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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

by ChristaRector Posted on August 29, 2014

Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

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29 Aug 2014 5:31 PM

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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

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It’s been a bad, bad summer for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. But arguably, it’s been a much worse summer for the actual citizens of Pennsylvania, because they have been repeatedly and consistently screwed over by an unhappy combination of corporate interests, bureaucratic incompetence, and methane. That’s quite a cocktail of misery — when life gives you a Long Island iced tea, if you will.

The latest development: The DEP has released a list of 243 reports of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania since the fracking boom first started in 2008. The DEP originally alluded to these incidents of contamination in January, but its specifics have not released until now.

From the Associated Press:

The problems listed in the documents include methane gas contamination, spills of wastewater and other pollutants, and wells that went dry or were otherwise undrinkable. Some of the problems were temporary, but the names of landowners were redacted, so it wasn’t clear if the problems were resolved to their satisfaction. Other complaints are still being investigated.

The most incidences of contamination occurred in northeastern Pennsylvania, but they’re widespread throughout the state.

Last month, Pennsylvania’s auditor general issued a report detailing the extent to which the DEP is ill-equipped to properly regulate and monitor the exploding (no pun intended) natural gas industry in the state.

For the record, finding the actual list of incidents on the DEP website was no easy task. In fact, I ultimately found it through a link from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and then searched backward according to the URL to figure out where it actually was. If you think “Water Supply Determination Letters” is a clear and obvious title for the document containing this list, then you have a subtler mind than I do.

Now that we have 243 pieces of evidence that fracking is, well, not great for the people who have to live near it, can we stop pretending otherwise? Please? Quite frankly, DEP, you can’t really afford any more embarrassment here.

Source:
Online list IDs water wells harmed by drilling

, Wall Street Journal.

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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

Posted in alo, Anchor, Citizen, FF, G & F, GE, KTP, LAI, LG, Northeastern, ONA, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

Should Obama Fire His CIA Chief for Misleading the Public About the Senate Spying Scandal?

by JuliannChristma Posted on July 31, 2014

Mother Jones

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On March 11, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, strode on to the Senate floor and made a shocking charge: the CIA had spied on committee investigators who were examining the CIA’s past use of harsh interrogation techniques (a.k.a. torture). She essentially confirmed media reports that the agency had accessed computers that had been set up in a secured facility for her staffers to use—and that this high-tech break-in was related to a CIA memo that the agency had not turned over. The document was far more critical of the CIA’s interrogation program than the agency’s official response to the still-classified (and reportedly scorching) 6,300-page report produced by Feinstein’s committee. As Feinstein described it, the CIA, looking to find out how her sleuths had obtained this particular memo, had been spying on the investigators who were paid by the taxpayers to keep a close watch on America’s spies.

Feinstein’s public statement—unprecedented in US national security history—caused an uproar. I noted that this clash between the Senate and Langley threatened a constitutional crisis. After all, if the CIA was covertly undercutting and interfering with congressional oversight, then the foundation of the national security state was at risk, for the executive branch, in theory, can only engage in clandestine activity as long as members of Congress can keep an eye on it. Yet the system of oversight appeared to have broken down.

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Should Obama Fire His CIA Chief for Misleading the Public About the Senate Spying Scandal?

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The Senate-CIA Blowup Threatens a Constitutional Crisis

by KristinaRosenba Posted on March 11, 2014

Mother Jones

This morning, on C-SPAN, the foundation of the national security state exploded.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, took to the Senate floor and accused the CIA of spying on committee investigators tasked with probing the agency’s past use of harsh interrogation techniques (a.k.a. torture) and detention. Feinstein was responding to recent media stories reporting that the CIA had accessed computers used by intelligence committee staffers working on the committee’s investigation. The computers were set up by the CIA in a locked room in a secure facility separate from its headquarters, and CIA documents relevant to the inquiry were placed on these computers for the Senate investigators. But, it turns out, the Senate sleuths had also uncovered an internal CIA memo reviewing the interrogation program that had not been turned over by the agency. This document was far more critical of the interrogation program than the CIA’s official rebuttal to a still-classified, 6,300-page Senate intelligence committee report that slams it, and the CIA wanted to find out how the Senate investigators had gotten their mitts on this damaging memo.

