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Archive for February 11th, 2013
Sunlight stimulates release of climate-warming gas from melting arctic permafrost
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 11th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Ancient carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost is extremely sensitive to sunlight and, if exposed to the surface when long-frozen soils melt and collapse, can release climate-warming carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere much faster than previously thought.
University of Michigan ecologist and aquatic biogeochemist George Kling and his colleagues studied places in Arctic Alaska where permafrost is melting and is causing the overlying land surface to collapse, forming erosional holes and landslides...
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New Jersey State Legislators Send Letter to NY Gov. Cuomo Urging Him to Ban Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: In addition to 15 New Jersey state legislators sending a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today urging him to ban fracking in his state, this full-page ad ran in the Times Union.
Fifteen New Jersey state legislators sent a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today urging him to ban the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing or fracking in his state for the sake of public health and environmental protection throughout the region. In the letter, they state that they have “deep concerns...
Ssecurity Risks of Extreme Weather and Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 11th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, severe storms, and heat waves have focused the attention of climate scientists on the connections between greenhouse warming and extreme weather. Because of the potential threat to U.S. national security, a new study was conducted to explore the forces driving extreme weather events and their impacts over the next decade, specifically with regard to their implications for national security planning. The report finds that the early...
New Website Exposes NY Fracking Scandal
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: New Yorkers protest outside the NY Department of Environmental Conservation office encouraging employees to blow the whistle on wrongdoing during the NY fracking process.
New Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) documents indicate that Larry Schwartz, Secretary to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and one of the governor’s closest advisors, has a conflict of interest due to his stock investments over his role in New York`s decision on whether to allow fracking. Documents also indicate that New York Deputy...
Peru: Fossil fuel company looking to exploit deposits in Manu National Park
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 11th, 2013
Mongabay: Pluspetrol, an Argentine oil and gas company, is eyeing a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Amazon rainforest for gas production, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Manu National Park in eastern Peru is considered one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and is home to indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation.
The Guardian received access to a document written by the environment agency, Quartz Services S.A., for Pluspetrol, which includes references to fossil fuel "development"...
Huge Climate Change Rally Targets Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by Yahoo!: Susan Graybeal on February 11th, 2013
Yahoo!: The environmental organizations Sierra Club and 350.org, along with about 120 partner organizations are planning "the largest climate-related rally in U.S. history" on Sunday in front of the White House. The goal of the rally, according to a post by the Sierra Club, is to demand that President Barack Obama move forward on climate measures including rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, phasing out fossil fuels and promoting energy efficiency and clean-energy sources. Here are the details.
* The...
Toxic Fracking Wastewater Dumped into Sewer, Why No Arrest?
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Do we have two different systems of justice—one for the wealthy businessperson and another for the common folk? Well it sure seems so, as the Ohio governor and business interests joined hands in the latest incident where at least 20,000 gallons of toxic and potentially radioactive fracking wastewater was dumped into a storm drain that empties into a tributary of the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Ohio. The governor got his enforcers to overlook the violations as the poisonous brine seeped into our...
German Environment Minister: ‘We Want to Limit Fracking’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 11th, 2013
Reuters: Germany's environment minister said on Monday he did not want to make it easy for companies to "frack" for shale gas and could not see the practice happening in his country in the "forseeable future".
Pending rules for the drilling techniques would likely be tightened, said Peter Altmaier, a conservative politician in chancellor Angela Merkel's government.
"The message is we want to limit fracking, we don't want to facilitate it," he told Deutschlandfunk radio. "And anyway I don't see in the...
Earth-Observing Satellite Is Launched by NASA at Crucial Moment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 11th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: NASA is expected to launch today its newest Earth-observing satellite, Landsat 8, at a time when previous Landsat satellites have either stopped working or have developed serious technical problems. NASA scientists say the launch of the $855 million satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is vital to the space agency’s mission of monitoring the Earth during a period of unprecedented environmental change — from disappearing glaciers and sea ice, to widespread forest loss, to intensifying...
Lifelong Oklahoman Youth Pastor Locked to Machinery in Protest of Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance on February 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Earlier this morning, Stefan Warner, a youth pastor who was born and raised in Harrah, OK, locked himself to machinery being used to build the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline through Creek land near Schoolton, OK.
Warner is taking action to protect the health of the North Canadian River, communities and land that this pipeline would run through from being irreversibly damaged by diluted bitumen (tar sands) leaks and spills. He is sending a clear message that the current day colonialism and...