Desdemona Despair

Britain has experienced the driest first six months of the year for more than 80 years.

Met Office figures showed the average rainfall across the country was 356.8mm, making it the driest start to the year since 1929 and the second driest in a century.

The long-term average for January to June is 511.7 mm.

The dry conditions, caused by a lack of Atlantic weather systems, have led to low levels in reservoirs and pressure on water supplies in some parts of the country, including the North-west.

Last week millions of householders were warned of a possible hosepipe ban after the "Biblical floods" in Cumbria were followed by a summer drought. Water levels in many of the county's reservoirs and lakes have plummeted to less than half their capacity.

Driest first six months in 80 years

This graph shows how the average surface temperature of the world’s oceans has changed since 1880. This graph uses the 1971 to 2000 average as a baseline for depicting change. Choosing a different baseline period would not change the shape of the trend. The shaded band shows the likely range of values, based on the number of measurements collected and the precision of the methods used.

• Sea surface temperature increased over the 20th century. From 1901 through 2009, temperatures rose at an average rate of 0.12 degrees per decade. Over the last 30 years, sea surface temperatures have risen more quickly at a rate of 0.21 degrees per decade.

• Sea surface temperatures have been higher during the past three decades than at any other time since 1880.

• The largest increases in sea surface temperature occurred in two key periods: between 1910 and 1940, and from 1970 to the present. Sea surface temperatures appear to have cooled between 1880 and 1910.

Climate Change Indicators in the United States [pdf]

Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Paul Tait

(Reuters) - China will move 345,000 people, mostly poor villagers, within about two years to make way for a vast scheme to draw on rivers in the south to supply the increasingly dry north, an official newspaper said on Tuesday.

The forced resettlement for the South-to-North Water Transfer Project will be the biggest China has undertaken since building the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric scheme, said the People's Daily.

The project involves an eastern route to take water from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and a central route to tap rivers flowing into the Danjiangkou Dam in central China.

The scheme has been troubled by delays, cost increases, pollution and the burden of resettling displaced farmers.

Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the project, said the mass move for the central route could be more demanding than the Three Gorges Dam move, which sparked years of contention with displaced residents unhappy with compensation and conditions.

"The intensity of the resettlement will surpass that of the Three Gorges Dam Project, because that involved a million migrants over about 10 years, and the resettlement for the South-to-North Water Transfer Project must be completed in over two years," the paper quoted Zhang as saying. …

North China has about half the country's population but 19 percent of its fresh water resources. Industrial and urban growth have strained the nation's rivers and underground reserves, according to official estimates. …

China to move tens of thousands for huge water scheme

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com
June 29, 2010

The Selmunett lizard (Podarcis filfolensis ssp. Kieselbachi) is very likely extinct, according to Maltese naturalist Arnold Sciberras. One of four subspecies of the Maltese wall lizard, the Selmunett lizard was last seen in 2005. Although the lizard's home—Selmunett Island—has long been uninhabited by people, that fact did not help save the lizard. Over-predation by introduced rats is thought to be the primary cause of lizard's extinction.

A number of surveys have failed to turn up the lizard and its extinction published, yet the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) still considers the subspecies as surviving, according to MaltaToday.

"MEPA doesn’t want to acknowledge that its conservation attempts have failed in some cases," Sciberras told the local news organization. …

Photos: rats drive island lizard to extinction

Two radar satellite images (black and white) taken by the RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 satellites on June 27, 2010, show oil slicks and sheen extending across 19,112 square miles (49,500 km2) in the Gulf. The radar images were acquired at 6:48 am (long image on right) and 6:52 pm (image on left) local time:

The color backdrop is a MODIS/Terra satellite image taken early afternoon on June 27. Thick clouds from Tropical Storm Alex, passing off to the south, are visible at lower left. …

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - RADARSAT Images, Trouble With Alex

The Times-Picayune
Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 3:07 PM    

Two animal conservation groups on Tuesday said they will sue BP and the U.S. Coast Guard to stop what they say are the deaths of turtles that are trapped in the controlled burns of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network notified BP and the Coast Guard that they will file a lawsuit. The 60-day notice letter is a first step to possibly filing a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act, the groups said in a news release today.

The groups said there have been reports of sea turtles, including Kemp's ridley turtles, being caught in areas where the oil from the BP oil spill is being burned. Authorities have had a number of controlled burns to dispose of the oil floating atop the water.

"BP is burning turtles alive and it is cruel, heartless and a crime we can't and won't allow to continue," said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "Sea turtles were critically endangered before BP created America's worst environmental catastrophe, and every effort possible must be taken to rescue endangered turtles from this oil spill. BP needs to reverse course and help double our efforts to rescue sea turtles, not prevent their recovery."

