This year, we have seen the largest-ever outpouring of reporting and planning for inevitable climate change in the Anthropocene. One of the latest studies, REthinking Energy, draws on worldwide research and financial analysis to form some conclusions about changing our mix of energy, one of the major drivers of the phenomenon, as earth’s population continues to
US “clean gas” wells in operation (Irekia-Eusko Jaurlaritza in blogs.lse.ac.uk) Turns out that just about everyone (including President Obama) has been hugely underestimating the methane pollution levels of so-called “clean gas.” The booming American economy now seems to come at a greater cost than we originally thought when we found out that natural gas produces
(All figures are from the 2014 National Climate Assessment draft.) Later today (Tuesday, May 6), at 8 a.m. EDT, the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee of experts meets by conference call to approve the final version of the Third National Climate Assessment. The gist of their message, as Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian
Agora Energiewende this week released the results of a cost analysis of four different CO2-free power scenarios in Europe. Says Patrick Graichen, executive director of Agora: Wind and solar systems will dominate the power system in increasingly more countries. The battle for the cheapest CO2-free power mix is decided. In the future wind and solar
A firefighter pauses at the $2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, August-September 2013 (Calfire photo on facebook). President Obama released the federal budget for 2015 last week. Overall, it involves the lowest deficit ($514 billion) of his five-year tenure in office and restores some funding cut in last year’s sequester. Parts of the new
Thanks to electronic communication—a force we usually consider an ally—humans have come to live under a 24/7 barrage of misinformation. For those of us on the progressive side of things, climate denialism on talk shows, sermons, and facebook posts can arouse instant indignation, even ire—but we don’t always get around to refuting the fallacies. (Above
Reposting this big news from Solar Love: Herman Trabish of Greentech Media has happened across a pretty interesting find — 97% of new electricity generation capacity in line to be added to the California grid in the second half (2H) of 2012 is from solar power projects. This is according to the California Independent System Operator (the ISO), as
In 1794 Thomas Paine released “The Age of Reason“, a call to abandon blind loyalty to institutionalized religion.The title of Paine’s work can also be applied to today’s fracking industry — in the age of cancer. In 2012 alone there were 1,600,000 newly diagnosed cancer discoveries in the United States. Some 1,500 people die of
In a little-noticed Aug 2012 report, Bloomberg News reported that gas and oil energy companies failed to comply with their own voluntary plan to disclose chemicals in their operations — and, further, failed to report on the very existence of half of their wells. The report analyzed the efficacy of “FracFocus.org” — a voluntary
The President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Francis Beinecke, recently visited areas in western Pennsylvania where ‘fracking’ operations are occurring, and spoke with local residents about the impacts of these projects in their communities. My cousin — a medical professional without any affiliation with environmental organizations like Ms. Beinecke’s — also spent
Recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) findings have raised awareness of potentially harmful levels of water contamination that may be the result of hydraulic fracturing. Lawsuits from individuals who believe their water has been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing are coming in all across the country and support for stricter regulations is growing. Just
Some top green news from around from the past day or so: Global Warming Heartland associate taught ‘biased’ climate course at Ottawa university An associate of the Heartland Institute, the thinktank devoted to discrediting climate change, taught a course at a top Canadian university that contained more than 140 false, biased and misleading claims about
After a lot of pressure from grassroots citizen activists, including from the Sierra Club, which posted a story here on Planetsave about the matter last week, “the vote to allow ‘fracking’ of the Delaware River Basin has been cancelled,” 350.org reports. Congrats to more citizen activists and the 16 million people who rely on drinking
The fight is on to protect one of our nation’s most beautiful and vital rivers, the Delaware. Yesterday the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a group made up of Governor Cuomo, Governor Corbett, Governor Christie, Governor Markell, and Colonel Christopher Larsen of the US Army Corps of Engineers, released a final set of rules that
According to statistics compiled by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, American energy usage and fossil fuel usage started climbing again in 2010 after it had been decreased to a 12-year low the year before. In a press release full of statistics and lessons learned from the latest flow chart produced by the LLNL, it was
I’ve drawn the link between natural gas hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and earthquakes numerous times, long before the Oklahoma earthquakes or Blackpool (Lancashire) earthquakes in England. I started doing so early in 2011 when the Arkansas earthquakes were all the news and I got the hint that it might be related to fracking. The case
Natural gas may be better than coal, but the boom in natural gas has come as a result of hydraulic fracturing (or ‘fracking’), which, beyond emitting greenhouse gases, has been linked to earthquakes (something we’ve written about many times here on Planetsave) and water quality problems (including flammable water).
