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The melting Arctic is revealing caveman-era landscapes

by LorenzoNixon Posted on January 26, 2019

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Parts of the Arctic have now melted enough to expose landscapes that had been entombed in ice for 40,000 to 115,000 years.

Scientists studying Baffin Island, Canada — a snowy mountain range rising from the Arctic Sea — have found land that was last ice free when our ancestors were dallying with Neanderthals, according to a paper published Friday in Nature Communications.

The researchers went to these newly exposed spots looking for plants frozen thousands of years ago. If this were a B-movie, they would have discovered a reanimated ice worm, or some contagion that transformed humans into mewling armadillo-people. But, because real life isn’t always so exciting, they found the remnants of frozen moss. They determined that these plants were at least 40,000 years old, suggesting that glaciers last retreated there when humans were first making their way into Europe, sketching animals and tracing their hands on cave walls.

The newly-exposed landscapes are… pretty much fields of rocks.Pendleton et al.

The scientists wrote that current temperatures are now high enough to “remove all ice from Baffin Island within the next few centuries, even in the absence of additional summer warming.”

Simon Pendleton, the paper’s lead author and a doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, noted that these northern glaciers are on the front line of climate change. The consequences are easy to see.

“The Arctic is currently warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe, so naturally, glaciers and ice caps are going to react faster,” he said in a statement.

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The melting Arctic is revealing caveman-era landscapes

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While You Were Watching Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders Just Called for Legalizing Weed

by GusBelstead Posted on October 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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You may have missed Bernie Sanders’ town hall at Virginia’s George Mason University on Wednesday as the GOP presidential contenders duked it out in Boulder, Colorado. But he made some news. Sanders called for the full decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level, a move that would allow states to regulate the drug the same way they handle alcohol or tobacco. “Right now marijuana is listed by the federal government as a schedule-one drug, meaning that it is considered to be as dangerous as heroin,” Sanders said. “That is absurd.”

Sanders, while touting the possible civic benefits of decriminalization (such as providing a funding stream, through taxation, for treatment of more dangerous substances such as opioids) took pains to frame legalization as a matter of racial justice:

Let us be clear, as is the case in many other areas, that there is a racial component to this situation. Although about the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana, a black person is almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records because of marijuana use. That is wrong. That has got to change…A criminal record could include not only time in jail, but a criminal record makes it harder for a person to get a job, harder for a person to get public benefits, harder for a person to even get housing. A criminal record stays with a person for his or her entire life.

The legalization he proposed would also eliminate one of the roadblocks to decriminalization in places such as Washington state or Colorado, by allowing marijuana distributors to use the banking system like any other business.

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While You Were Watching Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders Just Called for Legalizing Weed

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GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

by PenniLesina Posted on May 5, 2014

Define “terror”

GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

By

Shutterstock

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) thinks local communities should be able to decide how fracking is regulated in their areas, and whether it’s allowed at all. He’s among the backers of some initiatives proposed for the November ballot that could increase local control over oil and gas drilling.

And the chair of the Colorado Republican Committee, Ryan Call, says that makes Polis a terrorist. Here’s a screen grab that ColoradoPols.com took of a Twitter exchange before Call deleted the offensive tweet:

ColoradoPols.com

Another Republican, state Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, picked up the theme, saying, “Polis’ jihad against responsible energy development is reckless.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports that Call apologized for using the T word:

“It’s a fact that Congressman Jared Polis’ proposed regulations will put thousands of Colorado jobs and our state’s economic future at risk,” [Call] said. “While I passionately believe that we must protect these jobs and energy development in our state, I understand that my comment has distracted from this important conversation.” …

On Friday, Polis said his fight for local control over drilling may have to be settled in November’s election, in which his seat also will be on the ballot.

“Fundamentally, what my constituents feel needs to occur is that communities need to have a role in the siting of fracking activities in their areas,” he said. “Currently, that debate is co-opted by the state, which allows fracking to occur anywhere and everywhere.”

What’s really more terrorizing – run-of-the-mill democracy, or energy companies pumping poisons into the ground and the air for short-term financial gain with limited government oversight?