Robert Wine, a BP press officer, said the company is always on the lookout for turtles and other wildlife before the controlled burns begin.

"Unified Command is expanding turtle monitoring capability for both in-situ burning and skimming. In addition a biologist will be on board one of the skimmers to also evaluate any risks to turtles,'' Wine wrote in an email.

He added, "The idea of animals being burned alive is appalling to us.''

The Department of Justice said it had no comment. …

Animal conservation groups say they will sue BP, federal agencies over turtles allegedly caught in oil spill burns

Press-Register staff
Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 4:08 PM   

Tropical Storm Alex is strengthening and is expected to become a hurricane over the next few hours, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm's winds have reached 70 mph and the Center says the storm is becoming better organized as it moves toward the south Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Though Alex will stay away from the site of the BP oil leak, forecasters have said surges from the storm could push additional oil onto the Gulf Coast.

Tropical Storm Alex strengthening, expected to become hurricane tonight

WASHINGTON – The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations  in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The State Department said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

The identities of all 12 countries and international organizations were not immediately announced. One country was cited in the State Department statement — Japan, which is providing two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The State Department hasn't indicated why some offers have been accepted and others have not.

US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill

Coral reefs support a quarter of the world's marine life, but rising ocean temperatures are killing them. The impact of their decline could be huge, says marine biologist Olivia Durkin

A a result of rising sea temperatures, we are seeing the degradation and eventual destruction of one of the most beautiful ecosystems on Earth. Corals around the world are succumbing to yet another mass "bleaching event"; reefs that were once a rich mosaic of colours are now shockingly white as corals fade and die.

Corals are in fact a combination of animal, algae and "rock". Colonies are made up of many identical individuals called polyps that secrete a stony skeleton. Polyps contain microscopic algae called zooxanthellae living within the coral animal tissue; the relationship is mutually beneficial, or symbiotic. Zooxanthellae use sunlight to provide energy and nutrients for the coral through photosynthesis, in return they are provided with shelter. In a reef, each colony acts as a building block, pieced together to form intricate structures that provide habitats for an abundance of reef fish and many other creatures.

Bleaching is the ultimate stress reaction, when environmental conditions decline to a point where they cannot sustain the coral-algae relationship. Zooxanthellae, which are responsible for the magnificent colour of corals, are expelled from the coral, leaving the transparent tissue on a stark white skeleton. Although still alive, bleached corals must work harder without zooxanthellae to obtain the energy they need for growth and survival. If periods of stress are prolonged, the corals will die. Other reef residents such as giant clams, sea anemones and soft corals, which also contain zooxanthellae, are sharing the same fate.

Widespread bleaching tends to be attributed to abnormally high sea temperatures in addition to high levels of light. This happens in times of prolonged calm weather and crystal-clear water. While this may sound like the picture-postcard perception of a typical coral reef environment, it is in fact turbulent waters that keep coral healthy and scientists worry that the current event has the potential to be the worst ever.

Sea temperatures are at an all-time high. Major bleaching incidents are increasingly prevalent. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed that 2010 has been the hottest year in recorded history. Prior to this, 1998 was the hottest for 130 years, leading to unprecedented intense bleaching and coral mortality worldwide which wiped out more than 90 per cent of shallow water corals in the Indian Ocean. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch monitors and predicts bleaching events using HotSpots, a measure which highlights areas where sea surface temperatures rise above levels that can lead to bleaching.

As predicted by NOAA, bleaching began this February in Mauritius and it has progressed throughout the Indian Ocean and South East Asia, including reefs off Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Philippines. Florida and the Caribbean are next, with strong warming of the surrounding sea and severe bleaching expected for the coming months.

Even the world's most southerly coral reef at Lord Howe Island has suffered its worst bleaching event. Lying off eastern Australia, the island is well known for its pristine and beautiful environment. For true coral reef formation, relatively stable conditions are required – and Lord Howe Island is at the threshold of coral reef tolerance. Thermal-induced bleaching at the southern limits of coral reef formation is a cause for considerable concern; evidence that dramatic sea warming has spread to the subtropical regions as well as the tropics. …

Coral: Lost at sea?

By  Ryan Dezember, Press-Register
Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 5:00 AM

Federal wildlife officials plan to move tens of thousands of sea turtle eggs from oil-plagued beaches along the northern Gulf to Florida's east coast, where the reptiles would hatch in a controlled environment and be released into the Atlantic Ocean.

Made public over the weekend, the 10-page plan details the procedure for digging up as many as 50,000 ping-pong-ball-sized eggs from some 800 nests in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, packing them into sand-filled Styrofoam coolers and transporting them via plane to a Florida facility.

