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Archive for August, 2013
United Kingdom: Fracking: a botch on the landscape
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Guardian: In the golden rule usually attributed to spin doctor Alastair Campbell, there is some dispute over the exact number of days a story has to run for before its subject is doomed. A week, say some; 10 days or a fortnight say others. What is beyond doubt is that the fracking firm Cuadrilla's attempts to drill a hole in the Sussex countryside, which began on 25 July, has ploughed through even the longest of time limits.
As a result the UK's embryonic shale gas industry is in danger of being stillborn....
China to spend more to tackle dire pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Reuters: China plans to accelerate investment in technology to save energy and tackle the dire pollution blamed for a series of health crises that have generated widespread public anger. The government has been increasingly alarmed by social unrest caused by environmental disasters and threats to public health, often the result of the country's breakneck industrial expansion and mass migration to new cities. Smog over northern cities in January generated a public outcry, as did the discovery in March of...
Scientists Say Nature ‘Is Better at Carbon Farming’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Climate Central: Large forests planted with a single species of tough small trees could capture enough carbon from the atmosphere to slow climate change and green the world's deserts at the same time, researchers say.
A group of German scientists says the tree Jatropha curcas is resistant to arid conditions and can thrive where food crops would not survive.
Jatropha curcas could be the way to remove atmospheric carbon, the researchers say.
Unlike other geo-engineering schemes, which are expensive and rely...
A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Guardian: Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.
"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking...
Texan drought sets residents against fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2013
Guardian: In Mertzon and Barnhart in western Texas, the worst drought in two generations is choking the water supply. Water shortages are raising tensions between locals and the fracking industry. Drilling for shale gas uses up to 8m gallons of water each time a well is fracked. Suzanne Goldenberg reports
Ups & downs of Lake Michigan: Blame climate change
Posted by Holland Sentinel: Jim Hayden on August 11th, 2013
Holland Sentinel: Climate change is the new player in the ups and downs of the Great Lakes and any manmade attempts to control water levels might have little impact, a top leader in Great Lakes policy told about 100 people in Holland this morning.
“The climate is changing. The climate has changed and the climate will continue to change,” said Lana Pollack, chairwoman of the United States section of the International Joint Commission, a group set up by a treaty between the U.S. and Canada to deal with boundary waters...
We’re seeing catastrophic effects of climate change
Posted by Las Vegas Sun: Harry Reid on August 11th, 2013
Las Vegas Sun: Every summer, Brian Greenspun turns over his Where I Stand column to guest writers for several weeks. Today’s writer is U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
As I spent time with my grandchildren a few Saturdays ago, I couldn’t help but notice the looming clouds rising over Las Vegas. Only these clouds didn’t represent a 30-second, midsummer downpour. These clouds were smoke. Mount Charleston was burning. In fact, much of the West was burning. It would be days before the Carpenter 1 Fire, as...
Areas of Sacramento will be inundated as sea rises
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Ellen Le and Matt Weiser on August 11th, 2013
Sacramento Bee: It could take a few hundred years - or even 2,000 - but the eventual, permanent flooding of low-lying areas in Sacramento is guaranteed if greenhouse gases are not deeply reduced, according to new research.
A rising sea level due to climate change is expected to dramatically alter the future landscape of many of the world's coastal areas around the world. A new study shows that the largest U.S. cities highly threatened by future sea level rise are Miami, Virginia Beach, Va., Jacksonville, Fla.,...
United Kingdom: You must accept fracking for the good of the country, David Cameron tells southerners
Posted by Telegraph: Christopher Hope on August 11th, 2013
Telegraph: David Cameron is to insist that people living in the south of England must accept fracking, as he sets out his argument for the controversial method of extracting gas in the strongest terms yet.
The Prime Minister will use an article in The Daily Telegraph to make clear that people in the South as well as the North of England will have to allow fracking, insisting "we are all in this together' in the battle to find sources of cheap energy for Britain.
Mr Cameron set out the economic benefits...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: You must accept fracking for the good of the country, David Cameron tells southernersThe Controversy Surrounding Fracking
Posted by Environmental News Network: Paul Batistelli, Guest Contributor on August 11th, 2013
Environmental News Network: The father of fracking, George Mitchell, passed away July 26, leaving many to think about the legacy he leaves behind. Though he didn't exactly invent fracking, the Houston native revolutionized the process by introducing horizontal drilling in the 1990s. Even more than two decades later, Mitchell's process of fracking is still a touchy subject. Though many are thrilled by the natural gas goldmine his drilling taps into, a lot of controversy surrounds the process, especially where the environment...