Reportedly, an Oklahoma natural gas drilling rig exploded near the town of Watonga last night. The drilling rig has around-the-clock workers and about a dozen workers were working at the time of the explosion, but they were reported to have evacuated right before it. The explosion occurred at about 10:30pm local time.
Mark Ruffalo is probably the most outspoken Hollywood star opposing hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) for natural gas. But he has gotten quite a few big name Hollywood stars on his side and fighting it now, including Ethan Hawke, Zoe Saldana, Amy Ryan, Nadia Dajani, and Josh Charles.
Here’s a great song & video on hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking), a relatively new method of obtaining the “clean fossil fuel” — natural gas. Check it out & enjoy 😀
Between 2005 and 2009, oil and natural gas companies operating in 14 states injected hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic and/or carcinogenic chemical into natural gas wells, according to a recent investigation conducted by three House Democrats* and made public on Saturday.
Arkansas has been rocked with earthquakes and now scientists are investigating their relationship to earthquakes, as two natural gas companies have agreed to temporarily suspend use of injection wells in central Arkansas where earthquakes keep occurring. The high-pressure wells are used to dispose of waste water from natural gas drilling. The two drilling operations are Chesapeake Energy and
It is the fundamental structural element of all living things. It is a key component of many energy sources, and, it is a crucial player in our planet’s climate system. The natural cycling of this element — Carbon (C) — between earth, atmosphere and ocean maintains the habitable conditions that all Life depends upon. Much
Natural gas production has skyrocketed in the U.S. and elsewhere lately. And one big supposed benefit of this energy source is that it creates a lot fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal. However, new research from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that these climate change claims may have been greatly overstated. ProPublic, in a
“Gasland,” which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, has also been nominated for an Oscar now, for Best Documentary. The filmmakers delve into the increasingly infamous and environmentally damaging process of hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking). The chemicals used in fracking (they are pumped into the ground with water to get the
In what appears to be a major, positive stride for environmental quality preservation, congressional investigators submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency charging that hydraulic fracturing — known as ‘fracking’ — violates the Safe Drinking Water Act. Amassing data from a dozen states for the period 2005 – 2009, investigators assert that tens of
Every now and again really smart people make pushes in science that need to be taken note of. At the moment, if there is one area in the world where smart people need to invest their time, it is poverty and the environment. Thankfully, Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark Delucchi of the University
In addition to the letter to Obama to protect the Clean Air Act, a number of leading environmental organizations wrote to Obama before his 2011 State of the Union address to encourage him to do something about environmentally harmful oil and natural gas drilling. While the speech has already been given, I thought it was
I’ve done an early read of reactions to Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address (full text) from leading green thinkers around the web. It is always interesting to see how different people with the same overall intentions view something — what they focus on can be quite different. Reflecting on and integrating some of
Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, and is the result of natural decomposition processes. Although its lifetime in the atmosphere as a free gas is much shorter than CO2, it is 23 times more potent in terms of its heat trapping ability. This past month, there has been a flurry of news,
Wasted food energy in the U.S. totals some 2150 trillion kilojoules per year–more than the U.S. could produce in ethanol (grain) biofuels. Further, an article in the New Scientist asserts that this amount is greater than the energy produced annually from all the oil and gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Missouri Senator Kit Bond (R) the cap and trade Waxman-Markey Bill “is really a pig in a poke.” That’s what he told the committee on Tuesday, anyway. Given the opportunity to speak in front of a committee on the financial impacts that the climate bill would have on farmers, Senator Bond wasted no time calling the bill a hoax.