"This plan is painful to everyone," said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokeswoman Bonnie Strawser, who is stationed at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Gulf Shores. "We don't think it's a perfect plan, but it's better than losing 100 percent of them."

The plan's authors with the Fish & Wildlife Service make clear in a companion document that they are pursuing the unprecedented relocation with trepidation.

There are "definite, but unquantifiable risks" involved in handling the threatened and endangered species' eggs and "mortality beyond natural levels must be expected," but the current situation in the Gulf requires extraordinary and previously unthinkable measures, the Wildlife Service said.

"In developing this plan we realized early that our expectations for success must be rooted in the knowledge that doing nothing would most likely result in the loss of most, if not all, of this year's northern Gulf of Mexico hatchling cohort," government scientists wrote. …

Wildlife officials to move thousands of sea turtle eggs to Florida's east coast

By Fayen Wong
Thursday June 24, 2010 05:40:03 AM GMT

PERTH, June 22 (Reuters) - Asia's thermal coal imports are set to hit a record high next year, nearing 500 million tonnes, as economies in the region extend their recovery over the next 18 months, an official Australian forecast showed on Tuesday.

Asian exporters, such as Indonesia and Australia, are seen struggling to keep pace with the demand, which could prompt end-users to draw more supplies from Russia and South Africa to fill the supply gap in the Pacific market, the forecasts showed.

In its updated June quarterly forecast, the government's Australian Bureau for Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) said demand for imported coal in Asia would rise by 26.3 million tonnes, or 5.8 percent, to 478.5 million tonnes in 2010, and a further 4 percent to 497.6 million tonnes in 2011.

This compares with its previous March forecasts for imports of 445 million tonnes in 2010 and 459.3 million tonnes in 2011.

"Increased import demand in China and India is forecast to account for most of this forecast rise, with increased exports expected to come mainly from Indonesia and the Russian Federation," ABARE analyst Michael Lampard said in the report.

China's thermal coal imports were forecast to increase 7 percent to 98 million tonnes in 2010 and to 103 million tonnes in 2011, as development of higher-cost Chinese mines further inland improved the competitiveness of imports.

"A potential downside risk to China's import demand for thermal coal is associated with the extent to which import coal prices could increase. Sharply higher coal prices would encourage domestic production in China leading to weaker demand for imports," ABARE said.

India, the fastest-growing importer of thermal coal, is forecast to boost imports by 26 percent to 68 million tonnes in 2010 and by a further 13 percent to 77 million tonnes in 2011.

Japan's thermal coal imports in 2010 are forecast to rise by 3 percent to 120 million tonnes as its economy slowly recovers, edging up to about 121 million tonnes in 2011. …

Asia's thermal-coal imports seen hitting record in 2011

Licapa, Peru (AFP) June 28, 2010 - In a remote corner of the Peruvian Andes, men in paint-daubed boilersuits diligently coat a mountain summit with whitewash in an experimental bid to recuperate the country's melting glaciers.

It's a bizarre sight at 4,756 metres (15,600 feet) above sea level.

The man behind the idea is not a glaciologist but an inventor, Eduardo Gold. His non-governmental organisation Glaciares de Peru was one of 26 winners of the World Bank's "100 Ideas to Save the Planet" competition in November 2009.

Gold has already begun work while he waits for the 200,000-dollar prize money to fund his pilot project. His plan is to paint a total area of 70 hectares (173 acres) on three peaks in the Andean region of Ayacucho in southern Peru.

Chalon Sombrero, the name of an extinct glacier which used to irrigate a valley and several rivers, is where he's started with a team of four men from the local village, Licapa.

The workers use jugs - rather than paintbrushes - to splash the whitewash onto loose rocks around the summit. So far they have painted some two hectares, just a tenth of the total area they aim to cover on that peak.

"A white surface reflects the sun's rays back through the atmosphere and into space, in doing so it cools the area around it too," explains Gold.

"In effect in creates a micro-climate, so we can say that the cold generates more cold, just as heat generates more heat." …

In his 65 years, Pablo Parco Palomino has seen the Chalon Sombrero summit turn from an imposing snow-capped glacier into bare rock. Climate change has made life much harder in Licapa, so much so that he believes the scattered population of around 900 may have to move elsewhere.

"All the peaks here should be painted in this way," he says. Like him, most of the community welcomed Gold's pilot project, hopeful that the peak might freeze over again.

"That way there would be as much water as there was before the glacier disappeared, and that would mean more pasture to support more livestock."

