Daily Kos.png Our friends over at Daily Kos are running an amazing Climate Change SOS Blogathon this week, featuring dozens of voices from the climate hawk community. Bill McKibben, Michael Mann, John Abraham, Rep. Ed Markey, A Siegel, Richard Heinberg, Heather Libby, Brad Johnson, Kelly Rigg and DeSmog's IT director
Continue readingAuthor: Brendan DeMelle
DeSmogBlog: Hundreds of Concerned Citizens Protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Plans To Frack New York
Cuomo-Fracking-Credo.jpg Over 350 concerned citizens turned up at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s policy summit today to protest his risky plan to allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York. The state has had a moratorium on the dangerous shale gas drilling technique since 2008, but Governor Cuomo is expected to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: A "War on Shale Gas"?
Since late 2009, there’s been a slowly-growing wave of attacks from the unconventional oil and gas industry on media outlets that cover the controversies surrounding hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other shale gas practices. Reporters who write for publications ranging from Rolling Stone to Reuters to the New York Times have
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: UK Police Cease Botched Investigation into Stolen UEA Climate Scientists’ Emails
UK police drop climategate investigation.png "Our Priority is You," reads the tagline of the Norfolk Constabulary. The rest of the sentence ought to read, "unless you are a climate scientist." The Norfolk Constabulary announced today that it has called off its investigation into the criminal hacking of the University of
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Scientists Tell US State Department Excluding Climate Impacts in Keystone XL Review ‘Neither Wise nor Credible’
Keystone XL protest.jpg Ten of the nation’s top climate scientists penned a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today questioning why the State Department isn't considering the enormous climate change impacts of developing the Alberta tar sands in its review of the controversial Keystone XL export pipeline project. “At the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Science Trumped by Politics In Cuomo’s NY Fracking Plans?
Don't Frack Sign.jpg New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said repeatedly that, in making the decision on whether to allow horizontal hydrofracking in New York State, he wants to rely on “science, and not emotion.” He is relying on the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to give him that
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Aspen Ideas Festival Fracking Debate Livestream – Tune in Sunday
Screen Shot 2012-06-29 at 12.12.38 PM.png This Sunday, July 1, FORA.tv is hosting a free, online debate at the Aspen Ideas Festival, "No Fracking Way: Is The Natural Gas Boom Doing More Harm Than Good?" The debate will feature Deborah Goldberg and Katherine Hudson arguing for the motion, Joe Nocera and Susan
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry Enjoyed Privileged Access To Controversial New York DEC Environmental Review
Don't Frack Sign.jpg Documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show that bureaucrats within the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC) granted the oil and gas industry premature access to highly controversial draft regulations for shale gas fracking in the state. New York placed a moratorium on
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Institute, ALEC and More Gearing Up to Undermine Renewable Energy
shutterstock_87374705.jpg One of the environmental movement’s biggest accomplishments over the past decade has been convincing states to adopt so-called renewable portfolio standards (RPS). RPS require a state’s energy supply to diversify, gradually shifting away from fossil fuels and towards renewable sources like geothermal, wind and solar. At least 30 states now have
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Christopher Monckton Described as "Loose Cannon" "17th Century Pamphleteer" By UKIP, Party Cuts Ties With Him
Christopher-Monckton-.jpg The Guardian reports that the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has distanced itself from "Lord" Christopher Monckton, the crazypants climate denier who thinks President Obama's birth certificate is fake, compared youth climate activists to "Hitler Youth" and a litany of other crazy stunts well-documented here at DeSmog over the years.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Sky Is Pink: New Josh Fox Video On Fracking Controversies in New York (and Much More)
Gasland director Josh Fox is back with a must-watch new short video taking a look at the controversy in New York where Governor Andrew Cuomo is considering plans to lift the state's moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for unconventional gas. But it's much more than just a local story. Fox
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Breaking: Leaked Rio+20 Earth Summit Final Agreed Text – Utterly Inadequate Response to Global Crises
Rio+20.png DeSmogBlog has obtained the final negotiating text that will emerge from the Rio+20 Earth Summit and it is an utter disappointment to anyone who hoped that world leaders would pull together a meaningful global agreement on ending fossil fuel subsidies or other needed steps to protect future generations from
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What Chesapeake Energy’s Financial Scandals Mean For The Rest of Us
Chesapeake-McClendon.png Given radioactive wastewater, earthquakes, and flammable tap water, one might think that drilling and fracking could not possibly have any more dirty secrets. But here’s the biggest secret of all: it’s expensive. With natural gas at historic low prices – the Wall Street Journal ran a column recently suggesting
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Joe Bast Announces the Death of Denial-a-Palooza at Final Heartland ICCC Conference
heartland_billboard.jpg During his closing remarks at the Heartland Institute's Seventh "International Conference on Climate Change," Heartland President Joseph Bast revealed that the group has no plans to hold another conference and is struggling to pay its staff following the defections of corporate sponsors in the wake of the disastrous Unabomber
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Denial-a-Palooza Sponsors Have Received $67 Million From ExxonMobil, Koch and Scaife Foundations
heartland_billboard.jpg The Heartland Institute's Seventh "International Conference on Climate Change" – the somewhat-annual gathering of climate deniers that we call Denial-a-Palooza – is underway in Chicago. Heartland's contrarian gathering this year is clouded by the group's incredibly offensive billboard campaign that flamed out within hours but is causing lasting damage
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Peter Sinclair’s New Video Skewers Heartland’s Offensive "Murderers, Tyrants and Madmen" Billboard Campaign
Peter Sinclair, the creator of the "Climate Crock of the Week" series, has a new video posted at the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media documenting just how out of touch with reality the Heartland Institute's recent offensive Unabomber billboard campaign is. Featuring the calm and insightful comments
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil and Gas Industry Moves to Silence Critics
shutterstock_49157602.jpg At an industry public relations conference last year, Michael Kehs of Chesapeake Energy described a Wall Street Journal op-ed to gathered oil and gas officials, saying it pointed out the industry's "credibility problem." “And I’m sure some of it relates to defensiveness,” Kehs added. (MP3 Audio) Small wonder. For years,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Tar Sands Oil Companies 71 Percent Foreign-Owned – Cue Ezra Levant’s Outrage
Foreign Control of Tar Sands.png ForestEthics released a game-changing research brief today documenting the massive foreign control of Alberta's tar sands oil industry. Publicly traded oil companies with active tar sands operations have a very high level of foreign ownership – 71 per cent. Some supposedly "Canadian" oil companies including
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Corporate Exodus From Heartland Institute Continues As USAA and Insurers Bail
heartland_billboard.jpg In the wake of the outrageous Heartland Institute billboard campaign equating everyone who acknowledges the science of global warming with "murderers, tyrants, and madmen," many of the group's corporate donors are fleeing away, lest their public reputations get sullied by Heartland's recklessness. Today, Forecast The Facts announced that USAA,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Onion Skewers The Boom in Fracking PR Spin
theonion_logo.png In typically grand fashion, satirical news source The Onion has skewered the rise of misleading PR bankrolled by the oil and gas industry to defend the dangerous practice of fracking. Although the piece is not "real" news, anyone could be forgiven for taking it as fact since it isn't
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