September, 22 2010, 02:04pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dave Walsh, Media Officer on board the Arctic Sunrise ,
dwalsh@greenpeace.org , +31 20 712 2616
Molly Dorozenski, Media Officer in New York,
molly.dorozenski@greenpeace.org, +1 917-864-3724
Where is the Oil, and What Effects is it Having on the Gulf's Marine Ecosystem?
Experts available on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise to discuss scientific research into Gulf oil spill impacts
GULF OF MEXICO
Greenpeace Research Director Kert Davies, and
scientists Rainer Amon and Clifton C. Nunnally are currently on board
the Arctic Sunrise and available for interview. The Arctic Sunrise is a
164-foot ice-class Greenpeace ship currently on a three-month expedition
in the Gulf of Mexico to study the environmental impacts of the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.
The independent scientific research team on board the Arctic Sunrise
is studying the extent, composition and impacts of the oil and gas that
has entered the Gulf's deep water following the oil spill. Following
the report released in early August by the National Incident Command
that revealed that between three and four million barrels of oil remain
in the Gulf environment, this research will make an important
contribution to increasing our understanding of the environmental
aftermath of the spill. The work will include documenting the status of
the chemical and biological aspects of the Gulf's waters, in order to
assess the impact of the oil spill on the gulf ecosystems, gauging
dissolved oxygen levels, and the ratio of stable carbon isotopes present
in dissolved inorganic carbon chemicals, as a way to locate areas
affected by the oil spill.
The Arctic Sunrise is performing transects of the Gulf in an area
to the west of the Deepwater Horizon site, south of Texas and
Louisiana, collecting water samples from depths of up to 1.25 miles. The
ship will also spend time close to the disaster site, where the science
team plans to take sediment samples, to find out how much oil has
reached the sea floor and what effect it has had on the organisms that
live there.
Kert Davies, Research Director at Greenpeace US will be available to discuss:
- The ongoing effects of the disaster
- The Arctic Sunrise three-month mission
- What's really happening in the gulf - compared to what BP or the government are saying
- The influence of big oil on US politics
- Future alternatives to oil
Rainer Amon will be available to discuss:
- The significance of his research into dissolved oxygen levels
- How his work complements that of other scientists
- What the science will tell us
- How, technically, the work is carried out
- What they have discovered so far during this expedition
- The potential impact on the Gulf ecosystem, based on findings
Cliff Nunally will be available to discuss:
- The significance of his sediment research, and what the oil spill means for the Gulf ecosystem
- How the team is working with other scientists to understand the oil spill effects
- How his research is carried out
- What he has learned so far
Kert Davies
Greenpeace US Research Director
Davies directs
Greenpeace's research team. He works closely with investigative
journalists and frequently represents Greenpeace at international
climate negotiations and scientific conferences. Davies has also
partnered with major global corporations to help them implement
solutions to global environmental problems. In 2008, he served as part
of a team that convinced Unilever to introduce the first
climate-friendly freezers into the United States. He also created and
runs the Greenpeace websites and blogs ExxonSecrets.org and
PolluterWatch.org, which expose how ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and
other polluters have attempted to influence the public debate about
global warming and energy policy.
Since the BP oil disaster, Davies has been interviewed on PBS
Newshour, CNN, BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera and quoted in major publications
such the Washington Post. Kert Davies studied environmental studies at
Hampshire College, and received his master's in environmental studies
from the University of Montana in 1994.
Dr Rainer Amon
Associate
Professor, Department of Marine Sciences, Texas A&M University, at
Galveston, and Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University,
at College Station
In June 2010, Dr Amon was on board the NSF vessel RV Cape Hatteras,
tracing the movement of subsurface oil plume near to the Deepwater
Horizon site. This time out, he will be studying the extent, composition
and impacts of the oil and gas that has remained in the Gulf's deep
water, by gauging dissolved oxygen levels and stable carbon isotopes of
dissolved inorganic carbon as a way to locate areas affected by the oil
spill.
Dr. Amon holds a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of
Texas and a Masters in Zoology from University of Vienna. After his
Ph.D. Dr. Amon spent eight8 years as a researcher at the Alfred Wegener
Institute in Germany before accepting his position at TAMUG in 2003. He
has worked extensively in the Arctic, using organic matter from Russian
rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean, to trace pollution, the movement
of water masses, and other environmental changes. Amon has participated
in numerous research expeditions to the Amazon River and the Arctic
Ocean during his career. More locally, Amon is a co-investigator to
study the growth of E coli in Houston bayous by combining geochemistry
with molecular ecology, a multiyear study funded by the Texas Commission
for Environmental Quality.
Clifton C Nunnally, Phd. Student in Oceanography, Texas A&M, at Galveston
Nunnally's
focus on board the Arctic Sunrise is on the sediment communities close
to the Deepwater Horizon disaster site, where he will investigate
whether oil has reached the bottom, and if it has, to examine the how it
has affected the biota - such as marine invertebrates.
With a Bachelor Degree in Science from Abilene Christian University
(1998) and a Masters from Texas A&M University (2003), Nunnally's
work has centered on two large oceanographic studies: the Deep Gulf of
Mexico Benthos (DGoMB) project which was a initial survey of deep-water
habitats prior to the expansion of oil and gas exploration on the
Northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope, and the physical and
biological processes behind the Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone'. Clifton
Nunnally also spends each summer at Alice Cover Research Station located
near Simpson Bay in Prince William Sound, Alaska, where he focuses on
benthic invertebrates such as clams and starfish, which sea otters feed
on.
