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Bill McKibben: Fracking Has Turned Out to Be a Costly Detour
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 24th, 2016
EcoWatch: With a new piece in The Nation, environmental leader Bill McKibben upends widely held assumptions not just about President Barack Obama`s climate legacy, but about the so-called "natural gas revolution" that was once considered a "savior" in the fight against global warming.
The author and 350.org co-founder points to "an explosive paper" published last month in Geophysical Research Letters, in which Harvard researchers "concluded that the nation as a whole is leaking methane in massive quantities."...
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NOAA: Carbon Dioxide Levels ‘Exploded’ in 2015 Highest Since Ice Age
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 11th, 2016
EcoWatch: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose 3.05 parts per million in 2015, the largest year-to-year increase ever recorded, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report finds.
It was the fourth year in a row that CO2 concentrations grew by more than 2 parts per million. “Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” a lead scientist at NOAA said.
Some of the spike in CO2 levels can be attributed to...
EPA Introduces New Climate Crackdown on Methane Emissions Amid U.S.-Canada Announcement
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 11th, 2016
EcoWatch: On the heels of President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau’s joint announcement on new climate measures, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will implement a rule to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency will start work immediately on the regulations, meant to reduce methane emissions 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. Obama and Trudeau focused on methane in their agreement, along with other...
Bill McKibben Arrested + 56 Others Against Proposed Gas Storage Seneca Lake
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 7th, 2016
EcoWatch: The fight over the fate of the Finger Lakes received national attention today when best-selling author, environmentalist and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, joined the opposition. McKibben, 55, was arrested this morning with 56 area residents as part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against proposed gas storage in Seneca Lake’s abandoned salt caverns.
This is a developing story, but at this time all arrestees have been released except for McKibben who is still in custody at the Schuyler...
Why This City of 21 Million People Is Sinking 3 Feet Every Year
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 5th, 2016
EcoWatch: Mexico City is sinking. Home to 21 million people, who consume nearly 287 billion gallons of water each year, the city has sunk more than 32 feet in the last 60 years because 70 percent of the water people rely on is extracted from the aquifer below the city.
"There`s no fixing it," journalist Andrea Noel told producer Alan Sanchez in the video below from Fusion. "Once land is subsided, it`s subsided."
The water table is sinking at a rate of 1 meter (3.2 feet) per year. As the city population...
Arctic on Thin Ice as Extreme Heat Takes a Toll
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 3rd, 2016
EcoWatch: For the second month in a row, the Arctic has set a record for lowest ever sea ice extent, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ice extent is 448,000 square miles below average for February and 200,000 square miles lower than the previous record-low February. The region has experienced extreme heat over the past few months, with temperatures reaching as high as 23°F above average. Sea ice usually hits its annual low in September, but these early records have scientists concerned for...
Nestlé Pumps Millions of Gallons for Free While Flint Residents Pays for Poisoned Water
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 17th, 2016
EcoWatch: As Flint residents are forced to drink, cook with and even bathe in bottled water, while still paying some of the highest water bills in the county for their poisoned water, we turn to a little-known story about the bottled water industry in Michigan. In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestlé, the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan. This sparked a decade-long...
Lawsuit Filed Over Oklahoma’s ‘Fracking’ Earthquakes as Its Third Largest Quake Is Felt in 7 Other States
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 17th, 2016
EcoWatch: The Sierra Club and the public interest law firm Public Justice have filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against three energy companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, in Oklahoma.
The suit against New Dominion, Chesapeake Operating and Devon Energy Production Company alleges that wastewater from fracking and oil production have contributed to the state`s alarming spike in earthquake activity.
The lawsuit demands the companies, as a first step, to “reduce, immediately and substantially,...
French Ecology Minister Calls for Ban on Glyphosate Formulations
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 16th, 2016
EcoWatch: Ségolène Royal, France’s minister of ecology, sustainable development and energy, has called for a ban on glyphosate mixed with certain adjuvants (additives) due to its perceived risks to human health. On Feb. 12, Royal called for ANSES--France`s food, environment and health agency--to withdraw authorizations on herbicides containing glyphosate mixed with the adjuvant tallow amine, according to French newspaper Le Monde (via Google translate). Although it wasn`t explicitly said, one can only conclude...
Interactive Map Shows Where Monsanto’s Roundup Is Sprayed in NYC
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 16th, 2016
EcoWatch: New York City residents can now find out if Monsanto’s Roundup is sprayed on their corners, parks, playgrounds and picnic areas.
The interactive map below will be presented to Mitchell J. Silver, commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation at a meeting Tuesday by the the Black Institute, Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir, Stop The Spray and other members of the Coalition Against Poison Parks. The groups will demand an end to the use of Roundup and glyphosate,...