The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement should take a holistic approach that modifies some of its existing practices To ensure safety programs for offshore drilling and production operations
To ensure the effectiveness of recently mandated Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS) programs for offshore drilling and production operations, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) should take a holistic approach that modifies some of its existing practices, says a new report from the National Research Council. These should include inspections, operator audits, bureau audits, key performance indicators, and a “whistleblower” program. The report emphasizes using cooperation and consultation to further develop a culture of safety.
These recommendations are consistent with the bureau’s proposed changes to SEMS with the exception of one change to require that audits be performed by third parties. The Research Council report stresses that a truly independent internal audit team is preferred to an external third-party team to avoid the development of a “compliance mentality.” Audits should be carried out by the operator’s internal qualified, independent team whenever possible. BSEE, however, should approve all audit plans and receive a copy of each audit and follow-up report
Soil moisture influences our climate.
The future of the world’s climate is determined by various parameters, such as the density of clouds or the mass of the Antarctic ice sheet. One of these crucial climate parameters is soil moisture, which is hard to measure on a global scale. Now, the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology (Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) and the Free University of Amsterdam, is presenting a data set, containing global soil moisture data from 1978 to 2010. This was possible by extensive mathematical analysis of satellite data
Warmer Climate Changes Soil Moisture
Even though soil moisture makes up only about 0.001 % of the total water found on earth, it plays a crucial rule in the climate system. “The link between climate and soil moisture is still not well understood, because so far reliable long-term data has not been available”, says professor Wolfgang Wagner (Vienna University of Technology). One of the predicted consequences of global warming is that warming will lead to higher evaporation rates and hence soil drying in some regions.
Recycling everything we use is the key to saving the Earth and humans
Recycling all the materials we use is the key to saving the Earth and humans from an apocalyptic future, according to a major new book by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
With the planet facing a rare upheaval in its long history, leading environmental scientists Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson have developed a new vision of the future that could safeguard the Earth and its species, and addresses the issues of a growing global population, human consumption, energy supply, climate change and pollution.
Research shows that wastewater recycling can multiply more greenhouse gases than traditional water-treatment processes
New research shows that wastewater recycling processes may generate more greenhouse gases than traditional water-treatment processes. Despite this finding, there are good reasons to continue keep wastewater recycling among the water-resource tools for urban areas.
That’s the summary of a new paper by Amy Townsend-Small, assistant professor of geology and geography at the University of Cincinnati, and a team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine. A report of their research appears in the September-October issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.
The more the ice cap melts the more methane is released into the atmosphere — and the more the climate warms.
The ancient reserves of methane gas seeping from the melting Arctic ice cap told Jeff Chanton and fellow researchers what they already knew: As the permafrost thaws, there is a release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that causes climate warming.
The trick was figuring out how much, said Chanton, the John W. Winchester Professor of Oceanography at Florida State University.
The four-member team — whose findings were published in the respected journal Nature Geoscience — documented a large number of gas seep sites in the Arctic where permafrost is thawing and glaciers receding (they found 77 previously undocumented seep sites, comprising 150,000 vents to the atmosphere). Until recently, the cryosphere (frozen soil and ice) has served to plug or block these vents. But thawing conditions have allowed the conduits to open, and deep geologic methane now escapes.
New research shows that substantial vegetation sprouted on the frozen continent 15 million years ago
Ancient Antarctica was warmer and wetter than previously suspected, enough to support vegetation along its edges, according to a new study.
By examining the remnants of plant leaf wax found in sediment cores taken below the Ross Ice Shelf, scientists from the University of Southern California, Louisiana State University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were able to determine that summer temperatures along the Antarctic coast 15 to 20 million years ago were 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) warmer than they are today, reaching up to about 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius); with several times more precipitation.
Research shows humans are primary cause of global ocean warming over past 50 years
The oceans have warmed in the past 50 years, but not by natural events alone.
New research by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and international collaborators shows that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century.
The population and economic growth that can be anticipated in coming decades will tend to push greenhouse gas emissions substantially upward
Although it’s long been suspected that human activity has greatly contributed to environmental stress, it’s only recently that science has begun to show just how great a role that activity is playing.
In an article published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Michigan State University’s Thomas Dietz and his colleague, Eugene Rosa of Washington State University, take a critical look at the various factors that have long been prime climate-change suspects. One in particular: The role of population growth.
Renewables: an increasingly important contributor to world energy supply. The price of all major renewable energy technologies continued to fall in 2011 — to the point where they are challenging fossil-fuel sources
Solar generation surged past wind power to become the renewable energy technology of choice for global investors in 2011.
Solar attracted nearly twice as much investment as wind, driving the renewable energy sector to yet another record-breaking year, albeit one beset with challenges for the industry, according to two new reports on renewable energy trends issued today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).
it may be possible to select pigs that can make efficient use of energy in less expensive feed ingredients, thus reducing diet costs.
Results of a preliminary experiment conducted at the University of Illinois indicate that it may be possible to select pigs that can make efficient use of energy in less expensive feed ingredients, thus reducing diet costs.
Less expensive feed is usually higher in fiber than the corn-soy diets typically used in U.S. swine production, explained Hans H. Stein, professor of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, the white breeds that are used in commercial pork production use only about 40 percent of the insoluble fiber. “If you can increase that number to 50 or 60 or 70 percent, then of course, you would get a much better use of the energy in those ingredients,” Stein explained.
