LA-New Orleans, * Contingent Upon Contract Award*Maintenance and Logistics ManagerThe National Data Buoy Center is a program based in Bay St. Louis, MS and provides operation and maintenance of the Marine Observation Network to NOAA/NWS.The Maintenance and Logistics Manager will:oversee staff and facility and support of incoming and dispatched technical assets.work closely with Chief Systems Engineer and Data Cen

LA-New Orleans, * Contingent Upon Contract Award *Job Description:Chief Systems Engineer (CD98/E06) or (CD97/E05)The National Data Buoy Center is a program based in Bay St. Louis, MS and provides operation and maintenance of the Marine Observation Network to NOAA/NWS.The Chief Systems Engineer willprovide technical oversight for all equipment, hardware, software, networks, and operating systems.be the chief archi

Position Description
Will assist with acquiring and documenting digital oceanographic data for the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) archive. Will communicate with personnel in NOAA Offices, such as the National Data Buoy Center, and with scientists to determine the appropriate data for the archive; evaluate the data for metadata and write metadata that adhere to NODC and other federal standards; and write scripts to organize data, to extract metadata, and to automate the archiving of data. Will assist with the development of an ocean currents database and an ocean wave data portal; will translate ocean current data into a common format for ingesting into the database; and will perform scientific analyses on these data.

Required Skills
6 years of professional experience in ocean dynamics research including project planning, field studies, theoretical studies, data analysis and data management. Experience/interest in ocean measurements, data analysis and signal processing, time-series analysis, and highly-motivated, team oriented, self starter desiring to be challenged by working on problems of national importance, proven ability to work on a team and/or across organizations, ability to work independently and use FORTRAN, IDL/MATLAB,JAVA and PERL programming languages.

Must be able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to enter the applicable government facility.

Education
M.S. or Ph.D. Degree in Physical Oceanography, Engineering (fluid dynamics), Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Atmospheric Science, Mathematics, Physics, or related discipline, or equivalent.

Submit resume to ERT’s Career Opportunities Web Page at: http://tbe.taleo.net/NA8/ats/careers/searchResults.jsp?org=ERT&cws;=1

Earth Resources Technology, Inc. (ERT)
ERT is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

These images vividly illustrate that the tsunami waves generated by the recent Chilean earthquake were far less severe than the waves created by a massive earthquake in Chile in 1960, the largest quake ever recorded. A model created by the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Agency's Center for Tsunami Research in the hours after the recent earthquake, which measured 8.8 on the Richter Scale, provided an accurate forecast of the relatively mild tsunami waves that eventually reached Hawaii and other Pacific coastal communities. Using seismic information, wave measurements collected from buoy-based equipment, and computer modeling technology, NOAA was able to forecast the maximum wave amplitude, wave arrival time, and the extent of wave inundation. The image, at right, shows the power of the tsunami waves from the recent quake, with larger waves in red and orange and smaller waves in yellow. Using historical data, NOAA researchers used the same software to illustrate the extent of a tsunami triggered by the 1960 quake — 9.5 on the Richter Scale — whose tsunami waves killed 61 people in Hawaii and another 185 in Japan. The image at left shows the power of the 1960 quake, with extremely large waves depicted in black, gray, and purple. The image shows that high waves, in dark red, swept across the entire Pacific following the 1960 quake.

[ Auto Description ] National Data Buoy Center weather.gov    Home News Organization Search     Station ID Search       &...

Socialping: A powerful solution for monitoring, receiving instant notifications, and responding to Tweets.
Sign up for our private beta and help us make socialping the perfect solution for your Twitter monitoring and analytics needs. // Ad

USGS Pacific Tsunami recorders are now in "event mode" sending data every 15-60 seconds: http://ow.ly/1bVLN

0 comments Source: www.ndbc.noaa.gov

CNet ran this article - which is too good to not reblog in detail. This happens to be proof of one of the things I’m working on - turning the flat, static, centralized text based wikipedia - into a dynamic, exciting, sexy multimedia distributed encyclopedia - of the future.

These images are the winners of an NSF contest.

“Save our earth. Let’s go green,” was this year’s winning entry, created by Sung Hoon Kang, Joanna Aizenberg, and Boaz Pokroy from Harvard University. The photo was taken through an electron microscope and shows self-assembling polymers designed by the team. They hope to use the hair-like fibers to create more energy-efficient materials.

This image by chemist Michael Zach of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point got honorable mention in the photography category. Light passing through prism-like growing salt crystals collected from a sample near Death Valley National Park in California created these rainbow flares.

During their experiments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Briana Whitaker and Briana Carstens captured this flower-like image of polymers just 10 micrometers tall. While researching the state of cells that bind together skin wounds, the polymers, which are usually stacked in a pillar, fell over, creating this colorful pattern. The resulting image won honorable mention in the photography category.

Heiti Paves of Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia photographed the self-fertilizing thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), staining its pollen and ovaries blue. This image also won honorable mention in the photography category.

Richard Palais and Luc Benard of the University of California at Irvine tied for first place in the illustration category for this entry, “Kuen’s Surface: A Meditation on Euclid, Lobachevsky, and Quantum Fields.”

The piece is meant to represent the centuries of mathematical drama that followed Euclid’s assertion that if you sketch a line and then draw a point off it, you can draw only one line that passes through that point and is parallel to the original line. The idea might seem logical. But mathematicians had a devil of a time proving Euclid’s theory based on his other mathematical rules.

