-- Adlai E. Stevenson
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Quote Of The Day
May 29th, 2012
"A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation."
-- Adlai E. Stevenson
-- Adlai E. Stevenson
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Quote Of The Day - Things Sure Have Changed Edition
Jan 12th, 2012
"I'm proud of having been one of the first to recognize that states and the federal government have a duty to protect our natural resources from the damaging effects of pollution that can accompany industrial development."
-- Ronald Reagan, July 14, 1984, atoning for his notorious Redwood tree remark from some years earlier.
-- Ronald Reagan, July 14, 1984, atoning for his notorious Redwood tree remark from some years earlier.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Disaster Has Already Happened
Dec 15th, 2011
Less than a week after the "farce" that was the most recent round of international climate talks and the predictable corresponding wave of right wing denial regarding global warming, comes some very bad news.
Via The Independent:
"Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.
The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov, of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that he has never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being released from beneath the Arctic seabed."
Less than a week after the "farce" that was the most recent round of international climate talks and the predictable corresponding wave of right wing denial regarding global warming, comes some very bad news.
Via The Independent:
"Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.
The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov, of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that he has never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being released from beneath the Arctic seabed."
Monday, November 14, 2011
There Aren't Different Versions Of The Truth, cont...
Nov 14th, 2011
As it turns out, the Koch Brothers are being forced to face the fact that some things just aren't for sale. Not even at any price. One of those things is empirical truth.
Via Raw Story:
"A prominent climate change skeptic told Congress on Monday he no longer doubts that global warming is real and caused by humans, and joined other scientists in urging action to stop it.
Physicist Richard Muller, director of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project, whose two-year research was funded in part by a foundation formed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, said he could find no bias in other studies.
"We confirm that over the last 50 years, temperature has risen 0.9 degrees Celsius, or 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the same number that the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) says."
Muller told the House Committee on Natural Resources that while he remains cautious about the extent to which humans have played a role, he now hopes other climate skeptics will come on board with his findings."
Muller, long thought of by climate change deniers as one of their own, simply couldn't deliver manufactured science. Funny how genuine science works that way, ain't it?
Via Raw Story:
"A prominent climate change skeptic told Congress on Monday he no longer doubts that global warming is real and caused by humans, and joined other scientists in urging action to stop it.
Physicist Richard Muller, director of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project, whose two-year research was funded in part by a foundation formed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, said he could find no bias in other studies.
"We confirm that over the last 50 years, temperature has risen 0.9 degrees Celsius, or 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the same number that the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) says."
Muller told the House Committee on Natural Resources that while he remains cautious about the extent to which humans have played a role, he now hopes other climate skeptics will come on board with his findings."
Muller, long thought of by climate change deniers as one of their own, simply couldn't deliver manufactured science. Funny how genuine science works that way, ain't it?
Friday, September 2, 2011
Push Back Against Keystone XL
Sept 2nd, 2011
Sign the Food & Water Watch petition HERE
Call the White House at 202 224 3121
Sign the Food & Water Watch petition HERE
Call the White House at 202 224 3121
The sheer scope of the tar sands project makes this fight that much more difficult. We need every voice raised as loudly as possible.
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The Truth About Tar Sands, cont...
Sept 1st, 2011
Josh Fox issues a call for further direct action
Tar Sands Action/ Josh Fox from JFOX on Vimeo.
Josh Fox issues a call for further direct action
Tar Sands Action/ Josh Fox from JFOX on Vimeo.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Truth About Tar Sands
Sept 1st, 2011
The construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is likely a forgone conclusion. As much as I support the protesters who have put their freedom on the line in D.C. and as loudly as I have tried to draw attention to the potential hazards, this is only the latest stage of the largest energy project on the face of the Earth. Putting the brakes on now is nearly impossible.
The TransCanada corporation first proposed the Keystone project in early 2005, yet most Americans had never even heard the phrase "tar sands" until earlier this year. The accident prone first Keystone pipeline has been in operation for over 14 months and many still don't realize just how much more volatile the materials involved are than traditional petroleum.
Carrie La Seur wrote recently in Grist:
"Keystone XL won’t carry “light, sweet” crude, which floats on top of water and can be mopped up with absorbent booms. Bitumen—a tarlike substance mined from the Alberta tar sands, chemically diluted, and heated to improve flow—will travel at high pressure across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to Gulf Coast refineries. If and when it leaks into water bodies, this product will sink. To judge the risk of that happening, it helps to know that the first piece of the Keystone system, TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline that crosses the eastern Dakotas, has sprung a dozen leaks in its first year of operation."
The construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is likely a forgone conclusion. As much as I support the protesters who have put their freedom on the line in D.C. and as loudly as I have tried to draw attention to the potential hazards, this is only the latest stage of the largest energy project on the face of the Earth. Putting the brakes on now is nearly impossible.
The TransCanada corporation first proposed the Keystone project in early 2005, yet most Americans had never even heard the phrase "tar sands" until earlier this year. The accident prone first Keystone pipeline has been in operation for over 14 months and many still don't realize just how much more volatile the materials involved are than traditional petroleum.
