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Author Topic: Pollution  (Read 59241 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #270 on: November 20, 2015, 12:01:24 am »
If acidification causes pteropods to die off, a crucial food source for many organisms such as salmon and whales will be gone.


Q&A With Claudine Hauri on her Work in the Southern Ocean

Posted On November 19, 2015 by Sage Melcer

Ocean Conservancy spoke with Claudine Hauri about her publication this week in Nature Climate Change on the future impacts of ocean acidification on the Southern Ocean, the body of water surrounding Antarctica and the southern tip of South America. Claudine is a postdoctoral fellow at the International Pacific Research Center of the University of Hawaii and Research Assistant Professor at the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and focuses on how physical, chemical and biological systems influence variability of ocean acidification and carbon cycling in the ocean.

[bQ: What does your study show about ocean health?[/b]

A: We found that over the next several decades, ocean acidification will quickly change the chemistry of the Southern Ocean so that pteropods, small snails that are important to the marine food web, may struggle to form their shells. Our results suggest that the duration of conditions that are harmful to pteropods may increase abruptly from one month to more than six months in less than 20 years upon their onset. Given that we expect these conditions to get worse, it’s uncertain whether pteropods can adapt.

Q: How does this research fit into your previous work?

A: My previous work analyzes how ocean acidification may change the intensity, duration and frequency of such harmful conditions along the U.S. West Coast. There, the seawater is naturally enriched with CO2 due to seasonal upwelling of deep, CO2-rich water. Ocean acidification over the last few decades has pushed the seawater closer to becoming harmful for pteropods. As a result, they have to expend more energy to fight dissolution and are exposed to increased risk of mortality and infection. If acidification causes pteropods to die off, a crucial food source for many organisms such as salmon and whales will be gone.

Q: How did you come to focus on ocean acidification in the Southern Ocean for your most recent publication?


A: The Southern Ocean and the U.S. West Coast have a lot in common. Just like the waters along the West Coast, the Southern Ocean is naturally closer to the threshold critical for pteropod survival, and these tiny sea snails also play an important role in the food web. So I decided to look at the Southern Ocean a little closer and get a better understanding of how long and where these ecologically important tiny sea snails may be exposed to harmful conditions over the next century.

Q: What would you most like people to know about your research?


A: Ocean acidification is on the brink of threatening many of our marine ecosystems. The only way to mitigate this risk is to make immediate and significant reductions in our carbon dioxide emissions.

To learn more about the future impacts of ocean acidification on the Southern Ocean, you can find Claudine’s complete study here (at link below); along with a video she produced on her research.
 
Posted in Science & Conservation | Tagged Antarctica, Claudine Hauri, climate change, ice, ocean acidification, Sage Melcer, Southern Ocean


About Sage Melcer

Sage Melcer is a Research Assistant, and provides scientific research support for a wide variety of programs at Ocean Conservancy. Born and raised on the California coast, she spent her entire life learning as much as she could about ocean creatures, from whale watching to exploring local tide pools. After spending the first twenty years of her life in and around the Pacific ocean, she's recently transplanted to DC to share her love of the ocean with our nation's capital.


http://blog.oceanconservancy.org/2015/11/19/qa-with-claudine-hauri-on-her-work-in-the-southern-ocean/#more-11067
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 #271 on: November 20, 2015, 09:06:48 pm »
This City is the World’s First to Mandate Climate Change Warning Labels on Gas Pumps

Cole Mellino | November 20, 2015 2:14 pm

What if every time you fueled up at your local gas station, you were reminded that the world’s addiction to oil contributes to climate change? Would it change your habits? The city of North Vancouver, British Columbia is hoping so. The city council voted unanimously earlier this week to approve mandatory climate change labels on gas pumps.

This is one of the warning labels proposed by the nonprofit Our Horizon. Photo credit: Our Horizon

It’s a “historic global first,” said Rob Shirkey, the founder of the nonprofit Our Horizon which lobbied for the law. He told CBC News that “other Canadian and American cities have come close by supporting similar initiatives, but the city of North Vancouver is the first to make it mandatory.” San Francisco, Berkeley and Seattle have all recently considered instituting warning labels.

The city council still has to approve designs for the stickers, which they are hoping to do by early next year. Once they do, they will require gas pumps to have them as part of a business license. City staff are currently working on pitching ideas for the exact message of the sticker. City officials don’t think that residents of North Vancouver are going to just abandon their cars overnight, but they’re hoping it will shift the way they think about climate change.

