Archive for December 22nd, 2013

‘Massive’ reservoir melt water found under Greenland ice

BBC: Researchers say they have discovered a large reservoir of melt water that sits under the Greenland ice sheet all year round. The scientists say the water is stored in the air space between particles of ice, similar to the way that fruit juice stays liquid in a slush drink. The aquifer, which covers an area the size of Ireland, could yield important clues to sea level rise. The research is published in the journal, Nature Geoscience. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet has been a significant...

Fracking Pipeline Stirs Controversy in Bluegrass State

EcoWatch: The land agent first came knocking on Vivian and Dean House’s door in July. They sat on the patio of the retired couple’s 85-acre farm in this Central Kentucky town and chatted. The guy was friendly, the kind of guy Dean could talk to about fishing. He put the couple at ease and told them his company was interested in running a pipeline through their land. They were later offered more than $165,000 to sign easements. This map shows the proposed route through Pennsylvania, West Virginia,...

Australia: 2013 Australia’s hottest year on record

Sydney Morning Herald: 2013 is the year Australia marked its hottest day, month, season, 12-month period and, by December 31, hottest calendar year. "We're smashing the records," said Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW. "We're not tinkering away at them, they're being absolutely blitzed." Global interest in Australia's weather flared early. In January, when models predicted heat that was literally off the charts, the Bureau of Meteorology added...

Mexico embraces shale. Has Europe missed the boat?

Christian Science Monitor: In the UK, some investors would have us, or their clients, believe that the UK planning system is such an immutable force that it would prevent, now until the end of time, the development of any onshore oil and gas industry. Another side of the narrative is to reinforce the idea that shale is only a US phenomenon, one which we shouldn’t worry our pretty little European heads with. The UK doesn’t have a constitution of course, but a country that does is Mexico. I’ve noted before that Texas’s...

A Tale Two Rushes: There’s Gold In Them There Wells

Economist: WHEN his neighbour discovered gold in a Californian river in 1848, Sam Brannan could have kept quiet about it. Instead, he filled a jar with gold dust and rushed around the streets of San Francisco shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold!" He had good reason to incite a gold rush: he owned a shop nearby. He became California's first millionaire by selling picks, shovels, beans and bacon to the horde of prospectors who heeded his call. Gold fever spread fast. The lure of buried treasure "sucked nearly every...

Can new land acquisition bill facilitate India’s shale gas progress?

Global Times: Heated debates on energy security are inevitable in an energy-thirsty nation like India, where the gap between supply and demand for energy resources is constantly growing. Domestic energy supply constraints mean India has ever increasing imports in the form of crude oil and coal. These strain the country's finances, and consequently the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas feels the need to dig deep to find untapped natural gas resources, in particular, non-conventional fuels like shale gas...