Licapa is above the tree-line. At more than 4,000 metres above sea level crops or trees don't grow. The people live mainly from selling their alpacas' wool. …

Peru is home to more than 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers but global warming has already melted away 22 percent of them in the last 30 years, according to a World Bank report in 2009. …

Peru inventor 'whitewashes' peaks to slow glacier melt

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorologists began production of satellite-derived maps of Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) in late 1966. Map data have been used in international assessments of climate variability and change, and in investigations regarding the role of snow cover in the climate system. Despite their proven climate utility, meteorological forecasting has been the driving force behind producing these maps. As such, changes (documented and undocumented) in mapping methodologies have occurred over time, without a focus on their climatological continuity.

Members of our team have kept a watchful eye on changes in this satellite environmental data record (EDR). From this EDR, we have developed a satellite SCE climate data record (CDR).

Rutgers University Global Snow Lab

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2010) — University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year's Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" is expected to be larger than average, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a $659 million fishery.

The 2010 forecast, released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 6,500 and 7,800 square miles, an area roughly the size of Lake Ontario.

The most likely scenario, according to Scavia, is a Gulf dead zone of 6,564 square miles, which would make it the Gulf's 10th-largest oxygen-starved, or hypoxic, region on record. The average size over the past five years was about 6,000 square miles.

It is unclear what impact, if any, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will have on the size of this year's Gulf dead zone because numerous factors are at work, the researchers say.

"We're not certain how this will play out. But one fact is clear: The combination of summer hypoxia and toxic-oil impacts on mortality, spawning and recruitment is a one-two punch that could seriously diminish valuable Gulf commercial and recreational fisheries," said Scavia, Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, and a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste -- some of it from as far away as the Corn Belt -- is the main source of the nitrogen and phosphorus that cause the annual Gulf of Mexico hypoxia zone. Each year in late spring and summer, these nutrients flow down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf, fueling explosive algae blooms there.

When the algae die and sink, bottom-dwelling bacteria decompose the organic matter, consuming oxygen in the process. The result is an oxygen-starved region in bottom and near-bottom waters: the dead zone.

This year, the situation is complicated by uncertainties related to the Gulf oil spill. …

Reseachers predict larger-than-average Gulf 'dead zone'; Impact of oil spill unclear

By Salama Harby, Wael Naguib; editing by Deng Shasha

SOUTH SINAI, Egypt, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Looking at the dead fish on the Ras Mohammed nature reserve shores of the Red Sea, Mohammed Salem said those who murdered the fish were criminals and should be put behind bars.

"During the last few days, we found a large amount of dead fish, killed by the explosions by fishermen," Salem, general director of the national parks in South Sinai province, told Xinhua.

Fishing by means of explosions at the Ras Mohammed National Park, some 25 km southwest of the Egyptian resort of Sharm El- Sheikh, has led to the death of rare fish and dolphins.

Last week, local police arrested 16 fishermen who used dynamite to fish in the nature reserve. They had already been fined 1 million Egyptian pounds (about 177,000 U.S. dollars) for the damage they caused to the coral reefs. They might also be sentenced to at least three-year jail terms according to Egyptian law.

The Red Sea boasts a rich and diverse ecosystem. More than 1, 200 species of fish have been recorded in the area. And 10 percent of them are native, including 42 species of deepwater fish.

Aiming to protect the special biodiversity of the area, the Egyptian government has set up the national park in 1983. There has been effective protection of local marine life over the past three decades. The place has become a major destination for diving enthusiasts.

But the recent dead fish showed explosions have posed a great threat to the environment.

"Among the dead fish were rare Napoleon fish, whose number is very small in the Aqaba Bay," Salem said.

"We have also found some dead dolphins. After investigation, we realized that they were killed by the explosions," Salem added. …

Illegal fishing endangers Red Sea marine life via Apocadocs

MODIS satellite images on June 25 and June 26 show oil slicks and sheen affecting beaches from Gulfport, Mississippi to Destin, Florida.

Oil slick and sheen cover 24,453 square miles on the June 25 image. Slicks appear to impacting beaches from Gulfport, Mississippi to Pensacola, Florida. Freshly upwelling oil is apparent at the site of the leaking Macondo well, and is moving west in the immediate vicinity of the well.

On June 26, a MODIS/Aqua satellite image shows oil slick and sheen covering 23,049 square miles, threatening beaches from Gulfport and Biloxi to Destin, Florida. To the west, the slick extends to Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Emerging oil is continuing to move west from the well site.

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - Satellite Images Show Oil Impact From Gulfport to Destin

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 8:00AM BST 26 Jun 2010

Wimbledon may be looking green but the rest of Britain's lawns are already turning brown this summer due to a combination of unusually dry weather and an invasion of hungry bugs.

