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Author Topic: Pollution  (Read 58298 times)

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AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #47 on: April 25, 2014, 06:59:56 am »
Have you watched any of "Years of Living dangerously" yet?

Just spinning up to speed on what is happening with deforestation in Indonesia alone tends to put a sober global perspective on things. I had no idea of the scope of the destruction, not its impact on global warming, prior to viewing that.

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #48 on: April 25, 2014, 06:20:48 pm »
Yep. I watched the first one. Good stuff there. 

The first full show is on u-tube. That may be the only one I get to see because I don't have, or want, cable. So, if and when the other 8 parts get to u-tube or some other free forum, please let me know.
Your cheapskate friend,
Agelbert  ;D

http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/climate-change/global-warming-is-with-us/msg919/#msg919
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #49 on: April 26, 2014, 11:02:41 am »
Quote from: AG
Yep. I watched the first one. Good stuff there.   

The first full show is on u-tube. That may be the only one I get to see because I don't have, or want, cable. So, if and when the other 8 parts get to u-tube or some other free forum, please let me know.
Your cheapskate friend,
Agelbert  ;D

http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/climate-change/global-warming-is-with-us/msg919/#msg919

I watched the first two on cable, but I'll try to keep an eye out.

BTW, does your "quote" function work properly-- or is is just my browser?

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #50 on: April 26, 2014, 02:13:31 pm »
I watched the first two on cable, but I'll try to keep an eye out.

BTW, does your "quote" function work properly-- or is is just my browser?

It's still a pain. You have to right click on "quote", then "open in new tab" and copy the quote in the new tab to your reply like I just did.   :(

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Shocking Success! Supreme Court Rules For Clean Air
« Reply #51 on: April 30, 2014, 03:43:19 pm »
Shocking Success! Supreme Court Rules For Clean Air  ;D




SustainableBusiness.com News

 Given the decisions issued by the US Supreme Court of late, today's ruling that upholds a critical EPA rule is pleasantly shocking.

 In another 6-2 vote, the court ruled in favor of EPA's Cross-State Pollution rule, issued in 2011, which would regulate emissions that travel from coal-heavy states in the Midwest and Appalachia to eastern states that have cleaner air.

 Should a coal plant in Ohio be able to pollute New York's air, for example? Besides sending polluted air their way, it also makes it unfairly harder for states to meet federal ambient air quality standards.


Coal emissions


When it finally goes into effect, an estimated 240 million Americans will benefit from cleaner air.    It cuts sulfur dioxide emissions across the US by 73% (compared with 2005 levels)  and nitrogen oxide emissions by 54%.

 Both pollutants can travel long distances, forming smog and soot, which are linked to respiratory illnesses and other disease. It is expected to save 34,000 lives each year and prevent 400,000 asthma attacks, for example. Overall, the economic and health benefits are in the range of $120 billion to $280 billion in exchange for an $800 million investment by the coal industry. 

Today's vote reverses the US Court of Appeals ruling against the EPA, brought by guess who - coal companies and utilities that use lots of coal, such as Southern Company and Peabody Energy. 14 "upwind" states challenged the rule, while "downwind" states defended it.

In writing the majority decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls the rule a "permissible, workable, and equitable interpretation" of the "good neighbor" provision of the federal Clean Air Act.   



Learn more about the Cross-State Pollution rule:

 
Website: www.epa.gov/airtransport/

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25677
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
« Reply #52 on: May 02, 2014, 03:56:35 pm »
http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_whatsnew.aspx?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoksqvJZKXonjHpfsX66OgpXaO3lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CT8FkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7jNMbZkz7gOXRE%3D

Quote
Why are farmed Atlantic salmon rated “Avoid”?

The salmon farming industry has made improvements in the past decade to reduce its environmental impact, but additional work is needed in order to address remaining concerns. Though the scope of problems varies by country, chemical use and disease are two areas of environmental concern that exist across each assessment.

Salmon farmed in open net pens are highly vulnerable to infection from diseases, or parasites such as sea lice, and as a result require treatment with antibiotics and pesticides. The use of antibiotics in salmon farms increases the risk of antibiotic resistance in human diseases, and there is a high concern regarding the use of antibiotics that are listed as critically or highly important to human health by the World Health Organization.

Sea lice parasites and viral and bacterial diseases can be passed between farmed fish and wild fish populations, and are a high concern in Norway, Scotland and British Columbia where wild salmon or sea trout populations are vulnerable to such impact.


What salmon should I buy? 

Seafood Watch has published recommendations regarding a range of salmon options, from wild to farmed. View our salmon recommendations here (at link).