It was Nikolai Lobachevsky, a 19th century Russian mathematician, who showed that proving Euclid’s theory cannot be done using his own principles.

Illustrating the forces lung cells exert as they form capillaries, this 3.5-meter-tall work composed of 75,000 cable zip ties depicts five snapshots from a computer simulation of lung endothelial cells pushing against and pulling on the protein matrix that surrounds them. The image, by biologist Peter Lloyd Jones and architect Jenny Sabin of the University of Pennsylvania’s Sabin + Jones LabStudio, tied for first place in the illustration category.

Making the point that overfishing and climate change have significant consequences for marine ecosystems, marine scientist Jennifer Jacquet of the University of British Columbia in Canada and digital artist Dave Beck give a gross reminder that as numbers of large fish decrease and ocean temperatures rise, jellyfish are becoming more and more prevalent in our seas.

Mario De Stefano, Antonia Auletta, and Carla Langella from the 2nd University of Naples have been studying microscopic algae called diatoms. They believe humans can follow nature’s lead in seeking new sources of energy and we should explore new ways to build microscopic cellular solar panels based on biology.

In the foreground of this illustration, we see a scan from an electron microscope, which shows the blue fans of diatom colonies from the species Licmophora flabellata that have attached themselves to a grain of sand with their gelatinous anchor called a peduncle. Behind, we see the theoretical nature-inspired solar units we may one day use to harvest energy.

The Web site Where’s George? is a place to track dollar bills as they move around the country. This illustration, called “Follow the Money: Human Mobility and Effective Communities,” maps the results, creating a picture of how people–and money–move. The illustration, from Christian Thiemann and Daniel Grady of Northwestern University, tied for first place in the non-interactive media category.

Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunami, Gregor Hochleitner, Christian Gredel, and Nils Sparwasser from the German Aerospace Center produced a video to introduce the advanced warning system, which combines data from underwater probes, orbiting global positioning system satellites, and floating buoys in a joint project from Germany and Indonesia called the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System. Their entry won honorable mention in the non-interactive media category of the competition. (Click here to view it.)

Stacy Jannis and her team at Jannis Productions in Silver Spring, Md., produced a video to describe the degrading processes behind Alzheimer’s disease. The animation, which won honorable mention in the non-interactive media category, shows the microscopic damages that occur, explaining how the disease starts. (Click here to view it.)

Give it the gas: On the road to a cleaner energy future, natural gas offers an alternative route

Every few weeks, it seems, fresh news arrives telling of impressive discoveries of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, an area that, until recently, was viewed as well worked over and unlikely to yield any new bonanzas.

Last September brought word of a giant Gulf oil field reeled in by British Petroleum. And the latest Gulf headline-maker is a potentially major gas play offshore Louisiana that appears likely to add new trillions of cubic feet of gas to growing domestic reserves of the cleanest-burning carbon fuel.

So much for worked over. The new take on the Gulf is decidedly more optimistic.

Goldman Sees ‘Upside Risk’ for China’s Oil Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it sees “significant upside risk” to its forecast for China’s oil demand this year.

China’s oil consumption growth may exceed the bank’s forecast of 625,000 barrels a day in 2010, analysts including Jeffrey Currie said in an e-mailed report today. The country is the world’s second-biggest fuel user.

Pakistan: Rise in fertilizer rates to cause Rabi yield decline

LAHORE - The sudden raise in the prices of fertilizers after acute shortage of water in the country could lead to decline production of Rabi crops particularly wheat up to 20 to 30 per cent of the total production.

Experts said that the quantity of fertilizers is usually increased in case of water shortage.

Zambia: State to Plan Ahead for Indeni Maintenance

MINISTRY of Energy and Water Development Permanent Secretary Teddy Kasonso has said that advance preparations in the face of routine maintenance closures at Indeni Oil Refinery will help address the fuel shortages in the country during the period.

In the past, the nation has experienced fuel shortages because of starting the preparations for sufficient fuel stocks at the last minute.

Ethiopia inflation soars to 7.1 pct y/y in Dec

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's year-on-year inflation rose to 7.1 percent in December from 0.6 percent in November on the back of rising fuel, food and construction material prices, the statistics office said on Friday.

Inflation in the vast Horn of Africa nation hit a high of 64.2 percent in July 2008. It then entered a period of deflation from July to October last year.

Life getting harsher in North Korea

Food shortages have been made more painful because "it's the elite that creams off the food produce," said Muntarbhorn, whose six-year term expires this year, at a press conference in Tokyo.

"There's also a shortage of medicines, particularly now the H1N1 flu has arrived," said Muntarbhorn, who said he had interviewed many refugees from North Korea but never been allowed to visit the isolated country.

Indonesia: Gasoline prices in Timika skyrocket

This shortage of fuel had caused a two-kilometer long queue of hundreds of motorbikes and cars for gasoline at two fuel stations in Timika over the past week.

In response to the situation, Nawaripi fuel station`s supervisor, Rifai, said the state oil company, Pertamina, just delivered him eight to 10 kilo litres a day over the past six days.

That supply was much lower than 29 kilo litres a day he normally received from Pertamina, he said.

Hawaii school bus service being cut back as costs soar

Public school bus routes, which were cut back in November, will be reduced further next school year and the fare may climb to $1 from 75 cents.

The Department of Education will eliminate more school bus routes on O'ahu next school year by increasing the distance students will be required to walk to school.

Walk distances for students were increased in November from 1 mile to 1.5 miles for secondary students, and the fare jumped from 35 cents to 75 cents for a one-way trip.

