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Planes have nobody but themselves to blame for making it harder to fly

by Elvira38Owfzctj Posted on January 8, 2015

Plane Speak

Planes have nobody but themselves to blame for making it harder to fly

By on 8 Jan 2015 5:31 pmcommentsShare

Flying is a fraught subject, as we in the business of sustainability know intimately and well. But — ultimate irony pretzel! — not only are the emissions from your transatlantic flight to Rome gassing the climate — they’re also making it harder for that same flight to get off the ground in the first place.

It turns out hotter weather means planes have to struggle more to achieve lift, according to new research from the American Geophysical Union. As climate change increases temps — which it has, and will continue to do — planes will have to watch their weight on balmier days, resulting in more weight restrictions, cargo delays, and financial difficulties for an already struggling aviation industry. From Climate Central:

Hot weather generally means the air is thinner, giving wings less of a lift. The easiest and safest way to work around that on a given day is taking a load off the plane; namely packages or people. [Lead researcher Ethan] Coffel said there’s already a noticeable trend in the number of weight-restricted days at airports in Denver, New York’s LaGuardia, Washington, D.C.’s Reagan, and to a lesser degree, Phoenix.

Those four airports form the core of Coffel’s study, which projected daytime highs from May-September — the time of year when the effects of warmer weather on air travel could be most pronounced — through 2070. Coffel also looked at takeoff restrictions for the Boeing 737-800, one of the most common aircraft used in medium-range flights. According to the latest climate models, daytime highs could be up to 6°F higher at the four airports by 2070 if carbon emissions continue to rise at high levels.

The best solution, obviously, would be to circumvent the rewriting of our entire global climate … but barring that, there may actually be some work-arounds for achieving lift. Longer runways, or planes that accelerate faster, might work. Or airports could move take-offs earlier in the morning or at night, when things cool down. Because, you know, carbon emissions like to sleep in late.

Source:
Hot, Unfriendly Skies Could Alter Flights

, Climate Central.

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Planes have nobody but themselves to blame for making it harder to fly

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Attack Ad Accuses Democratic Governor of Wanting to Set a Mass Murderer Free

by IZIThaliazikfs Posted on October 29, 2014

Mother Jones

From: 

Attack Ad Accuses Democratic Governor of Wanting to Set a Mass Murderer Free

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Fine. I Retract My Defense of Optics.

by ArielCoghlan Posted on July 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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On Wednesday morning, conservatives were all atwitter over the fact that President Obama had been photographed playing pool and drinking a beer the previous night in Denver. A mere thousand miles away, there was a humanitarian crisis on the border! How out of touch can a guy get? Clearly this was Obama’s Katrina moment.

This combined two of the right’s favorite Obama-era tropes. First, it was about his millionth Katrina moment. Conservatives still can’t get it through their heads that George Bush’s Katrina moment was never really about those famous photographs of him mugging with a guitar while the levees were being breached in New Orleans and later staring moodily out an airplane window at the flooding below. It was about “heckuva job, Brownie.” It was about his casual near-destruction of FEMA over the previous four years. It was about the startling contrast between his laggard response to Katrina and his near-frenetic response to the Terry Schiavo panderfest just a few months earlier. But conservatives simply refuse to believe this. They’re convinced it was all about an unfair photographic comparison, and they’re determined to make a Democratic president suffer the same fate.

Second, it’s become practically a parlor game for conservatives to chastise Obama for engaging in some kind of social activity while there’s a serious crisis somewhere. This is an evergreen faux complaint. After all, there’s almost always something serious going on somewhere, which means you can always figure out an excuse to haul out this chestnut.

Now, to some extent none of this matters as long as it’s just a partisan response from the professional right. But yesterday it metastasized into something more over Obama’s answer to a question about why he wasn’t heading down to the border to see the refugee crisis for himself. “I’m not interested in photo-ops,” he said. “I’m interested in solving a problem.” This almost instantly turned into a misquote: “I don’t do photo-ops.” And with that, the mainstream press started piling on too.

This was, obviously, ridiculous. First of all, Obama didn’t say that he doesn’t do photo-ops. That would have been idiotic. What he very plainly said was that in this particular case he wasn’t interested in doing a photo-op. He had introduced a plan to address the crisis and he was in Texas to discuss it with state officials. That’s where he wanted to keep the focus.

And with that, as if to mock me, the whole thing exploded into a moronic national conversation about the optics of shooting pool in Denver but not going to the border to have his photograph taken with wistful-looking Latin American children. This came just a couple of days after I had defended the word optics against Jamison Foser, and plainly Foser had turned out to be right. The mere availability of the word seemed to change the whole tone of the coverage. As Dave Weigel put it, “The president is the star of most D.C. political stories, obviously, so many stories end up being about whether they help or hurt him. The problem is that the press can’t be sure if they will, or won’t.” So they just guess.

