A trio of rose-breasted grosbeaks [pheucticus ludovicianus] at the Dogwood feeder during the fall migration, 2010. I’ve been following this population for the past five years from this spot. The population looks healthy this year, in spite of the BP Gulf oil disaster. This is the first time I’ve been able to get video footage of them.

Glynn Wilson

A couple of male rose-breasted grosbeaks [pheucticus ludovicianus] taking a break on the bird bath with their cousin the cardinal during the fall bird migration through Middle Alabamaland. I’ve been following this population for the past five years from this spot. The population looks healthy this year, in spite of the BP Gulf oil disaster.

Remnants of the oil and gas plume from the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been discovered at depths of over 3000 feet (1000m), some 300 miles (500km) west of the wellhead by a team of independent scientists on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise during a 10-day voyage not funded by BP or the US government, but instead relying on donations from Greenpeace supporters, according a press release.

The discovery was made by biogeochemist Dr Rainer Amon while the Arctic Sunrise carried out four transects of the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists and crew of the Greenpeace vessel deployed Amon’s sampling equipment to analyze the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water column – a clear marker
for bacterial degradation of oil and gas, and to take seawater samples from several points in the water column.

“From the measurements we’ve taken, we see clear signs of oxygen deficiency on a large transect starting at the Macondo wellhead, all the way 300 miles to the west,” Dr. Amon said. “How much of oil and gas components are still in the water is something that we need to now investigate in the laboratory.”

The levels of dissolved oxygen did not fall as low as Dr. Amon would expect if a major portion of the oil and gas had been consumed in these waters, suggesting that the petrochemicals, have not “gone away” as has been claimed by the government, and that between three and four million barrels of oil still remain unaccounted for following the disaster.

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Join Tim Male, Defenders Vice President of Conservation Policy, visits the Gulf coast a month after the gushing BP Deepwater Horizon well was capped. On this trip, Tim shows how the disaster continues to wreak havoc on the beaches of Louisiana.

The National Shrimp Festival will be held in Gulf Shores, Alabama, October 7-10, in spite of the mess from the BP-Halliburton oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, organizers confirm.

Celebrating its 39th year, the festival has historically attracted about 300,000 people who come to view fine arts and crafts from more than 200 artists, partake of Gulf seafood, and take in the continuous musical entertainment on the beach.

Chances are the turnout will be down significantly this year due to the oil-stained beaches and polluted air over the Gulf. But it should be fun anyway.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

by Glynn Wilson

The Department of the Interior announced two new rules Thursday that will help improve drilling safety by strengthening requirements for safety equipment, well control systems, blowout prevention practices on offshore oil and gas operations and improve workplace safety by reducing the risk of human error.

“These new rules and the aggressive reform agenda we have undertaken are raising the bar for the oil and gas industry’s safety and environmental practices on the Outer Continental Shelf,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who announced the rules in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. “Under these new rules, operators will need to comply with tougher requirements for everything from well design and cementing practices to blowout preventers and employee training. They will also need to develop comprehensive plans to manage risks and hazards at every step of the drilling process, so as to reduce the risk of human error.”

The Drilling Safety Rule and the Workplace Safety Rule join a host of reforms that the Department of the Interior has undertaken in the five months since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that touch every stage of the offshore planning, review, permitting, drilling and development processes, according to a press release.

Reacting to the new rules, Richard Charter, senior policy advisor for marine programs at Defenders of Wildlife, said today’s announcement “is a positive step in the right direction,” but he said Congress needs to step up with a more comprehensive response.

“We need to ensure that the burden of proof is on the drilling industry to demonstrate that it can quickly and reliably close down a runaway well in any water depth. The BP Gulf disaster cannot be allowed to stand as a model for future prevention and response,” Charter said. “There must be real solutions to what has clearly been a fiasco of historic proportions. What we need is a comprehensive climate and energy policy that moves away from dependence on dirty fossil fuels and speeds us toward our clean energy future, one that is designed to be smart from the start and effective in protecting our natural resources for future generations.”

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Passing it on for those who don’t watch in real time. Boo Sarah Palin…

Glynn Wilson

A female rose-breasted grosbeak [pheucticus ludovicianus] taking a break on the bird bath with her cousin the cardinal during the fall bird migration through Middle Alabamaland.

For the fourth straight year, a majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. The 57 percent who now say that is a record high, according to Gallup’s annual Governance poll.

The 43 percent of Americans who express a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media ties the record low, and is far worse than three prior Gallup readings on this measure from the 1970s.

Trust in the media is now slightly higher than the record-low trust in the legislative branch but lower than trust in the executive and judicial branches of government, even though trust in all three branches is down sharply this year. These findings also further confirm a separate Gallup poll that found little confidence in newspapers and television specifically.

Overall, perceptions of bias have remained quite steady over this tumultuous period of change for the media, marked by the growth of cable and Internet news sources.

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