Contact:
Dave Walsh, Greenpeace Media Officer on board the Arctic Sunrise , dwalsh@greenpeace.org , +31 20 712 2616
Molly Dorozenski, Greenpeace Media Officer in New York, molly.dorozenski@greenpeace.org, +1 917-864-3724
Please join us at https://greenpeace.org/usa/live on Friday, September
24th for a live video press/blogger briefing and Q&A with
Greenpeace experts at the front lines of the campaign for clean energy
future, including Greenpeace USA Research Director Kert Davies live from
the ship.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
Sanders Rips 'Absurd' US Claim That Israel Is Not Violating International Law
"The State Department's position makes a mockery of U.S. law and assurances provided to Congress," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Mar 26, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday said the U.S. State Department's determination that Israel is not violating international law with its assault on the Gaza Strip is "absurd on its face," pointing to the mass death, destruction, and starvation that Israeli forces have inflicted on the territory's population over the past six months.
"Thirty-two thousand Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and almost 75,000 injured, two-thirds of whom are women and children," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. "Some 60% of the housing units have been damaged or destroyed, and almost all medical facilities have been made inoperable. Today, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are facing starvation because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu won't let in sufficient humanitarian aid, while thousands of trucks are waiting to get into Gaza."
"The State Department's position," said Sanders, "makes a mockery of U.S. law and assurances provided to Congress."
The senator's statement came after State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters during a press briefing earlier Monday that the Biden administration has not found Israel "to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance."
Miller was responding to a question about assurances the administration has received from the Israeli government that its use of American weaponry has complied with international law and that it has permitted U.S. humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, where the entire population is facing acute hunger.
Under a new Biden administration policy known as NSM-20, recipients of American military aid are required to provide the U.S. government with "credible and reliable" written assurances that they are using such assistance "in a manner consistent with all applicable international and domestic law and policy."
Late last week, a group of U.S. senators—including Sanders—warned the Biden administration that deeming Israeli assurances credible would "be inconsistent with the letter and spirit of NSM-20" and "establish an unacceptable precedent" for the application of the policy "in other situations around the world."
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It is a violation of U.S. law to continue sending military assistance to a country that is obstructing the delivery of American humanitarian aid. Last month, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked a U.S.-funded flour shipment from entering the Gaza Strip, and Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on convoys attempting to deliver aid to desperate Gazans.
Prominent human rights groups have been calling on the U.S. to impose an arms embargo on Israel for months, pointing to documented examples of the Israeli military using American weaponry to commit atrocities in Gaza.
But the Biden administration has refused to even apply concrete restrictions on American military aid. Over the weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law a measure that approves $3.8 billion in unconditional military assistance for the Israeli government and imposes a one-year ban on funding for the primary humanitarian aid organization in Gaza.
Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former USAID official, said Monday that Israel's assurances to the U.S. are "not remotely credible" and argued the Biden administration is undermining efforts to combat the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza by accepting the Israeli government's claims.
The U.S., he said, is "talking a big game about fighting the famine that its bombs and diplomatic cover have helped create." Resorting to "gimmicky" efforts such as airdrops and temporary ports while a U.S. ally obstructs humanitarian aid "is not how you fight a famine," Konyndyk argued.
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Referring to a letter from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a Monday press briefing that the Biden administration has "had ongoing assessments of Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law" and "have not found them to be in violation, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or the provision of humanitarian assistance."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had until Monday to certify to Congress that Israel is adhering to President Joe Biden's February 2023 memo stating that "no arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit... genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949... or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law."
"These assurances are perspective, but of course, our view on them is informed by our ongoing assessments of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza," said Miller.
Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer called the U.S. assessment "absolutely scandalous."
US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller insisted during a press briefing that Israel has not violated international law in its military operation in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/9OP5xRm0Gx
— The Great Investor (@TheGreatInvest2) March 25, 2024
According to Palestinian and international officials, Israeli bombs and bullets—many of them provided by the United States as part of the $3.8 billion in annual military aid and additional emergency shipments—have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, the majority of them women and children.
In December, Biden implored Israel to stop its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza. Since then, Israeli forces have killed or wounded over 40,000 people.
Experts have pointed to the types of munitions being used by Israeli forces as a major reason why so many Gazans are being killed and injured. These include U.S.-supplied 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound guided "bunker-buster" bombs, which Israel says are necessary to target Hamas' underground tunnels.
Aided by artificial intelligence-based target selection systems, Israel Defense Forces commanders are approving bombings they know will cause large numbers of civilian casualties. In a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander, the IDF dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, killing more than 120 civilians.
Even the United States military—which since 2001 has killed hundreds of thousands of people during the open-ended so-called War on Terror—avoids using 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated areas due to the tremendous damage they cause.
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WATCH: "100% of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not allow that to continue."
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The U.S. assessment stands in stark contrast with two major court rulings—one by the International Court of Justice and the other by a federal court in California—that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, as well as with findings by at least hundreds of jurists and other experts around the world, including in Israel, that the assault on Gaza is genocidal. Observers accuse Israel of ignoring an ICJ order for Israel to avoid acts of genocide.
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"This is a huge victory for the protection of our public lands," said Friends of the Earth.
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Moving forward with one of the Biden administration's largest lease sales despite its likely environmental harm, said Cooper, was illegal under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws.
Representing The Wilderness Society and Friends of the Earth (FOE), environmental legal group Earthjustice sued BLM over its leasing plans' potential impact on the greater sage grouse, an endangered bird species, and other wildlife, as well as groundwater impacts.
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While the agency has been attempting to "stop the bleeding" of the greater sage grouse, whose population has declined nearly 40% since 2002, the BLM still refused to postpone leasing in a critical habitat for the bird.
The Biden administration also did not adequately explain its analysis of potential groundwater harms, said the ruling.
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"We are beyond pleased with this outcome," said Templeton.
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