MEDICINE HAT

Union says nurses feeling exhausted and stressed amid fourth wave of COVID-19


(file photo/CHATNewsToday)
By Tiffany Goodwein

Sep 6, 2021 

MEDICINE HAT,-AB –Nurses at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are feeling disrespected and exhausted as they battle the fourth wave of COVID-19. That’s according to the United Nurses of Alberta, the union representing Alberta nurses.

John Terry, a south district representative and an operating nurse at the hospital said staff shortages are wearing nurses out, as they try to care for the high volume of patients.

“Nurses at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are being mandated daily, by mandated I mean they have been ordered to come to work. They have to pay them overtime to do that. But vacations, vacations have been cancelled and these are vacations that are owed and people want to take, and because of the shortage they are being called off of their vacation,” Terry said.

Many nurses are working double shifts and Terry said that is having an impact of the quality of care and the mental health of staff.

To address the nursing shortage, Alberta Health Services confirms they are looking to hire staff on a contract basis.

“ This critical staffing challenge is limiting our ability to open additional beds, which in turn is placing strain on our ability to care for patients. In order to alleviate this staffing challenge, AHS is again working with contract staff supplied by staffing agencies, as a last resort to prevent further disruption of services and patient care,” Alberta Health Services said in a statement.

Terry said virtually every department in Medicine Hat is facing a staff shortage and he has not heard how many contracted positions will be brought to Medicine Hat. But many of the positions being advertised are paying double what nurses in Alberta normally make.

“ We understand that we have to provide care, and we are going to provide care. But what we need is more nurses. They need to hire more nurses, and not necessarily the agency nurses and have to pay them like i said close to double what registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses are making in Alberta right now. So it comes full circle back to feeling disrespected,” Terry said.

Nurses in the ICU at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are facing immense, pressure, according to Terry, who said the last time he heard the ICU at the hospital is full, with most of the COVID-19 patients on a ventilator.

“That takes a lot of time to monitor a patient on a ventilator, and you know working with COVID-19 patients every day, knowing you have to go home at night, knowing that vaccination doesn’t necessarily protect you from the Delta variant…so there a lot of stress in the ICU, and those nurses are doing a phenomenal job,” he said.

On Sunday, a local doctor at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital chronicled what a 48-hour shift looked like. In a public post on Facebook, Dr. Scott Malmberg said in two days of working the COVID-19 ward he had 16 admissions, 2 ICU transfers, four discharges, and four deaths. He also said most of the patients were unvaccinated.

The full post can be read here.

Alberta Health Services said there are currently 34 COVID-19 patients in hospital and six in the ICU.

Terry said it is unknown what will happen to patients if the ICU reaches overcapacity. He said originally they were going to use the recovery room as an ICU room but the union was told those plans have changed.

Alberta health services announced last week that up to 30 per cent of scheduled surgeries, endoscopy, and outpatient visits will be postponed in the South Zone in order to free up more space.

Kim Kelly Labor Day lessons from the American union movement's hidden history

This year, find inspiration in the bravery and sacrifice of generation after generation of workers who had nothing left to give — but still gave everything they had.

Members of the United Mine Workers of America hold signs during a strike against Alabama's Warrior Met Coal at the BlackRock offices in New York on July 28, 2021.

Angus Mordant / Bloomberg via Getty Images file


Sept. 6, 2021, 3:00 AM MDT
By Kim Kelly, freelance journalist and organizer

Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. In 1921, around 10,000 coal miners in Logan County, West Virginia, who had been trying to unionize with the United Mine Workers of America went to war against about 3,000 coal bosses, state police, private security forces and scabs. For five long, bloody days, those miners in their red bandannas — the Red Neck Army, as they called themselves — held the line, fighting like hell for their futures and their families. Over a million shots were fired, over a dozen people died, the coal bosses dropped bombs and poison gas on mining camps, and the conflict ended only because of federal intervention. Blair Mountain was a pivotal moment in U.S. labor history and a hallowed chapter in the struggle for workers’ rights.

But despite Blair Mountain’s dramatic resolution, it remains a strangely little-known historical footnote.