“[The goal] is not to have someone drop the pump and walk away from the vehicle,” Shirkey explained. “We have a habitual automatic downstream behavior—we don’t think about pumping gas. We all say in Canada, ‘shame on Alberta, shame on tar sands,’ but by pointing finger up-stream, we distance ourselves from the problem. We’re providing most of the demand for that product.”

In other words, they’re hoping the stickers remind residents of their own complicity in causing climate change and start to change people’s behavior. It’s important to offer “pragmatic solutions an ordinary person could implement,” said North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto.

“The message is that burning fossil fuels causes climate change and … to add a positive spin, here are some tips when using your automobile on how to make it more fuel efficient,” Mussatto added. “I couldn’t live without my vehicle, but I can certainly reduce the number of trips I do use it for.”

Shirkey cautioned, though, that the city shouldn’t “shy away from negative messaging” too much. He said it’s been an effective strategy for health warnings on cigarettes. “If it’s too positive, which is what the industry is advocating for, then we’re avoiding the problem and not addressing the issue of climate change,” Shirkey said.

The stickers will cost the city between $3,000 and $5,000 to make. Here are some sample messages from a city staff report: 


•Benefits of active transportation: “Walking has zero GHG emissions and improves your health”

•Electric vehicle incentives: “Get $5,000 towards a purchase of a new electric car”

•B.C. Scrap-It program: “Trade in your clunker for a transit pass worth $1,360”

•Facts about vehicle idling: “Idling your vehicle for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than restarting your engine”

•Facts about climate change: “Burning fossil fuel contributes to climate change”


Our Horizon also offered some ideas:  





http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/20/climate-change-label-gas-pumps/

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 #272 on: November 21, 2015, 03:22:25 pm »
11/18/2015 04:01 PM   

Oil Industry Cringes As Another Tar Sands Pipeline is Blocked


SustainableBusiness.com News

In one of his first moves as Canada's Prime Minister, Trudeau effectively blocked the Northern Gateway pipeline, closing off another route to export tar sands oil.

 He banned tankers that carry crude oil along the north coast of British Columbia, where the Enbridge's pipeline would deliver the oil.

 The decision protects the ecologically sensitive coast from becoming an industrial zone where hundreds of dangerous tankers would have traveled each year.  Two pipelines would have carried 525,000 barrels of tar sands oil from Alberta to the coast every day, winding their way across critical salmon habitat in rivers and through coastal rainforests.

Enbridge, of course, still plans to move forward on the pipeline, noting that it's being doing a good job of convincing First Nations and other citizens of its value. 

Former Prime Minister Harper approved the project last year, ignoring widespread protests and blockades. It is currently in appeals court where First Nations and environmental groups are asking for the project to be repealed. 

Tar Sands Northern Gateway Pipeline

The great news comes after President Obama officially rejected the Keystone pipeline earlier this month.

 Options for exporting tar sands oil are becoming fewer by the day. 



http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26474
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 #273 on: November 24, 2015, 03:27:09 am »
Green Technologies Lead to Clear Waters

Posted by Guest Blogger in Ocean Views on November 23, 2015
 
By: Annie Reisewitz and Sarah Martin

Coho salmon once flourished throughout the North Pacific, from Monterey Bay in central California up to Alaska’s Point Hope and across to Russia and Japan. Today many of those populations are extinct. With less than 10 percent of their historic population left, this iconic species holds an intrinsic economic, recreational, and cultural value. And yet, the remaining coho salmon populations continue to be threatened with extinction today.

Photo courtesy Reuven Walder, SPAWN/Marine Photobank.

The recent front-page story in the Seattle Times aptly illustrated the deadly effects of runoff from urban roadway on coho salmon. Salmon are entering polluted rivers and dying in as little as 2 ½ hours, before they ever have a chance to spawn.

These salmon are the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ and certainly not the only fish irreversibly damaged by pollutant-filled runoff. We are choking our marine life to death with a coc ktail of toxic metals, pesticides and used motor oil, the main ingredients in storm-water runoff. Storm-water runoff is the number one cause of water pollution in urban areas.

A recent lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Center forced the Environmental Protection Agency to finally act on a decade-old court order. They are required to update national regulations to protect our waterways from urban runoff by November 2016.