For what other countries or regions is Seafood Watch assessing farmed salmon?

The four regions assessed represent the large majority of global farmed salmon, but Seafood Watch is currently working to complete assessments for other regions that supply significant amounts of farmed salmon to the U.S. market: the Atlantic coast of North America (Atlantic salmon farmed on the U.S. and Canadian east coasts), New Zealand (Pacific King salmon) and the Faroe Islands (Atlantic salmon).


Why is Verlasso® farmed salmon from Chile rated a “Good Alternative”?

Verlasso® farm operations use a unique feed ingredient that reduces its dependence on fish oil and fishmeal from wild-caught fish sources, but the main reasons for the “Good Alternative” recommendation are that the fish are stocked in the pens at lower densities than in other open-net pen operations and documents show both limited pollution (effluent) levels at its farms, and lower use of antibiotics than the industry average in Chile.

More good info here:

http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/Farmed_Salmon_FactSheet.pdf



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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The Time for Wind and Solar Energy Is Now
« Reply #53 on: May 04, 2014, 04:34:16 pm »
The Time for Wind and Solar Energy Is Now


 Elliott Negin, Union of Concerned Scientists 
 May 01, 2014

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's) latest report, which explores ways to cut carbon emissions, put the world on notice. Despite efforts in the United States, Europe and developing countries such as China to ramp up energy efficiency and renewable energy, global carbon emissions have been increasing at a much faster clip than they were just a few decades ago. To avoid the worst of the worst, IPCC scientists say emissions will have to be reduced 40 percent to 70 percent by 2050 and warn that we only have a 15-year window to reverse course.

"We cannot afford to lose another decade," said Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist who co-chaired the committee that wrote the report. "If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization."

As Edenhofer points out, the cost of doing nothing likely would dwarf whatever we might spend today to address climate change. That said, it makes the most sense to replace fossil fuels with the most cost-effective, safest, carbon-free and low-carbon options that can be deployed as quickly as possible.

For the biggest source of U.S. carbon pollution — electric utilities — the best solution is wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies, which, according to the new IPCC report, "have achieved a level of technical and economic maturity to enable deployment at a significant scale." In other words, renewables are now a lot cheaper and better than they were when the last IPCC report came out seven years ago.

Nuclear Not Economic

What about nuclear power? Although it now provides the most carbon-free electricity in the country, without a national carbon tax or cap-and-trade program, it's not economic, even with more than 50 years of generous federal subsidies.

Over the last decade, the estimated price tag for a new reactor has skyrocketed, jumping from $2 billion in 2002 to as high as $12 billion today. Wall Street won't finance a project unless Uncle Sam co-signs the loan, which leaves taxpayers on the hook if a project fails. So while Southern Company and its partners, with the help of an $8.3 billion federally guaranteed loan, are building two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear plant site in Georgia, it's unlikely the industry will be able to muster more than two or three more in the next decade. As recently as five years ago, utilities applied for licenses to build more than 25 new reactors.

At the same time the nuclear industry's hoped-for renaissance has fizzled, older reactors are shutting down. Four reactors closed last year because of prohibitively expensive safety upgrades or competition from cheaper energy sources, namely natural gas and wind. Economics will close a fifth reactor, Vermont Yankee, this fall, and the nation's largest nuclear plant operator, Exelon, said in February that unless market conditions improve, it will announce plant closings by the end of this year.

Wind, Solar More Affordable


Unlike new reactors, the cost of solar and wind has dropped dramatically. Solar panel prices have plummeted more than 75 percent since 2008, and the cost of generating electricity from wind turbines declined more than 40 percent over the past three years, sparking a construction boom. Last year, solar installations in the United States amounted to a record 5.1 gigawatts, boosting the national total to nearly 13 gigawatts -- enough to power nearly 2.2 million typical American homes. And by the end of December, there were enough wind turbines across the country to power 15.5 million homes and cut annual electric power sector carbon emissions by 4.4 percent.

Given solar and wind's exponential growth, experts see tremendous potential. The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for example,projects that wind and solar could produce 15 percent of U.S. electricity by 2020, 27 percent by 2030, and 50 percent by 2050.

Still, naysayers harp on the fact that wind and solar power are intermittent. The sun doesn't always shine, they say, and the wind doesn't always blow. That may be true, but it's not a deal-breaker. Studies by NREL and electricity grid operators in the United States and Europe conclude that larger contributions from solar and wind would not create significant technological problems or impose higher costs.