Asia Fuel Oil-India Essar offers second Feb cargo

SINGAPORE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - India's Essar Oil has issued a tender offering up to 60,000 tonnes of February-loading fuel oil, its second cargo for the month, amid an improving market, tender documents showed on Friday.

Oil Caused Recession, Not Wall Street

The take home from my work and that of Hamilton’s is that the received wisdom may be wrong. Wall Street, sub-prime and regulatory failure are not the ultimate cause of the economic melt down. The root of this crisis is probably oil.

Are You Prepared for the 5 Deadly Emergencies?

Oil prices are on the devil’s own roller coaster, but the big picture is that we are still in a head-on collision with peak oil. What’s more, the cheap, easy-to-pump oil is fast being used up.

To be sure, there were plenty of oil discoveries in 2009, especially in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. A whopping 10 billion barrels of oil was added to reserves, the highest rate since 2000. However, the world is consuming around 83 million barrels a day, which equates to 31 billion barrels a year. So, even in a good year, we barely replaced one third of the oil we consumed.

Biofuels: The New Alchemy

At the World Future Energy Summit, some of the most influential people in the renewable energy industry will strategize for solutions to the global climate crisis. Read about some of these new technologies.

Solar Power: Sunshine's Cloudy Days

After a period of rapid expansion, panel manufacturers today are reeling from a pronounced supply surplus, falling prices and stagnating sales. In 2009, industry revenue plunged by nearly 40% to about $25 billion from $40 billion the previous year, according to BankAmerica Merrill Lynch alternative-energy analyst Steven Milunovich. Solar-panel output far outstripped demand last year; manufacturers made 66% more product than they were able to sell, estimates research firm iSuppli located in El Segundo, Calif. Some analysts believe the dismal conditions will persist into 2011, setting up marginal players worldwide for failure. "A large number of manufacturers will not survive," says Paul Semenza, an analyst with research company DisplaySearch, based in San Jose, Calif.

Cutting Carbon: Should We Capture and Store It?

The potential impact of CCS is huge. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that CCS could contribute between 10% and 55% of the cumulative worldwide carbon mitigation effort over the next 90 years. The International Energy Agency says that CCS is "the most important single new technology for CO2 savings" in power generation and industry, and will need to account for about one-fifth of the carbon mitigation effort this century — reducing carbon emissions as much as renewable energy sources will.

Though it requires up to 40% more energy to run a CCS coal power plant than a regular coal plant, CCS could potentially capture about 90% of all the carbon emitted by the plant. To solve the problem of climate change, we "need to use every option we can," says Nick Otter, head of the newly-created Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in Australia, which will fund pilot programs and network CCS efforts around the world. "And we've got to have some realism to the approach."

In Abu Dhabi, the Green Economy is in Rude Health

The feeling among many conference-goers can be summed up like this: the politicians might have failed to act on climate change, but everybody else is going to push on regardless. Take Bill Gross, founder of eSolar, a California-based firm that builds solar power plants that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and boil water that then turns a turbine. Gross has just cut a deal with a privately-owned Chinese power equipment manufacturer to build, over the next 10 years, solar power plants that will generate 2 gigawatts of electricity. To put that in perspective, that's about four times more power than what's produced by all the solar power plants in the world right now. There's interest beyond China, too. After a lunchtime presentation, would-be buyers from the Middle East and Europe milled around to talk to Gross about possible projects, as well.

Real People, Real Preparation, Part 6 With Faith Carr and Carolyn Baker

Faith Carr, after working hunched over a desk for 35 years, ended up disabled. Exhausted after even more years of progressive political activism with no success, she turned her hand to her own backyard. The 25 square-foot herb garden turned into a homestead. Come the revolution, she'll bring the eats.

Pick-your-own vegetables to replace flowers in high street

A Lancashire town is experimenting with using traditional floral displays, including hanging baskets and herbaceous borders, to grow slightly less colourful but more practical greens.

The idea taking shape in Clitheroe is to replace flowers with edible vegetables and offer a modest "pick-your-own" service of plantings to anyone passing by.

Growing Home—Urban Agriculture in Chicago

"Well over 50 percent of the world's population lives in urban communities," says Orrin Williams, the employment training coordinator for Growing Home, as he explains the importance of urban agriculture.

“Urban agriculture is, in my mind, critical to the rebirth of cities and communities that have fallen on hard times,” Williams says.

Oilrigs should be used for homes in areas at risk of flooding, report says

Decommissioned North Sea oil platforms should be towed to the waterfronts of coastal cities at risk of flooding and converted into homes, shops and universities protected from rising sea levels, a study recommends.

Britain should not retreat from the waves but embrace them, adapting to climate change and consequent flooding by building new communities, either on stilts or floating platforms.

Should energy independence be a high priority in the US?

The year is 2013, five years after peak oil. Gas is now over 11.00 a gallon. The average American no longer drives a car. Only the government and the military have access to large amounts of gasoline. It is a world none of us could have imagined.

The average American family of four has made drastic changes to survive. It is a cold Midwest morning, the alarm goes off at 7 AM. The family wakes up to a cold, 55 degree house. An electric spacer heater is the only form of heat, and all electric, nation wide, is shut off from 11PM-7AM. Through out the winter months, only three rooms are heated, the living room, the kitchen, and one bathroom. Because of this, all the beds are now set up in the living room. On top of each bed, are sub zero sleeping bags. These sleeping bags are the difference between life and death, as all across the nation people freeze to death every night in their homes. This has become so common that no one even takes notice anymore.