The coldest winter for 30 years caused pink and white patches to appear on lawns earlier in the year as fungus grew under the snow.

Now a lack of rainfall has made it impossible to generate green growth during the important months of May and June and the situation could get worse with hosepipe bans imposed in some areas.

Gardens  are also suffering from chafer beetle larvae, which are flourishing in the warm weather and eating the roots of grass.

Trevor Bishop, Head of Water Resources at the Environment Agency, said it has been the driest start to the year for half a century in the North West and hosepipe bans will be imposed later this summer.

He said Wales has not seen such conditions since the 'great drought' of 1976 and rivers in the South West are also running low.

Overall the rainfall for England and Wales has been 34-35mm, half what it should be for May and June when gardeners are putting fertiliser on their lawns to make them grow.

"It is not a good year for lawns," said Mr Bishop. "But the good news is grass is designed to go brown in dry periods and it should recover quickly if the rain comes."

At the moment the Met Office is forecasting rain in the north over the next month but dry over much of the rest of the country, which is good news for farmers bringing in the hay but could be disastrous for gardeners.

Guy Barter of the Royal Horticultural Society said the average 'water soil deficit' is four inches, meaning it will take at least that much rain to fall for the grass to recover.

This level of dryness is usually not reached until July or August and he said gardeners are concerned there will not be the enough rainfall for lawns to recover over the next few months. …

Lawns suffering from drought

Conservationists say an epidemic is destroying the big cats' ability to hunt and turning them into potential man-eaters

By Patrick Evans
The Observer, Sunday 20 June 2010

A mystery disease is driving the Siberian tiger to the edge of extinction and has led to the last animal tagged by conservationists being shot dead in the far east of Russia because of the danger it posed to people.

The 10-year-old tigress, known to researchers as Galya, is the fourth animal that has had a radio collar attached to it for tracking to die in the past 10 months. All had been in contact with a male tiger suspected of carrying an unidentified disease that impaired the ability to hunt. "We may be witnessing an epidemic in the Amur tiger population," said Dr Dale Miquelle, the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Russia director.

Galya had recently abandoned a three-week-old litter of cubs and come into the town of Terney looking for an easy meal. Following a series of all-night vigils by researchers, attempts to scare the tigress away failed. She was reported to the Primorsky State Wildlife Department as an official "conflict tiger", and a state wildlife inspector was called in to destroy her earlier this month.

"This tiger had lost its fear of humans – typically Amur tigers will never expose themselves for observation. It was like seeing someone you know turn into a vampire," Miquelle said.

Scientists are attempting to understand what compromised the tigress's ability to capture wild prey, which she had lived upon almost exclusively since birth. Her cubs, which were subsequently found dead at the den, are likely to have had their mother's disease transmitted to them through the placenta. "Initial necropsy results show an empty digestive tract, which is highly unusual. We're still waiting for results of further tests, but the abnormal behaviour suggests disease, possibly neurological," said Miquelle. "We are extremely concerned about the possibility of an epidemic that could be sweeping through this region. Animals we have studied extensively, and known well, have demonstrated radically changed behaviour, which is extremely disconcerting."

Weighing only 91kg at death – down from an estimated 140kg at full health – the tigress's death represents the end of an 11-year lineage of related "study" tigers, and leaves the WCS's Siberian Tiger Project with no radio-collared animals for the first time in 18 years. WCS Russia has tracked more than 60 tigers since inception in 1992.

In March this year, Miquelle raised the prospect of disease as a potential threat to an already endangered Siberian tiger population. The Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program reported in October 2009 a possible 40% decline in numbers since the last full survey in 2005, from 428 to as little as 252 adult tigers. The tiger's range has been reduced to a small pocket in the corner of the country within the region of Primorsky Krai.

Speaking at a conference in Vladivostok, Miquelle said that anything above a 15% mortality rate in adult females could kill off all Amur tigers. With around 150 adult females in the population, any more than 22 deaths of adult females per year may wipe out the species. Poaching accounts for about 75% of all Amur tiger deaths, with 12 to 16 adult females killed annually. "We're in a new era where disease could seriously affect the Amur tiger." …

Siberian tiger threatened by mystery disease

By Casandra Andrews, Press-Register
Published: Sunday, June 27, 2010, 5:32 AM

In March, officers with the Bayou La Batre Police Department responded to 470 calls, according to their records.

Two months later -- after a ruptured well began gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, imperiling the fishing industry in five states and idling thousands of workers -- the police calls in the Bayou jumped to 800.