But despite Blair Mountain’s dramatic resolution, it remains a strangely little-known historical footnote outside of local publications, labor history groups and labor-friendly progressive media outlets. The fact that this centennial passed mostly unmarked is not a coincidence. As Tennessee-based journalist Abby Lee Hood explained in a recent New York Times op-ed, a coal-funded nativist organization called the American Constitutional Association has worked for decades to intentionally obscure the battle’s history, as well as the even longer tradition of militant, interracial labor organizing in the coalfields. The story of Blair Mountain has been repressed by those who would prefer to keep workers in the dark about their own collective power, as have so many other working-class stories.


Even contemporary labor stories are hard to come by in most major media outlets, and labor reporters like me make up a scrappy but still tiny cohort of the media itself. And bosses are able to exploit that lack of attention for their own agendas. For example, have you heard about the 700 St. Vincent Hospital nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, who have been on what is now the longest-running strike in state history? How about the Nabisco strike, which had exploded to include over 1,000 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union in five states? And speaking of coal miners, did you know that over 1,100 members of the United Mine Workers are on strike right now in rural Alabama?

The Warrior Met Coal Strike has been going on since April 1, and the striking workers and their families have been weathering economic pressure, company hostilities and violence on the picket lines with next to no media attention or support from local or state politicians. Multiple vehicular attacks on the striking workers have been documented, with several people, including a miner’s wife, hospitalized; workers have been surveilled by company drones and hassled by police, and I’ve heard stories of multiple workers’ being threatened by scabs and company employees.

Coal mining is a dangerous job, and as history has shown time and time again, so is standing up to coal bosses.

Every single one of these strikes (and many more besides) should be front-page news, and each of their rank-and-file leaders should be handed microphones and invited in front of news cameras to tell their stories and show other workers that they can do it, too. The untold history of American labor includes so many diverse voices, experiences and struggles; it has touched every person living on this stolen land, and it has shaped the way today’s workers move through society. Of course, it’s in the best interest of capital and the controlling class to tamp down as much of that generational knowledge and solidarity as possible. We can’t have workers getting ideas, you see, and robbing people of their own history is a surefire way to convince them that things have always been this way and that resistance is futile.

Troops sit outside their tents during the Pullman Railroad Strike in Chicago in 1894.

Chicago History Museum / Getty Images

Even Labor Day has a less than auspicious history. The holiday was signed into federal law with a stroke of President Grover Cleveland’s pen in 1894, during an era marked by massive strikes, widespread labor unrest and the campaign for the eight-hour workday, a movement led by labor radicals and anarchist revolutionaries. That year alone, 125,000 Pullman railroad workers across 29 railroads had walked off the job to protest wage cuts.


OPINION  Don't cross your grocery store's picket line on Labor Day

But while there is some historical disagreement over its exact origins, Labor Day has subsequently been used to direct workers away from celebrating International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, with all of its revolutionary, anti-capitalist connotations. In 1955, during a crackdown on leftist organizations and labor unions, the government designated May 1 as “Loyalty Day”; even now, the president issues a “Loyalty Day” proclamation every year on a day the rest of the world dedicates to its workers.

That history may have been buried, but workers’ bodies keep the score. This is all why it’s so incredibly important for us to remember Blair Mountain and to stand in solidarity with struggles like those of the St. Vincent nurses, the Nabisco workers and the Warrior Met Coal Strike. With each new labor conflict, we have a fresh opportunity to stand up against capitalist tyranny, support our co-workers and communities and take back more of what’s been stolen from us.

This Labor Day, take a moment to remember those collective radical roots and find inspiration in the bravery and sacrifice of generation after generation of workers who had nothing left to give but still gave everything they had. As Florence Reece, a coal miner’s daughter turned lifelong labor activist, wrote back in 1912 as her father held the picket line, which side are you on?

Hubble Discovers Hydrogen-Burning 

White Dwarfs Enjoying Slow Aging

Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope suggests that white dwarf stars could continue to burn hydrogen in the final stages of their lives, causing them to appear more youthful than they actually are. This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of star clusters, which contain the oldest known stars in the universe.

These results challenge the prevalent view of white dwarfs as inert, slowly cooling burned-out stars where nuclear fusion has stopped. Now, an international group of astronomers has discovered the first evidence that white dwarfs can slow down their rate of aging by burning hydrogen on their surfaces.

“We have found the first observational evidence that white dwarfs can still undergo stable thermonuclear activity,” explained Jianxing Chen of the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who led this research. “This was quite a surprise, as it is at odds with what is commonly believed.”