Oil Falls to Lowest in a Month on Concerns Over Demand, China

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell for a third day, dipping below $76 a barrel in New York to its lowest in a month, after a U.S. government report showed refineries in the biggest energy consumer cut processing in response to lower fuel demand.

U.S. refineries ran at 78.4 percent of capacity last week, the lowest rate outside the Atlantic hurricane season since at least 1989, according to the Energy Department. Oil is headed for a second weekly drop after U.S. President Barack Obama proposed restrictions on risk-taking at financial institutions while concerns grew that China may take more steps to curb price increases.

Commodities Have Further to Advance, Hermes Fund’s O’Shea Says

(Bloomberg) -- Commodities, as measured by the S&P; GSCI Light Energy Index, may gain as much as another 10 percent this year, led by oil, sugar and coffee, according to Colin O’Shea, head of commodities at Hermes Fund Managers Ltd.

The index, which Hermes uses as a benchmark, advanced 15 percent last year, buoyed by Chinese demand for oil, copper and other commodities. The gauge has a 36 percent weighting in energy, 30 percent in agriculture and almost 18 percent in industrial metals, based on data from Jan. 21.

Russia Sees Oil, Gas Share of GDP Falling to 14%

(Bloomberg) -- Russia, the world’s biggest energy supplier, may see the share of oil and natural gas in gross domestic product fall to 14 percent within a decade from about 25 percent now, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

Oil prices may average less than $70 in the course of the next 10 years, undercutting revenue and reducing the energy industry’s share of GDP, Kudrin said at a conference in Moscow today. Budget revenue from the mineral extraction tax and export tariffs on oil and gas may drop as much 4 percent during this decade, Kudrin said.

Russia Considers Shift From Crude Oil Export, Extraction Taxes

(Bloomberg) -- Russia is considering shifting from oil export and mineral extraction taxes to a levy on “excess profit,” said Ilya Trunin, director of the Finance Ministry’s tax and customs department.

Schlumberger Profit Falls as Customers Cut Spending

(Bloomberg) -- Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, said fourth-quarter profit fell 31 percent after oil producers slashed spending during the global recession.

Net income dropped to $795 million, or 65 cents a share, from $1.15 billion, or 95 cents, a year earlier, Schlumberger said today in a statement. Excluding one-time items, profit was 67 cents a share, 3 cents higher than the average of 26 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Venezuela’s Planta Centro Generator Sputters Amid Energy Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Planta Centro, Venezuela’s biggest fossil-fueled power plant, is operating at less than a fifth of its designed capacity, exacerbating a power crisis that has shuttered businesses from aluminum plants to shopping malls.

The plant operated at 267 megawatts of power on Jan. 20, or at about 13 percent of its 2,000 megawatt capacity, according to a daily report from Venezuela’s grid manager, the National Electric System Administration Center, known by its Spanish acronym CNG. The plant hasn’t produced at more than 26 percent of capacity in at least three months, according to CNG.

Venezuela rejects Junin 10, Mariscal Sucre offers

CARACAS (Reuters) - Offers made by foreign companies to help develop Venezuela's Mariscal Sucre offshore gas field and its Junin 10 extra-heavy crude field "did not meet expectations," oil minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday.

Nigerian Court Tells Cabinet to Decide on Presidency

(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s Federal High Court said the Cabinet must decide within 14 days whether ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua is unfit to discharge his duties as leader of Africa’s top oil producer.

Justice Dan Abutu issued the ruling today in one of three lawsuits seeking to force Yar’Adua to step down and hand power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

'We can survive -- but we must change`

Human population has been on overdrive since the Civil War, he said, and a sustainable level of human population may be no more than 1 billion people. That has created quite a predicament -- the long emergency. A group of 500 scientists gathered for an energy conference in Denver last fall agreed that the global rate of oil production peaked in July of 2008. From that point on, oil will be increasingly expensive and harder to pump.

"Our governments are not prepared for peak oil any more than they were for the recent recession," Brownlee said.

The experts are telling us we need a 20-year crash program to prepare for and avoid the coming devastating consequences, but "it`s not even being considered yet. We`re likely to be caught short. Local communities will feel the pain."

Reliance Industries Q3 profit rises 15.8 percent

MUMBAI — Indian refining and energy giant Reliance Industries announced its first profit rise in over a year on Friday as its performance was boosted by higher natural gas production.

Reliance, India's largest private sector company, said net profit rose 15.8 percent to 40.08 billion rupees (878 million dollars) in the fiscal third quarter to December from 34.62 billion rupees a year earlier.

The electric car revolution will soon take to the streets

For years, the promise and hype surrounding electric cars failed to materialize. But as this year's Detroit auto show demonstrated, major car companies and well-funded startups — fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries — are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.

Swiss pilots aim to circle world in a solar-powered plane

ABU DHABI (AFP) – Bertrand Piccard is no conventional environmental activist -- he hopes to raise awareness about the potential of renewable energy by flying a solar-powered aircraft around the world.

"What we want to do is to fly day and night to show that, with renewable energies, you can have unlimited duration of flight, no restriction," Piccard told AFP at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, where he had a booth to promote his venture.

British State May Have to Subsidize Nuclear Power, Auditor Says

(Bloomberg) -- The British government may have to subsidize construction of nuclear power plants because it lacks a guarantee from Electricite de France SA that new stations will be built, the country’s auditor said today in a report.

