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Archive for December 10th, 2012
Imagine There’s No Fracking … Give Clean Energy a Chance
Posted by EcoWatch: Artists Against Fracking on December 10th, 2012
EcoWatch: Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon placed a full-page ad in the Dec. 10 New York Times, calling on Governor Cuomo to “Imagine There’s No Fracking … give clean energy a chance.” The ad illustrates and describes how cement in wells at such great depths leaks, poisoning drinking water with gases and toxic chemicals.
“No amount of regulation can ever make fracking safe,” the ad reads. “No one can be sent thousands of feet under the Earth to make repairs once the cement fails--and it will. The enormous pressure...
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Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about environmental issues when couched in terms of fendin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 10th, 2012
ScienceDaily: When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies.
A UC Berkeley study has found that while people who identified themselves...
Drought and Economic Woes Vex Sheep Farmers
Posted by New York Times: Jack Healy on December 10th, 2012
New York Times: Since he was a boy in western Colorado, John Bartmann seemed destined to become a sheep man. He raised lambs with the local 4-H club and sheared them for elderly German farmers. His office is lined with paintings of sheep and a plaque honoring him for “promoting culinary excellence” in lambs. But over the last few years, skyrocketing costs, a brutal drought and plunging lamb prices have battered Mr. Bartmann and the 80,000 ranchers across the county who raise sheep — from a few to several thousand....
Climate change a culprit in growth of water-damage insurance claims
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Tracy Sherlock on December 10th, 2012
Vancouver Sun: Water, water everywhere. Water damage has overtaken fire damage for insurance claims, and that trend looks to continue as king tides, warming oceans and more intense storms multiply the effects of sea level rise.
“We don’t get hurricanes quite like Sandy in B.C., but you do get heavy winter storms with big winds and they blow a lot of water,” said Gordon McBean, professor at Western University in London, Ont., and director for research at the centre for environment and sustainability.
“When...
Report: IPCC Underestimates Climate Risks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 10th, 2012
Climate Central: Across two decades and thousands of pages of reports, the world's most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent, say a growing number of studies on the topic.
This conservative bias, say some scientists, could have significant political implications, as reports from the group -- the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- influence policy and planning decisions worldwide, from national...
U.K. Dash for Shale Gas a Test for Global Fracking
Posted by National Geographic: Thomas K. Grose on December 10th, 2012
National Geographic: The starting gun has sounded for the United Kingdom's "dash for gas," as the media here have dubbed it.
As early as this week, a moratorium on shale gas production is expected to be lifted. And plans to streamline and speed the regulatory process through a new Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil were unveiled last week in the annual autumn budget statement by the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne.
In the U.K., where all underground mineral rights concerning fossil fuels belong to...
Fracking corporation turns Louisiana bayou country into toxic sinkhole
Posted by TruthOut: Mike Ludwig on December 10th, 2012
TruthOut: For residents in Assumption Parish, the boiling, gas-belching bayou, with its expanding toxic sinkhole and quaking earth is no longer a mystery; but there is little comfort in knowing the source of the little-known event that has forced them out of their homes.
Located about 45 miles south of Baton Rouge, Assumption Parish carries all the charms and curses of southern Louisiana. Networks of bayous, dotted with trees heavy with Spanish moss, connect with the Mississippi River as it slowly ambles...
China plans over 300 dam projects worldwide
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 10th, 2012
Mongabay: A new report by the NGO, International Rivers, takes an in-depth look at the role China is playing in building mega-dams worldwide. According to the report, Chinese companies are involved in 308 hydroelectric projects across 70 nations. While dams are often billed as "green energy," they can have massive ecological impacts on rivers, raise local conflict, and even expel significant levels of greenhouse gases when built in the tropics. "The Chinese state owned Sinohydro Corporation is now the largest...
Sweeping intel report sounds alarm on climate threats
Posted by The Hill: None Given on December 10th, 2012
The Hill: A new U.S. intelligence community report finds that climate change will fuel new conflicts and competition for resources in coming decades.
The federal National Intelligence Council’s “Global Trends 2030” report issued Monday follows Defense Department analyses that have similarly called climate change an emerging security risk.
“Demand for food, water, and energy will grow by approximately 35, 40, and 50 percent respectively owing to an increase in the global population and the consumption...
Interview with Ecologist and Anti-Fracking Activist Sandra Steingraber
Posted by EcoWatch: Maureen Nandini Mitra, Earth Island Journal on December 10th, 2012
EcoWatch: Sandra Steingraber’s gentle voice belies her fierce outrage at the destruction of Earth and human life, a rage that has driven her to devote herself to combating the chemical contaminants that endanger our well-being. An ecologist, cancer survivor, poet, and mother, Steingraber has authored three critically acclaimed books that explore the environmental toxins that permeate our land, air, water and food. In Living Downstream she documented her struggle with bladder cancer at age 20 and supplied a...