To investigate the physics underpinning white dwarf evolution, astronomers compared cooling white dwarfs in two massive collections of stars: the globular clusters M13 and M3. These two clusters share many physical properties such as age and metallicity, but the populations of stars which will eventually give rise to white dwarfs are different. This makes M13 and M3 together a perfect natural laboratory in which to test how different populations of white dwarfs cool.

Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, and G. Piotto et al.

White dwarfs have cast off their outer layers during the last stages of their lives. They are common objects in the cosmos; roughly 98% of all the stars in the universe will ultimately end up as white dwarfs, including our own Sun. Studying these cooling stages helps astronomers understand not only white dwarfs, but also their earlier stages as well.

To investigate the physics underpinning white dwarf evolution, astronomers compared cooling white dwarfs in two massive collections of stars: the globular clusters M3 and M13. These two clusters share many physical properties such as age and metallicity (the abundance of heaver elements), but the populations of stars which will eventually give rise to white dwarfs are different. This makes M3 and M13 together a perfect natural laboratory in which to test how different populations of white dwarfs cool.

“The superb quality of our Hubble observations provided us with a full view of the stellar populations of the two globular clusters,” continued Chen. “This allowed us to really contrast how stars evolve in M3 and M13.”

Using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 the team observed M3 and M13 at near-ultraviolet wavelengths, which is ideal for finding blue and faint stellar objects in the crowded globular clusters. This allowed the researchers to compare more than 700 white dwarfs in the two clusters. They found that M3 contains standard white dwarfs, which are simply cooling stellar cores. M13, on the other hand, contains two populations of white dwarfs: standard white dwarfs and those which have managed to hold on to an outer envelope of hydrogen, allowing them to burn for longer and hence cool more slowly.

Comparing their results with computer simulations of stellar evolution in M13, the researchers were able to show that roughly 70% of the white dwarfs in M13 are burning hydrogen on their surfaces, slowing down the rate at which they are cooling. The hydrogen would have been supplied by the star’s outer shells leaking into space.

This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The evolution of white dwarfs has previously been modeled as a predictable cooling process. This relatively straightforward relationship between age and temperature has led astronomers to use the white dwarf cooling rate as a natural clock to determine the ages of star clusters, particularly globular and open clusters. However, white dwarfs burning hydrogen could cause these age estimates to be inaccurate by as much as one billion years.

“Our discovery challenges the definition of white dwarfs as we consider a new perspective on the way in which stars get old,” added Francesco Ferraro of the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who coordinated the study. “We are now investigating other clusters similar to M13 to further constrain the conditions which drive stars to maintain the thin hydrogen envelope which allows them to age slowly.”

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

'MAYBE' TECH

Green hydrogen from clean electricity hard to ship


By Mark Price

NEW ZEALAND 

Liquefied hydrogen carrier Suiso Frontier in Japan. 

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

The idea of building "the world’s biggest green hydrogen plant" in the South has been welcomed by most. But making the new wonder fuel so far from potential markets creates a shipload of challenges. Mark Price reports.

All you need to make hydrogen in your kitchen is a 9-volt battery, water and a couple of paper clips.

So why are electricity generators Meridian Energy and Contact Energy not considering a hydrogen plant for New Zealand’s main potential market, Auckland, which has all the necessary ingredients and more?

There are several reasons, but the main one seems to be that the New Zealand market for hydrogen will be too small for too long.

Contact general manager strategy James Flannery told the Otago Daily Times the companies had looked at a range of possible locations before settling on "the lower South Island".

"Demand for hydrogen in Auckland and elsewhere in the North Island will take a long time to develop and this demand will be quite small relative to the volumes of hydrogen that can be produced in the lower South Island.

"As such, it is likely that the vast majority of the hydrogen produced in the lower South Island will be exported."

The electricity generation companies are now looking for potential large consumers, producers, and associated service providers of the low carbon fuel to register their interest with Southern Green Hydrogen a joint project by the electricity generation companies.

It is investigating the use of renewable energy at Tiwai Point, in Southland, to produce green hydrogen at scale, once the supply agreement with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters finishes at the end of 2024.

A market review as part of that project has concluded major international demand for green hydrogen is imminent.