Economic considerations, including the price of carbon, difficulties getting plants approved and EDF’s financial position may hamper the company’s efforts to complete projects, the National Audit Office said.

NRC cites fire hazards at Alabama nuclear plant

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators warned the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday about "apparent violations" involving fire safety at the utility's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama.

Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the findings don't pose an immediate safety risk but are urging TVA to fix the three-reactor plant, which suffered a nearly disastrous fire in 1975 and later had to shut down for more than two decades due to problems.

Governments 'must tackle' roots of nature crisis

Governments must tackle the underlying causes of biodiversity loss if they are to stem the rate at which ecosystems and species are disappearing.

That was one of the conclusions of an inter-governmental workshop in London held in preparation for October's UN biodiversity summit in Nagoya, Japan.

China-led group may discuss climate fund for poor

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A meeting of four of the world's fastest-growing carbon emitters on Sunday ahead of a January 31 deadline for countries to submit their action plans to fight climate change may discuss a climate fund for poorer nations.

Senators Want to Bar E.P.A. Greenhouse Gas Limits

WASHINGTON — In a direct challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, introduced a resolution on Thursday to prevent the agency from taking any action to regulate carbon dioxide and other climate-altering gases.

Protecting against climate change could cost nothing

Fresh air is valuable stuff. Climate change mitigation measures needn't cost us a penny, because the clean-air benefits could more than repay the price, according to a new study.

Low-cost carriers greener than full-service

Ryanair has emerged as an unlikely model for sustainable travel in new research showing that low-cost carriers produce up to 35 percent less carbon emissions per passenger than their full-service counterparts, due to higher load factors and seat density, as well as newer fleets.

Global Warming Increases Flood Risk in Mountain Areas

ScienceDaily — The world's mountainous regions are home to about 800 million people and the source of some of the world's major rivers. In these regions, runoff is strongly affected by temperature. This suggests that flooding could be quite sensitive to global warming, but there has been some lack of scientific consensus on the effects of temperature variations on floods.

Stronger Atlantic Hurricanes Seen Increasing, Damaging Property

(Bloomberg) -- The strongest Atlantic hurricanes may almost double in frequency by the end of the century as the planet warms, U.S. scientists said in the journal Science.

Occurrence of the most destructive hurricanes may rise 81 percent over 80 years while the total number of storms, including weaker systems, is projected to drop by 28 percent, the researchers said. The net effect may be to increase property damage by 30 percent, Tom Knutson, a co-author of the study, said in a telephone interview from Princeton, New Jersey.

Temperatures in Past Decade Were Warmest Since 1880, NASA Says

(Bloomberg) -- Temperatures in the decade that ended in 2009 were the warmest since record-keeping began in 1880, NASA said, backing up data from the U.K. Met Office and the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization.

For the past three decades, surface temperatures rose about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade, said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Average global temperatures have increased by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.

“It’s completely unambiguous that the last 10-year period from January 2000 to December 2009 is very clearly the warmest decade in the historical record,” Schmidt said yesterday.

Filed under: News, The Economy

Haiti relief work is well under way, with organizations from the Red Cross to Wyclef's Yele Haiti taking donations for the victims of the tragic earthquake. President Obama has valiantly stepped up to the plate with a rapid promise of unfailing support to Haitian earthquake victims, putting President Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina to shame. But can the U.S. actually afford to pledge abundant aid to Haiti at this time? And if not, how will this affect the relief work efforts in Haiti? These questions and more have been considered on Aol's Daily Finance blog. Consider these points:

President Barack Obama has pledged the "full support" of the U.S. government to Haiti after the island nation suffered an epic earthquake that may have left untold thousands dead and injured. What he did not mention is America's generosity may come with a hefty price tag as the federal deficit is mushrooming from spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The exact price tag for U.S. taxpayers in Haiti is unclear. The costs could be hundreds of millions or even billions, depending on the contributions from other sources. Obama likely will spend big to stabilize Haiti since it is so close to the U.S. He also wants to prevent a mass exodus of Haitians to the U.S...

Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, tells DailyFinance that the U.S. may have to bear about one quarter of the cost to rebuild the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. His sentiment was echoed by the Heritage Foundation's Jim Roberts, who served in the Foreign Service in Haiti. "It's inevitable that the US taxpayer will pay for some of this bill," Patrick says. Although the tab will be considerable, it will pale in comparison to the the cost of the war in the Middle East.

Media reports indicate that more than 2,000 Marines will be heading to Haiti as part of a humanitarian effort, along with ships, helicopters and airplanes. These first-responders will have their work cut out for them. The quake was centered 10 miles outside of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, a city with a population of more than 2 million, by far the country's largest city. Media reports indicate the the government is in a shambles and the presidential palace lies in ruins. Everything from shanty homes to government buildings to hospitals lie in ruins.

Sadly, the disaster comes as businesses were starting to invest in the Caribbean nation, lured by a dirt cheap pool of labor, giving Haitians a rare bit of optimism.


It is wonderful that our president is moving without hesitation to help Haiti with earthquake aid. At the same time, the mounting bill from President Obama's various undertakings is starting to appear rather steep. From the bail out, to the war in Iraq, to ramping up in Afghanistan, the American people are already billions of dollars in the hole for years to come. U.S. aid to Haiti, while crucial to maintaining the stability of the region, is an expense that could throw our future generations into a precarious economic position.

