Another BP Oil Rig is a "Ticking Time Bomb": Whistleblower by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York

Photo: West Orlando News
While there's still some fuzziness around what precisely caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig to explode -- a series of malfunctions, design flaws, and human errors all played a role -- we can agree all agree on one thing: Poor oversight and shoddy regulation enabled the situation to reach critical mass. But that's all behind us, right? I mean, the Obama administration has lifted the ban on offshore drilling, after assuring us that from now on, safety will be a priority. Whew. Well, wait a minute -- what's this noise we're hearing about BP having another "ticking time bomb" deepwater oil rig in the Gulf? One that both the company and the federal government refuse to disclose the safety documents for?

Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard reports:

... BP's other major oil production platform in the Gulf, the one that watchdogs have called a "ticking time bomb" ignored by federal regulators. The BP Atlantis platform is operating in deeper waters and is extracting more oil from the Gulf each day than the Deepwater Horizon well leaked, but neither the company nor the feds have proved it is safe.
Located 124 miles off the Louisiana coast, the Atlantis platform produces 200,000 barrels of oil daily, more than triple the amount of oil that spilled from the Horizon site each day. But long before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a whistleblowing former BP contractor tipped off regulators that the Atlantis may be violating the law, and environmental groups and members of Congress have been publicly questioning the platform's safety ever since.

Evidently, a whistle-blowing contractor named Kenneth Abbott, who worked on the platform until just last year, claims that "more than 7,000 documents necessary to operate the platform safely are missing or incomplete". Many of its safety systems are out of date, and a number of its design schematics were never properly approved.
Read the rest of Sheppard's story : http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/10/bp-atlantis-platform-ticking-time-bomb for more details on how exactly BP and the contracting companies have sidestepped having to provide adequate safety information -- it all starts to sound a whole lot like deja vu all over again.

How to Plant 60 Million Mangrove Trees in 3 Months

The mangrove tree is essential to tropical zones around the world, helping to nourish local ecosystems with fish and plants, protect shorelines and soak up carbon. And now it's vanishing at an alarming rate. Since 1980, the planet has lost up to a third of them.

But in the West African country of Senegal, citizens aren't taking the loss of their trees lightly. Through the end of October, over 70,000 people across the Casamance and Saloum regions will plant an estimated 60 million of the essential trees.

With the help of a local NGO, Oceanium, and French corporate sponsors Danone and Voyagers du Monde, here's how they'll do it.

The mangrove tree is essential to tropical zones around the world, helping to nourish local ecosystems with fish and plants, protect shorelines and soak up carbon. And now it's vanishing at an alarming rate. Since 1980, the planet has lost up to a third of them.
But in the West African country of Senegal, citizens aren't taking the loss of their trees lightly. Through the end of October, over 70,000 people across the Casamance and Saloum regions will re-plant an estimated 60 million of these essential trees.

With the help of a local NGO, Oceanium, French corporate sponsors Danone and Voyagers du Monde, and a breathtaking determination, here's how they're doing it.



The Mangrove Emergency

It is hard to understate the role that the mangrove plays in ecosystems across the planet: Indigenous to salt water, it can turn barren salt flats into habitats for fish and important plants like rice, help desalinate soil, replenish nitrogen, strengthening vulnerable coastlines, and soak up massive amounts of carbon.
But for three decades, the mangrove has been on the decline. The latest data from NASA and the US Geological Survey shows that the world has lost 35% of its mangrove forests since 1980, due to cutting and drought.

In Senegal, the loss of mangroves is debilitating to local economies. Once, mangrove forests supported oysters, shrimp, tilapia, barracuda and catfish. Now, many of those species are gone.


The Casamance, Senegal

The Casamance, in southern Senegal is dominated by lush tropical landscape, captivating beaches and views, and the culture of the Diola, the region's largest ethnic group.
Both French and Portuguese colonists laid claim to the region before a border was negotiated in 1888 between the French colony of Senegal and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau), to the south.

Separated from the north of Senegal by the Gambia, which juts into the country like a knife, the Casamance is also known for occasional tensions between the government and a separatist movement, called Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), which has been linked to street violence and terrorism. It's also home to millions of farmers, who depend upon the region's embattled mangrove tree.




Illegal Logging

Along with the mangrove, trees like baobab give Senegal one of the larger rates of old growth forest in West Africa.