Now, I suppose I still have a feeble defense to offer. I did say there were good and bad uses of optics, and this just happened to be one of the bad ones. But the speed with which one photograph and one misquote saturated the punditocracy and morphed into an inane conversation about optics surely makes Foser’s case for him.

So I give up. There are still good uses of the word optics, but as long as the press remains so addicted to dumb uses that have such obvious roots in transparent partisan nonsense, it’s probably best to insist that they go cold turkey. No more optics, guys. Not until you demonstrate an ability to use the word like adults.

Link:

Fine. I Retract My Defense of Optics.

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GOP Gubernatorial Candidate: 47 Percent of Americans Are "Dependent on the Largesse of Government"

by KDXRickeygvwipk Posted on July 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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Colorado Republicans thought they’d dodged a bullet last month when primary voters chose former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez as their gubernatorial nominee over Tom Tancredo, a former congressman and notorious anti-immigration activist. Not so much. On Wednesday, Democrats circulated a little-noticed 2010 video in which Beauprez rails against the 47 percent of the American population who he claims are dependent on government. Sound familiar?

From the Denver Post:

“I see something that frankly doesn’t surprise me, having been on Ways and Means Committee: 47 percent of all Americans pay no federal income tax,” Beauprez said in the video. “I’m guessing that most of you in this room are not in that 47 percent—God bless you—but what that tells me is that we’ve got almost half the population perfectly happy that somebody else is paying the bill, and most of that half is you all.”

“I submit to you that there is a political strategy to get slightly over half and have a permanent ruling majority by keeping over half of the population dependent on the largesse of government that somebody else is paying for,” Beauprez said.

Beauprez’s comments, which came in an address to a local rotary club, bear an uncanny resemblance to the infamous remarks, first reported by Mother Jones, that Mitt Romney made to donors during his presidential campaign. (Romney’s final tally: 47 percent of the vote.) A survey released by Rasmussen on Wednesday showed Beauprez running even with incumbent Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Link: 

GOP Gubernatorial Candidate: 47 Percent of Americans Are "Dependent on the Largesse of Government"

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Music Review: Sharon Van Etten’s "I Know"

by SusannaGriffie Posted on May 26, 2014

Mother Jones

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TRACK 10

“I Know”

From Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There

JAGJAGUWAR

Liner notes: Paring her confessional chamber pop to just voice and piano, Van Etten delivers a harrowing lament: “You see me turn around and try to hide my sigh…Then you disappear because you can’t fight fear.”

Behind the music: Are We There is the fourth album from Van Etten, who has recorded with the National, Shearwater, and the Antlers—not including her appearance on a John Denver tribute CD.

Check it out if you like: Intense folks like Angel Olsen, Cat Power, and Alela Diane.

This review first appeared in the May/June issue of Mother Jones.

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Music Review: Sharon Van Etten’s "I Know"

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Frackers are flooding the atmosphere with climate-warming methane

by Ludmillamet Posted on May 12, 2014

Pee-ew!

Frackers are flooding the atmosphere with climate-warming methane

By

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The free pass that frackers and natural-gas handlers have gotten on their climate-changing methane emissions is really starting to stink to high hell.

We told you in February about the results of a meta-analysis of 20 years worth of scientific studies, which concluded that the EPA underestimates the natural-gas industry’s climate impacts by 25 to 75 percent, due to methane leakage from its gas drilling operations and pipelines. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas.

Two scientific studies published in the past month reveal that the problem is far worse than that.

For a paper published last week in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, researchers flew aircraft over a heavily fracked region in northeastern Colorado and took air samples. After accounting for pollution produced by landfills, water treatment, and cattle operations, the scientists concluded that emissions from drilling operations were “close to three times higher than an hourly emission estimate” published by the EPA.

Not only that, but cancer-causing benzene emissions were found to be seven times higher than the EPA’s estimates, while emissions of some smog-forming chemicals were found to be double the EPA’s estimates.

“These discrepancies are substantial,” said NOAA researcher Gabrielle Petron, one of the authors of the paper. “Emission estimates or ‘inventories’ are the primary tool that policy makers and regulators use to evaluate air quality and climate impacts.”