That is, unless President Obama significantly pulls back on one of our war fronts. Daily Finance makes a great point -- aid to Haiti will cost much less than continuing our efforts in Iraq. That seems like more than a solution to our mounting national debt. It's almost a sign from higher powers that peace, brotherhood and the building up of nations is what the world needs now, not warfare, fighting and tearing countries down. Aid to Haiti is absolutely necessary. But is perhaps the moral and economic imperative in this situation one that will require ending warfare as a more than fare trade? President Obama has a lot to balance regarding giving Haiti aid. Let's hope his balance leans towards granting relief, at the expense of war.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: News, The Economy

African Americans have been through a lot in America, often leading to a sense of negativity about our place in society. As the recession is hitting the black community much harder than the general population, it seems logical that this would be a period of even greater despair for most blacks. Yet, the Washington Post is reporting the absolute opposite. Post staff writer Krissah Thompson paints a picture of African American optimism in the midst of bleak economic times:



Despite being hit especially hard by the bad economy, job losses and the high rate of foreclosures, African Americans' assessment of race relations and prospects for the future has surged more dramatically during the past two years than at any time in the past quarter-century, according to a new poll.

In a survey of American racial attitudes released Tuesday, researchers reported that the feeling of progress is driven in large part by the election of President Obama, along with a greater sense of local community satisfaction and a more positive outlook. The majority of African Americans say they are better off now than they were five years ago.

"These are dramatic findings," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, which conducted the study. "We expected that there may be an Obama effect, and it was really quite dramatic -- which isn't to say that this era as measured in this survey means that all is fine between blacks and whites."

Large majorities of blacks continue to say that the country needs to make more changes and that the problems rooted in the country's history of slavery and segregation haven't disappeared. But there are many indications that African Americans feel there has been significant advancement.

Thirty-nine percent of blacks -- nearly twice as many as in 2007 -- say that the "situation of black people in this country" is better than it was five years earlier. That view holds among blacks of all age groups and income levels. Similarly, 56 percent of blacks and nearly two-thirds of whites say the standard-of-living gap between whites and blacks has narrowed in the past decade. Still, when asked about the problems facing black families, a majority said there were not enough jobs and there were too many problems with drugs and alcoholism, crime and poor public education.

African Americans are starting a new decade with a brave and uplifted spirit, despite the challenges of our circumstances. President Obama has come under fire recently for not doing enough for the black community. Perhaps one of the best things he can do is be a symbol of hope that inspires African Americans to continue to struggle and positively impact our local communities, as the study suggests. Hopefully, this greater sense of African American optimism will translate soon into concrete economic gains.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

PHUKET: Thailand’s tsunami direct detection buoy has been successfully replaced and the new unit began transmitting data via satellite at 9:15am Thursday morning.

Staff of the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) and technical experts from the US who conducted the mission returned aboard MV Seafdec at 8am yesterday, as planned.

NDWC Director Viriya Mongkolveerapan told the Gazette the old unit will be sent to the US for maintenance and analysis. ... Full story

Iraqi oil power may shake Iran more than Saudi

BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - The geopolitical power balance in the Middle East faces upheaval if Iraq succeeds in tripling oil output, and fellow Shi'ite power Iran will feel more threatened than rival Sunni oil giant Saudi Arabia.

Iraq's potential leap into the ranks of the top three global oil producers could result in a strengthened Shi'ite Muslim front within OPEC if Baghdad aligns supply policy with Tehran.

That would rattle Riyadh, already suspicious of the rise to political supremacy of Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Disunity within OPEC could increase, undermining efforts to present an image of harmony.

But oil development in Iraq is more likely to feed tensions with Iran, draw away potential foreign investment from Iraq's neighbour and fuel social discord by depriving Tehran of much-needed money should it result in lower oil prices.

As oil production fades, Mexico is losing its clout

Over the past 20 years, oil functioned as a type of life jacket for Mexico's economy. It hid economic distortions, allowing governments to postpone needed structural reform as it financed the status quo. Mexico was able to float along, buoyed by billions of dollars of oil revenue, without having to swim more quickly than its competitors in the sea of emerging markets. But now that oil production at Pemex, the state-owned oil monopoly, is plummeting, the country faces some hard truths that the oil bonanza obscured. The government had become too dependent on a non-renewable resource and therefore did little to widen the tax base. Moreover, the manufacturing sector had become too dependent on U.S.-driven export demand, and the population had become too dependent on remittances from emigrants working in the U.S.

Oil rises on surprise inventory drop

LONDON (Reuters) -- Oil rose more than $1 towards $74 a barrel on Wednesday, rallying after several days of falls, on industry data showing a big drop in U.S. crude stocks and on a weaker U.S. dollar.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said in a report late on Tuesday that crude inventories in the world's top oil consumer fell 5.8 million barrels last week, bucking expectations for a rise, as refiners boosted fuel production.

Oil May Tumble Below $65, Commerzbank Says: Technical Analysis

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil may tumble toward its 200- day moving average near $65 a barrel in New York after breaking through the bottom of a supporting channel, according to technical analysis by Commerzbank AG.

Crude is set to extend this month’s 5.3 percent loss after dropping below an ascending price channel that has buoyed prices this year, the Frankfurt-based bank said in a report yesterday. Breaching this barrier opened the way for a further slide towards a price range between $65.23 and $64.88, it said.

Gas Exporters Defend Oil-Price Link as Glut Grows

(Bloomberg) -- Natural gas exporters, meeting today in Qatar, may discuss how to maintain the link to oil prices that’s supported revenue this year amid a glut in supply.