"That is an empirical indicator that the community is extremely disrupted," said Steven Picou, a sociology professor at the University of South Alabama, who has studied the impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska for more than 20 years.

Even worse, Picou said, the people of the Gulf may be "fast-tracking the social and psychological aspects because of the incredible size of this catastrophe. The trust factor is gone in regards to BP and the Coast Guard.

"This is your worst nightmare," Picou said. "It's like an amoebae out there. It comes and it goes. It's underwater. It's a monster."

After the Exxon Valdez spill, the rates of suicide, domestic violence and divorce surged in the areas most affected by the contamination of Prince Edward Sound.

Picou and others wonder if the same is ahead for Gulf communities where, for generations, families have made a living from local waters.

Last week, a charter fishing captain in Baldwin County, William Allen "Rookie" Kruse, took his life on his boat.

So far, only a few new patients have come to the AltaPointe mental health clinic in Bayou La Batre seeking help because of the spill, according to Dr. Sandra Parker, the medical director and a psychiatrist.

She figures that it's just a matter of time.

"People are still in shock and denial, and it takes a little while for things to sink in," Parker said. "One of the big problems in this situation is fear of the unknown. Folks who earn their living in the Bayou, they don't know when this will ever end."

Bayou Police Sgt. Jason Edwards said crime is up across the board in the area that comprises the heart of south Mobile County's staggered seafood industry.

Spencer Collier, a state lawmaker who lives in Bayou La Batre, said he has concern that stress disorders will beset the area for years to come.

"I've had half a dozen people come to me in the last three days. They can't pay the power bill," Collier said last week. "I've seen fear in their eyes." …

Gulf oil spill spews anxiety and despair

The MODIS instrument, on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, is capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill began on April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This short video reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and, later, the ensuing oil spill through May 24, 2010. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the images and changes due to changing weather, ocean currents, and the use of oil dispersing chemicals. Images in the video time series were selected that show the spill most clearly. The full image archive is available on the MODIS Rapid Response Web site.

For complete transcript, click here.

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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

By Josh Wingrove

Edmonton — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jun. 25, 2010 3:57PM EDT Last updated on Friday, Jun. 25, 2010 9:32PM EDT

In a landmark ruling, a judge has found oil sands giant Syncrude Canada Ltd. guilty of a pair of environmental charges stemming from the deaths of 1,606 birds two years ago.

Provincial Court Judge Ken Tjosvold ruled Friday that Syncrude was indeed responsible for its tailings pond where the ducks were found, and it “did not deploy the [bird] deterrents early enough and quickly enough” around the 12-square-kilometre pond, which contained toxic, oily bitumen byproduct.

“I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Syncrude could have acted lawfully by using due diligence to deter birds from the [pond], whether or not it was successful in its attempts at deterrence, and it did not do so,” Judge Tjosvold said.

The ruling is a major victory for environmentalists who oppose oil sands development – the engine of the Alberta economy – because of its heavy environmental toll. The prosecution itself was sparked after a private complaint by a member of the Sierra Club.

The case, however, is far from over. Syncrude was found guilty of two charges: a provincial charge of failing to prevent a toxic substance from harming wildlife, and a federal one of depositing a substance harmful to migratory birds. But the guilty findings haven’t been formally entered. …

Syncrude guilty in ducks trial via DeSmog Blog

Dr. Oscar Garcia-Pineda of Florida State University has been out in the Gulf this week on the research vessel Brooks McCall. He's collecting samples and observations of the BP oil slick, and will compare results with simultaneous acquisitions of aerial remote sensing overflights being conducted by NASA. We at SkyTruth are also collecting near-simultaneous satellite imagery to assist this effort. We hope to get a better understanding of how well aerial and satellite remote sensing are detecting oil at (or near) the surface.

Oscar sent us a stunning series of photographs taken on June 22 near "Ground Zero" in the Gulf, the site of the leaking Macondo well, showing the cluster of response vessels there, and the collection and burning of oil. You can see them all in SkyTruth's Deepwater Horizon Blowout gallery (look for the photos with "FSU Sampling Cruise" in the title).

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - FSU Research Cruise This Week

Damascus (AFP) June 22, 2010 - A severe four-year drought is devastating Syria's rural communities, forcing them to abandon the country's traditional breadbasket in the northeast for cities in search of employment.

Earlier this month, the World Food Programme started delivering food aid to nearly 200,000 people in the provinces of Al-Hasakeh, Al-Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, areas worst hit by the drought.

The WFP says tens of thousands of the most vulnerable families have benefited from the food aid programme.

But due to low levels of funding, the UN food agency says 110,000 people are still in need. "The situation is really bad" in northeast Syria, said WFP official Selly Muzammil.