These new U.S. EPA regulations must take a holistic approach to ensure we fully protect our salmon and other living ecosystems and not simply band-aid the problem. First, by preventing the toxins from entering our urban storm system through green technology approaches and, second, by encouraging green infrastructures to filter out any toxins before they make it to our waterways.

For example, over 40 percent of the pollution in America’s waterways is from used motor oil.    At 385 million gallons per year, it’s the single largest source of oil pollution in U.S. harbor and waterways. By far the greatest cause of oil in our waterways comes from urban street runoff, much of which is from improper disposal of engine oil.

The U.S. EPA reports that over 200 million gallons of motor oil are tossed in the trash, spilled on the ground or poured down drains and sewers annually. These ‘silent oil spills’ eventually end up in our waterways, as rainwater or as melting snow carried to the nearest water body.

In 2014, U.S. sales in hybrid and plug-in vehicles were just over 570,000. Compare this with the nearly eight million new cars sold that same year, not including all the trucks and buses on our roadways. We are a long way from completely removing motor oil from our lives.

The U.S. EPA uses the term ‘environmentally acceptable lubricant’ to describe motor oils that meet standards for biodegradability, toxicity and bioaccumulation. These oils minimize the likelihood of adverse consequences in the aquatic environment, compared to petroleum-based lubricants, which are highly toxicity to marine life.

According to the U.S. EPA “using alternative products instead of toxic substances drastically reduces the presence of toxics in storm water and receiving waters.” Petroleum-based motor oil is a known toxic substance and a known hazardous waste product.

Mineral oils, like petroleum, have a high potential for bioaccumulation and a measureable toxicity toward marine organisms. In contrast, bio-based oils derived from renewable sources such as algae or plants degrade faster, do not bioaccumulate, and have a near zero toxicity to marine organisms. 

Knowing this, shouldn’t we act to make the oil in our cars greener too? One green technology approach is replacing the petrochemical toxins found in motor oil with environmentally friendly alternatives.

The U.S. EPA recently mandated the use of ‘environmentally acceptable lubricants’ for any vessel in the waters of the United States under the vessel general permit, an encouraging effort to regulate motor oil discharge from vessels under the Clean Water Act. A similar EPA standard should be in place for automotive motor oils that is used for ocean-going vessels.

Quote
With fewer pollutants entering our waterways, we can ensure the green infrastructure solutions, such as organic gardening, permeable pavements, and green roofs, can do the job of filtering out any remaining pesticides, toxic metals or nutrients into waterways.

More used motor oil is illegally dumped every year then from the BP oil spill. We need to listen to the ‘canaries in the water’ and work together to save the salmon and effectively tackle the urban runoff problem through increased public awareness, green infrastructures and clean technologies.

 

About the authors:

 Annie Reisewitz is a communications and marketing consultant for environmental and green technology initiatives. She manages the Silent Oil Spills public awareness campaign.

Sarah Martin has worked in environmental communications for the past several years. She works on the Silent Oil Spills campaign.


http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/23/green-technologies-lead-to-clear-waters/
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 #275 on: December 03, 2015, 07:20:22 pm »
Teflon’s Toxic LegacyFor more than half a century DuPont hid information that a chemical it was using to make Teflon might be making people sick

Agelbert NOTE: Learn about C8, a toxic carcinogenic compound that bioaccumulates, that is NOW present in the blood of over 98% of all Americans (and other life forms all over the planet!). Learn how the EPA has done it's level best to KEEP the truth about C8 from the public AND lower the liability for disease, death and birth defects caused by the profit over people and planet GREED of DuPont.   

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/teflons_toxic_legacy/



 
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 #276 on: December 04, 2015, 10:41:51 pm »

12/04/2015 12:12 PM     
Income Inequality = Climate Inequality, Says Oxfam

SustainableBusiness.com News

In the US, one of the major themes in our presidential campaign is income inequality between the richest 1% and the rest of our citizens.  Not suprisingly, this theme also applies to climate change.

Oxfam's new report - released at COP21 - lays bare "climate-change inequality": the world's richest 1% are also the biggest polluters by far, producing 175 times the carbon emissions as people in the bottom 10% of income.

Quote
The richest 10% are responsible for half the world's emissions, while the poorest half - roughly 3.5 billion people - produce only 10% of all emissions.

Income inequality

And the poor are - and will - be most negatively affected by climate change. They can't move to safer ground or even insulate their homes the way rich people can. They tend to live in countries with the least capacity to adapt.

