Mereja

Author: Brooks Blanton

  • Oil Spill Likely to Devastate Marine Life

    Marine biologists along Alabama’s Southern Coast are battling strong winds and a fast approaching deadline, trying to prepare for what now looks like a certain environmental disaster from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
    Researchers from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab have been working feverishly for the past three days gathering fish and water samples near fragile estuaries, which provide breeding grounds for oyster, fish and shrimp. They hope the data they collect before the spill reaches the coastline could give them a better idea of the environmental impact and how to clean it up.
    Dr. George Crozier runs the Marine Biology program at the ocean research center which rests on the tip of a small island along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. He says although the white sand beaches, and the tourism dollars they bring to the area, are very important, cleaning up oil from oyster beds and marshlands will be much harder than the beaches.
    “The aspect of this going deeply into hurricane season is just a terrible uncertainty,” Dr. Crozier says. “It’s not good, because that will obviously put it on shore. It might be good for the Gulf, but I hate to speculate.”
    Dr. Crozier is most concerned with the physics of how the oil will behave and the impact the massive coating will have on wildlife. He says toxins and aroma associated with the light crude will largely dissipate and evaporate as it makes it’s way across the Gulf.
    “This is the fertile crescent, a good percentage of the seafood production in the Gulf of Mexico is east of the Mississippi River,” Dr. Crozier says. “And I am not equipped to tell you it’s going to be this many dollars, but if we are looking at a decade of impact with reduced production I think that’s my long-term concern.”
    Once the oil washes ashore, impacting estuaries and grassy marshlands along the Gulf Coast, Dr. Crozier says crews have a few tactics to clean-up the damage. One method, called bio-remediation uses genetically engineered micro-organisms to break down the oil. But crews could also use a clean-up and renewal tactic from Mother Nature’s playbook — burning the marshes. Crozier says marshes recover from routine, lightning-sparked fires and it would be less harmful than most other clean-up methods.
    “If it gets in oyster reefs and grass beds — terribly productive areas — you don’t exactly run a vacuum cleaner over it,” Crozier says. “The grass beds are particularly fragile in our part of the world. So even trying to clean it would probably destroy them.”

  • Tigers Return Draws Huge Crowds

     Tiger Woods returns to golf in Augusta, Georgia, this week, making the normally huge crowds for the Masters tournament even larger.  Woods returns to tournament play after a sexual scandal rocked his family and nearly ruined his career.  The world’s number one golfer and four-time Masters champion played an 18-hole practice round this morning.  This week marks the first time he has played in a tournament since he admitted to numerous affairs with several women.

    The national and international interest in what Woods will say to reporters and how he will play this week has brought a crush of media, curious on-lookers and entrepreneurs to Georgia.  The golf icon is scheduled to hold an afternoon press conference on Monday where he will answer questions, a change in strategy from a refusal to answer reporter questions at a press conference earlier this year.

    This normally quiet city of about 200,000 people along the Savannah River in Georgia is bursting at the seams as “Tiger-Mania” grips this year’s tournament.  Hotel rooms are hard to find while the few that are empty rent for nearly four times the typical rate.  Businesses like restaurants, churches, gas stations and even transmission shops near  Augusta National Golf Club are selling parking spaces at premium prices.  Wait times for a table at restaurants in and around the city during the dinner rush can be up to two hours. 

    The crush of cars and pedestrians into The Augusta National Club began early this morning on the first day of practice rounds.  Washington Road, the four lane street that runs in front of the famed golfing mecca, was jammed with lines of cars and crowded with a sea of pedestrians making their way to the front gate.  Decked out in visors, brightly colored shirts and plaid bermuda shorts, many of these devoted golf fans make the annual trek here to watch the “best of the best” on the links.  But the interest in Tiger’s return to the game is obviously overshadowing who will win the coveted Green Jacket this year.

    A few protestors carry signs among the crowds in front of the club this morning, evidence that some are still not happy with the details about Tiger’s admitted affairs with other women.  But the crowds here seem to be largely in favor of Woods, who has been working hard to repair his image and save his lucrative golf career.  

    Many feel he has already paid the price for his misgivings, and feel the issue is now a personal matter between him and his family.  The crowds of golf fans feel this week should be about getting back to the game that has made Augusta, Georgia the only place to be…at least for this week.

  • Keeping Nuclear Weapons From Terrorists

    Just hours after suicide bombers killed at least 36 people and injured nearly 100 others on packed subway trains in Moscow, Russian and American dignitaries expressed concerns that someday terrorist attacks could be carried out using nuclear weapons.

    “I think that what happened today in Moscow is an act of brutal terrorism that is certainly, absolutely unacceptable,” said Sergey Kislyak, Russian Federation ambassador to the United States. “It’s just a reminder that terrorists wouldn’t stop at anything, and they are willing to take innocent lives with disregard even to theirs.”

    Ambassador Kislyak was preparing to speak at a nuclear weapons disarmament conference at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta today when news of the Moscow bombing broke. He pointed to the deadly rush hour attack as a grave warning that keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists means eliminating them completely.

    “We have more than 70 countries working with us in order to prevent this from happening,” Kislyak said. “I think it’s a good example of what Russia and the United States can do together to address this issue. But it’s not nearly enough. We need to double this effort.”

    Former US Senator Sam Nunn hosted Kislyak, along with several other academic, government and private sector experts, to discuss the possibility of a global elimination of nuclear weapons. He says the post-cold war drive to reduce them has gathered unprecedented momentum as nuclear capabilities spread beyond Russia and the United States.

    “Two major nuclear powers is one thing,” said Senator Nunn. “Preventing materials from getting into the hands of terrorists when you have more and more nuclear powers is a nightmare. And that’s the nightmare we hope to prevent.”

    Nunn said recent reports that Iran is covertly attempting to develop nuclear capabilities suggest that nation is in clear violation of international treaties and has created tension around the globe. He also said Iran’s known links to terrorist groups pose a security threat to the United States, Russia and Europe.

    “Even if they stop short of nuclear capacity in terms of weapons, but develop the ability to very rapidly produce nuclear weapons, it would alter the whole balance in the region,” Nunn said. “It would also encourage other countries to move forward with their own nuclear weapons.”

    Nunn and Kilsyak said they hope a new arms reduction agreement between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev forges a new path to the reduction of nuclear weapons in other countries. Obama and Medvedev are expected to cut their countries’ nuclear arsenals by a third when they sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Agreement or START on April 8.

    “We have to have a long-term goal of reducing our own nuclear inventories and moving toward a nuclear-free world if we are going to get the support we need to deal with Iran and North Korea,” Nunn said.