Monitor

Keeping a permanent eye on environmental incidents or threats that may have vanished from the news radar

Thanks to search engines, Wikipedia and other sources, carrying out your own detailed research is possible, however, LifeMachine Monitor exists as a reminder and provides succinct updates to ongoing issues.

You can also follow current events on Twitter @lifemachine.

THREAT TYPES

Major incidents are logged in the SPECIFIC EVENTS section further down this page.

‘Global’ warming – or just cyclical?

It should be noted that recently (2010) the sun has actually been going through a period of calm, so cannot be blamed for any warming, unless such warming is a natural reaction to cooling elsewhere. Climate prediction and analysis continues to be a controversial as it is such a black art – never mind the special interests that try to distort the truth. By monitoring temperature levels over decades if not millennia, history may eventually be able to provide a clue. Why not keep a log of weather conditions in your own area?

  • July 2010
    • Heatwaves in Russia and New York state.

Oil leaks

  • Wellhead damaged in accident now leaking oil into Barataria Bay in the Gulf of Mexico
    • July 28, 2010 © The Daily Telegraph

Pacific Ocean garbage patch

A telling example of how our initially optimistic view of a revolutionary material receives a reality check decades after it’s well intended introduction.

See also the recently publicised, but certainly not recently discovered Atlantic Ocean garbage patch.

  • David de Rothschild reports from his fact finding journey aboard Plastiki
    • July 11, 2010 © The Guardian

ABC News report on the Pacific garbage patch

Atlantic Ocean garbage patch

  • Full details in The Independent (UK)
    • August 20, 2010 © The Independent

Rainforest destruction

  • Peruvian Amazon campaigner Paul McAuley to be evicted (Note the similarity to this situation and the plot of the movie Avatar.)
    • June 8, 2010 © The Independent

Flooding

With flooding becoming common across the world, from June 2010, LifeMachine is logging floods or major landslides that may be caused by climate change, our encroachment into wilderness – or both. Note that we plan to record previous events too in order to provide a more accurate history of flooding over the years. If you have access to evidence of floods not mentioned here (dated photos or video, newspaper reports or other), do let LifeMachine know by submitting a comment below.

  • Increasing floods in China
    • July 21, 2010 © MSNBC
  • China continues to suffer flooding
    • July 14, 2010 © Daily Telegraph
  • Floods in Columbia
    • July 7, 2010 © BBC & AP
  • Flooding in China forces a million to evacuate
    • June 22, 2010 © CNN
  • Thousands killed in Brazilian floods
    • June 22, 2010 © The Guardian

The Sixth Great Extinction

  • Government inaction threatens species
    • Saturday 29 May 2010 © The Times

Noise pollution

  • If whales could shout, they would
    • July 12, 2010 © The LA Times

Of interest

  • Tornado hits German island in North Sea
    • July 12, 2010 © BBC

SPECIFIC EVENTS

Yellow Sea pipeline explosion (July 2010)

At the time of posting, the precise details are unclear, but an oil leak has started after a pipeline exploded in China a few days ago. July 21, 2010 © MSNBC.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster (2010)

Although LifeMachine was first conceived over 10 years ago as a ‘life automation’ service, this tragic event and other earlier recent disasters inspired us to use the destination to encourage the public and industry to bring about change through a move towards cleaner sustainable energy generation. We believe a mix of government and commercial efforts will eventually bring this about, but it will take several decades of sometimes gruelling effort.

© 2010 Gerald Herbet/Associated Press

Status

View the leak live on CNN, including repair efforts.


If the link doesn’t work, start at CNN.com and click the link on their home page

  • As many feared, much of the oil is now at the bottom of the ocean.
    • 17 August 2010, © CNN
  • Test of cap successful – the leak has stopped entirely
    • 15 July 2010, BP and multiple sources
  • BP delays testing of new cap for fear of rupturing sea bed
    • 14 July 2010, © The Guardian
  • BP in the process of trying to halt the leak again with a heavier cap
    • July 11 2010
  • Cleanup crews banned from wearing respirators
    • 8 July 2010, © San Francisco Chronicle
  • Methane deadzones near spill are forcing fish and other sealife to migrate
    • 30 June 2010, © The Guardian
  • BP are ahead of schedule with one relief well within approximately 200 metres of the main well head. However, there are several risks associated with this process and BP are considering backup plans.
    • 29 June 2010
  • At this time, it appears the spill is completely out of control and that BP are continuing with their long term aim to use several relief wells, for completion in August of this year. A major task.
    • 17 June 2010 (LifeMachine.com research.)
  • Spill possibly double the size of original estimates
    • Friday 11 June 2010 © USA Today
  • Effects of the spill may extend further than thought (Source: UCAR)
  • BP partially cap the spill, but confirm the full leak cannot be stopped until August earliest
    • Monday 7 June 2010
  • The Brown Pelican could become extinct due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
    • Sunday 6 June 2010
  • Leak may not be stopped until August 2010
    • Sunday 30 May 2010
  • Top Kill operation has so far failed
    • Saturday 29 May 2010
  • Spill 1/10th capped
    • Saturday 22 May 2010

Resources

What can you do?

  • Contact BP and the US government who are open to ideas.
  • As is one of the key objectives of LifeMachine, avoid using anything that relies upon oil. Worrying about people losing their jobs should not be a concern in our view. With change comes opportunity and the clean industries of the future will mop up those highly skilled oil workers, just as modern service industries (such as call centres) eventually created new work for the families of redundant miners in the UK. A far safer cleaner career path that only visionary leadership and tough decision making enabled.
  • Start your own clean energy business, invest in or work for one.

Exxon Valdez (1989)

Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion (1986)

  • Decline in biodiversity recorded during 4 year study (© 2010 BBC)
    • Friday 30 July 2010
  • Wikipedia entry.

Bhopal chemical plant leak (1984)

Status

  • Bhopal managers face prison (© 2010 Daily Telegraph)
    • Monday 7 June 2010
  • Leakage into groundwater continues today.

What can you do?

Learn as much about any products you buy and ensure as little as possible in their composition is harmful to the environment or those living or working in or around the factory where the product is manufacturered.

Ixtoc 1 Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster (1979)

  • As of 31 May 2010 larger than the current (2010) event.

Amoco Cadiz (1978)

Status

  • A year after the oil tanker split in two, the environment began to recover.

Resources

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