RSS Feed
Archive for January 4th, 2013
Measuring Fugitive Methane Emissions from Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: Steven Hamburg, Environmental Defense Fund on January 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: A Cornell study released last year, lead by Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology Robert Howarth, was the first of its kind to study the global warming impact of natural gas extraction from shale deposits. The conclusion was that fracking releases up to 8 percent of the extracted methane directly into the atmosphere, and reports that all methane will contribute to 44 percent of global warming. Photo Andrew Michler
In recent days, news reports and blog posts have highlighted the problem...
Posted in 
What “Happy Feet Two” Star Matt Damon Taught Me About Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2013
Mother Jones: Promised Land
Focus Features
106 minutes
If Matt Damon & Co. really wanted to make a movie that would scare American audiences off of fracking for good, they should have just made a movie dramatizing fracking's potential threat to America's beer. Instead, what we get is a quaint love story wrapped in a conspiracy movie, draped in a toothless political polemic, festooned with mawkish aimlessness.
It didn't have to be this way. Promised Land's script was originally developed with Dave...
7 Resolutions for a Better Planet
Posted by OurAmazingPlanet: Douglas Main on January 4th, 2013
OurAmazingPlanet: 2013 is here, and everyone is busy making (or already breaking) their New Year's resolutions. Mother Nature took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to share a few thoughts on how to improve the situation here on our planet with some New Year's resolutions that should be taken up by mankind.
Here are the top seven resolutions for the Earth in the New Year. Take it away, Mother Nature:
1. Prevent species from going extinct
Earth is in the midst of an enormous extinction crisis, the biggest...
Met Office: 2012 was UK’s second wettest year on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2013
BBC: The past 12 months were the second wettest on record in the UK, according to data released by the Met Office.
The total rainfall for the UK during 2012 was 1,330.7mm (52.4in), just 6.6mm short of the record set in 2000.
Most areas were affected by the extreme weather, with thousands of homes flooded and farmers struggling to grow crops in the saturated soil.
The latest data comes as analysis says the frequency of extreme rainfall in the UK may be increasing.
Continue reading the main...
Wisconsin’s Mining Moratorium Under Attack
Posted by EcoWatch: Al Gedicks and Dave Blouin on January 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: The Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin before reclamation. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently completed an investigation of water quality at the Flambeau Mine site and recommended that “Stream C,” a tributary of the Flambeau River into which Flambeau Mining Company has been discharging polluted runoff from the mine site since 1999, be included on its list of “impaired waters” for 2012 for “acute aquatic toxicity” caused by copper and zinc.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker...
Mending the Bird Preserves Hit by Sandy
Posted by New York Times: Jon Hurdle on January 4th, 2013
New York Times: Conservationists fear that damage in places like Reeds Beach in New Jersey left almost no sand for the spring spawning of horseshoe crabs, on whose eggs birds like the red knot, center, feed during their migration.
Conservationists are warning that swift action is needed to repair mid-Atlantic bird refuges that were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
In a report issued on Thursday, researchers at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences said...
Climate change threatens Tahoe’s snow levels, lake clarity
Posted by Mercury News: None Given on January 4th, 2013
Mercury News: Lake Tahoe is "the fairest picture the whole earth affords," Mark Twain once wrote. Its crystal blue waters, surrounded by stunning snowy mountains, define one of California's crown jewels as an American landmark. It attracts 3 million skiers, boaters, campers, hikers and other visitors each year.
But it could look very different in 100 years.
Climate change could profoundly affect the Tahoe area, scientists say, taking the snow out of the mountains and the blue out of the water.
Last winter's...
Methane leaks cast doubt on shale gas climate credentials
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on January 4th, 2013
BusinessGreen: US scientists have once again warned large amounts of methane could be leaking from new onshore gas drilling projects, challenging claims the fuel can offer a lower emissions alternative to coal.
Around nine per cent of the potent greenhouse gas methane produced by a gas field in Utah was shown to be escaping into the atmosphere, according to preliminary results published in Nature by a team comprising researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University...
United States: Experts Advise Cuomo on Disaster Measures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2013
New York Times: Two panels of experts charged with studying how New York can better prepare for disasters like Hurricane Sandy said Thursday that the state should create a strategic fuel reserve, require some gas stations to install generators and update its building codes. The commissions, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appointed in November shortly after the storm hit, offered preliminary recommendations so that the governor could consider including some of them in his State of the State address on Wednesday. The...
Matt Damon and John Krasinski star in ‘Promised Land’
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Peter Rainer on January 4th, 2013
Christian Science Monitor: Matt Damon plays a corporate salesman for Global, a multibillion-dollar fracking company, in “Promised Land,” which he also co-wrote and produced. He’s the villain of the piece, at least ostensibly, but it’s clear he’s on the road to a Capra-esque redemption.
Directed by Gus Van Sant, the film is best when it lays out the woes of the depressed Pennsylvania farm community infiltrated by Damon’s Steve Butler and his wised-up business partner Sue (well-played by Frances McDormand). Steve is there...