If it goes ahead - and that is a big if - it can only mean a new trade for a port like Bluff.

But, as of this moment, there is a major snag.

The world has only one small ship capable of carrying bulk liquefied hydrogen.

And, it is still being tested.

The Suiso Frontier, built by Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, is due to make its maiden voyage, carrying hydrogen from Australia to Japan, in the next few months.

Its designers had to overcome a major issue unique to transporting hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen must be supercooled to cryogenic temperatures for shipping.

In May this year, Reuters reported transporting hydrogen was the biggest technological challenge for merchant shipping in decades.

"The major challenge is to keep the hydrogen chilled at -253degC - only 20degC above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature — so it stays in liquid form, while avoiding the risk that parts of a vessel could crack."



The Manapouri Power Station which produces power for the aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point and may power a hydrogen plant in the South.

PHOTO: LAURA SMITH

Kawasaki vice-executive officer Motohiko Nishimura, told Reuters the next phase of the project, already running, was to build a commercial-scale hydrogen carrier, fuelled by hydrogen, by the mid-2020s, with an aim to going commercial in 2030.

Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering is designing a tanker too; working with a steelmaker to develop high-strength steel and new welding technology, along with enhanced insulation, to contain the hydrogen and mitigate risks of pipes or tanks cracking.

A Norwegian shipping company is planning a "roll-on/roll-off" hydrogen carrier, and a Canadian company is developing a ship to transport compressed hydrogen gas, rather than liquefied gas, which does not need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures.

Shipping is not the only concern for the electricity generators.

While New Zealand "green hydrogen" will have the environmental advantage of being made from a renewable source - hydro-electricity - the process is two or three times more expensive than making "blue hydrogen", which is made from fossil fuel such as natural gas.

The International Renewable Energy Agency is a champion of "green" hydrogen saying it is "essential" if aviation, international shipping and heavy industry are to reduce carbon emissions.

Helpfully for the two New Zealand electricity generators, the agency pointed out in a report earlier this year electricity accounts for much of the production cost.

It speculates it will be 10 years before green hydrogen is competitive with other fuels.

How well the proposal for the South stacks up will be the substance of Meridian and Contact’s "technical feasibility study" due to be completed by the end of the year. Mr Flannery said it will not be made public.

The two companies have also called for "registrations of interest" [ROI] from possible partners, and Mr Flannery said the process had confirmed "the significant global interest in using electricity in the lower South Island for hydrogen production".

"Our view is that hydrogen is the best form of new demand as it has the potential to create jobs, grow GDP and decarbonise New Zealand."

The ROIs are due to close at the end of this week.

A decision on whether the outcome will be made public has yet to be made.

There will be interest in whether giant Australian mining company Fortescue wants to join with Contact and Meridian or continue to pursue its own plans for a Southland hydrogen plant.

Radio New Zealand has reported Fortescue telling the Government production could begin as early as 2023.

But how Fortescue would get the hydrogen to overseas markets by that date is unclear, given Japan seems to be leading the way with shipping technology and is signalling it will not have a commercial vessel available until 2030.

Hurricane Ida Continues To Weigh On Gulf Oil Production

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Sep 06, 2021

More than a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, nearly 90 percent, or some 1,6 million bpd of U.S. Gulf oil production remains shut-in, more than 80 percent of natural gas production is offline, and less than half of the shut refineries have started to restart some processes. 

Operators in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have identified damages to offshore facilities and looked to identify the source of an oil spill south off the coast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday, August 29.  

A week later, as of Sunday, September 5, as many as 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production was shut-in, equal to 88.32 percent of total crude output in the region, data from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) showed. A total of 82.72 percent of the daily natural gas production in the Gulf was also shut-in as of Sunday evening. 

The shut-in oil production was lower than on Thursday, when 1.7 million bpd, or 93.55 percent, of all daily crude output was offline. 

Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 CDT on Sunday, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 104 production platforms, or 18.57 percent of the 560 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Gulf of Mexico operators are assessing the situation on offshore facilities, while Port Fourchon remained in Recovery Phase on Saturday, with work progressing to get the port back up and running. 

Operations were restricted for daylight only to ensure the safety of first responders. The port typically handles significant industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port pipeline. 

Shell said last week that it had identified damage to its West Delta-143 offshore facilities, which serve as the transfer station for all production from the oil giant’s assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area to onshore crude terminals. 

