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Archive for June, 2012
Fracking’s risk of causing quake small, panel says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle: Workers drill for oil in the Gypsum Hills near Medicine Lodge, Kan., using the fracking technique. The method of disposing wastewater from the process may cause temblors strong enough to be felt.
Pumping high-pressure water and sand underground to break up shale rocks and harvest natural gas or oil - the practice known as fracking - poses little risk of triggering significant earthquakes, a government-sponsored scientific committee reported Friday.
But the method of disposing the wastewater...
Protesters dig canal through Belo Monte dam in Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2012
Mongabay: In an symbolic protest of the giant Belo Monte Dam, Friday morning some 300 locals dug a channel in an earthen dam that blocks a portion of the Xingu River and serves as the first step for the controversial hydroelectric project, reports Amazon Watch.
"In the early morning hours, three hundred women and children arrived in the hamlet of Belo Monte on the Transamazon Highway, and marched onto a temporary earthen dam recently built to impede the flow of the Xingu River. Using pick axes and shovels,...
Scientists suspect climate change to blame for massive Pine Beetle infestation
Posted by Examiner: Dorsi Diaz on June 16th, 2012
Examiner: As North America continues to witness the largest Pine-Beetle epidemic in recorded history, scientists struggle to understand how climate change has fueled this voracious species. Although the link between climate change and the record breaking epidemic is not entirely clear, scientists studying the phenomena have come forth to voice their opinions. From Canada's Yukon Territory to New Mexico, pine trees by the hundreds of millions are succumbing to a fungus that the beetles carry.
For Jeff Mitton,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Scientists suspect climate change to blame for massive Pine Beetle infestationNatives occupy Amazon dam construction site
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Around 300 indigenous and green activists occupied Friday the construction site of a huge hydro-electric dam across the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon, protest organizers said.
The demonstration at the Belo Monte dam sought to draw attention to the project at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio de Janeiro, more than 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) to the south.
"We call on the world to let our river live," Antonia Melo, head of the Xingu River Forever Alive...
Report: No high risk of quakes from ‘fracking’
Posted by MSNBC: Seth Borenstein on June 15th, 2012
MSNBC: The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas does not pose a high risk for triggering earthquakes large enough to feel, but other types of energy-related drilling can make the ground noticeably shake, a major government science report concludes.
Even those man-made tremors large enough to be an issue are very rare, says a special report by the National Research Council. In more than 90 years of monitoring, human activity has been shown to trigger only 154 quakes, most...
Billionaire pledges 90,000 acres for protected area
Posted by MSNBC: Miguel Llanos on June 15th, 2012
MSNBC: A billionaire hedge-fund manager on Friday pledged to protect 90,000 acres of his Colorado ranch from further development as part of a much larger planned conservation area. The Obama administration said it would be the "largest single conservation easement" ever provided to the federal government.
The easement, which would include tax benefits for New York-based Louis Bacon, provides "the foundation for the proposed new Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area," the Interior Department announced. ...
Fracking for oil and gas poses little quake risk: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2012
Reuters: The fracking drilling technique used to tap shale oil and gas is unlikely to trigger earthquakes, but underground injection of waste water from drilling offers more risks for seismic activity, a new U.S. study said on Friday.
The National Research Council study, which also examined the risk of earthquakes associated with tapping geothermal energy and carbon capture and storage, found that the total balance of fluid injected or removed underground was the biggest factor in causing earthquakes related...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking for oil and gas poses little quake risk: studyClimate change will reduce renewable energy capacity, warn scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2012
SciDev.Net: Climate change is set to reduce Latin America's capacity to produce renewable energy, according to Roberto Schaeffer, a Brazilian energy planning expert.
He told the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development underway in Brazil this week (11--15 June) that many forms of renewable energy are vulnerable to variations in climate, due to their dependence on water -- as is the case with hydropower and biofuels -- as well as on wind and sun.
Schaeffer-- a researcher at...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change will reduce renewable energy capacity, warn scientistsNorth Carolina tries to outlaw climate models
Posted by New Scientist: Hannah Krakauer on June 15th, 2012
New Scientist: Political satirist Stephen Colbert's solution to unfavourable climate science is simple: "If your science gives you a result that you don't like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved."
Legislators in North Carolina are apparently of the same mindset. When a state-appointed commission announced that North Carolinians could expect 39 inches of sea-level rise by 2100, the Senate responded with a bill that legally prevents the Division of Coastal Management from using the climate...
Carbon storage ‘may cause small earthquakes’
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on June 15th, 2012
Guardian: Capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground could give rise to small earthquakes, according to a new report from the US National Research Council.
But the authors said there was too little research to be firm on the findings, and called for more work to be done.
The report examined sites where hydraulic fracturing – the practice of blasting dense rocks apart with water, sand and chemicals in order to release tiny bubbles of natural gas trapped within them – had been used. The authors...