción de will.i.am, que pasará la televisión de la Nasa, como parte de una iniciativa para la educación primaria que hará uso de la tecnología de la agencia, incluido el explorador.

El lunes, el robot recibió y mandó de vuelta un mensaje grabado por el administrador de la Nasa, Charles Bolden, que decía: "El conocimiento que esperamos ganar de nuestra observación y análisis del cráter Gale nos enseñará mucho sobre la posibilidad de vida en Marte, así como las posibilidades del pasado y el futuro de nuestro propio planeta".

La próxima parada para el explorador será Glenelg, 400 metros al este, que parece ser la intersección de tres distintas regiones geológicas; cosechas potencialmente ricas para la serie de herramientas de Curiosity.

"Cuando finalmente lleguemos a Glenelg, deseamos estudiar el promontorio y dar una mirada a los contactos entre los tres terrenos", dijo a la BBC Joy Crisp, una científica que trabaja en la misión.

De ahí partirá hacia la base del Monte Sharp en un viaje que tomará varios meses.

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.

Mars Rover Landing's "Seven Minutes of Terror" Just Got Scarier

ORIGINAL: NatGeo

Richard A. Lovett

for National Geographic News

Published July 17, 2012

Glitchy orbiter may leave NASA in the dark for nail-biting Mars touchdown.

A "sky crane" lowers NASA's Curiosity rover to the Martian surface in an artist's conception. Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

A glitch in the Mars Odyssey orbiter may add additional drama to the "seven minutes of terror" expected as the Mars Science Laboratory rover, aka Curiosity, lands on the red planet next month, NASA scientists announced Monday.

(Get the basics on the Mars Curiosity rover.)

Those seven minutes are the time it should take the vehicle to descend from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the surface, braking all the way.

"We go from 13,000 miles [21,000 kilometers] per hour to zero is seven minutes," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said at a press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

(Watch a National Geographic video: "Mars Rover's 'Seven Minutes of Terror.'")

It's by no means assured that the rover will make it down intact—some 60 percent of all Mars missions have failed.

"Landing on Mars is always risky," McCuistion said, noting that there are hundreds of automated steps that must all occur in the proper sequence.

"If one of them is out of place, it's very likely that the Mars Science rover, Curiosity, may hit the ground harder than planned," he said.

(Related: "Next Mars Rover Landing Site Named: Gale Crater.")

Although the entire process is automated, scientists had originally planned to monitor it live it via instruments on the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which has been circling the red planet since 2001.

Odyssey was in an orbit that would allow the craft to monitor the entire descent. But that may no longer be the case, McCuistion said, because a malfunctioning stabilizing device called a reaction wheel is causing the orbiter's path to shift.

Odyssey, he said, could arrive over the landing site too late to see the final stage of the descent.

This won't affect the landing itself, but it may extend those seven minutes of terror by delaying NASA's ability to find out whether the Mars Science Laboratory made it down intact.

"We are assessing how much [Odyssey] moved and whether we want to try to move it back," McCuistion said. "There's a potential it won't see the entire landing."

If all goes well, the one-ton, car-size Curiosity—twice as long as the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, and much heavier—is scheduled to touch down at 1:31 a.m. ET on August 6. (See Mars rover pictures.)

Odyssey's new orbit is still uncertain, as are potential plans for changing it. As a result, NASA engineers might have to bite their nails for an hour or two longer—until Odyssey makes a second pass over the landing zone or until another orbiter can relay its recording of Curiosity's descent—before they can confirm the rover made it down intact.

Meanwhile, said Pete Theisinger, the NASA expedition's project manager, "morale is good.

"This is very much the mood of the team before Spirit and Opportunity landed—the same kind of anxious anticipation, with a little bit of nerves."

(Available now: the new National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012.)

Mars Landing a Terror on Xbox Too

For those wanting to share in the experience, NASA on Monday released a freeXbox Kinect video game called "Mars Rover Landing," which allows users to guide Curiosity through those seven minutes of terror. (Video: "Mars Rover Landing" Xbox game demo.)

Like the real thing, the Xbox game is "not easy," Jeff Norris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said. "But we think families are going to enjoy facing the challenges of landing on Mars."