In the aftermath of Ida, divers hired by Talos Energy found on Sunday the possible source of an oil spill two miles offshore Port Fourchon in an unleased oilfield, Bay Marchand. A foot-long pipeline was bent and open, but none of the damaged pipelines are owned by Talos, the company said in a statement carried by Houston Chronicle. The spill hasn’t had an impact on wildlife or the shoreline, according to Talos. 

Apart from offshore oil and gas production, Hurricane Ida disrupted refinery operations in Louisiana, shutting 13 percent of American oil refining capacity right after the storm made landfall. 

A week later, five out of nine refineries that had shut in ahead of or during the storm remain shut, the U.S. Department of Energy said in its update on Hurricane Ida on Sunday. 

Five refineries in Louisiana remain shut, accounting for about 1.0 million bpd of refinery capacity, or around 6 percent, of U.S. operable refining capacity.

All three refineries in the Baton Rouge area and one near New Orleans—with a combined 1.3 million bpd refinery capacity—have initiated the restart process, but they are not expected to produce fuel at full rates for several days. 

Operations at the shut refineries cannot restart until feedstock supply, power, and other essential third-party utilities are restored, the DOE said. 

Operations also remain suspended at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), and repairs are underway. LOOP—the only U.S. port capable of receiving very large crude carriers (VLCCs)—suspended operations at its marine terminal a day before Ida’s landfall per standard procedure.  

“Facility assessments and repairs continue,” LOOP said in its latest update Sunday, adding that it “continues to work with shippers to minimize storm-related impacts and is coordinating receipts and deliveries to regional refineries.” 

Gasoline prices in Louisiana spiked by $0.40 a gallon between the day of Ida’s landfall last Sunday, August 29, and this Sunday, September 5, according to AAA data. Gas prices in some counties are above $3 a gallon, while the state’s average price was $2.874/gal on September 5. 

As of early Sunday, 64.4 percent of Baton Rouge gas stations were without fuel, 64.3 percent of those in New Orleans, and 58.4 percent in Lafayette, Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Hurricane Ida Turned Into a Monster Because of a Giant Warm Patch in the Gulf of Mexico

Nick Shay
Professor of Oceanography, University of Miami
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

A computer animation reflects the temperature change as eddies spin off from the Loop Current and Gulf Stream along the U.S. Coast.



As Hurricane Ida headed into the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists was closely watching a giant, slowly swirling pool of warm water directly ahead in its path.

That warm pool, an eddy, was a warning sign. It was around 125 miles (200 kilometers) across. And it was about to give Ida the power boost that in the span of less than 24 hours would turn it from a weak hurricane into the dangerous Category 4 storm that slammed into Louisiana just outside New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2021.

Nick Shay, an oceanographer at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, was one of those scientists. He explains how these eddies, part of what’s known as the Loop Current, help storms rapidly intensify into monster hurricanes.

How Do These Eddies Form?

The Loop Current is a key component of a large gyre, or circular current, rotating clockwise in the North Atlantic Ocean. Its strength is related to the flow of warm water from the tropics and Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico and out again through the Florida Straits, between Florida and Cuba. From there, it forms the core of the Gulf Stream, which flows northward along the Eastern Seaboard.

In the Gulf, this current can start to shed large warm eddies when it gets north of about the latitude of Fort Myers, Florida. At any given time, there can be as many as three warm eddies in the Gulf, slowly moving westward. When these eddies form during hurricane season, their heat can spell disaster for coastal communities around the Gulf.

Subtropical water has a different temperature and salinity than Gulf common water, so its eddies are easy to identify. They have warm water at the surface and temperatures of 78 degrees Fahrenheit (26 C) or more in water layers extending about 400 or 500 feet deep (about 120 to 150 meters). Since the strong salinity difference inhibits mixing and cooling of these layers, the warm eddies retain a considerable amount of heat.

When heat at the ocean surface is over about 78 F (26 C), hurricanes can form and intensify. The eddy that Ida passed over had surface temperatures over 86 F (30 C)

How Did You Know This Eddy Was Going To Be a Problem?

We monitor ocean heat content from space each day and keep an eye on the ocean dynamics, especially during the summer months. Keep in mind that warm eddies in the wintertime can also energize atmospheric frontal systems, such as the “storm of the century” that caused snowstorms across the Deep South in 1993.

