Coal Lake

Hello fellow greenies,

Before I delve off into the world of environmental policies, disasters, ways to reduce our ecological footprints, and all of that fun stuff... I want to share some stories and pictures that I've amassed during my lengthy recess from blogging.

This summer Morgan and I have had a lot of time to explore nature and appreciate it for its natural beauty, if you will. One of said experiences occurred only a week ago at a little lakeside cabin on Coal Lake, in Alaska.

- cue nostalgic music -

About 60 years ago my great grandfather, an Alaskan through-and-through, built himself a little cabin on Coal Lake for the purpose of housing himself and occasionally his sons and daughter during the harsh Alaskan winter and buggy summers while he was off trapping and hunting to earn his livelihood. When he passed away at that very lake, his son, my grandfather, inherited it from him and continued to build onto it and make repairs. Today, that very same cabin still stands and is used for much the same purpose (although less frequently) throughout the year.

(Grandpa greeting us at the cabin)

 For 16 years I'd been told stories and shown pictures of the lake and the cabin, and of bears and moose that made their home there - but I'd never had the chance to visit. (Most likely due to my aversion to hunting...). That is until a few weeks ago, when my grandfather invited my sisters and I to spend 3 days at the cabin hiking and fishing. I of course gave him a resounding yes, and a few days later we flew out on a little water plane with all of our gear to Coal Lake.

(My family and I preparing to fly out)

...TO BE CONTINUED...

- Amber

A Promise

I just got back from camping last night, and it was amazing. We went kayaking on a crystal clear lake for hours, and I have some great pics coming soon!

As for now however, I have to go to running practice, go shopping for school, get a physical, yadda yadda yadda... And even though this is kind of a worthless post, I wanted to sign on today to make a promise to both myself, and to all of you.

I promise to write at least one article every week for the rest of the year as long as I have the internet connection to do so.

Thats all for now, guys - because I quite literally have got to run.

- Amber

Much Awaited Return

To whom it may concern,

I realize that I have been M.I.A. for the last several months... but I am here to tell you that all of that is about to change. Since I last wrote an article, I have moved back home to Alaska, had a family reunion, was a camp counselor, went on many a hiking and biking excursion, registered for my senior year in high school, joined a running team, and had my birthday. 

Needless to say, I have been VERY busy - and I will continue to be VERY busy for the majority of the year... But! That does that mean that I will not be posting articles. On the contrary, I plan on returning full force very soon. (Not today however, because I have a camping trip to go on and some sore muscles to nurse) 

I look forward to writing more very soon.

Sincerely,

- Amber

Note

You may or may not have noticed that there has been a depressing lack of articles from the other TGG (Morgan). Well, I am here to put your worries to rest. She is still alive! And planning to pick up where she left off soon!

- Amber

This Just In...

Despite my earlier articles suggesting the promise of the containment dome... the latest attempt at ceasing the never ending stream of oil has been a bust. After the 14 days it took to build the dome, 3 days to move it out to sea, and 12 hours to lower it down a mile into the ocean- it was ice that put a stop to the whole operation.

According to the article that I read a few hours ago, the ice that caused the complication was a mixture of gas and water at freezing temperatures and high pressures called hydrates. These hydrates are reportedly common problems with offshore drilling, and had been possible obstacles since the beginning of the whole operation. Yet, despite recent news that this is all common knowledge. I hadn't heard anything about it in the several articles I've read on the subject in the past few days...

(Officials are going to have to wait until Monday to move forward with the containment and weigh their options as to what to do next. Some of the ideas on the table right now are to melt the ice with warm water and try again, or to prevent icing inside the dome with a mixture of hot water and methanol.)

Two other recent developments surrounding the spill: (1) The cause has been determined to be a methane gas bubble. Apparently, as the bubble (another common occurrence in drilling) shot up through the pipes, it grew in size and burst through several seals- causing the almost irreparable damage that we are dealing with today. (2) Tar has reached the shores of Dauphin Island, only 3 miles off the coast of Atlanta. This has so far put a damper on beach-goers and caused quite a scare- but cleanup has been quite easy so far.