"Climate change and economic inequality are inextricably linked and together pose one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century," says Tim Gore of Oxfam.

Another report, "Carbon and Inequality: From Kyoto to Paris" comes to the same conclusion. "It is the rich Europeans, Americans and Chinese that emit the most carbon, while the emissions from the world's poorest citizens are falling. The richest 1% of Americans, Luxembourgers, Singaporeans and Saudis emit more than 200 tonnes of carbon per person per year; 2,000 times more than the poorest in Honduras, Rwanda or Malawi," says author French economist Thomas Piketty (who wrote the best seller, "Capital"). 

Both Oxfam and Pikkety conclude the rich should be held accountable for emissions, no matter where they live. 

Oxfam points out that the super rich in developing countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa have
 high and rapidly rising emissions, but are still "behind" their advanced country counterparts .. and they will soon catch up. 

 Oxfam says:

"While the richest citizens can and should contribute as individuals to cutting their own emissions through lifestyle changes, wherever they live, they can't solve the climate crisis through voluntary action alone. Their choices are often constrained by the decisions of their governments in all sorts of areas, from energy to transport policy.

 "Without question, a weak agreement in Paris is no more in their interests than it is in the interests of the poorest and least responsible. Increasingly members of the richest 10% are experiencing the impacts of climate change themselves, and are mobilizing to demand action from their governments.

"The only beneficiaries of inadequate climate action in Paris and beyond are a much smaller elite with vested interests in the continuation of a high carbon and deeply unequal global economy.


Quote
The number of billionaires with interests in fossil fuel activities has risen from 54 n 2010 to 88 in 2015, while the size of their combined personal fortunes has expanded by around 50% from over $200 billion to more than $300 billion."


Green Climate Fund

Perhaps you can understand then, why poor nations demand financial assistance from advanced nations, which are responsible for the lion's share of emissions.

Poor nations haven't caused the problem
but they are most vulnerable to it. They need help to adapt so their people can live.

And the world can't afford ANY more emissions, so developing countries must get assistance to leap frog to renewable energy instead of using coal. 

Therefore, a major goal of COP21 is to get the financing established to do this, instead of allowing a conflict between rich and poor to derail an international agreement as it has done in the past. 

Accelerating natural disasters already impacts hundreds of millions of people a year. The Rockefeller Foundation estimates that $1 out of every $3 spent on development is lost to these recurring crises - a total $3.8 trillion worldwide. Resilient societies would suffer less and recover more quickly.

So far at COP21, initiatives adding up to $1 billion have been mobilized:

•a coalition will develop early warning systems for over 50 of the least developed countries and small island states by 2020: Climate Risks and Early Warning Systems (CREWS).

•Provide access to insurance to 400 million vulnerable people in 5 years: G7 InsuResilience Initiative.

•Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative: a wall of trees is being planted across the southern edge of the Sahara desert - across the African continent - to prevent desertification from advancing. It reinvigorates soil and brings back ecosystems, improving food security and rural communities. The World Bank will invest $2.2 billion.

•Global Resilience Partnership is raising funds to invest in innovative resilience measures over the next five years, starting in areas in Africa and Southeast Asia.

•"A2R" (Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape) will build climate resilience in the world's most vulnerable countries by strengthening their ability to anticipate hazards, absorb shocks by increasing insurance and social protection coverage, and reshape development to reduce climate risks. It will address the needs of nearly 634 million people who live in risk-prone coastal areas and areas at risk from droughts and floods.

Read Oxfam's report, "Extreme Carbon Inequality": 

 
Website: www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/mb-extreme-carbon-inequality-021215-en.pdf

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26487

Agelbert NOTE: Not that I haven't been saying the above for over three years now, but it is nice to have hard data to back me up. So, REPEAT AFTER ME: 50% of the poorest humans do 10% of the environmental damage. RESPONSIBILITY to ameliorate climate change goes to the people doing the lion's share of the damage, PERIOD. 

The 1%'s Responsibility to Shoulder 80% of the COST of a 100% Renewable Energy World with a Viable Biosphere for ALL Earthlings.