"Meeting demand in the face of variability and uncertainty is old hat for grid operators," said Mike Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) who used to work at NREL. "They're already doing it with wind and solar here in the United States and in Europe.

"Besides, spreading wind and solar installations over a large enough area would help address the intermittency issue," he added. "The wind is always blowing somewhere, and if we increased the percentage of wind and solar to 30 percent — which we should be able to do within the next 15 years — the system's flexibility to manage supply and demand, along with a updated grid, should be able to integrate that power."

Renewables Provide More Resilience

Ramping up renewables not only would cut carbon emissions, it also would diversify the national electricity system and make it more resilient, according to a new UCS report. That system — which includes power plants, transmission lines and fuel delivery networks — was not designed to withstand all of today's extreme weather events, many of which have been linked to climate change.

Sea level rise, for example, threatens nearly 100 coastal electricity facilities, including power plants and substations, the UCS report found. Water temperature and availability also pose major problems. Older coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants rely on a "once-through" cooling process that draws hundreds of millions, if not billions, of gallons of water daily from the closest water body. When that river, lake or ocean gets too hot, which is happening with greater frequency, the plants have to cut back production or shut down temporarily. Likewise, droughts can substantially reduce water availability, while flooding from extreme rainfall can overwhelm a plant, as it did in June 2011 when a record-breaking Missouri River flood forced the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant near Omaha to remain shut down after a scheduled refueling outage two months earlier.

Renewables don't suffer from the same limitations. Rooftop solar panels and wind turbines, for instance, rely on smaller, more distributed units, which make it less likely that extreme weather events would have the same dramatic impact. Moreover, renewables are less vulnerable to drought and heat because they don't require water.

Let's Stop Subsidizing Fossil Fuels


To get where we need to go, the federal government has to turn its outdated energy subsidy policy on its head. The oil and gas industry has been enjoying average annual subsidies and tax breaks of $4.86 billion in today's dollars since 1918, according to a 2011 analysis by DBL Investors, a venture capital firm. The nuclear industry, DBL found, benefited from an average of $3.5 billion a year in subsidies from 1947 to 1999. And coal, which has been getting federal and state subsidies since the early 1800s, currently receives at least $3.2 billion a year, according to a 2011 Harvard study.

Renewables, on the other hand, averaged only $370 million a year in subsidies between 1994 and 2009, according to DBL. The 2009 stimulus package did provide $21 billion for renewables, but that support barely began to balance the scales that still tilt toward fossil fuels. Just last December, for example, Congress allowed a key wind industry tax break toexpire, but it continues to support massive subsidies for coal, oil and gas.

Americans represent less than 5 percent of the world's population, but we're responsible for 19 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Despite the fact that China surpassed us as the world's top carbon emitter in 2006, we're still the worst offenders per capita. So after subsidizing coal for more than 200 years and oil and gas for nearly 100 — which inadvertently got us into this mess — it's long past time to take fossil fuels off the dole and go all out to promote renewables. Fifteen years is just around the corner.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/05/the-time-for-wind-and-solar-energy-is-now
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #55 on: May 07, 2014, 10:56:34 pm »
Stanford Student Movement Inspires University’s $18.7 Billion Divestment From Coal    ;D


http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/07/stanford-divestment-coal/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Warren Buffett to Close One of Nation’s Dirtiest Coal Plants in Favor of Solar Energy


Brandon Baker | May 8, 2014 12:20 pm     

One of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the U.S. will soon shut down, thanks to a well-known billionaire and previously passed legislation.

As part of its acquisition of Nevada’s largest utility, NV Energy, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway also inherited Reid Gardner, a 557-megawatt (MW), coal-fired energy plant near Las Vegas. The massive structure, which has a history of recognition among the country’s dirtiest carbon polluters, won’t be a lasting legacy of NV’s profile.

NV plans on shutting down three of Reid Gardner’s units that generate about 300 MW by the end of this year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The remaining 257 MW would be closed by the end of 2017. In all, the company wants to end all of its coal operations by 2019.


Coal-fired plants will soon be a thing of the past for NV Energy   

As The Atlantic points out, the utility’s decision is tied to state legislation passed last year requiring the company to eliminate 800 MW of coal energy in favor of renewables. That passage was influenced by years of fighting for cleaner air by the Moapa Band of Paiutes, a Native American community that lives near Reid Gardner.

The state utilities commission has 180 days to approve the plan, which would also include a new solar project totaling 200 MW of clean energy on the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation. The land is about 70,000 acres and has enough to space to also support the 1.5 gigawatts of renewable energy the Moapa Band of Paiute wants to construct through a joint venture announced last year with Terrible Herbst Inc. and Stronghold Engineering Inc.

