RSS Feed
Archive for August 2nd, 2013
The first rule of fracking is: Don’t talk about fracking
Posted by Grist: None Given on August 2nd, 2013
Grist: The Hallowich children were just 7 and 10 years old when their family received a $750,000 settlement to relocate away from their home in Mount Pleasant, Penn., which was next door to a shale-gas drilling site. By the time they’re grown up, they may not remember much about what it was like to live there - the burning eyes, sore throats, headaches, and earaches they experienced thanks to contaminated air and water. And maybe it’s better if they don’t remember, since they’re prohibited from talking...
Posted in 
Fish die as Alaska temperatures continue to break records
Posted by Reuters: Yereth Rosen on August 2nd, 2013
Reuters: Alaska's summer heat wave has been pleasant for humans but punitive for some of its fish.
Overheated water has been blamed for large die-offs of hatchery trout and salmon stocks in at least two parts of the state as hot, dry weather has set in, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Hundreds of grayling and rainbow trout died in June after being placed in a Fairbanks lake, the department reported. An unusually cold spring caused lake ice to linger much longer than normal, before...
Canada: New TransCanada Pipeline Plan Dwarfs Keystone XL
Posted by DeSmog Canada: Derek Leahy on August 2nd, 2013
DeSmog Canada: TransCanada Corporation announced yesterday they will proceed with plans to create a pipeline capable of shipping 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil and tar sands bitumen from western Canada to refineries and ports in Quebec and New Brunswick. Called "Energy East", this west-to-east pipeline would dwarf the oil delivery capacity of TransCanada`s proposed Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. (830,000 bpd).
The premiers of Alberta and New Brunswick declared Energy East a "nation building" pipeline....
Sunburned in Siberia: Heat Wave Leads to Wildfires
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on August 2nd, 2013
Climate Central: An intense heat wave in Siberia has contributed to an unusual flare up of wildfires across the fragile and carbon-rich landscape. Smoke from the fires is lofting high into the atmosphere, and is drifting toward the Arctic, where soot can hasten the melting of snow and sea ice. The Siberian city of Norilsk, the most northerly city in the world with a population greater than 100,000, recorded temperatures above 83°F over eight consecutive days starting on July 18, according to blogger Chris Burt of...
Eminent Domain Used to Push Big Oil’s Agenda
Posted by EcoWatch: Laura Beans on August 2nd, 2013
EcoWatch: Food & Water Watch released a report last month detailing lax laws and regulations, such as the controversial clause of eminent domain, that benefit oil and gas companies trying to seize private land to extract or transport fossil fuels.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), eminent domain is an exercise of power of the government or quasi-government agencies to take private property for "public use."
The oil and gas industry`s right to claim land has been...
Canada’s Harper insists Keystone XL is important for jobs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2013
Reuters: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper contradicted on Friday U.S. President Barack Obama's dismissal of the job-creation potential of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, saying the project is important both for jobs and for energy security.
Asked about remarks made by Obama in an interview with the New York Times last Saturday and then repeated this week in a speech, Harper told reporters in Quebec City that Canada's perspective was well-known by everyone in Washington.
"That is that first...
United Kingdom: Balcombe fracking protesters vow to fight on as drilling begins
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on August 2nd, 2013
Guardian: Drilling for oil started on Friday just outside the small village of Balcombe, in West Sussex, as oil and gas company Cuadrilla completed tests of its equipment and protesters chanted outside, surrounded by police.
This is the first time Cuadrilla, which is pioneering the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" in the UK, has been able to start its exploratory drilling. The company says is not planning to frack the rocks under Balcombe at this stage. Its geological assessments...
5 Gyres Institute Sets Sail to Study Plastic Pollution in Lake Michigan
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 2nd, 2013
EcoWatch: Today, a team from 5 Gyres Institute launched an unprecedented expedition to quantify and report on the extent of plastic pollution in Lake Michigan.
Nick Williamson, environmental science major at SUNY-Fredonia; Saul Kliorys, Burning River Foundation board member; Sam Mason, associate professor of chemistry at SUNY-Fredonia; and Marcus Erikson, director of 5 Gyres Institute, at Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, OH. Williamson, Mason and Erikson set sail today on an unprecedented expedition...
Fracking firm Cuadrilla trespassed on private land for geological surveys
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2013
Guardian: Fracking company Cuadrilla repeatedly trespassed on to private land during geological surveys and in one garden marked a site for the detonation of explosive charges before being chased off, the Guardian can reveal. The company, currently facing serious protests at its drilling site in Balcombe, West Sussex, has paid out to at least one Lancashire homeowner to settle legal action over the trespassing and was warned by ministers that such issues undermined confidence in the company and "only served...
Scientist to eat lab-grown beefburger
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2013
Guardian: On Monday, just after lunchtime, Dr Mark Post will make culinary (and scientific) history by cooking a beefburger and eating it. Which sounds mundane except that this burger cost €250,000 to make and has been painstakingly assembled from meat grown in his laboratory at Maastricht University. Post's burger will be constructed this weekend from tens of thousands of strands of protein grown, in petri dishes, from cattle stem cells. These cultured muscle fibres will be taken out of deep freeze and carefully...