HeadsetOptions Web Design, SEO, WordPress, Etcetra

Despite the blockade, the Lebanese Ministry of Environment has started the clean up of fuel that spilled into the Mediterranean Sea after Israel bombed a power plant. Some environmentalists consider this to be the biggest environmental catastrophe in Lebanon’s history. The month old spill has reached 140 km (87 miles) of Lebanese coastline and the Syrian shore threatening marine species such as Bluefin tuna and the green turtle, which is endangered in the Mediterranean.
The Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Tuesday “In the worst-case scenario, and if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.”
An Italian environmental agency that monitors the Mediterranean said the “spill posed a heightened risk of cancer, and is a high-risk toxic cocktail made up of substances which cause cancer and damage to the endocrine system. It is not oil that has flowed but fuel for power stations. This contains substances such as benzene, categorized as a Class 1 carcinogen.”
Aside from the aforementioned, the MOE website lists numerous other environmental effects of the war that Lebanon has to deal with. For the time being, the war seems to have ended, but the battle to overcome collateral damage is just getting started. There is no doubt in my mind that the destruction brought up by the conflict will resonate for years, if not decades and will substantiation the notion that “in a war, there are no winners�.

Price of oil is sky rocketing, the fed are raising interest rates, and people are feeling the pinch everywhere, not just at the gas stations, making it even harder to fight the looming recession.

One good thing out of all this might be that people will use less gasoline, and that would render our environment cleaner.

So bring it on.

Photo courtesy: CNN.

Originally posted at D.C. Watch

Here’s an interesting psycho analysis of humans and our reaction (or lack of) to Global Warming. The author is Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. The interesting part is the title, “If only gay sex caused global warming.” (with due apologies to our gay readers…)

 

Get the L.A. Times Op-ed here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted at D.C. Watch 

Don’t let the headline fool you, the rule applies only for small-engine machines like lawn mover! Not to say that it would not help, but EPA’s spin on it (as quoted by Margo Oge, director of EPA’s office of transportation and air quality) is “We believe harmonizing with California will be cost-effective, good for the environment, good for the industry, good for all the stakeholders.” She continued, “We are concerned that as other sources are being controlled, this source is going to continue to be a bigger source for air pollution, so we are pretty interested in finishing our work and putting forth cost-effective standards for the country,”

“as other sources are being controlled?� Oge, here is a short-list of sources you probably overlooked before you decided to go after lawn movers-

Coal fired power plants
Cars and SUVs
Container ships
Incinerators
Oil refineries

EPA, like our current administration, seems more interested in going after the small fishes while the large culprits go about doing as they please. Divergence tactics? Incompetent? Ignorance? Maybe, I don’t know, but definitely blog worthy.

Source: Associated Press by Erica Werner