But since 1990, the country has lost 7.2% of its forest, due to a number of factors, including felling for fuel wood and charcoal, logging for building materials, and burning to clear land for agriculture. In addition to a fast growing population, wildlife poaching, hydroelectric projects and road construction have also added pressure on forest areas.

The deforestation contributes to soil erosion, desertification, floods and drought, all of which have negative consequences on agriculture.



Oceanium, an NGO Dynamo

Originally a diving center in Dakar, Oceanium has transformed over the years into a working center for the protection of the ocean and for the sustainable management of natural resources in Senegal and beyond.
Under the leadership of the indefatigable Haidar el Ali, pictured, the group launched its first mangrove campaign in September 2006, replanting 65,000 propagules in partnership with the population of Tobor, a village in Casamance.

In 2008, the number grew to 6 million, and to 30 million in 2009. Now in an effort to plant 60 million seeds, the project includes over 130 villages and upwards of 70,000 volunteers and workers.

Photo: Oceanium



Watch the slideshow .... http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2010/10/how-to-plant-60-million-mangrove-trees-in-3-months-in-remote-africa.php?page=5

Vending Machine Sells Live Crabs by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Braz

For those folks who love the taste of seafood but hate all the trouble of fishing it from the ocean, one recently unveiled invention in China has a cruelly-convenient solution -- a vending machine that dispenses crabs, guaranteed to be alive or your next meal is free! That's right, for around $1.50 you can now buy a living, breathing snack with the same ease normally reserved for the purchase of a can of soda or a bag of chips, perfect if you're on the run or need a quick bite in a pinch.

Shanghai Hairy Crabs are currently being sold from the morally bankrupt vending machines in subways stops in Nanjing, China, for between $1.50 and $7.50, based on the weight of the crustaceans. If a customer is unfortunate enough to wind up with a crab that failed to survive its cruel confinement, the company that supplies the machines promises a reimbursement of not one, not two, but three living animals for them to munch on.

According to a report from the Japan Probe, the crabs are stored in plastic containers inside the machine and chilled to temperature of around 41°F. When the animals are cooled, says the manufacturer, they enter a state of hibernation -- but worry not, they'll wake right up shortly after being dispensed.

If the machines appear to catch on with the crab-loving subway commuters, the inventor says he plans on expanding on his idea into other countries. Perhaps what the world needs instead, however, is a vending machine that dispenses a bit of decency. After all, shouldn't consuming living things be a little less convenient?

One-Fifth Of Juvenile Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Killed by BP Oil Spill

Map of the length of time oil was in the Gulf. The lightest orange indicates 1-3 weeks coverage; the darkest is 16-18 weeks. Image: European Space Agency

Six months from the start of the BP oil spill and we now know the answer to the question of how badly the spill would hurt spawning bluefin tuna. New satellite data from the European Space Agency shows 20% of juvenile bluefin tuna killed by oil. Which is pretty significant since Atlantic bluefin have declined over 80% in the past 30 years, and at current fishing rates the critically endangered fish will be extinct by 2012.


Things could have been much worse though. The ESA analysis shows that the main spawning hotspot for bluefin to the west of the spill area was unaffected by pollution.

When bluefin tuna breed, females release eggs into the water and males following behind fertilize them. After hatching the larvae begin searching for food near the surface of the water. Which in the case of the BP oil spill meant they came into contact will the oil, which killed them.

Catherine Kilduff of the Center for Biological Diversity commented,
This study confirms our worst fears about the oil spill's impacts on bluefin tuna and provides more evidence that this species needs the Endangered Species Act to survive. The federal government could have predicted the effects of the spill during spawning season prior to the disaster; listing Atlantic bluefin tuna as endangered will prevent such an oversight from ever occurring again.

Japan is by far the world's largest consumer of bluefin tuna, photo: Stewart Butterfield/Creative Commons
International Ban on Bluefin Needed for Recovery
Which is true, but to give the Atlantic bluefin tuna any chance of recovery an international ban on trade in the species is what is required.

Such a ban was rejected at the last CITES meeting, with pressure from Japan, the world's largest consumer of bluefin, and from some European nations, who fear the impact on their fishing industry of ban, scuttling the proposal--which had backing of the United States, the UK, Monoco and some other European nations.

Current quota levels for the fish are already set too high to allow recovery of the species, with actual catch of the fish far exceeding these officially sanctioned levels.