Talk that blames the poor people because they "have too many babies" is irresponsible, as well as being IRRELEVANT. But it is an excellent method of avoiding confronting reality.  >:(
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 #277 on: December 11, 2015, 10:07:48 pm »
 



"A Rogue Company": Leading Glaciologist on Exxon's Climate Change Cover-Up

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/11/a_rogue_company_leading_glaciologist_on

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 #278 on: December 11, 2015, 10:18:23 pm »
A Rogue country.  >:(
Message from Uncle Sam to the world  :evil4:
At COP21, U.S. Allows Mention of Climate Reparations -- Only If It Doesn't Have to Pay Them
December 11, 2015

SNIPPET:

The United States will allow the words "loss and damage" in the Paris accords only if it is agreed that the U.S. is not liable for paying for it. "Loss and damage" refers to compensation for countries already suffering from the impacts of climate change caused by more industrialized nations. We discuss the role of the U.S., China and other major countries at COP21 on this issue and on REDD, a mechanism meant to stem deforestation in countries such as Indonesia. "REDD is labeled as a solution to the climate crisis," says Ruth Nyambura, Kenyan political ecologist, part of the African Ecofeminist Collective. "But it has given polluting countries in the developed world, and corporations, the ability to say, 'I will continue to pollute as long as I pay for forest rehabilitation in the Global South.'"

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/11/at_cop21_us_allows_mention_of



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 #279 on: December 11, 2015, 10:33:24 pm »
We are Sacrifice Zones: Native Leader Says Toxic North Dakota Fracking Fuels Violence Against Women

December 11, 2015 Story

SNIPPET:

"What we’re dealing with is a death by a thousand cuts," says North Dakota indigenous leader Kandi Mossett of the impact of the booming fracking and oil-drilling industry in her home state. "We’ve had violence against women increase by 168 percent, particularly in the area of ****," Mossett says. "We have 14-, 15- and 16-year-old girls that are willingly going into man camps [for oil workers] and selling themselves." She says the full impact of toxins from oil drilling won’t be felt for another 20 years. "I’m so worried that at this COP21 my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter won’t have a say, but she will be experiencing the worst impacts. It just doesn’t make any sense to me that this is the 21st COP and we are considered sacrifice zones in my community."

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/11/we_are_sacrifice_zones_native_leader
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 #280 on: December 20, 2015, 02:31:13 am »

Hundreds of whales found dead in Chile   

More than 300 whales have been found washed up in a remote inlet in Patagonia in southern Chile in one of the largest die-offs on record.


Posted 02 Dec 2015 14:09

SANTIAGO: More than 300 whales have been found washed up in a remote inlet in Patagonia in southern Chile in one of the largest die-offs on record, researchers said Tuesday.

"It was an apocalyptic sight. I'd never seen anything like it," said one of the scientists who made the discovery, Vreni Haussermann of the Huinay Scientific Center.

Scientists launched an expedition to count the animals after 20 sei whales were reported dead in April, beached in an extremely remote region some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

When the researchers flew over the region in June, they found the scale of the die-off was much larger: at least 337 dead whales, "including bodies and skeletons," said Haussermann.

"There are still a lot of areas we haven't managed to reach, so it's likely there are more dead whales," she told AFP.

The die-off, the biggest single event of its kind known to science, will be investigated in an upcoming issue of National Geographic magazine, which funded the expedition.

Scientists initially said the whales did not bear any wounds, suggesting they may have died of a virus or a harmful algal bloom known as "red tide."

The gruesome find comes as countries get down to tough negotiations at crunch talks in Paris, which are seeking a pact to curb climate change.

Marine biologists say the warming of the world's oceans is putting dangerous pressure on whale populations by killing off their food supply and changing their age-old migratory routes.

- AFP/jb

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/hundreds-of-whales-found/2312194.htm
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 #281 on: January 01, 2016, 02:16:38 pm »
Randy Eresman, CEO, EnCana Corp. (archive photo)

Hey, we like to Frack! If you don't like it, tough luck for you! 


The "ethics" of Frackers:
“You sign a release of Encana and all of its affiliates from and against any and all claims, actions, causes of action, damages, losses (including but not limited to loss of income and loss of business) and expenses.”   


Earth Island Journal
Battling Big Oil in Alberta

When Jessica Ernst discovered that her community’s drinking water had been contaminated by fracking, she decided to sue energy giant EnCana.


SNIPPET:

Near the end of the summer, Encana invited Rosebud residents to a day of golf and theater. The occasion, the invitation said, would give “Rosebud residents and Encana employees” a chance “to mix, mingle and get to know each other in a relaxing and casual atmosphere.” After a game on the green, the minglers would watch a Rosebud Theatre production of The Village of Idiots. To Ernst, the whole thing sounded like a corporate PR ploy to “come on down, play golf with the devil and shut up.” Another three CBM wells had been drilled north of her property. Given the incessant noise from the drilling and the compressors, Ernst replied to Encana’s invitation tartly.

