Meanwhile, In Shell’s PR Office…
Following the loss of control and subsequent grounding of the Shell drilling rig, Kulluk, that company’s PR team goes to work. Sitting in PR headquarters, mostly silent, members of the PR team wracked their brains trying to find a way to at least mitigate some of the negative publicity being aimed at the corporation. Then it came. One member of the team jumped up and exclaimed, “I’ve got it! Let’s spend some money on Facebook and try to get some extra ‘Likes’ over this whole thing!” And everyone at Shell agreed. The end. ************************************************************************************************* Ryan Marquis lives on Alaska’s…
OT: Shell Games & Hammertime
[This is an open thread.] The backspin on Shell’s latest Alaskan Coastline Enhancement Initiative has already begun, with “we’ll probably mostly skate this time” apparently the central thrust. You should also send a thank-you note to the burglar who broke into your house because, hey—no arson. Thanks, bro. Here now is some context involving Conoco’s Alaska’s US Senator Lisa Murkowski (R). Our friend Heather Aronno over at Alaska Commons produced a July 2011 NPR interview she describes as “Shell making their sales pitch for the offshore drilling that’s going so spectacularly.” “At the time, Senator Murkowski voiced concerns about the…
Shell vs. Alaska (photos)
Look at ’em. Lazy, non-taxpaying sea lions just lying about, not creating any jobs, and looking for a handout. These photos were taken late last summer on a weekend trip I took to Resurrection Bay—a place en route if a somewhat tipsy crow were flying from the Mudflats office in Anchorage to the site of this week’s Shell oil rig crash landing (see map below). By Alaskan standards, it’s not far away (Seward to Kodiak is over 300 miles). I wanted to give our readers in the Lower 48 some geographical context, as well as a sense of what an…
Drill Rig Adrift Again (Update)
“The Unified Command reports that the Kulluk is now adrift. The Kulluk is estimated to be four miles from the nearest point of land.” Last summer, Shell’s “Noble Discoverer” drill ship ran aground at Dutch Harbor—or, as a company press release phrased it, “drifted toward land and stopped very near the coast.” Clearly, it was a harbinger of things to come. Another Shell drilling rig in the Gulf of Alaska is adrift again, amid worsening weather. A crew of around 250 is trying to get control of the situation as the drilling rig is now 4 miles from land, the…
BP’s Greenwashing
You may have noticed a new PR campaign by British Petroleum carpetbombing our airwaves. Its laughable, self-congratulatory commercials attempt to portray one of the most notorious polluters in human history as a sort of Jaques Cousteau. Unbeknownst to those of you constrained by reality, there is apparently an alternate universe wherein BP is all about abundant marine life, crystal blue waters, and photogenic young families frolicking amid aquatic activities. To hear them tell it, BP is the best thing to have ever happened to the Gulf Coast it devastated. You know, kind of like OJ Simpson introduced us to the…
Pozonsky-gate. The Plot Thickens.
But wait, there’s more! Not only did the hiring scandal of former Pennsylvania Judge Paul Pozonsky into the Parnell administration touch strange corners of Alaska politics, it seems that the Judge’s checkered history in Pennsylvania is not just limited to destruction of evidence in 17 drug cases, but it now appears he’s been doing some inappropriate favors for frackers in the name of keeping information from the press and the public by inappropriately sealing records. Are we shocked? No, we are not. Alaska politics are such that it takes a lot to consider something scandalous, let alone a soap opera….
Weed, Serial Killer & Berlusconi!
Egyptian President Muhamed Morsi has decided he likes democratic reform when it brings him to power, but finds dictatorship preferable once there. Speaking of “same as the old boss,” disgraced Italian Casanova Silvio Berlusconi is poised to make the most implausible political comeback since Bibi Netanyahu Richard Nixon. Don’t make us come over there, Syria. Mining companies in Canada are discovering these renewable forms of energy are pretty nifty, especially when they’re the only ones available to you. Oh, the irony. Colorado and Washington went to pot a month ago, and now Uncle Sam has to decide how firmly…
Study Will Not Avert the Crisis
. One of our most dangerous self-deceptions these days is the belief that simply studying the impacts of climate change will somehow avert the crisis. It won’t. Studying climate change will not keep one carbon atom out of the global atmosphere. We already know enough about the disastrous impacts of climate change to know that we need to take bold, urgent action to solve it, and we know exactly what steps to take. Yet many in government, industry, and academia continue to insist that more study is needed before we take difficult steps to solve the crisis. Scientific uncertainty is…
And the Universe Goes On
I sat home on the evening of November 6, enjoying dinner with my wonderful wife, Michelle, watching the returns come back about the results in our 2012 national election. I would take a few bites, then pick up the iPad and skim Salon.com and NYT.com for the latest results, while also flipping over to the tab open to Spaceweather.com. I was watching another set of numbers – the solar wind and the direction of the Bz in the magnetic field. The winds weren’t as high as I would like – only 365 km/sec – but the Bz was 7.7 south;…
Ignorance on Ice
A few weeks ago during a power outage that lasted (for some) several days, meat and fish made round trips from powerless freezers to powered and back again. Pleas from melting vacuum-sealed salmon, halibut, moose and caribou could almost be heard across the Anchorage Bowl, “We’re melting. We need a live freezer — STAT!” This is the time of year when many Alaskans count their bags of berries, jars of salmon and packs of moose sausage. If you’re a subsistence user, there’s a feeling of accomplishment knowing you hunted or gathered to take care of your family. Going to Costco…