The connection between prices for the two fossil fuels is essential to attract investment in gas export projects, Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said yesterday after arriving in Doha for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. Qatar’s ruler, who’s hosting the meeting, said the forum needed to act to keep oil and gas prices together.

Russia takes gas Opec helm

Stroytransgaz executive Leonid Bokhanovsky will take the helm of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) grouping of gas producers, Libya's Shokri Ghanem announced this morning.

The Russian was elected secretary general of the so-called "gas Opec" this morning, a Reuters report said.

Jeff Rubin: Will tumbling natural gas prices fell oil as well?

With the price of gas now trading at a record low — one third that of oil (per unit of energy) — its hold over the price of its hydrocarbon cousin should be its strongest ever. Yet oil prices have not only resisted gas’ gravitational pull but have moved in the opposite direction over most of the year.

And with good reason.

Poland ‘Bubbles Up’ as Marathon Target for Next Shale-Gas Boom

(Bloomberg) -- ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Corp. are betting that Poland, which gets half of its natural gas from Russia, can yield a development boom in shale formations like those that drove a jump in U.S. output of the heating fuel.

The third- and fourth-biggest U.S. oil companies obtained exploration licenses this year covering hundreds of thousands of acres in Poland. The country, which imports 72 percent of its gas, could become an exporter of the fuel, said Maciej Wozniak, chief adviser on energy security to Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Poland confident of winter supplies

Poland is confident it will not run out of gas this winter despite prolonging negotiations with Russia on a new gas deal, an economy ministry official said today.

China, India LNG Imports May Rise Sevenfold, Santos CEO Says

(Bloomberg) -- Demand for liquefied natural gas in China and India may surge more than sevenfold by 2025 as the nations boost their use of cleaner-burning fuels, said the chief executive officer of Santos Ltd.

Consumption of gas chilled to liquid form in Asia’s two fastest-growing major economies may increase to 75 million tons a year in 2025 compared with 10 million tons a year currently, Santos’s David Knox said in an investor briefing today.

“Those are very, very significant growth rates,” Knox said. The Adelaide-based company expects a “considerable and sustained rise in LNG demand,” he said.

Lukoil Cuts Production Growth Targets on U.S. Shale Gas, Demand

(Bloomberg) -- OAO Lukoil cut its 10-year output targets as Russia’s biggest non-state crude producer postponed some natural-gas projects on a decrease in European fuel demand and unconventional gas developments in the U.S.

“It looks like our country will face serious problems with gas exports as early as the next decade,” Deputy Chief Executive Officer Leonid Fedun said in Moscow today.

An “acute glut” of gas may arise in the next few years because of rising production of so-called unconventional fuel in the U.S. and Canada, the International Energy Agency said last month. Lukoil plans to boost gas production to about 26 percent of total output by 2019, from about 10 percent now. Its previous 10-year plan to 2016 had targeted 33 percent.

Medvedev: changing Ukraine gas deals "irresponsible"

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday it would be "irresponsible" to amend gas supply contracts with Ukraine, in a sign that Moscow will offer no more concessions to its ex-Soviet neighbour on gas payments.

Medvedev, addressing a media forum, said Ukraine had shown it was capable of paying for Russian gas under the terms agreed in a 10-year pact signed in January to end the "gas war" which damaged industry and left millions of Europeans without heating.

"We have signed a treaty this year for 10 years ... I think that proposals to change them are irresponsible," Medvedev said. He made no reference to any specific moves to alter the contract.

Norway's prelim oil production rose in November

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's oil production rose to a preliminary 2.06 million barrels per day on average in November from 2.01 million in October, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Wednesday.

Mongolia Coal Winners Should Sell Domestically, Lawmaker Says

(Bloomberg) -- Peabody Energy Corp., China Shenhua Energy Co., Vale SA and other companies interested in mining a coal deposit in Mongolia should expect to produce fuel for domestic consumption if they’re awarded the development rights, a lawmaker said.

The winning group of investors, to be selected by April, will be required to convert some of the thermal coal in the Tavan Tolgoi deposit into clean-burning fuel, Batkhuu Gavaa, deputy speaker of Mongolia’s parliament, said in an interview today in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Lawmakers want to include the provision into any agreement to help cut Mongolia’s dependence on foreign fuel and create jobs, Gavaa said.

Renault Says LPG Car Demand May Triple on Pricing

(Bloomberg) -- Renault SA, the French automaker that plans to roll out the first of its electric cars in 2011, says demand for liquid petroleum gas-powered vehicles in Europe may triple within five years because its fuel is more affordable.

Sales of new cars using LPG will increase to as much as 6 percent of the total vehicle sales in the 27-member European Union from about 2 percent now, Philippe Schultz, head of energy and environment planning at France’s second-biggest carmaker said in an interview at the global climate summit in Copenhagen.

Farm tractors go electric: Model from 1940s in demand

APPLEGATE, Ore. - At Blue Fox Farm, the tractor is old but the fuel is new.

Like a small but growing number of organic farmers around the country, Chris Jagger has converted an Allis-Chalmers Model G tractor built in the 1940s to run on electricity at his farm in southwest Oregon.

EDF to Lead French Group Bidding for U.A.E. Nuclear Contracts

(Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power generator, will lead a group of French companies bidding for nuclear contracts in the United Arab Emirates, Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio said.

Vestas to Temporarily Halt Output at Colorado Plant

(Bloomberg) -- Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines, said it will halt production at its Windsor, Colorado, blade manufacturing plant until at least the second quarter of 2010.

