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Archive for September 23rd, 2011
Pennsylvania Gas Well Vandalized
Posted by Yahoo!: Jason Gallagher on September 23rd, 2011
Yahoo!: The natural gas industry in Pennsylvania has drawn criticism from many residents and environmental organizations. For the most part, the anti-drilling crowd keeps their reactions to demonstrations and education about the potential effects of fracking, but in Indiana County at a recently approved Marcellus Shale drilling site someone took things a step further. An act of vandalism has forced the drilling company, MDS Energy, to wait on word from the Department of Environmental Protection on specific...
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United Kingdom: Will Cuadrilla’s shale gas discovery change UK energy forever?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2011
Guardian: On 27 May, a small earthquake shook Blackpool. On 21 September, a much larger 'shock' hit the Lancashire town: the apparent discovery of a globally significant shale gas field, thanks to drilling that may have caused the first tremor.
Two crucial questions follow. Is the extent of the find true and, if it is, does it change how the UK will keep its lights on? Gas power stations, cheap and fast to build, are after all the government's get out of jail free card as the pressures of rising prices...
BP files first US Gulf drill plan since Macondo
Posted by Reuters: Bruce Nichols on September 23rd, 2011
Reuters: BP confirmed on Friday it has filed a plan with U.S. regulators to pursue its first new deepwater oil exploration work in the Gulf of Mexico since the disastrous Macondo spill in 2010.
The plan, filed with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is BP's first move to return to deepwater Gulf exploration since its Macondo well ruptured on April 20, 2010, and caused nearly 5 million barrels of oil to spew into the sea in what was the worst U.S. marine oil spill.
The...
World leaders to sign charter to end extreme hunger
Posted by AlertNet: Katy Migiro on September 23rd, 2011
AlertNet: World leaders will sign a 'Charter to end Extreme Hunger' in New York on Saturday, while calling for more funding to resolve the hunger crisis in East Africa which is affecting 13 million people.
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga will be the first official to sign the charter at a press conference also attended by rock star-turned-humanitarian Bob Geldof and the United Nations' most senior humanitarian official, Valerie Amos.
The charter, which was drawn up by aid agencies and civil society...
Nitrogen Pollution Soaring In Waters Off of China, Study Shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2011
Yale Environment 360: Levels of nitrogen in the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan have risen sharply over the last 30 years because of growing industrial and agricultural pollution, according to a new study in the journal Science. Analyzing data from the 1980s to the present, Korean researchers found that nitrogen levels had quadrupled in many areas, increasing the threat that these Pacific Ocean waters will suffer from algal blooms and dead zones with low oxygen levels. Nitrogen pollution was particularly...
Solar homes showcase students’ energy, creativity
Posted by Washington Post: Darryl Fears on September 23rd, 2011
Washington Post: University of Maryland students didn’t compete in the last Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t show up. Dozens of them carried clipboards and furiously scribbled notes while eyeballing solar-powered houses designed and built by other students from around the world.
They were preparing to vie for this year’s event, which started Thursday at West Potomac Park and runs through Oct. 2. U-Md. is unveiling WaterShed , a house inspired by the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem....
Kenya latest to press for climate action
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2011
United Press International: The pace at which climate change and environmental degradation are occurring means the international community needs to act quicker, Kenya's president said.
Environmental conservation and climate change regulation took center stage this week at the 66th meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, during his address before the General Assembly, said droughts in the Horn of Africa were emblematic of the broad environmental challenges facing the international community....
Record prices spur drive to get more “dumped” gold
Posted by Reuters: Ed Stoddard on September 23rd, 2011
Reuters: The vast majority of South Africa's gold lies deep underground but atop the mine dumps scattered around Johannesburg, you can actually walk on the stuff.
"You're standing on gold right now," said Charles Symons, chief operating officer for DRDGold, as he surveys a yawning crater 30 meters (90 feet) deep and 250 meters long blasted out of the Elsburg dump to the south of Johannesburg.
"But the specks on your shoe wouldn't buy you a piece of bubble-gum," he says with a laugh as a water cannon...
United Kingdom: Charles Hendry’s fracking response raises more questions than it answers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2011
Guardian: Beware of mining companies claiming vast finds.
History is littered with news of discoveries that send share prices rocketing, but which later turn out to have been over-enthusiastic. That Cuadrilla Resources has found something under the rocks in north-west England is doubtless true. That the quantity of shale gas might be substantial is not a proposition I would bet against. But whether it really amounts to 200tr cubic feet of gas, and will trigger a "shale gas revolution" employing thousands...
The Arctic’s near-record sea ice low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2011
Guardian: By early September, the area covered by sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was approaching a record low. On September 9, sea ice covered 4.33 million square kilometers (1.67 million square miles), US National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. The 2011 low is 2.38 million square kilometers (919,000 square miles) below the average minimum extent measured between 1979 and 2000. Late season melt or a shift in wind patterns could still decrease the sea ice extent before the winter freeze-up begins. Photograph:...