Carrie La Seur wrote recently in Grist:
"Keystone XL won’t carry “light, sweet” crude, which floats on top of water and can be mopped up with absorbent booms. Bitumen—a tarlike substance mined from the Alberta tar sands, chemically diluted, and heated to improve flow—will travel at high pressure across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to Gulf Coast refineries. If and when it leaks into water bodies, this product will sink. To judge the risk of that happening, it helps to know that the first piece of the Keystone system, TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline that crosses the eastern Dakotas, has sprung a dozen leaks in its first year of operation."
As La Seur notes, the XL phase of operations directly threatens the Ogallala aquifer. This very shallow groundwater network is the source for roughly 30% of U.S. agricultural irrigation and drinking water for tens of millions of citizens. A serious accident here would devastate not only the health but the economy of the United States for generations.
Our failure to educate the public sooner through the kind of direct action now being engaged in Washington is a major contributor to the public's lack of awareness. That doesn't make pushback pointless. It makes it even more essential.
We are literally running out of time.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Epidemic Of Not Watching, cont...
Aug 20th, 2011
Today is set to mark the start of one of the most organized acts of environmental civil disobedience in decades here is the U.S. At least foreign outlets are actually covering it. From the Guardian:
"Approximately 1,500 people signed up to court arrest during the two-week action outside the White House, which begins on Saturday morning.
The campaign is seen as a last chance to persuade Barack Obama to stop a planned 1,600-mile pipeline that will carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta across rich American farmland to the Gulf of Mexico."
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| via |
"Approximately 1,500 people signed up to court arrest during the two-week action outside the White House, which begins on Saturday morning.
The campaign is seen as a last chance to persuade Barack Obama to stop a planned 1,600-mile pipeline that will carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta across rich American farmland to the Gulf of Mexico."
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Quote Of The Day
June 22nd, 2011
"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
-- Henry David Thoreau
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Quote Of The Day
June 21st, 2011
"Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you will die too."
-- John Hollow Horn
-- John Hollow Horn
Friday, June 10, 2011
It Costs Us MORE To Pollute
Jun 10th, 2011
Imagine being able to prevent 300,000 American sick days annually. That is nearly 2 1/2 million hours of American labor. Think how much this costs in terms of productivity, strength and stability for everyone from the standalone shops to the large corporations. Now, imagine fighting not to do so.
As Republicans continue their campaign to gut the major EPA accomplishments and proposals of the Obama Administration, Isaac Shapiro has published a detailed cost-benefit analysis of these regulations. It is increasingly clear that the conservative position is not merely anti-science or even anti-health... it's bad for business.
From Shapiro's Economic Policy Institute paper:
"Two broad conclusions emerge from this analysis. First, the dollar value of the benefits of the major rules finalized or proposed by the EPA so far during the Obama administration exceeds the rules’ costs by an exceptionally wide margin. Health benefits in terms of lives saved and illnesses avoided will be enormous. Expressed in 2010 dollars:
The combined annual benefits from all final rules exceed their costs by $32 billion to $142 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 4-to-1 to 22-to-1.
The combined annual benefits from four proposed rules examined here exceed their costs by $160 billion to $440 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 12-to-1 to 32-to-1."
In light of Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) bringing the "TRAIN Act" to the floor of the house, the EPI numbers deserve some attention.
Imagine being able to prevent 300,000 American sick days annually. That is nearly 2 1/2 million hours of American labor. Think how much this costs in terms of productivity, strength and stability for everyone from the standalone shops to the large corporations. Now, imagine fighting not to do so.
As Republicans continue their campaign to gut the major EPA accomplishments and proposals of the Obama Administration, Isaac Shapiro has published a detailed cost-benefit analysis of these regulations. It is increasingly clear that the conservative position is not merely anti-science or even anti-health... it's bad for business.
From Shapiro's Economic Policy Institute paper:
"Two broad conclusions emerge from this analysis. First, the dollar value of the benefits of the major rules finalized or proposed by the EPA so far during the Obama administration exceeds the rules’ costs by an exceptionally wide margin. Health benefits in terms of lives saved and illnesses avoided will be enormous. Expressed in 2010 dollars:
The combined annual benefits from all final rules exceed their costs by $32 billion to $142 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 4-to-1 to 22-to-1.
The combined annual benefits from four proposed rules examined here exceed their costs by $160 billion to $440 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 12-to-1 to 32-to-1."
One dramatic section deals explicitly with the regulations proposed but not yet in place.
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| Click Image To Enlarge |
In light of Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) bringing the "TRAIN Act" to the floor of the house, the EPI numbers deserve some attention.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Donald Trump's Scottish Adventure
April 10th, 2011
Somehow, Donald Trump's surge amongst the far right is making more sense every day.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Quote Of The Day 2
March 29th, 2011
"It is the inability to see the effects of chronic,
low level toxicities on human health that has been,
and remains, our greatest failing as intelligent beings." -- Dr. Boyd Haley
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