To gauge the risk this heat pool posed for Hurricane Ida, we flew aircraft over the eddy and dropped measuring devices, including what are known as expendables. An expendable parachutes down to the surface and releases a probe that descends about 1,300 to 5,000 feet (400 to 1,500 meters) below the surface. It then sends back data about the temperature and salinity.

This eddy had heat down to about 480 feet (around 150 meters) below the surface. Even if the storm’s wind caused some mixing with cooler water at the surface, that deeper water wasn’t going to mix all the way down. The eddy was going to stay warm and continue to provide heat and moisture.

That meant Ida was about to get an enormous supply of fuel.

When warm water extends deep like that, we start to see the atmospheric pressure drop. The moisture transfers, or latent heat, from the ocean to atmosphere are sustained over the warm eddies since the eddies are not significantly cooling. As this release of latent heat continues, the central pressures continue to decrease. Eventually the surface winds will feel the larger horizontal pressure changes across the storm and begin to speed up.

That’s what we saw the day before Hurricane Ida made landfall. The storm was beginning to sense that really warm water in the eddy. As the pressure keeps going down, storms get stronger and more well defined.

When I went to bed at midnight that night, the wind speeds were about 105 miles per hour. When I woke up a few hours later and checked the National Hurricane Center’s update, it was 145 miles per hour, and Ida had become a major hurricane.

Is Rapid Intensification a New Development?

We’ve known about this effect on hurricanes for years, but it’s taken quite a while for meteorologists to pay more attention to the upper ocean heat content and its impact on the rapid intensification of hurricanes.

In 1995, Hurricane Opal was a minimal tropical storm meandering in the Gulf. Unknown to forecasters at the time, a big warm eddy was in the center of the Gulf, moving about as fast as Miami traffic in rush hour, with warm water down to about 150 meters. All the meteorologists saw in the satellite data was the surface temperature, so when Opal rapidly intensified on its way to eventually hitting the Florida Panhandle, it caught a lot of people by surprise.

Today, meteorologists keep a closer eye on where the pools of heat are. Not every storm has all the right conditions. Too much wind shear can tear apart a storm, but when the atmospheric conditions and ocean temperatures are extremely favorable, you can get this big change.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both in 2005, had pretty much the same signature as Ida. They went over a warm eddy that was just getting ready to be shed form the Loop Current.

Hurricane Michael in 2018 didn’t go over an eddy, but it went over the eddy’s filament – like a tail – as it was separating from the Loop Current. Each of these storms intensified quickly before hitting land.

Of course, these warm eddies are most common right during hurricane season. You’ll occasionally see this happen along the Atlantic Coast, too, but the Gulf of Mexico and the Northwest Caribbean are more contained, so when a storm intensifies there, someone is going to get hit. When it intensifies close to the coast, like Ida did, it can be disastrous for coastal inhabitants.

What Does Climate Change Have To Do With It?

We know global warming is occurring, and we know that surface temperatures are warming in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. When it comes to rapid intensification, however, my view is that a lot of these thermodynamics are local. How great a role global warming plays remains unclear.

This is an area of fertile research. We have been monitoring the Gulf’s ocean heat content for more than two decades. By comparing the temperature measurements we took during Ida and other hurricanes with satellite and other atmospheric data, scientists can better understand the role the oceans play in the rapid intensification of storms.

Once we have these profiles, scientists can fine-tune the computer model simulations used in forecasts to provide more detailed and accurate warnings in the futures.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Divers discover dislodged and broken pipeline that likely triggered Gulf of Mexico oil spill


By Keith Allen, CNN
Mon September 6, 2021


An oil slick is shown on September 2 south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

(CNN)Divers using underwater sonar discovered a 12-inch oil pipeline Sunday that had become dislodged and is possibly the source of an oil spill discovered off the coast of Louisiana, officials said

Houston-based Talos Energy said in a statement that it was informed of a potential oil release Tuesday by Clean Gulf Associates, a non-profit oil spill cooperative, because it previously leased the oil block in Bay Marchand off the coast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
Talos began sending vessels to the impacted area Wednesday and divers later discovered the damaged pipeline and determined it does not belong to Talos Energy, the company said.