It is the second time that food aid has been distributed in Syria since the United Nations initiated a plan last year to combat the drought in afflicted areas.

The situation has triggered a mass exodus of people to urban areas in search of work.

The UN estimates more than a million people have left the northeast for urban centres, with farmers simply not cultivating enough food or earning enough money to sustain them.

One of them, Myassar Darwish al-Hussein, 22, came to Damascus from Deir Ezzor with his family three months ago, and found a job in a factory where he earns less than 200 dollars a month.

In Deir Ezzor, "the crop yield has fallen by 70 percent," he said. …

"Deir Ezzor was... green. Today, it is completely dried out, the fields resemble the desert, the Khabour river is dry," lamented a retired army officer who has lived near Damascus for 33 years. …

Job-hunting Syrians head for cities amid severe drought

Toya, Mali (AFP) June 22, 2010 - In single file, hundreds of residents of Toya wait patiently for meat distributed by the Red Cross who bought up thousands of starving animals to feed Mali's drought-stricken population.

With containers in hand they await the meat from four cows slaughtered in the village in the north-west of the country last week which had lost too much weight from lack of grazing and water.

Children scream with joy at the prospect of the meat coming their way. "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) operation is original and benefits the farmers as well as the population," says Mohamed Ali, local ICRC representative for the town in the Timbuktu region, some 900 kilometres (560 miles) north-east of the capital Bamako.

"With the drought, the animals don't have anything to eat and drink. Then the ICRC buys the weakest animals, kills and distributes the meat to the needy. The farmer wins because of the money, the people too," says Ali.

In northern Mali and northern Niger, the ICRC seeks to buy "38,000 head of cattle from 10,000 families of farmers and farmers affected by the cumulative effects of insecurity and drought," according to the organization. …

Along the roads in this region of Timbuktu, dead animals litter the ground. Dead from thirst. Ponds that usually contain water at this time of year are empty. Birds peck listlessly at the sand before flying off.

"There is a sense of powerlessness within us. You see a cow which is thirsty, you can't do anything. It dies in front of you. And you are more concerned with saving the rest of your flock," says Atoume, a young farmer in northern Mali.

In the regions of Gao and Kidal, "it is worse," said Mahamane Dicko, a municipal councillor for the town of Douenzta, between Mopti and Gao.

"I have just come from these areas. In some parts more than 70 percent of livestock has been decimated by the drought," said Dicko. …

Amid drought, Red Cross buys starving cattle to feed Malians

By MICHAEL JANSEN in Damascus

SYRIA IS sweltering in an unseasonable heatwave which Damascenes are blaming on climate change. “We have to fight global warming now, as well as so many other battles,” asserted Zuhair, an academic.

Battle was joined in 2007 when the rains failed and 40,000 farm families in the country’s northeastern breadbasket began to migrate to Aleppo and Damascus, the country’s main cities, to take up low-paying, unskilled jobs.

In the drought-affected villages, “there are 800,000 people in need”, stated Muhannad Hadi, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP), “500,000 covered by the government and 300,000 by the WFP”. The agency has been able to help only 190,000 because of a shortfall in funding. WFP made two distributions of two-month parcels containing flour, bulgur, oil, rice, chickpeas and salt, and is set to make a third in early July. “Ireland’s donation of $900,000 [€730,000] covered the needs of 50,000 people,” he stated.

Although last season’s rain was reasonably good and improved the situation in the farming sector, Dr Abdullah Dardari, deputy prime minister for economic affairs, told The Irish Times that “the impact of poverty cannot be reversed in one year. So we need to work hard now on relocation of the displaced people back to their homes and ensuring that they have a sustainable livelihood.”

He noted that the million people who normally dwell in the northeast have been affected to different degrees. Some “were severely impacted and [others] were mildly impacted, there were people who had to move and there are people who stayed at home. Don’t forget that we did provide hundreds of thousands of food rations and a lot of financial assistance and support to the agricultural sector . . . so we managed to mitigate the impact relatively well.” Besides providing sustenance, the government responded by rescheduling loans and offering tax incentives to investors.

The ruling party’s newspaper al-Baath reported that wheat production decreased this year to 2.4 million tonnes, a fall from 4.1 million in 2007. Domestic consumption has risen to four million tonnes, forcing Syria, which had been an exporter, to import wheat for three years in succession. …

Drought adds to Syrian woes of poverty and unemployment

Time series of (top) atmospheric CO₂ and surface ocean pCO₂ and (bottom) surface ocean pH at the atmospheric Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) on the island of Hawai‘i and Station ALOHA in the subtropical North Pacific north of Hawai‘i, 1988–2008. Doney, 2010, adapted from Dore et al, 2009.

