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Archive for October 14th, 2013
Lagoons filled with toxic water coming to Ohio’s fracklands
Posted by Grist: John Upton on October 14th, 2013
Grist: Where frackers go, lagoons filled with toxic wastewater follow. Fracking wastewater impoundment lots as big as football fields already dot heavily fracked landscapes in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The lagoons are built to help the industry manage and reuse the vast volumes of wastewater that it produces. Ohio lawmakers looked admiringly to their neighboring Marcellus Shale states and decided to draw up their own rules for wastewater lagoons. From The Columbus Dispatch: “We are putting in a...
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Wisconsin’s sand-mining boom could fuel fracking abroad
Posted by Grist: John Upton on October 14th, 2013
Grist: When most people think about Wisconsin, cheese, breweries, and cornfields spring to mind. But the fracking industry is interested in something else the Badger State has to offer: sand. A sand-mining boom has gotten rolling in Wisconsin over the last three years. The state’s quartz-based sand is strong and spherical, nicely suited for injecting underground with water and chemicals to prop open cracks in fractured shale, allowing natural gas and oil to be fracked. The spoils of Wisconsin’s $1 billion...
Study links warmer water temperatures to greater levels of mercury in fish
Posted by Washington Post: Darryl Fears on October 14th, 2013
Washington Post: Under the watchful eyes of scientists, a little forage fish that lives off the southern coast of Maine developed a strangely large appetite. Killifish are not usually big eaters. But in warmer waters, at temperatures projected for the future by climate scientists, their metabolism — and their appetites — go up, which is not a good thing if there are toxins in their food. In a lab experiment, researchers adjusted temperatures in tanks, tainted the killifish’s food with traces of methylmercury and...
India battles dengue fever outbreak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 14th, 2013
BBC: An outbreak of dengue fever since February has killed more than 100 people, inundated hospitals with patients and triggered school closures, reports Atish Patel.
In India, many savour the moment when the skies turn grey and monsoon rains lash down to bring respite from the excruciating summer heat.
This year, the country saw the heaviest rains in nearly two decades, particularly pleasing farmers who rely on the monsoon for their living.
But the rains also bring challenges, including the...
The Ambitious Restoration of An Undammed Western River
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Caroline Fraser on October 14th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: Along the Elwha River on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, the largest dam removal project in the world is nearing completion. The scale of the undertaking is on display as a National Park Service employee unlocks a fence guarding a colossal construction crane looming over what is left of the Glines Canyon Dam, which once rose 210 feet above the river. A narrow, vertiginous walkway, which will eventually serve as a visitors’ viewpoint, ends in mid-air above a yawning 150-foot-wide chasm cut in...
United Kingdom: Fracking faces legal challenge from Lancashire farmer & Greenpeace
Posted by Guardian: Helen Pidd on October 14th, 2013
Guardian: A Lancashire dairy farmer has joined forces with Greenpeace to launch a challenge to fracking in England.
The environmental charity is working with people in Lancashire and the West Sussex village of Balcombe whose homes are near sites where the energy company Cuadrilla is looking at using hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas and oil.
Andrew Pemberton, who supplies milk to 3,000 households in Lytham on the Lancashire coast, said he had joined the campaign because he would lose his livelihood...
Greenpeace launches legal bid ban UK fracking
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on October 14th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Greenpeace has launched a landmark legal challenge to halt fracking in England, claiming drilling under people's homes without permission is unlawful.
The campaign group made the announcement at a press conference in Lancashire, which has been the front line of the UK's nascent shale gas industry.
Greenpeace now hopes thousands of people will join the legal challenge, creating a patchwork of "no go" areas for shale oil and gas developers across the country.
"Under English law, if you own...
GM crop opposition is ‘wicked’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 14th, 2013
Guardian: The UK environment secretary has hit out at "wicked" opponents of genetically modified (GM) crops. In an interview with the Independent, Owen Paterson said members of the anti-GM lobby, which includes campaigners such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, were scuppering crucial nutrition programmes in the developing world. Highlighting recent work by campaigners to sabotage a crop of "golden rice" – which is fortified to combat blindness and has the potential to save lives – Paterson said...
Australia: Clive Palmer plan for $6bn China First coalmine tests new environmental laws
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 14th, 2013
Guardian: The managing director of Clive Palmer's proposed $6bn China First coalmine met senior federal Environment Department officials on Monday to determine "whether or not" new federal environmental laws would apply to the project.
The mining magnate – who has clinched a powerful four-senator voting bloc from next July – needs a federal government decision before he can proceed with plans to export 40 million tonnes of coal each year.
The decision is required under new laws passed by the former Labor...
France rules to retain fracking ban
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on October 14th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Green groups have praised a French court's decision to uphold a ban on fracking and urged David Cameron to halt the "hugely risky process" in the UK.
France's constitutional court ruled late last week that a 2011 law banning the controversial technique used to extract shale gas "confirms to the constitution" and is not "disproportionate".
US exploration company Schuepbach Energy had brought a complaint against the law after having two permits revoked because of the ban, arguing that no studies...