Ruptured-Enbridge-Pipeline-from-Kalamazoo-Spill-credit-NTSB.jpg By now, hopefully you've at least heard of the Kalamazoo River oil spill. read more
Continue readingTag: Desmogblog
DeSmogBlog: Sand Land: Frac Sand Mining in Western Wisconsin – Video Report by DeSmogBlog
Sand mine.jpg The rush to drill for unconventional gas, enabled by a process popularly known as "fracking," or hydraulic fracturing, has brought with it much collateral damage. Close observers know about contaminated water, earthquakes, and climate change impacts of the shale gas boom, but few look at the entire life
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Documentary "Rational Middle": Oil and Gas Advertising in Disguise
Rational Middle Logo.jpeg The "Rational Middle Energy Series," directed and produced by Gregory Kallenberg, is hot off the film rolls and has already been screened at an influential venue: the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. Kallenberg also directed and produced the documentary film "Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for An Energy Future,"
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: A Court’s Scientific Smackdown: The D.C. Circuit Trashes Science Deniers on Global Warming and the EPA
800px-Meade_and_Prettyman_Courthouse.jpg Tomorrow, we may see a court—the highest in the land—flout precedent for partisan ends in its ruling on President Obama’s signature health care law. However, in the meantime, we can rejoice that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit understands how to weigh complicated science-policy issues
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What The World’s Richest Woman Gina Rinehart Thinks About Climate Change
gina1.jpg SHE is the richest woman on the planet with a personal fortune approaching $30 billion thanks to her coal and iron ore businesses. But when it comes to arguably the planet's most pressing problem – human-caused climate change – the Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart dismisses out of hand not
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Denial in Brazil: A Translation
ricardo augusto felico.jpg This is a translation of the May 2, 2012 “Programa do Jo” on Globo, a half hour interview with the climate skeptic geographer Ricardo Augusto Felicio on global warming. On YouTube alone, the interview has nearly 700,000 views; in Brazil, Globo is a dominant television network. Original clip here;
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: Climate Denial Hits Brazil
ricardo augusto felico.jpg Last year, I wrote about how journalists in developing nations were doing a better job of covering climate change, largely because denial hadn’t really taken root in many of these countries. In particular, I singled out Brazil for praise: According to a study by James Painter of
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: 1812 and All That: the Bicentenary of Dr. Charles Smallwood, Canadian Scientist (1812 – 1873)
Charles Smallwood 1872.jpg This is a guest post by Andrew McLaren With all the present glorification of the 1812-15 conflict being promoted by Canada’s Federal Government, another important bicentennial is being pointedly overlooked: the birth of Dr. Charles Smallwood (1812-1873), a Canadian physician and scientist who can be credited for the
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: BC Premier Clark Redefines Natural Gas as "Clean Energy" to Serve Political Interests
christy-clark-natural-gas-strategy.jpg Christy Clark, the premier of British Columbia, has joined the ranks of public officials the world over, which have clouded the definition of "clean energy" by using the term to seve their own interests. In an effort to make good on her promise that the three new liquified natural gas
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Enbridge Lobbyists Successfully Eliminated Fish Habitat Protections For Pipeline
Enbridge-Greenpeace.jpg Changes to the Fisheries Act limiting the protection of fish habitat did not, as it turns out, arise simply out of a series of complaints by disgruntled farmers hoping to fill in small patches of wetlands or municipalities seeking to repair bridges, as claimed by Minister Keith Ashfield. Briefing notes
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: American Nurses Band Together to Expose Health Risks of Fracking and Fossil Fuel Energy
Picture 2.png Nurses from the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) are proposing they take on a more prominent role in connecting the dots between human health and fossil fuel-based energy. Their public policy proposal, “Nurses Role in Recognizing, Education and Advocating for Healthier Energy Choices,” was passed by the American
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Trailbreaker Lives: How Plans to Bring Tar Sands Crude to the East Coast are "Going in Reverse"
With efforts to pump tar sands crude south and west coming up against fierce resistance, Canada’s oil industry is making a quiet attempt at an end run to the east. The industry is growing increasingly desperate to find a coastal port to export tar sands bitumen, especially now that the highly
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Howarth and Ingraffea: Gas Industry Fracking Study So Biased it is ‘Almost Useless’
Picture 5.png Two of the largest gas industry lobbying bodies in the US, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), released a ‘study’ earlier this month claiming methane emissions from natural gas production to be 50 percent lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 estimates.
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: Greenpeace Clean Energy Billboard Rejected by Pattison
Greenpeace Rejected Billboard.png After a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline spilled between 160,000 and 480,000 liters of oil into Jackson Creek near the Red Deer River in Alberta this month, premier Alison Redford called the incident “an exception.” Yet, as Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema reports, this spill comes
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: I Love You Huffpo but What’s Going On?
I have been writing on environmental issues on the popular news blog Huffington Post going on five years now but I am not sure if I will continue. read more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Senator John Kerry Speaks the Scary, Ugly Truth on Climate Change
Screen shot 2012-06-19 at 4.37.47 PM.png There are precious few voices in the U.S. capital these days that are speaking the truth about climate change. Which is what makes Senator John Kerry's speech on the Senate floor today so powerful, and so necessary. In his speech, which clocked in at nearly
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