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Archive for September 26th, 2013
How to clean a lake with an unstoppable oil spill: Drain the lake
Posted by Grist: John Upton on September 26th, 2013
Grist: We told you in July that tar-sands oil had been leaking into the Canadian wilderness from a drilling site for well over a month - and that nobody knew how to stanch the flow. It would be nice to update you on how that leak was finally fixed. No such luck: The oil is still leaking. More than 12,000 barrels of leaked bitumen has been mopped up, but at least 100 animals have died at the Canadian Natural Resources` Primrose oil extraction site. So much bitumen has flowed into a 131-acre lake that Alberta`s...
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After the Floods, a Deluge of Worry About Oil
Posted by New York Times: Jack Healy on September 26th, 2013
New York Times: When floodwaters surged into Colorado’s drilling center, they swamped wells, broke pipes and swept huge oil tanks off their foundations. The state has counted a dozen “notable” spills stemming from the catastrophic floods this month. Now, as the waters drain east and regulators move to assess the environmental toll, the sight of drowning oil wells has inflamed the emotional debate over the West’s new resource rush. It is a familiar argument here in a state where oil wells dot farmers’ fields and...
Bangladesh: Thousands March to Oppose World’s Worst Location for a Coal Plant
Posted by EcoWatch: Donna Lisenby on September 26th, 2013
EcoWatch: Buriganga Riverkeeper Sharif Jamil and hundreds of his fellow Bangladeshis, including BAPA, the largest civil society platform in Bangladesh for the environment, and the National Committee for Saving Sundarbans (NCSS), are fighting to save the Sundarbans, an irreplaceable world heritage site, from the destruction of a massive new coal-fired power plant. To show the government the size and scale of the opposition, they began a five-day, 400-kilometer march from Dhaka to Rampal on Tuesday. Their goal...
Super foodie Alice Waters launches anti-fracking fight
Posted by Grist: None Given on September 26th, 2013
Grist: Some of California’s best-known chefs and restaurateurs are whipping up a fight against fracking in the Golden State. High hopes that California would impose a moratorium on fracking, a process in which chemicals are injected into the ground to extract oil and gas, were dashed on Friday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that regulates the process but does not stop it. Opponents say fracking pollutes water and threatens farms. California is the source of 15 percent of the nation’s crops. ...
Video of Amazon gold mining devastation goes viral in Peru
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 26th, 2013
Mongabay: Video of illegal gold mining operations that have turned a portion of the Amazon rainforest into a moonscape went viral on Youtube after a popular radio and TV journalist in Peru highlighted the story.
Last week Peruvian journalist and politician Güido Lombardi directed his audience to video shot from a wingcam aboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO), an airplane used by researchers to conduct advanced monitoring and analysis of Peru's forests. The video quickly received more than 60,000...
As Scientists Warn About Climate Change, Russia Eyes Vast Frack Reserves
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 26th, 2013
EcoWatch: So tomorrow is the day.
The day that the world’s leading scientists will announce they are more certain than ever that humans are changing the climate.
The report will be met with a frothing load of bile from the usual skeptics linked to a network of right wing think tanks such as the Heartland Institute in the U.S., the Global Warming Policy Foundation in the UK or right-leaning newspapers, many of whom are linked to a certain Mr. Rupert Murdoch.
The skeptical response is nothing new and...
Report ponders: How sensitive is climate to CO2?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 26th, 2013
Associated Press: Scientists are more confident than ever that pumping carbon dioxide into the air by burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. The question is, by how much?
It's something that officials and scientists meeting in Stockholm will try to pin down as precisely possible Friday in a seminal report on global warming.
Future global warming levels depend on two major factors. One is how much more carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are pumped into the air and how quickly.
The other is...
As Cleanup Plan Is Set for Gowanus Canal, Violations Continue
Posted by New York Times: Kia Gregory on September 26th, 2013
New York Times: The federal government is about to release its final, $500 million cleanup plan for the Gowanus Canal, one of New York City’s two Superfund sites, a long-awaited moment in the effort to cleanse more than a century of environmental abuse. But even on the eve of its purging, the Gowanus Canal remains very much a garbage dump for the city. Along the banks of the canal one recent morning, just a tin can’s toss from the oily green waters, a giant claw grabbed at a tower of scrap metal, like a crane in...
Fracking Victims Demand EPA Reopen Investigations into Poisoned Drinking Water and Explosive Homes
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 26th, 2013
EcoWatch: Residents personally harmed by gas drilling and fracking held a press conference in front of the White House yesterday and delivered 250,000 petition signatures from concerned citizens across the U.S. to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy at EPA headquarters. The residents--including Ray Kemble from Pennsylvania, Steve Lipsky and Shelly Perdue from Texas and John Fenton from Wyoming--were all part of the EPA fracking investigations in their respective states that the...
Canada PM Won’t Accept US Rejection of Keystone XL
Posted by Associated Press: Rob Gillies on September 26th, 2013
Associated Press: Canada's prime minister said Thursday he "won't take no for an answer" if the Obama administration rejects the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the Keystone XL project, a flashpoint in the debate over climate change, during a visit to New York City. The long-delayed project carrying oil from Canada's oil sands needs approval from the U.S. State Department, and Harper's remarks are some of his strongest to date. "My view is that you...