Category Archives: Environmental Remediation

Grassroots mapping the Gulf oil spill with balloons and kites

Grassroots mapping the Gulf oil spill with balloons and kites   –   via Kickstarter. This is not David and Goliath: it’s a small community outnumbered and outgunned by big agencies and entities with deeper pockets and deeper resources.  So what did they do? They effectively crowdsourced satellite photography — or at least aerial photography. And they went a bit bigger in order to crowdsource the fund-raising, too.

We are a group of citizens and activist mappers who are documenting the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast with a set of novel DIY tools — we send inexpensive cameras up in helium balloons and kites, and take aerial photos from up to 1500 ft. The data we’re gathering will be vital in both the environmental assessment and response, as well as in the years of litigation following the spill. All the imagery we capture is released into the public domain and is free to use or redistribute. See our Flickr photo pool for more of the incredible imagery volunteers are bringing in.

We need support to keep a supply of helium, and to pay for gas, kites, cameras, and protective gear for our volunteers. We’ve already captured a great deal of amazing imagery which is available online:

http://grassrootsmapping.org/ http://grassrootsmapping.org/gulf-oil-spill Louisiana Bucket Brigade, our collaborators and the local HQ, are sending volunteers out to affected coastal sites almost daily, and conducting training sessions for new volunteers in New Orleans and elsewhere along the gulf coast. Our imagery is being published across the web – not just photographs, but stitched maps like these:

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Using oysters for remediation of rivers

Architect Kate Orff:

sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean — thus driving even more innovation in “oyster-tecture.” Orff shares her vision for an urban landscape that links nature and humanity for mutual benefit.

Video here: Kate Orff: Reviving New York’s rivers with oysters (TEDTalks)

 

Kate Orff is, among other things, Director of The Urban Landscape Lab.

It's Like a Bad High School Math Problem

Oil Spill

Oil and Oceans Don't Mix. From Mining News.

“If oil gushes into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 60,000 barrels per day, and it takes 84 days to achieve a capability of “process” the spilled oil at a rate of 30,000 barrels per day, how long does it take to “process” the spilled oil?”

It takes two days to process each day’s gushed oil. So the answer is “2N + 188” where “N” equals the number of days oil gushes into the Gulf beyond the 84 days it took to achieve a processing capability of 30,000 barrels a day. If BP or the government stops the spill effective July 15, 2010, then they will process the oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico by January 20, 2011. If they are able to stop the flow of oil by August 1, 2010, then it will be Feb 19, 2011, before the spilled oil is “processed.” (Source of image)

And what exactly do they mean by “Process the spilled oil?”

People cleaning up the spill

People cleaning up the spilled oil.

Here’s another problem: “What is the toxicity for people cleaning up, or “processing,” the spilled oil? How much exposure can an average person tolerate? Is BP providing adequate safety gear and instructions? If people working to clean up the spill are reporting “light-headedness” and other symptoms, is that an indication that they have sustained a toxic exposure?” For more details, here is Melissa Taylor’s article, “Doctors call for help protecting Gulf oil spill workers.”

This Like a Bad High School Math Problem, is ninth in the series on the Deepwater Horizon / Macondo oil well disaster which began after Earth Day. Other posts include:

  1. Fossil Fuels and a Walk on the Moon,
  2. Drill Baby Drill or Drill Baby Oops,
  3. The Magnitude of the Spill,
  4. One Month After,
  5. The Chernobyl of Fossil Fuels?,
  6. Magnitude, Part 2,
  7. After Macondo, and
  8. Deepwater Horizon – Bombs and Hurricanes.