May 2, 2010 - Fifty miles offshore and nearly one mile below the ocean's surface oil is erupting volcanically into the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion on April 20th cost eleven lives and sank an oil platform that was connected to a hole that was drilled into the ocean floor. The hole should have closed automatically when the explosion happened.  It didn't. There were no back-up plans for shutting the hole. The early attempts to close down the well with remotely piloted underwater vehicles failed. BP, the oil company ultimately responsible for the disaster, says it might be 90 days before the underwater gusher is shut down. The company acknowledges that, in fact, it may be impossible to make it stop at all.  In that case oil will spew into the Gulf until the reservoir under the seabed is empty.  The amount of crude that has been released into the Gulf over the past 12 days is unprecedented in US waters. This is becoming, if not already, the worst environmental disaster in US history. It will get worse. The long term environmental and economic costs will be staggering.

Marshlands that protect New Orleans and other areas along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida are threatened. Able to withstand small amounts of oil, the grasses will die off if oil washes over them for months unabated. When grasses die the land underneath them becomes mud and washes away. Erosion accelerates massively. 

With oil covering the ocean's surface fishing boats are unable to fish. Oil on the beaches are a turnoff for tourists. And the fixes, chemicals that help the oil break down, may make sea food at the bottom of the food chain toxic.

There's even speculation that some of the oil could flow out of the Gulf, into the Gulf Stream and make its way up the East Coast. Little blobs could possibly show up on Cape Cod beaches some time later this year.

Eventually, in 20-50 years, the coastal areas affected by this mess will be fine. That's a short time in the life of earth but very long indeed for the people and creatures who live by the sea.

March 31, 2010 - From Cape May, NJ to Cape Canaveral, FL, President Obama has proposed opening previously closed tracts of the Atlantic coast to offshore oil and gas drilling. Opening new areas off the Gulf Coast of Florida and the northern coast of Alaska is also proposed.  The coast of New England is not affected. The goal of opening these areas is to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation. Here's the full story from John M. Broder NYTimes.

Wikipedia file image of offshore oil platform.

 March 27, 2010 - The massive erosion along Cape Cod's National Seashore that took place this past winter was the result of extreme high tides coming at the same time as powerful storms. Sea level rise from Global Warming was not a factor. Nonetheless, sea levels are on the rise along most of the earth's coastlines. The main exceptions are coastal areas in Alaska where glaciers have been retreating. Land in those areas has been rising as the weight of glaciers melts away. Sea levels are rising most quickly in warmer parts of the globe. Here in New England the sea level has risen roughly 1' over the past century. Here's an interactive graphic from NOAA that shows how much sea levels have been rising at various points around the world: Sea Level Trends.

January  18, 2009 - 107 years ago, on January 18, 1903, a wireless radio station built by Guglielmo Marconi near Coast Guard Beach sent a message of greetings from Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. This was the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States. The station was also one of the first to receive the distress signals from the sinking Titanic.

In honor of the Marconi transmission, amateur radio operators with KMICC, the Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club, have installed antennas at Coast Guard beach and are making contacts with other radio operators around the world.

The antennas at Coast Guard beach are temporary and are scheduled to come down on January 22.