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Archive for January 27th, 2014
TransCanada Natural Gas Pipeline Explodes in Manitoba
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on January 27th, 2014
Environment News Service: A TransCanada natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded early Saturday morning in an isolated area near the town of Otterburne, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Winnipeg. The pre-dawn pipeline break and resulting explosion sent a massive fireball into the night sky.
The incident on the sweet natural gas pipeline owned and operated by Calgary-based TransCanada Pipeline Inc. was reported to the National Energy Board at 3 am local time Saturday. Local residents were not harmed, but as a precaution...
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Keystone XL is a Sucker’s Deal For America and a Steal For Foreign Oil Interests
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Steyer on January 27th, 2014
EcoWatch: For years, TransCanada has been selling the Keystone XL pipeline to Americans with all of the enthusiasm of a used car salesman--and using all of the same tricks. However, one myth is more egregious than all the rest: this pipeline will enhance America’s energy independence.
Apparently, Big Oil lobbyists and politicians take Americans for a bunch of suckers.
Here’s the truth: Keystone XL won’t make America energy independent. It will threaten our land and livelihoods to pump Canadian tar sands’...
Oceans Worth of Water Could be Trapped Beneath the Earth’s Mantle
Posted by Nature World: James A. Foley on January 27th, 2014
Nature World: Large amounts of ocean water could be transported through deep-sea fault zones in volumes much greater than previously believed, according to new research from the University of Liverpool, which focused on the subduction zone that led to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan.
The research supports the theory that there could be vast amounts of water buried deep beneath the Earth's mantle.
Understanding how much ocean water is delivered to the mantle is important because it helps explain how the...
Pesticide DDT Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease
Posted by LiveScience: Rachael Rettner on January 27th, 2014
LiveScience: Exposure to the pesticide DDT, which was banned in the United States in the 1970s but is still found in the environment, may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests. People with Alzheimer's disease in the study had levels of a DDT byproduct, called DDE, in their blood that were nearly four times higher on average than the levels seen in people without Alzheimer's. Among the people with the highest levels of DDE, those who carried a gene known to increase the risk for Alzheimer's...
Inside the Complicated Relationship Between Natural Gas and Climate Change
Posted by National Journal: None Given on January 27th, 2014
National Journal: Conventional wisdom tells us natural gas is helping us combat global warming. Like most bits of conventional wisdom, it's not that simple.
First the aforementioned wisdom: Natural gas is unquestionably helping the United States reduce its climate footprint. Our nation's greenhouse-gas emissions have dropped to levels not seen since the 1990s, thanks in part to this cleaner-burning fuel. Natural gas produces half the carbon emissions of coal and about a third fewer than oil. This is why everyone...
Frackquakes: Public Opposition Builds As Property Rights Are Endangered in Texas
Posted by EcoWatch: Sharon Wilson and Alan Septoff on January 27th, 2014
EcoWatch: The earthquakes you may have heard about--the 30 tremblers that have struck north central Texas since Nov. 1 and have damaged many homes. The quakes are most likely being caused by underground disposal wells used to get rid of wastewater generated during fracking operations. “Frackquakes,” some are calling them.
A massive oil field in Texas. The state has always been the heart of the U.S. oil industry, embracing oil and gas development from its earliest years, and pioneering fracking in the Barnett...
FEMA: Caught Between Climate Change and Congress
Posted by InsideClimate: None Given on January 27th, 2014
InsideClimate: Thanks to climate change, extreme weather disasters have hammered the United States with increasing frequency in recent years--from drought and wildfires to coastal storms and flooding.
It is perhaps surprising, then, that the U.S. agency in charge of preparing for and responding to these disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), doesn't account for climate change in most of its budget planning and resource allocation or in the National Flood Insurance Program it administers....
Politics, legacy loom over Obama decision on Keystone XL pipeline
Posted by Reuters: Jeff Mason on January 27th, 2014
Reuters: President Barack Obama will lay out an agenda on jobs, the economy and the environment during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. But he is unlikely to mention the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a politically charged project that could shape his legacy in each area. Some five years after Keystone XL was proposed, Canadian officials, Republicans and some Democrats in conservative U.S. states are expressing frustration over the lack of a decision by the White House on the initiative. The TransCanada...
Australia: Climate change is spoken of in hushed tones, but it wasn’t always this way
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 27th, 2014
Guardian: There is a term that is not generally used in polite company in the bush. That term is climate change.
To an outsider’s eyes, it might seem to be counterintuitive. Here are people whose living is mostly dependent on the vagaries of the weather. Yet you will hear more conversation about climate change at a city dinner party than a lazy Sunday afternoon lunch in the bush.
The publicly reported attitudes to climate change in rural Australia have been just as confusing.
That is, rural Australians...
Australia: Crocodiles shot in hunt for missing boy, 12, in Kakadu national park
Posted by Guardian: Bridie Jabour on January 27th, 2014
Guardian: Two crocodiles have been shot in the hunt for a missing 12-year-old boy in the Northern Territory.
It is believed the boy was taken by a crocodile while swimming in a billabong with a group of other boys on Sunday afternoon in Kakadu national park.
His friend, also 12, was bitten on the arm by the crocodile and managed to get away from it.
Northern Territory police and park rangers have been searching the park by boat and land and on Sunday night shot two crocodiles, one 4.3m long and the...