 
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/battling_big_oil_in_alberta/
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 #282 on: January 05, 2016, 06:58:13 pm »
How Corporate Greed Caused the Massive CA Methane Leak

Thom Hartmann Administrator's picture
Jan. 5, 2016 1:00 pm

If you don't live on the West Coast of the United States, you might not have heard about the massive natural gas well leak that's been venting natural gas into the atmosphere at a rate of more than 100,000 pounds per hour for over two months.

Infrared video that the Environmental Defense Fund captured in December shows that the natural gas is billowing like a volcano just above Burbank, California, on a hilltop in the Aliso Canyon area.

That video was taken over a month after the leak started on October 23, after the well had already ejected an estimated 80,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere.

For perspective, 80,000 tons of methane is equal to about a quarter of what the entire state of California - which is the 8th largest economy in the entire world - emitted between October 23 and November 20 in 2015.

And methane, which is what's mostly in "Natural Gas," is actually a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2 in the short term, during the first 20 years it's in the atmosphere it can be up to 80 times more potent than CO2.

According to the Washington Post, the impact of the gases that have already been released from this one volcanic leak are equivalent to the impact, over 20 years, of six coal-fired power plants - or 7 million automobiles.

But this leak isn't just a crisis for the climate, it has also forced the evacuation of 1700 homes in nearby neighborhoods, the closing of two schools, and countless residents have reported that the stench has made them ill.

So how did all this happen?

Engineers are speculating that a 7-inch pipe ruptured about 500 feet below the surface, but they won't know for sure until they are able to seal the well off completely, something which the Southern California Gas Company says may not happen until March.

But according to a recent report from the LA Times and a lawsuit from local residents, the initial leak isn't what made this an environmental disaster for the history books.

No, the real problem here goes way back to 1979, when the Southern California Gas Company had the original safety valve removed from the gas well, and then simply didn't bother to replace it.  :evil4:

Mind you, it's not like the well was new in 1979 - it was already a quarter of a century old in 1979 - and 36 years after the company cut that corner, the well finally ruptured at 61 years old.

A spokeswoman told the LA Times that they didn't replace the safety valve simply because the company wasn't required to by law.

So the company simply didn't replace the safety valve, because the profit motive of a corporation means that it has no incentive - no motivation - to protect anyone or anything that it isn't required to protect by law.

And because the company didn't replace the valve, the company estimates that it could be another 3 months before they can plug the well completely

This is a case where corporate greed and lax regulations have caused a massive disruption in California's energy infrastructure and forced the evacuation of thousands of homes - and it's seriously jeopardized any emissions cuts that California has achieved over the last few years.

And none of it would have happened if we hadn't handed the management of our energy infrastructure over to largely deregulated for-profit corporations that only care about their bottom lines.

Civics has fallen by the wayside in American education, but this case makes it clear that it's time to have a real civic conversation about private and public goods, and about where private ownership ends and where the public commons begin.

This natural gas leak isn't just an environmental disaster - it's an atmospheric catastrophe like we've never really seen before.


Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, their communities forced to scatter, and the climate has been put even further in jeopardy - just because a for-profit company wasn't required to replace the safety valve on their aging well.

This example proves the importance of treating our nation's energy infrastructure as a part of the Commons.

To do that, we need strict regulations - including enforcement mechanism including fines and jail for executives - that dissuade corporations from cutting corners at the expense of communities and the environment.

And we need to lift the liability cap that allows fossil fuel companies to only pay a fraction of the damages that they cause to communities and to the environment.

It's time to start treating the Commons as something owned by every taxpayer and to be preserved for future generations, instead of something to be exploited for present private profits and left as trash for the taxpayers to pay for and future generations to clean up.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2016/01/how-corporate-greed-caused-massive-ca-methane-leak#sthash.6KxN2tZ3.dpuf

When asked about all the above, the fossil fuel worshipping defenders of the "fiduciary capitalist duty" of corporations (ESPECIALLY, but not limited to, upstream, downstream and integrated fossil fuel corporations) to "externalize" any and all costs, REGARDLESS of the responsibility of their "business model" for CAUSING the costs, say, uh, see below:



But this is what these ethics challenged BASTARDS REALLY THINK:
« Last Edit: January 05, 2016, 11:45:38 pm by AGelbert »
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 #283 on: January 06, 2016, 09:47:47 pm »

Porter Ranch Residents Flee, Schools Close as Natural Gas Storage Facility Continues to Spew Toxic Chemicals

Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Natural Resources Defense Council | January 6, 2016 10:01 am

SNIPPET:

As the natural gas storage facility in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles continues to spew gas for nearly three months, the human face of this environmental disaster becomes even more pressing.