The findings from Colorado were published less than a month after the results of similar research from Pennsylvania, at the heavily fracked Marcellus Shale formation, were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Here’s how the L.A. Times summed up those findings at the time:

Researchers flew their plane about a kilometer above a 2,800 square kilometer area in southwestern Pennsylvania that included several active natural gas wells. Over a two-day period in June 2012, they detected 2 grams to 14 grams of methane per second per square kilometer over the entire area. The EPA’s estimate for the area is 2.3 grams to 4.6 grams of methane per second per square kilometer.

Since their upper-end measurements were so much higher than the EPA’s estimates, the researchers attempted to follow the methane plumes back to their sources, said Paul Shepson, an atmospheric chemist at Purdue University who helped lead the study. In some cases, they were able to quantify emissions from individual wells.

The Obama administration recently started — belatedly – trying to figure out how to rein in methane emissions. Meanwhile, Colorado and other states have introduced rules designed to clamp down on methane pollution.

These two new studies help reveal just how much hard work lies ahead — and how under-regulated the natural gas industry has been so far.


Source
A new look at methane and non-methane hydrocarbon emissions from oil and natural gas operations in the Colorado Denver-Julesburg Basin, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Airborne measurements confirm leaks from oil and gas operations, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
EPA drastically underestimates methane released at drilling sites, Los Angeles Times
Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development, PNAS

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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Colorado drillers are spilling 200 gallons of oil and other poisons every day

by LucySpurlock Posted on May 6, 2014

Colorado drillers are spilling 200 gallons of oil and other poisons every day

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Colorado’s soil is taking a heavy beating from the oil and gas industry.

The Denver Post analyzed oil and chemical spill data that frackers and drillers submitted to state regulators, and found that the number of such spills hit a 10-year high last year at 578. Those 578 spills wrecked an estimated 173,400 tons of topsoil. Every day, 200 gallons of gunk is dumped by drillers over the state’s soil. Here’s more from the Post:

At least 716,982 gallons (45 percent) of the petroleum chemicals spilled during the past decade have stayed in the ground after initial cleanup — contaminating soil, sometimes spreading into groundwater. …

That’s about one gallon of toxic liquid every eight minutes penetrating soil. In addition, drillers churn up 135 to 500 tons of dirt with every new well, some of it soaked with hydrocarbons and laced with potentially toxic minerals and salts. And heavy trucks crush soil, suffocating the delicate subsurface ecosystems that traditionally made Colorado’s Front Range suitable for farming. …

No federal or state agency has assessed the impact of the oil and gas boom on soil and potential harm from cancer-causing benzene and other chemicals.

Drilling operations are expanding rapidly with roughly 3,000 new wells each year, adding to the nearly 52,000 active wells statewide. Companies drill the most in agricultural areas northeast of Denver.

The oil and gas companies would prefer not to have to pay to dig up and haul off the worst of the contaminated soil, so they’re investigating whether microbes could be used to gobble up the contamination instead. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission director Matt Lepore described that idea as “another example of innovation and opportunity by the oil and gas and service industries.”

You know what would be an even better innovation? Not creating those huge messes in the first place. No wonder communities throughout Colorado are pushing for local control over fracking and drilling.


Source
Colorado faces oil boom “death sentence” for soil, eyes microbe fix, The Denver Post

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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Was the Los Angeles Earthquake Caused by Fracking Techniques?

by VictorF32nso Posted on March 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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The epicenter of today’s L.A. quake was 8 miles from oil waste injection wells Kyle Ferrar, FracTracker Alliance

Was the 4.4-magnitude earthquake that rattled Los Angeles this morning caused by fracking methods? It’s hard to say, but what’s clear from the above map, made by Kyle Ferrar of the FracTracker Alliance, is that the quake’s epicenter was just eight miles from a disposal well where oil and gas wastewater is being injected underground at high pressure.

Don Drysdale, spokesman for the state agency that oversees California Geological Survey, told me that state seismologists don’t think that the injection well was close enough to make a difference (and the agency has also raised the possibility that Monday’s quake could have been a foreshock for a larger one). But environmental groups aren’t so sure.

In other states, injection wells located 7.5 miles from a fault have been shown to induce seismic activity, points out Andrew Grinberg, the oil and gas project manager for Clean Water Action. “We are not saying that this quake is a result of an injection,” he adds, “but with so many faults all over California, we need a better understanding of how, when, and where induced seismicity can occur with relation to injection.”

“Shaky Ground,” a new report from Clean Water Action, Earthworks, and the Center for Biological Diversity, argues that the close proximity of such wells to active faults could increase the state’s risk of earthquakes. According to the report, more than half of the state’s permitted oil wastewater injection wells are located less than 10 miles from an active fault, and 87 of them, or about 6 percent, are located within a mile of an active fault.