“This is going to provide a strong economic base for the tribe,” Sandy King, director of renewable-energy project development at Stronghold, told Renewable Energy World.

Last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a limit of 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour for new coal plants.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/08/warren-buffett-coal-plants-solar-energy/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #57 on: May 12, 2014, 01:24:09 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: ANOTHER "cheap" FOSSIL FUELS MEGA DOLLAR SUBSIDY  >:(  BITES THE DUST!  ;D

Legal trifecta!

Another big EPA court victory — this time on soot pollution
 





By John Upton

http://grist.org/news/another-big-epa-court-victory-this-time-on-soot-pollution/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #58 on: May 14, 2014, 12:10:42 am »
Citing Climate Change, Ethical Reasons, New Zealand Town Divests From Fossil Fuels

Aaron Packard, 350.org | May 13, 2014 9:23 am


Dunedin is closer to Antarctica than it is to the U.S., but this city in New Zealand today joined 23 U.S. cities and one Dutch town by announcing that it will divest from fossil fuels.

The Dunedin city council voted on Tuesday to remove existing fossil fuel extraction investments—close to $2 million—and prevent future investments in fossil fuels by its $75 million Waripori fund. The move sees Dunedin City become the first New Zealand city to divest from fossil fuels for ethical and climate change reasons.

This move by the council comes at a time when the conservative New Zealand Government, led by Prime Minister John Key, has been pushing desperate plans to expand fossil fuel extraction across New Zealand. Yet this vote, along with the divestment announcements last September by five Anglican Dioceses in New Zealand, and the months of campaigning to halt the Denniston Coal Mine and offshore oil drilling reflect a growing disquiet with the government’s fossil fuel plans.

In recent months the Australian owned bank, Westpac, has also come under pressure to take steps to divest. Climate campaigning groups 350 Aotearoa—the New Zealand arm of 350.org—and Coal Action Network Aotearoa, are specifically calling on Westpac to halt its funding of Bathhurst Resources, whose planned coal mining project on the Denniston Plateau and surrounds would be one of the largest new contributors to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from New Zealand.

“It’s time for Westpac to front up and take responsibility for the impacts of their financing, like Dunedin has today,” said 350 Aotearoa National Coordinator Ashlee Gross. “Financing oil, coal and gas companies is playing a major role in determining whether these companies go ahead with plans that would push us well past safe CO2 levels, or whether we start to get serious about the transition to clean energy.”

This growing discontent locally has in recent weeks been backed by the rapidly growing global divestment movement. Last week, Stanford University announced plans to divest its $18 billion USD endowment fund from coal investments. Two weeks earlier, the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, announced plans to create a fund that will exclude fossil fuels.

The Dunedin city council’s ethical investment policy will formally exclude the munitions, tobacco, fossil fuel extraction, gambling and p o r n ography industries from its investment portfolio. With an investment policy like that, it sure makes living in Dunedin more tempting.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/13/climate-change-ethics-divests-fossil-fuels/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #59 on: May 14, 2014, 12:51:41 am »

A Look Back at the Town That Didn’t Back Down  to Fracking


Brandon Baker | May 12, 2014 3:46 pm | Comments
       

A small-town fracking ban took place nearly three years ago in upstate New York, but that doesn’t make it any less monumental.

That’s why Earthjustice produced a new video examining how Dryden, NY’s ban happened and why it remains as an inspiration to cities across the country hoping to fight fracking.

“My voice, by itself, carries very little weight,” said Marie McRae, a resident who galvanized the community to support a ban, “but when I join my voice with my immediate neighbors, with the larger community that I live in, we all together have a voice that’s loud enough for our elected officials to hear.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qxh7f3WJlc&feature=player_embedded


The town’s governing body banned fracking in August 2011 and withstood subsequent, corporate lawsuits attempting to overturn the decision. The short video was selected for the Gasland blog‘s movie of the week. Lee Ziesche, Gasland’s grassroots coordinator, said she thinks, “wow, that’s what democracy looks like,” when watching the video.

“Every community across this nation can do exactly what Dryden did,” resident Joanne Cipolla-Dennis said in the video.

“You have to care about each other. That’s the American dream … you count on your neighbor.”


Agelbert NOTE: You HAVE to care for ALL of the life forms in the biosphere because any other way of thinking and acting is STUPID as well as being WRONG.  ;D I admit that I won't make a lot of friends and influence many people with that statement...

BUT nevertheless, it's TRUE! 




He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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