- Amber

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100508/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

How the Oil Containment Dome Works?

In my last article I talked about the recent oil spill in the Gulf Coast, and its potential solutions. As a follow-up article, I am going to explain in brief how the proposed containment dome (pictured below) will work.

The dome is roughly 4 stories tall, measuring in at 14 x 24 x 40ft. To put that in perspective, its volume is a little over 100,000 gallons. That is only a fraction of the roughly 5,000 barrels of oil being leaked daily. So, how will something so small help contain SO MUCH oil?

By fitting the dome over the worst of the 2 remaining leaks, engineers hope to create a seal with the sea floor and collect as much oil as possible. (Estimates are at an optimistic 85%) They will then connect a long pipe from the dome on the sea floor to a boat above it. The pressure created in the dome as it fills, will force oil up the pipe and into the boat where it can be collected and stored properly.

Sounds good so far. But the problem is that a cleanup method of this type has never been done at such a depth before. The domes were used after Katrina in depths of roughly 1,000 feet, but multiplying that by 5 leaves a lot of room for guess work. Not to mention the fact that even getting the dome over the broken pipe will be a task with a difficulty compared to that of performing open heart surgery...

Also, the dome will only be a short-term fix. And assuming it is a successful operation, there will still be one more leak to fix, and all of the already spilled out to clean up. Long term plans right now are to drill a relief well for the oil but that could take up to 90 days...

I'll keep you posted as more info. comes out in the news.
- Amber

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100507/sc_livescience/howthegulfoilspillcontainmentdomewillwork

Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010 - two weeks ago, a BP oil rig, the Deep Horizon just off of the coast of Louisiana exploded resulting in the death of 11 crew members and setting events in motion that would lead to one of the most catastrophic oil spills in history. An estimated 210,000 gallons of crude oil are being leaked into the ocean every day- meaning that over a million gallons of oil could already have contaminated the ocean. And despite many efforts to contain the spill and clean it up as quickly as possible- it is proving to be a very difficult task. Obama was reported calling the spill a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster,"on Sunday- comparing it to the likes of the EXXON spill of 89 which spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil, contaminating over 1,300 miles of Alaskan coastline, and 11,000 square miles of ocean.

The New York Times reported on Saturday, "The imperiled marshes that buffer New Orleans and the rest of the state from the worst storm surges are facing a sea of sweet crude oil, orange as rust."The marshes that have already been degraded by recent hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita are already in critical condition, and skeptics wonder how much more they can take. Scientists are unsure of how the marshes and wetlands will handle the impending influx of oil. Normally, wetlands can survive spills of this nature, but already weakened by hurricanes it is possible that much of the grasses that make up the wetland ecosystem could die out. 

Obviously, this is already a huge environmental problem, and it is only going to continue to grow until the rig can be shut down. The reason this task has proved so difficult thus far is because the rig is 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. And for some reason, despite numerous efforts by BPs engineers- the rig's blowout preventers are not closing. Since then, the National Guard has tried burning off the oil before it can spread but weather is preventing as much action as they would have hoped. In addition, engineers were able to send down robots to fix one of three leaks on the boat but the oil flow has not slowed down. The next step in trying to contain the spill is, according to the New York Times, to lower a 98-ton "containment dome" over the rig in order to prevent further contamination.

President Obama, who has been endorsing off shore drilling took a big hit with this catastrophic event. He has shut down all new off-shore oil rigs until this situation can be resolved and is taking some heat from his previous critics, and environmentalists alike to postpone offshore drilling altogether until more safeguards can be put into place in order to combat these sorts of situations.

Sources: [NYTimes: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (2010). NYTimes: Gulf Coast Towns Brace as Huge Oil Slick Nears Marshes.Wikipedia: EXXON . ]

-  Amber