Historically low sales during the first quarter have been exacerbated by tight credit markets caused by the recession, Peter Kruse, the Denmark-based company’s spokesman, said today in a telephone interview. Vestas opened the plant in March 2008.

Siemens Expects Solar Earnings to Swell, Match Wind-Unit Growth

(Bloomberg) -- Siemens AG, the manufacturer planning to supply turbines to the Sahara desert’s biggest solar project, expects its solar-equipment earnings to leap during the next few years, the company’s head of technology and research said.

Sales and earnings will each match the growth of its wind- energy unit, whose profit has risen an average 71 percent a year since 2004, Reinhold Achatz said, without estimating a figure. Wind-equipment income was 382 million euros ($565 million) in fiscal 2009, about 5 percent of Siemens’s total.

Constellation to build solar plant in Md.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Constellation Energy Group, Inc. said Tuesday it would build a solar power plant in Maryland that will be the state's largest when completed in 2012.

The company, which is headquartered in Baltimore, said it would construct a 15.9-megawatt thin-film solar power plant that will sit on 100 acres. The plant will be part of a $60 million energy facility that's run by Constellation in Emmitsburg, Md.

California leads with 36% growth in 'green' jobs

Jobs in California's so-called green economy increased by 36% from 1995 to 2008, beating the state's 13% job growth, a study out Wednesday says.

The research, by Silicon Valley-based research firm Collaborative Economics, underscores California's lead in the "green economy" and may indicate where other states can expect green-job growth.

Bellingham council considers impact of energy shortage, will develop resolution

BELLINGHAM - After a task force's 18 months of work and more than 100 meetings, City Council members heard how limited energy resources globally could have an impact locally.

Members of the Bellingham/Whatcom County Energy Resources Scarcity/Peak Oil Taskforce recommended tying their work to how the county manages emergencies, especially if there is a shortage of oil and other energy resources, as well as things that need fuel to get here, like food.

No recommendations were approved or adopted by the council Monday night, Dec. 7, after the presentation. Instead, Councilman Jack Weiss, who worked toward initiating the task force's assignment, will work with the group to bring a resolution back to the council for approval.

Pollution from rail feared

The city's proposed $5.3 billion rail system could increase greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaii by as much as 28,000 tons by 2030, according to a study commissioned by rail opponents.

EPA chief: US will regulate CO2 with common sense

COPENHAGEN — The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says she will take commonsense steps to regulate carbon emissions to protect the health of Americans.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her newly declared power to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

She said "this is not an either-or moment. It's a both-and moment."

China Exports to U.S. May Be Cut by Climate Plan, Report Finds

(Bloomberg) -- Legislation pending in the U.S. Congress to cut greenhouse-gas emissions may reduce imports of Chinese goods by 20 percent, a World Bank study said.

The provision, included in the measure passed by the U.S. House in June, would tax imports from countries that don’t enact curbs on carbon-dioxide emissions.

Copenhagen climate summit: global warming 'caused by sun's radiation'

As the world gathered in the Danish capital for the UN Climate Change Conference, more than 50 scientists, businessmen and lobby groups met to discuss the arguments against man made global warming.

Although the meeting was considerably smaller than the official gathering of 15,000 people meeting down the road, the organisers claimed it could change the course of negotiations.

Poor nations' fury over leaked climate text

(CNN) -- A leaked document known as the "Danish text" has driven an even deeper wedge between rich and poor countries embroiled in U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

The document, subtitled "The Copenhagen Agreement," proposes measures to keep average global temperature rises to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Developing countries have reacted angrily to the text, alleging developed countries have worked behind closed doors to draft a document slanted in their favor.

Hottest Plan at Climate Talks Never Got Onto Table

(Bloomberg) -- The proposal drawing the most attention and criticism at the United Nations climate-change talks in Copenhagen never got put on the table.

The formula for slowing global warming, circulated by Denmark before the two-week negotiations started Dec. 7, has generated a stir because Denmark is the host country for more than 190 nations, striving to be neutral.

The plan, leaked more than a week ago, is flawed because it was drawn up outside the UN process without input from poorer nations, said Kim Carstensen, head of the global climate initiative at environmental group WWF. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer issued a statement saying the paper is “informal” only.

Insurers at core of climate change fallout

COPENHAGEN (MarketWatch) -- With the number of extreme weather events continuing to grow around the world the insurance industry is finding itself at the very center of efforts to avert the worst effects of climate change.

But as drought and demand for water intensify; heat waves become more severe; downpours more violent; and destructive coastal flooding more frequent, some even in the industry say its traditional risk-management tool may not be up to the task.

A lingering pool of disbelief: Despite a decade of record drought, Australian farmers refuse to buy into climate change

What all this means for 2 million Australians who live on farms and in towns along the Murray is that communities must die, families must move and a hugely overbuilt irrigation system will have to shrink, experts said.

The government is ready and willing to make the exodus happen, with $3.1 billion in the bank to buy out irrigators and $5.8 billion to upgrade infrastructure. New laws have stripped farmers of guaranteed access to water from the Murray, while creating a market for buying and selling water allocations. As a result, the cost of water has soared and waste of water has sharply declined.

Yet in town after town along the Murray River, residents have been shying away from the future as predicted by scientists and planned for by politicians.

"They really do face a bleak future," said Chris Miller, a social scientist who teaches at Flinders University in Adelaide and has been interviewing farmers along the Murray for 15 months. "But they do not yet believe the water isn't coming back."