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Archive for July, 2015
Water Usage Fracking Has Increased Dramatically, Study Shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 2nd, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Oil and natural gas fracking requires 28 times more water now than it did 15 years ago, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The increased water demand is attributed to the development of new, water-intensive technologies that target fossil fuels in complicated geological formations, the researchers say. The amount of water used varies greatly with location, the study found. A fracking operation in southern Illinois, for example, can use as little as 2,600 gallons of water each time...
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Comments Off on Water Usage Fracking Has Increased Dramatically, Study ShowsFracking could impact house prices and environment, admits government report
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on July 2nd, 2015
Blue and Green: A newly released government report has admitted that houses close to fracking operations in the UK could see their value fall by up to 7% and the process could cause environmental damage.
The report was published in full for the first time this week after a decision by data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office forced the government to publish the unredacted report. The government has stated the paper is “not analytically robust” and includes “early, often vague, assumptions which are...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking could impact house prices and environment, admits government reportGermany to Shutter Large Coal Plants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 2nd, 2015
Guardian: Germany agreed on Thursday to mothball about five of the country’s largest brown coal power plants to meet its climate goals by 2020, after months of wrangling between the parties in chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition. But Merkel and the leaders of her two junior coalition partners also, in effect, agreed to set up a “capacity reserve” system where utilities could switch on the brown coal plants if there were power shortages in the country. An economy ministry spokesman said the decision on brown...
Alaska wildfires char nearly 2 million acres, send smoke to South Carolina
Posted by Mashable: None Given on July 2nd, 2015
Mashable: Alaska is on track to have one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, propelled by a combination of warming average temperatures, a historically mild, relatively snowless winter and extremely mild spring. So far this year, 1.88 million acres have gone up in smoke, from 617 individual fires. June 2015 beat June of 2004 in terms of both number of fires and amount of acres burned, which means this year is now outpacing the state's worst wildfire season ever recorded. With hundreds of fires still...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Alaska wildfires char nearly 2 million acres, send smoke to South CarolinaFracking could hurt house prices, health and environment, official report says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 2nd, 2015
Guardian: Fracking operations to extract shale gas in Britain could cause nearby house prices to fall by up to 7% and create a risk of environmental damage, according to a government report that has been published in full for the first time.
Entitled Shale Gas Rural Economy Impacts, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) document was released on Wednesday after a freedom of information battle.
An official assessment of the impact of fracking, it warned that leakage of waste fluids...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking could hurt house prices, health and environment, official report saysCalifornians Dramatically Cut Water Use in May
Posted by LA Times: Monte Morin and Matt Stevens on July 2nd, 2015
LA Times: Drought-weary California received encouraging news Wednesday when officials announced that residential water use had dropped 29% during the month of May -- the first real indication that the state might meet unprecedented conservation reductions imposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The cut in water usage suggests the aggressive campaign to get residents to change their lifestyle -- by taking shorter showers, replacing grass with drought-tolerant landscaping and buying water-efficient appliances -- is taking...
Amazon’s Wildlife Threatened By Hydropower Dams, Study Says
Posted by National Geographic: Wendy Koch on July 1st, 2015
National Geographic: As countries build more hydropower projects, new research warns that massive dams pose an extinction threat to mammals, birds and tortoises—at least in the Amazon. Brazil’s Balbina Dam has turned what was once undisturbed forest into an artificial archipelago of 3,546 islands where many vertebrates have disappeared, according to a study published Wednesday by England’s University of East Anglia. “We’re watching extinction unfold right in front of us,” says co-author Carlos Peres, a Brazilian professor...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Amazon’s Wildlife Threatened By Hydropower Dams, Study SaysA Sustainable Earth Depends on Indigenist Future
Posted by Dissident Voice: Dr. Glen Barry on July 1st, 2015
Dissident Voice: Long prophesied by native thinkers, Earth is dying. The global ecological system is collapsing under the weight of industrial development. More ecosystems including the atmosphere have been lost and degraded than the biosphere can bear. Concurrently perma-war, injustice, and inequity have hit epidemic proportions and are worsening ecocide and obstructing solutions.
While social movements of many types work on these issues, the forces of ecocide are pernicious, resolute, and massive. To date adoption...
Field fires hamper French grain harvest as heatwave builds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 1st, 2015
Reuters: Fires linked to hot, dry weather are disrupting the early stages of this year's grain harvest in France, the European Union's top producer, destroying hundreds of hectares and triggering fire prevention measures in some areas. Wednesday saw record temperatures for the time of year either side of 40 degrees Celsius in several parts of the country as a heatwave intensified, adding stress on crops in central and northern France that faced a dry spell this spring. Fires can be sparked by combine harvesters...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Field fires hamper French grain harvest as heatwave buildsHawai’s sacred mountain ‘Maunt Kea’ – battleground scientists and locals
Posted by Empire Tribune: None Given on July 1st, 2015
Empire Tribune: Hawai`s tallest mountain 'Maunt Kea` has been a battle ground between scientists and Native Hawaiians for the past seven years. The sacred mountain which has more than 250 shrines and burial sites, is said to be the place where the mother and father of the Hawaiian race first met. While it`s a sacred site for the Native people, scientists claim its an ideal location for a planned telescope that could be revolutionary for Astronomers.
Campaigners protesting against it say the $1.4 billion, 18-story-high...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hawai’s sacred mountain ‘Maunt Kea’ – battleground scientists and locals