As of Tuesday, close to 2,000 residents have been evacuated, two schools closed and the health department has linked hundreds of health complaints from nausea and vomiting to headaches and respiratory problems to two chemicals in the gas.

http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/06/gas-leak-porter-ranch/


Agelbert COMMENT:
I went to the California government web site on the methane leak and what they are allegedly doing about it. It consist of mostly happy talk about "VOC not at hazardous levels", even though they ADMIT that Benzene, a KNOWN carcinogen, is spewing out of the well. They are into full PR damage control mode ON BEHALF of the frackers that did this, NOT on behalf of the people of Los Angeles County.   >:(

They are lying BIG TIME about the respiratory and carcinogenic toxin damage being done. The web site says NOTHING about the sulfides (mercaptans and such that smell bad but are considered "harmless" even though they give people headache and nausea - for some strange reason...). In fact, hydrogen sulfide (that rotten eggs smell component in natural gas wells and a large component of this leak, is a KNOWN toxin and health hazard above certain concentrations).

And to top this off, the LAW limits the LIABILITY of these Fossil Fuel Frackers responsible for this disastrous blowout! What is it going to take for us to realize how much the fossil fuel dirty energy welfare queens have corrupted our government and our laws while the degraded the biosphere!!!?

The blowout will continue until MARCH of this year! Methane is 86 time more powerful as a GHG than CO2! That means the pollution from that well is equivalent to that of 7,000,000 cars by the time they plug it!

Full details here:

How Corporate Greed Caused the Massive CA Methane Leak

And the fossil fuel welfare queen crooks and liars say .....
 

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 #284 on: January 11, 2016, 09:46:50 pm »
Quote
Anthony --

 Thank you for signing my Porter Ranch emergency petition. Please forward this email on to others who may want to sign.

 Richard


 Here's the full petition:

President Obama: Declare The Porter Ranch Gas Leak A National Disaster


"Dear President Obama: Declare Los Angeles County to be a national disaster area due to the massive fracked gas leak at the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility."


I’m Richard Mathews and I live within smelling distance of the fracked natural gas leak that has been spewing methane and toxins into the Los Angeles air since at least October 23, coming from an underground storage area above the suburb of Porter Ranch and holding fracked natural gas imported from other states. The company responsible is Southern California Gas, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy.

I live four miles from the site of this toxic disaster—the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history—and can smell the nasty fumes. But it’s even worse for people like my 88-year-old mother, who lives with me and is suffering from headaches and nausea but who feels she is too old to handle relocation. Thousands of families have fled their homes, and many more are still getting sick. Others like my mother are on the waiting list to get air purifiers. The leak isn't expected to be fixed until Halliburton completes drilling a relief well around March.

Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas contributing to rapid warming—over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The greenhouse impact of this leak is the equivalent of the pollution from seven million cars or six coal-fired power plants. I’ve calculated that this leak spews more gas, by volume, into the atmosphere than the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

That global disaster troubles climate hawks like me. But equally worrisome, methane is highly explosive, and the chemicals mixed with the methane are making people sick. These include methyl mercaptan (the rotten-egg-smell they add to natural gas), benzene, radon, hydrogen sulfide, and a mist of crude oil. While the methane spreads around the world, these toxins stay close to the ground and accumulate in our valley.

On January 6, California Gov. Jerry Brown dropped by for an hour and declared it a disaster. Now, President Obama needs to meet with affected residents, understand the havoc wreaked by his pro-fracking policy, and declare the site a national disaster area.

President Obama’s national disaster declaration will help residents get tax benefits, mortgage relief, and federal resources to improve health—and help this nation to start fighting back against the out-of-control fracking industry.

Please add your name to mine today.

"Dear President Obama: Declare Los Angeles County to be a national disaster area due to the massive fracked gas leak at the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility."



 Sign here:
 http://www.climatehawksvote.com/porter_ranch_fracking_disaster?recruiter_id=1831045
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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