While many environmental advocates urge consumers to buy local, in this case, local isn’t always better. While the Canadian tar sands are more notorious, developments here in the US are moving forward as local governments issue more permits to allow companies to start mining. More than half of the U.S.
Continue readingAuthor: Laurel Whitney
DeSmogBlog: New Nature Study Calls Melting Underwater Arctic Permafrost An "Economic Time Bomb"
Three academics walk into a bar. After what must have been the worst happy hour ever, they emerge having discovered that melting oceanic permafrost could come with a hefty $60 trillion dollar price tag, slightly less than the entire world economy. We calculate that the costs of a melting Arctic
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: USGS Study Connects Earthquake Risk To Wastewater Injection, Fracking Advocates Say, "Who Cares?"
A new study out in Science by US Geological Survey scientist William Ellsworth links earthquakes to wastewater injection sites. These earthquakes, thought to be caused by pressure changes due to excess fluid injected deep below the surface, are being dubbed “man-made” earthquakes. It’s not the first time scientists have used
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Tim DeChristopher, Imprisoned For Nearly Two Years, To Be Released On Earth Day
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher is set to be released from prison on Earth Day, this Sunday April 21st, since being incarcerated on July 26, 2011. Tim DeChristopher created quite a ripple in the activist community when he tried to buy millions of dollars of land in December of 2008 in
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Shell Wriggles Free Of Oil Spill Liability In Nigeria, But Case Is Far From Closed
A Dutch court acquitted oil giant Shell of allegations regarding oil contamination in Nigeria. Reported earlier in The Guardian, the court ruled in favor of the company for 4 counts of polluting land and waterways in the African country, but was held accountable on a fifth count. The suit was
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Thousands of Miners’ Benefits In Jeopardy As Patriot Coal Claims Bankruptcy
On January 29, Patriot Coal Co. will begin Chapter 11 bankruptcy hearings in St. Louis, MO claiming that it’s become a “victim of the markets” and can no longer pay its debts. These “debts” include millions of dollars of retiree health benefits. If the company goes under, the benefits may
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How Electric Providers Use Sleazy Scams To Sell Energy
Imagine this: You’re working from home on a Friday, winding down from the week, furiously reading the latest climate news until you commute from the living room to your bed to begin your normal 3:00 brainstorming session (aka a nap). Suddenly, the door rings. Who could be stopping by on
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Medical And Scientific Experts Urge Halting Fracking Rush Until Medical Unknowns Are Better Understood
This week, the group Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE) declared they would submit a petition to the White House signed by 107 experts to urge the administration to slow down and consider the health effects of natural gas fracking before allowing any new permits. They want the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ACCCE PR Rhetoric On Low-Income Households Does Not Compute
The ACCCE PR robots suffered a bit of malfunction recently when attempting to spit out the coal industry’s usual talking points. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst released a report last week which discovered that low-income hous…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Cites Climate Change
Earlier today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave his official endorsement to President Barack Obama. After a lukewarm statement yesterday about climate’s effect on the storm, now climate change is front and center on Bloomberg’s radar. “Our climate is changing,” penned the mayor in a Bloomberg News editorial. “One
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Silence No More As Sandy Rips Through the East Coast
There’s a question I often pose to my undergrad students after discussing the many implications of climate change: “Do you think we’ll be able to change before it’s too late, or do you think it’s going to take some kind of natural disaster to get us moving?” Unsurprisingly, most students
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New York Farmers Sound Off On Cuomo’s Decision To Delay Fracking
That gush of wind some New York residents felt earlier this week presumably came from thousands of simultaneous “finger sparkles” as anti-fracking activists rejoiced while industry executives collectively grunted and ha-rumphed upon hearing the decision of Governor Andrew Cuomo to press the reset button on fracking approvals for the state.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Amidst Record Drought, Report Shows Massive Water Requirements For Nonrenewable Fuels
If you haven’t heard about the major droughts afflicting most of the US this summer, then you may just have your head in the sand (or more likely a water-parched dusty hole). In fact, the media department of the Drought Monitor website ran out of combinations for modifying the words
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Why Is Pfizer Still Aligning Itself With Heartland Institute On "Public Health" Record?
Pfizer.png The Heartland Institute has had a rough time the last couple of months. The climate denial shop has endured the release of embarrassing leaked documents. Then it launched a devastatingly ill-conceived billboard campaign associating climate science adherents with serial killers. That didn't work out so well. So Heartland's donors started
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: States Continue To Push For Anti-Climate and Anti-Evolution Curriculum Laws
confused-child.jpg It looks like Tennessee can add another dumb law to join the ranks of other special ones such as being able to shoot whales out of a car, marrying your cousin, and not being allowed to carry skunks into the state or electrifying your trash. It now joins Louisiana
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: 400 PPM Carbon Dioxide Concentrations Breach The Arctic
Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide.png There's a saying that trouble comes in threes. Earlier this week, the International Energy Administration announced that emissions reached a record high last year, increasing by 1 Gt worldwide. At the Bonn climate talks, experts have warned that the window to curb a global temperature rise of more than
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Chesapeake Energy And Other Fracking Companies Squatting On New York Citizens’ Land
chesapeake-energy-logo.jpg New York landowners are having a hard time evicting an unwanted tenant, it seems. That's why over 200 people residing in the Marcellus Shale are suing energy companies such as Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Inflection Energy, arguing that the land leases they originally signed with the companies over 5
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Toothpaste More Dangerous Than Fracking, "Expert" Says
strawman-argument.jpg It's okay, people. We've been blowing this whole fracking thing way out of proportion. Dr. Barry Stevens of To-Be-Determined America sets the record straight in hopes that we'll re-align our focus and concentrate on the real issues at hand, which, by the way, is not fracking (Spoiler Alert: it's
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: NRDC Report Predicts 150,000 Heat-Related Deaths Due To Climate Change
Melting Ice People WWF Rosa Merk.jpg Chances are, if you're already concerned about being off'ed by climate change, it's probably because you imagine being swept away by a super-charged hurricane, drowned by rising sea levels, starved because of drought-induced crop failure, or set aflame by roaring wildfires. But as it
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