Syrian oil spill spreads across the Mediterranean and could reach Cyprus on Wednesday

The pipeline "appears to be bent and open ended," Talos Energy said.

Talos ended production in the area in 2017 and had its infrastructure removed from the site in 2019, the statement said.

"The source of the release is not proximate to any of the plugged wells, nor to the former locations of Talos subsea infrastructure," Talos said.

Two 95-foot response vessels remained on-site Sunday to assist with oil recovery, according to Talos' statement to CNN.

"The rate of the release appears to have decreased substantially over the last 48 hours and no black oil has been observed over the last 24 hours," Talos said Sunday. "To date, no impacts to shoreline or wildlife have been observed," according to the energy company.

Talos is working with the US Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to determine ownership of the damaged pipeline and to organize a coordinated response to the spill, the company said

Cleanup boats on scene of large Gulf oil spill off Louisiana following Hurricane Ida

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Bay Marchand slick 1 of several environmental hazards reported following storm

The Associated Press · Posted: Sep 05, 2021

This satellite image taken on Sept. 2 shows an oil slick south of Port Fourchon, La. (Maxar Technologies/The Associated Press)

The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana following Hurricane Ida.

The spill, which is ongoing, appears to be coming from a source underwater at an offshore drilling lease about three kilometres south of Port Fourchon, La. The reported location is near the site of a kilometres-long brown and black oil slick visible in aerial photos first published Wednesday by The Associated Press.

So far, the growing spill appears to have remained out to sea and has not impacted the Louisiana shoreline. There is not yet any estimate for how much oil was in the water, but recent satellite images reviewed by AP on Saturday appeared to show the slick drifting more than 19 kilometres eastward along the Gulf coast.

Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. John Edwards said response teams are monitoring reports and satellite imagery to determine the scope of the discharge. He said the source of the pollution is located in Bay Marchand, Block 4, and is believed to be crude oil from an undersea pipeline owned by Talos Energy.

Brian L. Grove, spokesperson for the Houston-based energy company, said it had hired Clean Gulf Associates to respond to the spill even though the company believes it is not responsible for the oil in the water.

Clean Gulf Associates, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, responded to the scene Wednesday. Its workers have placed a containment boom in the area to mitigate further spread of the oil. The company's vessels are also running skimmers that can remove oil from the water, though the Coast Guard said only about 160 litres had been removed so far.

Divers aim to find source of leak

Talos is investigating the cause of the leak, but a statement provided by Grove said that field observations indicate the company's assets are not the source. Talos previously leased Bay Marchand, Block 5, but ceased production there in 2017, plugged its wells and removed all pipeline infrastructure by 2019, according to the company.

Talos said two 29-metre response vessels had been dispatched to the scene to conduct oil recovery operations. A lift boat equipped to conduct dive operations has also been mobilized and was expected to arrive Saturday. The Coast Guard said the company had indicated divers would descend to the bottom on Sunday to determine the source of the leak.

"Talos will continue to work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to identify the source of the release and coordinate a successful response," the company's statement said. "The company's top priorities are the safety of all personnel and the protection of the public and environment."

Dozens of environmental hazards reported

The Bay Marchand spill is one of dozens of reported environmental hazards state and federal regulators are responding to in Lousiana and the Gulf following the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall at Port Fourchon on Sunday. The region is a major production centre of the U.S. petrochemical industry.

The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

• Biden visits Louisiana to see Hurricane Ida damage as New Jersey death toll rises

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  Neighbourhoods in Louisiana before and after Hurricane Ida

After AP published the photos, the Environmental Protection Agency tasked a specially outfitted survey aircraft to fly over that refinery on Thursday, as well as other industrial sites in area hardest hit by the hurricane's 240 km/h winds and storm surge.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said a state assessment team sent to the Alliance Refinery observed a spill of heavy oil being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

State environmental officials said there was no estimate yet available for how much oil might have spilled from the refinery

Cleanup boats on scene of large Gulf oil spill

following Ida

An black slick drifts between damaged homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida 

Lafitte, La., Sept. 1, 2021. 

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Michael Biesecker
The Associated Press
Saturday, September 4, 2021 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida.

The spill, which is ongoing, appears to be coming from a source underwater at an offshore drilling lease about two miles (three kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The reported location is near the site of a miles-long brown and black oil slick visible in aerial photos first published Wednesday by The Associated Press.

