Ocean for drilling
Cleanup, restoration efforts, and economic fallout from the BP Gulf Spill have kept the spectre of the catastrophe fresh in the minds of the region’s residents (if not anyone else’s). But Obama is eager to be seen as “pro-drilling” in election season—especially one in which rising gas prices are likely to offer the GOP its preferred window of attack (never mind that expanding drilling doesn’t lower gas prices, which are instead at the whim of global market forces). Under the agreement, 1.5 million acres of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf will be opened for drilling. The interior department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates there are 172 million barrels of oil in the area.
Earth Is Losing Half A Trillion Tons Of Ice A Year
Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all of Earth’s land ice between 2003 and 2010, with particular emphasis on glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica.
The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and Earth’s glaciers and ice caps during the study period was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 0.5 inches (12 millimeters) to global sea level. That’s enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep.
About a quarter of the average annual ice loss came from glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica (roughly 148 billion tons, or 39 cubic miles). Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica and their peripheral ice caps and glaciers averaged 385 billion tons (100 cubic miles) a year. Results of the study will be published online Feb. 8 in the journal Nature.
Fish imports from Japan turning up radioactive
South Korea is finding radioactive materials in fishery products from Japan with increased frequency but has no immediate plans to ban imports as the radiation levels are far below safety limits, the Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday, citing an unidentified inspection agency official. The highest level of radiation detected in Japanese products this year is 6.24 becquerels, about 1.7 percent of the maximum intake limit of 370 becquerels. A becquerel is a unit of measurement for radioactivity levels in terms of the number of atomic disintegrations per second. The highest level of radiation detected in Japanese products since the nuclear accident was 97.90 becquerels. In January and February, South Korea detected traces of radioactive materials, including cesium, in 32 separate shipments of fisheries products from Japan.