Not so hidden agenda behind lack of GMO labeling
Category Archives: Earth
I know why I cannot stay here…
“This is one of the only places in the city where there is no barrier between the path and the river; it is possible to take a careful walk across the rocks and touch the water. ” –Manhattan Waterfront Greenway
Woo.
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Get me back to San Diego and the open spaces of the American Southwest!
Koch Brothers to buy the LA Times
Big oil may have the last word after all….
Solar power outpacing conventional nuclear?
“Last year, U.S. utilities interconnected nearly 90,000 net-metered solar projects totaling almost 1.2 GW-ac, a 46-percent increase over 2011. In total, there are currently 3.5 GW of net-metered projects in the country, the capacity equivalent of 3.5 nuclear plants.” – Calm Before the Solar Storm
Given that the half-life of nuclear waste is longer than the history of humanity by many orders of magnitude, solar is a much better way to go. If Germany can see the end of their nuclear program why can’t the United States?
(Reuters) – Germany exported more electricity last year than it imported, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Tuesday, dispelling fears about possible power shortages due to its transition from nuclear to renewable energy.
Europe’s biggest power market imported some 43.8 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity and exported 66.6 TWh, resulting in a surplus of 22.8 TWh, figures based on information from the four biggest grid operators showed.
“The year 2012 saw the biggest surplus in the last four years,” said the Statistics Office, adding it was nearly four times the 2011 surplus.
The only freshwater seals in the United States
threatened by new mega-mine in Alaska
The Center for Biological Diversity is seeking endangered species designation for a unique seal population. The mine is huge and there is a lot of money at stake. It will be interesting to watch how this issue develops over the next few months.
“The petition claims the seals are threatened by human-caused climate change that will affect both seals and salmon. The petition claims warming and ocean acidification are progressing in the Bering Sea and threaten plankton that ocean-going salmon need for food.
The petition also says warming will increase the temperature in salmon streams to harmful levels and will increase precipitation, threating salmon reproduction by washing away eggs. It also says activity connected to the mine 17 miles upstream from a favorite seal haul-out would disturb the animals during pupping and molting periods.
The Pebble Limited Partnership has called its deposit one of the largest of its kind in the world, with the potential of producing 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum.” – Anchorage Daily News
Juneau Alaska • Bloomberg • About Pebble Mine • Huffington Post • Pebble Mine Partnership
North Carolina May Ban Tesla Sales To Prevent “Unfair Competition”
“From the state that brought you the nation’s first ban on climate science comes another legislative gem: a bill that would prohibit automakers from selling their cars in the state.”
Devil’s Bargain
Plans to export US natural gas stirs little debate
“U.S. producers are poised to ship vast quantities of gas overseas as energy companies seek permits for proposed export projects that could set off a renewed frenzy of fracking.
Expanded drilling is unlocking enormous reserves of crude oil and natural gas, offering the potential of moving the country closer to its decades-long quest for energy independence. Yet as the industry looks to profit from foreign markets, there is the specter of higher prices at home and increased manufacturing costs for products from plastics to fertilizers.
Companies such as Exxon Mobil and Sempra Energy are seeking federal permits for more than 20 export projects that could handle as much as 29 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day.”
The billions of dollars invested by foreign corporations into fracking operations within the United States in January of 2012 ought to have made every citizen in the United States sit up and take notice. It didn’t. China’s purchase of Canada’s largest petroleum company in 2012 and the dramatic push for the ongoing development of oil found in tar sands
I cannot believe the way that the American public is swallowing the lies, deceit, and double-speak spewed by the media and our incontrovertibly corrupt elected representatives who are little more than sock puppets for foreign interests.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 signed by then President George Bush exempted hydraulic fracturing operations from the Safe Drinking Water Act, freed drilling companies from the obligation to disclose the chemicals injected into deep shale formations to shatter shale and convey gas back to the well. Below is a screen capture of the actual document:
The good news for Chinese, French, and multi-national corporations whose oil extraction efforts utilize fracking is that the EPA has a way for them to circumnavigate the use of diesel fuel in fracking operations: “Any service company that performs hydraulic fracturing using diesel fuel must receive prior authorization through the applicable UIC program.” – EPA.gov Which means it is now permissible to inject diesel fuel into groundwater – as long as the paperwork is filled out before hand.
If a terrorist plot to inject industrial waste into federal park lands, ranches, farms, and watersheds had been discovered one would think that the FBI would be on this in a heartbeat. It may be that this is already going on with very little attention (they were released!!) being given to possible terrorists.
What the hell is wrong with our elected officials who are supposed to be acting in the best, long-term interests of our country? Has approbation been purchased like the companionship of an anonymous partner? Better yet: why aren’t citizens who are invested in the welfare of this great land picking up the telephone and calling for enforcement of common sense actions?
America’s political activism has flat-lined to coma levels of inactivity. Media-dulled senses, the desire for comfort at any cost, and the effortless embrace of apolitical correctness, has created a nation of perfect patsies.
CO2 passes 400 ppm
Congressman says levels “undramatic”
“I feel like the time to do something was yesterday.” – Mark Pagani, Yale geochemist
Sheep watching wolves
| US Senators Re-Introduce MLP Act to Level Playing Field for Renewable Energy “SAN FRANCISCO — JinkoSolar Holding Co. and First Solar Inc. were among solar companies that surged after four U.S. senators introduced legislation that would let renewable- energy projects qualify for a tax-advantaged corporate structure currently used by oil, natural gas and pipeline projects.” — Reneweable Energy World (Bloomberg) |
| What about cutting the tax-advantage structure for the oil industries and putting ALL energy producing entities on the SAME playing field? Closing the loopholes in environmental regulations would be a good start.  |
| NYT • Sierra Club • Environmental Defense Fund • Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy |
| Oil is being traded on the international market. Anyone who thinks that cheap oil and gas is going to selectively benefit Americans, or achieve “energy independence” has drunk deeply from Philip Howard’s cup of hemlock. |
| Once the gas and oil wells have been depleted (three to five years?), what will that land be good for? Will it ever again be fit for farming or grazing? |
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| Waste water from fracking operations has been found to be contaminated with radioactive elements 300 times higher than federal limits for drinking water and exposure. |
| If we were alerted that terrorists were intent on poisoning our drinking water or farmlands they would justifiably be met with lethal force. |
| Why are the American people – and their elected representatives – allowing the poisoning of their water and their land? |
| The deployment and increased development of solar systems on every roof top in America is our current best way to go. At least until LENR or another technology arrives which disrupts the current coal-oil paradigm. |
| Once a topic of science fiction, fantasy, and failed dreams, near infinite sources of energy may be near: |
 Something needs to change for the better and change before we are paying more for a drink of water than we are for a gallon of gasoline.  But this is another chapter in the same story and I will leave this for another series of posts. Peter Terezakis |
Exxon oil spill cleanup ongoing in Arkansas
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| One drop of oil will “contaminate approximately 75,000 gallons of water- the size of an Olympic swimming pool.” DEQ, Louisiana.gov |
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I wonder how many drops of from “thousands of barrels” of oil will escape into the ground table and impact the fresh water of the region. I also wonder if pollution standards will quietly be changed to accommodate new levels of contamination; rendering once unsafe levels as “safe.”
There is already a campaign underway to establish that radiation is good for you. -Peter Terezakis. NYC 2013 |
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