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Archive for August 11th, 2013
We’re seeing catastrophic effects of climate change
Posted by Las Vegas Sun: Harry Reid on August 11th, 2013
Las Vegas Sun: Every summer, Brian Greenspun turns over his Where I Stand column to guest writers for several weeks. Today’s writer is U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
As I spent time with my grandchildren a few Saturdays ago, I couldn’t help but notice the looming clouds rising over Las Vegas. Only these clouds didn’t represent a 30-second, midsummer downpour. These clouds were smoke. Mount Charleston was burning. In fact, much of the West was burning. It would be days before the Carpenter 1 Fire, as...
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Areas of Sacramento will be inundated as sea rises
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Ellen Le and Matt Weiser on August 11th, 2013
Sacramento Bee: It could take a few hundred years - or even 2,000 - but the eventual, permanent flooding of low-lying areas in Sacramento is guaranteed if greenhouse gases are not deeply reduced, according to new research.
A rising sea level due to climate change is expected to dramatically alter the future landscape of many of the world's coastal areas around the world. A new study shows that the largest U.S. cities highly threatened by future sea level rise are Miami, Virginia Beach, Va., Jacksonville, Fla.,...
United Kingdom: You must accept fracking for the good of the country, David Cameron tells southerners
Posted by Telegraph: Christopher Hope on August 11th, 2013
Telegraph: David Cameron is to insist that people living in the south of England must accept fracking, as he sets out his argument for the controversial method of extracting gas in the strongest terms yet.
The Prime Minister will use an article in The Daily Telegraph to make clear that people in the South as well as the North of England will have to allow fracking, insisting "we are all in this together' in the battle to find sources of cheap energy for Britain.
Mr Cameron set out the economic benefits...
The Controversy Surrounding Fracking
Posted by Environmental News Network: Paul Batistelli, Guest Contributor on August 11th, 2013
Environmental News Network: The father of fracking, George Mitchell, passed away July 26, leaving many to think about the legacy he leaves behind. Though he didn't exactly invent fracking, the Houston native revolutionized the process by introducing horizontal drilling in the 1990s. Even more than two decades later, Mitchell's process of fracking is still a touchy subject. Though many are thrilled by the natural gas goldmine his drilling taps into, a lot of controversy surrounds the process, especially where the environment...
United Kingdom: Fracking may not trigger £100,000 benefits for Balcombe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Telegraph: Fracking by Cuadrilla in Balcombe may not automatically trigger the £100,000 payment that has been promised to residents near most new fracking sites, the Telegraph has learned.
Energy companies including Cuadrilla have signed up to a benefits charter that could be worth £10m over 25 years to communities near fracking sites for shale gas or oil. They have pledged £100,000 up-front and then a 1pc share of the revenues if fracking succeeds.
The West Sussex village of Balcombe has become the focal...
United Kingdom: Q&A: How communities could reap benefits from shale gas fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Telegraph: What is fracking?
The term is shorthand for "hydraulic fracturing', a method of extracting oil and gas from the ground.
The process involves drilling a well then pumping water, sand and chemicals down it at high pressure. This fractures the rock, helping to extract the oil and gas within it. Fracking for oil and gas trapped in "shale' rocks is a new process in Britain.
But another, less intensive form of fracking -- involving fewer chemicals -- has been going on for decades to help extract...
European eels get a second chance at survival in UK rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Guardian: Bristle-bottomed bridges are being fitted to weirs on Cumbrian rivers to enable European eels (Anguilla anguilla) to overcome the final barriers in their mammoth migrations that begin in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. Weirs, dams and flood defences on UK rivers are thought to be one of the major reasons for a 95% decline in the number of juvenile eels reaching the UK since the 1980s.
The two specially designed "passes" on weirs on the River Leven will help restore the eels to Windermere, the largest...
Ala. Oil Sands Hold Lucrative Promise, Environmental Peril
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Associated Press: A financial boon could be awaiting Alabama just below the earth's surface in parts of north and west Alabama.
That's what some consider to be the potential of oil sands -- or tar sands as they also are called -- that geologists said are called in some areas, including Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence counties.
According to some estimates, the oil sands hold 7.5 billion barrels of crude oil and a revenue source for the state that has remained untapped to this point.
Environmental groups call...
United Kingdom: Protesters unite over Cuadrilla fracking plans in South Downs National Park
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Independent: Protesters against fracking in one of Britain's national parks were joined yesterday by residents from a village that could become the second flashpoint over the controversial energy strategy. The demonstration against fracking in Balcombe, West Sussex, was joined by residents from Fernhurst, another village in the South Downs National Park. Residents in Balcombe are concerned about plans by the energy firm Cuadrilla, whose chairman is the the former BP chief executive Lord Browne, to explore shale...