So far, the growing spill appears to have remained out to sea and has not impacted the Louisiana shoreline. There is not yet any estimate for how much oil was in the water, but recent satellite images reviewed by AP on Saturday appeared to show the slick drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19 kilometers) eastward along the Gulf coast.

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Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Edwards said response teams are monitoring reports and satellite imagery to determine the scope of the discharge. He said the source of the pollution is located in Bay Marchand, Block 4, and is believed to be crude oil from an undersea pipeline owned by Talos Energy.

Brian L. Grove, spokesman for the Houston-based energy company, said it had hired Clean Gulf Associates to respond to the spill even though the company believes it is not responsible for the oil in the water.

Clean Gulf Associates, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, responded to the scene Wednesday. Its workers have placed a containment boom in the area to mitigate further spread of the oil. The company's vessels are also running skimmers that can remove oil from the water, though the Coast Guard said only about 42 gallons (about 160 liters) had been removed so far.

Talos is investigating the cause of the leak, but a statement provided by Grove said that field observations indicate the company's assets are not the source. Talos previously leased Bay Marchand, Block 5, but ceased production there in 2017, plugged its wells and removed all pipeline infrastructure by 2019, according to the company.

Talos said two 95-foot (29-meter) response vessels had been dispatched to the scene to conduct oil recovery operations. A lift boat equipped to conduct dive operations has also been mobilized and is expected to arrive Saturday. The Coast Guard said the company had indicated divers would descend to the bottom on Sunday to determine the source of the leak.

"Talos will continue to work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to identify the source of the release and coordinate a successful response," the company's statement said. "The company's top priorities are the safety of all personnel and the protection of the public and environment."

The Bay Marchand spill is one of dozens of reported environmental hazards state and federal regulators are responding to in Lousiana and the Gulf following the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall at Port Fourchon on Sunday. The region is a major production center of the U.S. petrochemical industry.

The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

After AP published the photos, the Environmental Protection Agency tasked a specially outfitted survey aircraft to fly over that refinery on Thursday, as well as other industrial sites in area hardest hit by the hurricane's 150-mph (240-kph) winds and storm surge.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said a state assessment team sent to the Alliance Refinery observed a spill of heavy oil being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

State environmental officials said there was no estimate yet available for how much oil might have spilled from the refinery.

OIL COMPANY FORGETS TO MENTION

 LARGE OIL SPILL IN GULF OF MEXICO

THE COMPANIES GOT BUSTED BY

 SATELLITE IMAGERY.


Caught in the Act

A massive oil spill was discovered off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday.

The spill was identified using satellite imagery from space tech companies Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies, according to The New York Times. The images captured showed plumes of oil covering roughly 10 miles of the Gulf of Mexico.

US Coast Guard officials said that the spill likely originated from an old pipeline owned by Talos Energy, a Texas-based oil and gas company. Experts suspect that the pipeline was damaged due to Hurricane Ida.

NOAA Hurricane IDA Aerial Imagery Response
Publicly Available Aerial Imagery

The oil spill’s origin was initially identified by John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at research center The Citizen Lab. He had been using satellite imagery to investigate Hurricane Ida’s destruction.

“The fact that it was possible to find this spill is owed to the fact that NOAA made aerial imagery publicly available,” Scott-Railton told the NYT. “Had NOAA not made that public, it would have been a lot harder to uncover what is clearly an unfolding environmental problem.”

Cleanup Duty

There is currently an operation to clean up the oil spill, with US Coast Guard boats on their way to the site. However, the pipeline is still leaking.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement released a media update on Friday saying workers from 133 production platforms and six drilling rigs have been evacuated. The bureau intends to inspect the facilities and said that those with no damage “will be brought back online immediately.”

This is yet another example of how one result of manmade climate change (i.e. Hurricane Ida) can cause even more destruction on our environment (i.e. massive oil spills). It also highlights the massive vulnerabilities our energy infrastructure can have in light of disaster — especially when that infrastructure depends on an environmentally harmful resource like oil.


READ MORE: Satellite Images Find ‘Substantial’ Oil Spill in Gulf After Ida [NYT]

More on oil disasters: Oil Company That Caught Ocean on Fire Has Staggeringly Long History of Deaths, Accidents