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The Link Between Fracking and Oklahoma’s Quakes Keeps Getting Stronger
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on April 6th, 2015
Climate Desk: Over the last few years, Oklahoma has experienced an insane uptick in earthquakes. As we reported in 2013, the count exploded from just a couple per year back in the mid-2000s to over a thousand in 2010, growing alongside a boom in the state’s natural gas drilling industry. There is now a heap of peer-reviewed research finding that Oklahoma’s earthquake “swarm” is directly linked to fracking—not the gas drilling itself, but a follow-up step where brackish wastewater is re-injected into disposal...
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Obama Climate Change: “No Challenge Poses Greater Threat Future Generation”
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on January 21st, 2015
Climate Desk: In his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama issued a direct rebuke to climate change deniers and to members of Congress who seek to block action to slow global warming.
"I`ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they`re not scientists; that we don`t have enough information to act," he said, referring to talking points that are popular among Republican politicians. "Well, I`m not a scientist, either. But…I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and...
Sorry, California — winter isn’t going to fix your drought
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on October 17th, 2014
Climate Desk: California`s crippling drought is not expected to improve over the winter, according to new forecast data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Nearly 60 percent of the state is experiencing exceptional drought -- the worst category -- NOAA reported. The map below shows that the northern California coast could see some improvement. But in the Central Valley, a critical source of fruits, nuts, and vegetables for the whole country, conditions won`t be getting...
This new study explains why fracking won’t solve climate change
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on October 16th, 2014
Climate Desk: For President Obama, fracking is a key weapon against global warming. Abundant natural gas, he said in his State of the Union address this year, is a "bridge fuel" to ubiquitous renewable energy - the key to securing economic growth "with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change."
Not everyone agrees. In fact, the debate over whether natural gas is the antidote to our deadly addiction to coal, or a faux climate change solution that will stall the clean energy revolution, is one...
Gore: Fracking Won’t Solve Our Climate Crisis
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on September 18th, 2014
Climate Desk: Few figures in the climate change debate are as polarizing as former Vice President Al Gore. His fans and his enemies are equally rabid, and his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth is still probably the most-referenced document on climate change in history. In the last few years, Gore’s global warming work has mostly been channeled into a nonprofit he oversees called the Climate Reality Project, which organizes rallies and educational events. This week, that group held its annual “24 Hours of Reality”...
Scientists: Current International Warming Target Is “Disastrous”
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on December 4th, 2013
Climate Desk: Ever since the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, world leaders have agreed on 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F) as the maximum acceptable global warming above preindustrial levels to avert the worst impacts of climate change (today we`re at about 0.8 degrees C). But a new study, led by climatologist James Hansen of Columbia University, argues that pollution plans aimed at that target would still result in "disastrous consequences," from rampant sea level rise to widespread extinction.
A major...
Buried in Muck, Clues to Future NYC Drought
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on August 9th, 2013
Climate Desk: Piermont Marsh seems an unlikely place to learn about drought. This warren of narrow streams and muddy, reed-choked embankments clinging to the edge of the Hudson River twenty miles north of Times Square is the domain of crabs, worms, herons, and other water-loving creatures. But as Columbia University climatologist Dorothy Peteet paddles a narrow aluminum canoe deep into the marsh, she insists that buried deep in this black, sulphur-stinking muck are clues that could reveal when, and how badly,...
GOP Goes Hunting For EPA Emails About Turducken
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on April 19th, 2013
Climate Desk: Earlier this month, when a burst pipe spilled thousands of gallons of heavy oil into an Arkansas suburb, the message from the White House went something like: "Everybody chill, the EPA has it under control." But reporters on the scene found the cleanup orchestrated by the same company, ExxonMobil, that allowed the spill, and heard only crickets when they asked the EPA about its involvement.
Turns out, on some of the nation`s most pressing environmental health issues, the EPA`s transparency record...
The First—And Last—Hearing on Keystone XL Environmental Impact
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on April 19th, 2013
Climate Desk: State Department officials trekked to Grand Island, Nebraska today to hear statements from ranchers, geologists, construction workers, oil executives, and a colorful cast of other characters in the only public hearing on the Department`s latest Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Speakers for and against the pipeline began lining up at 7 a.m. amid frigid cold and snow for a chance to get three minutes on the soapbox at the Heartland Events Center. There was the blustering,...
Frackers Are Losing $1.5 Billion Yearly to Leaks
Posted by Climate Desk: Tim McDonnell on April 5th, 2013
Climate Desk: Of all the many and varied consequences of fracking (water contamination, injured workers, earthquakes, the list goes on) one of the least understood is so-called "fugitive" methane emissions. Methane is the primary ingredient of natural gas, and it escapes into the atmosphere at every stage of production: at wells, in processing plants, and in pipes on its way to your house. According to a new study, it could become one of the worst climate impacts of the fracking boom--and yet, it`s one of the...