Source
Republicans Cry “Terrorism” As Local Control Negotiations Falter, ColoradoPols.com
Colo. GOP chair labels Jared Polis ‘terrorist’ over Boulder Democrat’s fracking stance, Daily Camera
Untangling Colorado’s Flood of Anti-Fracking Ballot Initiatives, DeSmogBlog

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

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Oil and fracking chemicals spill into Colorado’s floodwaters

by Alexandra Smith Posted on September 16, 2013

Oil and fracking chemicals spill into Colorado’s floodwaters

By

TXsharon

Fracking equipment overwhelmed by floodwaters in Weld County, Colo, northeast of Denver.

Heavy rains returned to Colorado on Sunday and hampered rescue efforts after last week’s flash floods. The confirmed death toll has risen to seven, and hundreds are still unaccounted for. An estimated 1,500 homes are destroyed. Some 1,000 people in Larimer County, north of Boulder, were awaiting airlifts that never came on Sunday — they were called off because of the foul weather.

The floods have also triggered other problems that have gotten a lot less media attention: Fracking infrastructure has been inundated and its toxic contents have spilled out. Pipelines that transport fossil fuels are sagging and snapping under pressure. Tanks that store chemicals and polluted water are being overwhelmed and toppling over. Oil and gas wells are flooding.

The Boulder Daily Camera reports:

Lafayette-based anti-fracking activist Cliff Willmeng said he spent two days “zig-zagging” across Weld and Boulder counties documenting flooded drilling sites, mostly along the drainageway of the St. Vrain River. He observed “hundreds” of wells that were inundated. He also saw many condensate tanks that hold waste material from fracking at odd angles or even overturned.

“It’s clear that the density of the oil and gas activity there did not respect where the water would go,” Willmeng said. “What we immediately need to know is what is leaking and we need a full detailed report of what that is. This is washing across agricultural land and into the waterways. Now we have to discuss what type of exposure the human population is going to have to suffer through.” …

A spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the agency is aware of the potential for contamination from flooded drilling sites, but there simply is no way to get to those sites while flooding is ongoing and while resources are concentrated on saving lives.

The Denver Post interviewed a farmer who ignored evacuation orders and watched as floodwaters overwhelmed a drilling operation on his land and released some oil. The newspaper also reported that at least one oil pipeline was confirmed to have been broken open by the floodwaters. From the article:

Oil drums, tanks and other industrial debris mixed into the swollen [South Platte River] flowing northeast. …

One pipeline has broken and is leaking, Weld County Emergency Manager Roy Rudisill. Other industry pipelines are sagging as saturated sediment erodes around the expanding river.

East Boulder County United, a group that fights fracking, has been posting photographs on its Facebook page of fracking tanks and other equipment toppled over or submerged by floodwaters. Blogger TXsharon has also been posting updates and photographs.

Meanwhile, experts are beginning to discuss the links between climate change and the floods. The flooding was worsened by drought and wildfires, both of which have been linked to global warming and which left the ground dry and hard. That reduced the amount of water that the soil could absorb from the unusual late-summer inundation.

“This was a totally new type of event: an early fall widespread event during one of the driest months of the year,” Brad Udall of the University of Colorado-Boulder told National Geographic News. “As the climate warms further, the hydrologic cycle is going to get more intense.”

Climate Central notes that it “will take climate scientists many months to complete studies into whether manmade global warming made the Boulder flood more likely.” But the wild weather hitting the state lately fits general climate change projections:

An increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events is expected to take place even though annual precipitation amounts are projected to decrease in the Southwest. Colorado sits right along the dividing line between the areas where average annual precipitation is expected to increase, and the region that is expected to become drier as a result of climate change.

That may translate into more frequent, sharp swings between drought and flood, as has recently been the case. Last year, after all, was Colorado’s second-driest on record, with the warmest spring and warmest summer on record, leading to an intense drought that is only just easing.

Might the fracking industry have worsened Colorado’s floods by contributing to climate change, then spilled its toxic chemicals into those floodwaters? That would be a cruel double-punch.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Oil and fracking chemicals spill into Colorado’s floodwaters

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