Scientists have long known that injecting large amounts of wastewater underground can cause earthquakes by increasing pressure and reducing friction along fault lines. One of the best known early examples took place in 1961, when the US Army disposed of millions of gallons of hazardous waste by injecting it 12,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado. The influx caused more than 1,500 earthquakes over a five year period in an area not known for seismic activity; the worst among them registered at more than 5.0 on the Richter scale and caused $500,000 in damage. Geologists later discovered that the Army well had been drilled into an unknown fault.

As Mother Jones‘ Michael Behar detailed in-depth last year, fracking is now a leading suspect for a spate of serious earthquakes in places that hardly ever see them, such as Oklahoma, where in 2011, a 5.7-magnitude temblor destroyed 14 homes and baffled seismologists.

“In some locations of the US, the disposal of wastewater associated with oil/gas production, including hydraulic fracturing operations, appears to have triggered some low-magnitude seismic activity,” concedes Drysdale, Geological Survey spokesman. But in California, he adds, oil companies are required to evaluate surrounding geology before disposing of wastewater underground, and can’t inject it at dangerously high pressures.

Yet Grinberg, a co-author of the “Shaky Ground” report, says that the existing regulations don’t go far enough now that quake-prone California is poised for a fracking boom. Though he’d like to see a moratorium on fracking while the risks are studied, he wants any eventual regulations to at least require seismic monitoring at or near injection wells and to look at the cumulative earthquake risk of entire oil fields.

Original source – 

Was the Los Angeles Earthquake Caused by Fracking Techniques?

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Your Rape Joke Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

by 2lgax8lh Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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Pornhub, a hub for pornography on the information superhighway, is a little well known for being snarky and amusing on social media. Chasing that reputation may have just got it into trouble.

Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos in a football game. This inspired Pornhub to make the following joke:

So, stop it.

Pornhub, stop it.

Whoever you are, if you’re telling a rape joke, stop it.

It’s 2014. We really shouldn’t have to say this. Just, dear god almighty, stop.

They aren’t funny. You aren’t funny. Stop.

UPDATE: Pornhub has apologized in the comments to this post. Their social person seems like good people:

Alright Ben, you’re right, I feel bad and I’ll stop. The tweet wasn’t intended to offend anyone, you have to realize my target demographic on twitter isn’t the same as say, Mother Jones.

Link to article: 

Your Rape Joke Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

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Legalize pot, save a lot of energy

by LibbyThalberg Posted on December 8, 2013

Legalize pot, save a lot of energy

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[COUGH! COUGH!] What were we talking about? Oh right, right, right. Marijuana’s continued prohibition in 48 mellow-harshing states has an unintended side effect (besides making Phish unlistenable): It narfs $6 billion in energy costs and pumps out as much greenhouse gas as 3 million cars. Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the marijuana industry is responsible for about 1 percent of all U.S. electricity usage.

The reason is simple. To evade detection, growers work indoors — where lights, ventilation, temperature controls, and presumably industrial-grade lava lamps suck up a lot of juice. From ThinkProgress:

… Colorado growers with utility bills of $20,000 to $100,000 per month are warning that indoor growth may not be sustainable.

“Energy consumption in this business is pretty astronomical,” marijuana business owner John Kocer told CBS Denver. “As this industry expands at its current pace I do believe that we will be a tax on the energy grid: something has to change.” …

Marijuana growers cultivate indoors for several reasons. But one of the primary ones is to keep their business hidden from view. Even in states where marijuana is legal, growing marijuana outside would put their federally illegal operations right under the noses of passers-by. It also makes them vulnerable to theft from the still-vibrant illicit marijuana market.

So long as marijuana is federally prohibited and regulation is suppressed, this will be one of many adverse environmental consequences of illicit marijuana growing. Unregulated outdoor farms impose harms from unchecked forest clearing, filling and diversion of streams, use of toxic pesticides, and even road building.

Washington and Colorado, the two states that legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, each allow outdoor crops. But since the medicine Schedule I drug remains federally prohibited, both states incentivize contained, indoor crops. (In Washington, for example, indoor farmers can harvest four times a year, while outdoor growers can only harvest twice a year.)

Here’s where we could go on forever about about the winds of culture and how climate hawks and weed ravens ought to join forces and get organized to move this issue forward. But since Grist’s offices are in Seattle, I’m just gonna switch over to side B of “Dark Side of the Moon” while you contemplate the injustice.


Source
How Marijuana Prohibition Drives Up Energy Costs And Warms The Planet, ThinkProgress
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Legalize pot, save a lot of energy

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