Map and Estimates of the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - Interactive Map About the Oil Slick and Landfall Locations The “estimated extent” of the oil slick is an estimate by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of where oil is mostly likely to go based on wind and ocean current forecasts, as well as analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery. The “surveyed extent” shows areas where oil was visible on the water surface during aerial and satellite surveys of the Gulf. The surveyed extents are not available every day and may be incomplete on occasion because poor weather conditions prevented observation in some areas. The extents may vary widely from day to day because of changes in wind patterns and ocean currents. The locations where oil has made landfall are based on reports from federal, state and local officials. About the Estimate of the Amount Spilled Where the oil has gone, as of Aug. 1 (103 days into the spill), according to a government report. For more on the estimates, see these articles:
2014: Hottest year ever. Photo byNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center I’m not a huge fan of “hottest year” type statistics, as I’ll get to in a moment, but this one is important for two reasons: One is that there was no El Niño last year, which tends to drive global temperatures up. (Many record years were ones that had El Niños.) 2014 broke the record without any help. Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies! Let’s say you flip a coin 10 times, and it comes up heads six times. 2014 was like that. Even then, I cast something of a skeptical eye when an individual record is broken. So that’s when you bring in the most important issue here: context. That’s the important issue here: Not that any one year is the hottest, but that they’re all clustered in the past few years. Graph by the Japan Meteorological Agency It’s getting hotter. So much for the “pause.”
SBS - The Other 9/11 After a formal request from the United States, two officers from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, or ASIS, were stationed in Santiago. By 1972, the officers had agreed to manage three agents on the CIA’s behalf and to relay information to Washington. “The idea of taking over for one of the allies in Chile wasn’t a new thing – it was the pattern of helpful smaller ally being given pieces of work,” says Nicky Hager, author and journalist specialised in intelligence. In 1972, Labor’s Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister, bringing progressive politics to Canberra after more than two decades of conservative government. One of the things set to change was foreign policy. Bill Robertson, then head of Australia’s Secret Service, had the unhappy task of informing Mr Whitlam that his spies were helping the CIA to undermine a fellow progressive, left-wing government in South America. There are different accounts of what came next.
Summary Information The State of the Climate Summary Information is a synopsis of the collection of national and global summaries released each month. 2014 Earth's warmest year on record; December 2014 record warm; Global oceans also record warm for 2014 The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for 2014 was the highest among all years since record keeping began in 1880. Global highlights: Calendar Year 2014 For extended analysis of global climate patterns, please see our full Annual report During 2014, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average. Global highlights: December 2014 During December, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.39°F (0.77°C) above the 20th century average.
GROW | Oxfam NZ Oxfam's campaign for a future where everyone on the planet has enough to eat, always. Soon there'll be nine billion of us on the planet. But almost a billion of us go to bed hungry. Not because there isn't enough. But because of the deep injustice in the way the system works. Together we need to find better ways to grow, share and live, to help build a future where everyone on the planet always has enough to eat. Join our active campaigners now Stop climate change making people hungry Climate change is the single biggest threat to our chances of winning the fight against hunger. Take action now Let’s grow a better way Food and oil prices. We can grow more food more fairly and more sustainably. The following video journeys through the broken food system and then looks at the transformation that is already underway to bring about change. Check out this cool infographic produced by Oxfam and GOOD.
U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory National Ice Core Lab Stores Valuable Ancient Ice It's a freezing cold day inside the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) in Denver, Colo., as it is every day of the year. That's because the NICL is a facility for storing and studying ice cores recovered from the polar regions of the world. It's -10°F inside, so everyone is bundled up in ski parkas, insulated gloves and boots. CO2 in the Ice Core Record Studying ice cores at the National Ice Core Lab, Dr. Credit: EARTH: The Operators' Manual (Segment 5) NICL Core Processing Line This excellent short video, filmed during the 2010 WAIS Divide core processing line (CPL), provides a good summary of how many CPLs are carried out at the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL). The video was filmed and produced by Logan Mitchell at Oregon State University. Ice Core Secrets Could Reveal Answers to Global Warming At the Stable Isotope Lab in Boulder, Colo., scientists are doing a lot of the same things that those CSI folks do on TV. Denali Ice
The simple case for investing in girls Here are three solid reasons why we want you to invest your time, energy and capital in an adolescent girl 1. Girls are agents of change They play a crucial role in solving the most persistent development problems facing the world today. 2. They're not. 3. In India, adolescent pregnancy results in nearly $10billion in lost potential income. The question isn't: 'Why girls?' The question is: 'Why wait?' Get the latest facts
Trace Product Arlene Birt - Northern Lights.mn Visualizing Grocery Impacts Visualizing Grocery Impacts is a data-driven and interactive installation that will help individuals better understand how their daily purchases have global social and environmental impact. In an installation which mimics a super-market, products with custom labels can be collected from the shelves by visitors, and scanned with a barcode reader that will project interactive and visual information on the productʼs background impacts (including global, ecological, political, social and cultural impacts) onto a nearby wall. The variety of visual background stories presented will display information with an activist intent as well as in a positive light to motivate consumers toward more conscious purchasing decisions. The installation will provide an innovative approach to understanding sustainability: as an intersection between digital data and the physical world. Artist statement (extract) Arlene Birt Most recent work (sumbitted) Screenshot of a website mock-up.