Ocean acidification is documented clearly from ocean time-series and survey measurements over the past two decades (Fig. 2) (26, 27). From preindustrial levels, contemporary surface ocean pH has dropped on average by about 0.1 pH units (a 26% increase in [H⁺]), and additional declines of 0.2 and 0.3 pH units will occur over the 21st century unless human CO₂ emissions are curtailed substantially (28). Surface ocean CaCO₃ saturation states are declining everywhere, and polar surface waters will become undersaturated for aragonite when atmospheric CO₂ reaches 400 to 450 ppm for the Arctic and 550 to 600 ppm for the Antarctic (29). Subsurface waters will also be affected but more slowly, governed by ocean circulation, with the fastest rates in the main thermocline and high latitudes where cold surface waters sink into the ocean interior. Many coastal waters naturally have low pH, a factor amplified by acid rain (30) and nutrient eutrophication (see below).

The rates of change in global ocean pH and Ω are unprecedented, a factor of 30 to 100 times faster than temporal changes in the recent geological past, and the perturbations will last many centuries to millennia. The geological record does contain past ocean acidification events, the most recent associated with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum 55.8 million years ago. But these events may have occurred gradually enough and under different enough background conditions for ocean chemistry and biology that there is no good paleo-analog for the current situation (31).

The Growing Human Footprint on Coastal and Open-Ocean Biogeochemistry, Science 18 June 2010: Vol. 328. no. 5985, pp. 1512 – 1516 DOI: 10.1126/science.1185198

Beijing (AFP) June 22, 2010 - A massive floating expanse of green algae is heading towards China's east coast, potentially threatening wildlife and the region's tourist industry, state media reported on Tuesday.

The algae bloom covered 200 square kilometres (80 square miles) and was about 13 kilometres (eight miles) offshore and floating towards the coastal city of Jiaonan in Shandong province, Xinhua news agency said.

The local branch of the State Oceanic Administration, which monitors marine conditions, is sending boats in a bid to clear the algae, it said.

Algae blooms are typically caused by pollution in China and suck up huge amounts of oxygen needed by marine wildlife to survive and leave a foul stench when they wash up on beaches, the report added.

In August 2008, a large offshore algae bloom threatened the sailing competition of the Olympic Games when it engulfed waters surrounding the event's venue in the eastern China city of Qingdao, near Jiaonan.

Up to 10,000 soldiers and volunteers were enlisted to clean up more than a million tonnes of the foul-smelling algae as they raced to clear the waters in time for the Olympics.

According to a 2008 State Oceanic Administration report, raw sewage and pollution from agricultural run-off has polluted 83 percent of China's coastal waters, leading to algae pollution and other problems.

In 2008, China's coastal waters witnessed 68 red tides -- another type of algae bloom -- covering 13,700 square kilometres (5,500 square miles), an increase of more than 2,100 square kilometres over 2007, the report said.

Giant green algae slick heads towards China

A solitary man and an ox cart travel across an area where locals went fishing less than a year ago in Damoguzhen County, Yunnan. 'The old folk say it has never dried up in their lifetimes.' Photograph: Jonathan Watts / Guardian

Drought in south-west China and the Mekong basin

By Travis Griggs • tgriggs@pnj.com • June 25, 2010

Despite intensive efforts by more than 1,100 workers and heavy equipment to clean thick tar from Pensacola Beach overnight Wednesday, massive sheets of oil remained buried in the sand.

An 8-mile stretch of Pensacola Beach that was covered with gooey oil Wednesday appeared to be clean when the sun came up Thursday. But researchers from the University of South Florida and news reporters discovered that oil is buried from about 1 inch to 8 inches deep.

Thursday evening, a News Journal reporter visited the "clean" section of Pensacola Beach near Peg Leg Pete's off Fort Pickens Road.

At a glance, it appeared at least 90 percent of the oil was gone. Scattered tar balls and a few bigger chunks of fresh crude were all that remained on the surface.

But when the reporter dug about an inch into the wet sand near the high tide line, his fingers sank into thick sheets of tar.

Rip Kirby of USF's research lab and his partner, associate professor of geology Ping Wang, said tides Wednesday night were responsible for burying the oil.

"The oil gets brought in on the incoming tide, it comes in contact with the sand and adheres to it as the tide goes out," Kirby said. "The tide drags sand from the higher elevation on the beach and buries the oil."

A major concern is that a heavy tide can unearth the hidden oil and redistribute it to the cleaner, higher elevated portions of unaffected beach. …

Oil spill: Beach's beauty only skin deep