The CIA’s infiltration of the Senate’s torture probe was a possible constitutional violation and perhaps a criminal one, too. The agency’s inspector general and the Justice Department have begun inquiries. And as the story recently broke, CIA sources—no names, please—told reporters that the real issue was whether the Senate investigators had hacked the CIA to obtain the internal review. Readers of the few newspaper stories on all this did not have to peer too far between the lines to discern a classic Washington battle was under way between Langley and Capitol Hill.

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The Senate-CIA Blowup Threatens a Constitutional Crisis

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Quentin Tarantino Sues Gawker for Linking to Leaked Script: "This Time They Went Too Far"

by LayneI91ysavpze Posted on January 27, 2014

Mother Jones

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Oscar-winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino is suing Gawker Media. The filmmaker, who is famous for such films as Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, is taking legal action after his script for a future project (a Western flick called The Hateful Eight) leaked online. Tarantino became “very, very depressed” about this, so much so that he shelved the project. And last Thursday, Gawker‘s “Defamer” blog published a post titled, “â&#128;&#139;Here Is the Leaked Quentin Tarantino Hateful Eight Script.”

“For better or worse, the document is 146 pages of pure Tarantino. Enjoy!” the post reads, linking to a free download of Tarantino’s draft.

For that, the the 50-year-old director filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker Media for allegedly promoting and disseminating unauthorized copies of the leaked document, the Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday. “Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck,” Tarantino’s lawsuit, which was filed by attorneys Martin Singer and Evan Spiegel in California federal court, reads. “This time they went too far.”

As of posting, John Cook, editor of Gawker, has not responded to Mother Jones‘ request for comment.

The lawsuit also alleges that Gawker actively solicited readers to provide a copy of the screenplay with this blog post. Tarantino is seeking more than $1 million in damages and the defendants’ profits. Read the formal legal complaint here (via Deadline.com):

DV.load(“//www.documentcloud.org/documents/1009635-complaint-tarantino-v-gawker-media-et-al.js”,
width: 630,
height: 600,
sidebar: false,
container: “#DV-viewer-1009635-complaint-tarantino-v-gawker-media-et-al”
);

Complaint Tarantino v Gawker Media Et Al (PDF)

Complaint Tarantino v Gawker Media Et Al (Text)

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Quentin Tarantino Sues Gawker for Linking to Leaked Script: "This Time They Went Too Far"

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The pope is writing a big green manifesto

by ManieFerrell Posted on January 26, 2014

The pope is writing a big green manifesto

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neneo / Shutterstock

The first clue that Pope Francis might be a greenie came when he chose to name himself after Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment.

We’ve also learned that he likes riding buses and doesn’t like fracking.

Soon we’ll find out more about his views on environmental protection. The Associated Press reports:

Pope Francis has begun drafting an encyclical on ecology.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the document was still very much in its early stages and that no publication date has been set.

More from Reuters:

Since his election in March, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics has made many appeals in defence of the environment.

His latest on Jan. 14 was in his so-called “state of the world” address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican, when he said, “God always forgives, we sometimes forgive, but when nature — creation — is mistreated, she never forgives.”

In a speech about two weeks after his election on March 13, the pope said he had taken his name after St. Francis of Assisi because he “teaches us profound respect for the whole of creation and the protection of our environment, which all too often, instead of using for the good, we exploit greedily, to one another’s detriment.”

If he calls for climate action, Francis will be following in the footsteps of his predecessors. As Susie Cagle explained in Grist last year:

Ex-Pope Benedict XVI, aka Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, used his papal platform to promote social and political action in response to global warming, and even added an electric car to the popemobile fleet. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was also a proponent of climate action. And other Catholic leaders have spoken out about the need for a response to the impending “serious and potentially irreversible” effects of a warmer planet.

Now if Francis would just drop his sexist opposition to birth control and abortion rights (and ditch the homophobia, and crack down on pedophilia …), then we might start liking the guy.

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The pope is writing a big green manifesto

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The 2012 Arctic report card: We’re going to need some summer school

by Myrna Posted on December 6, 2012

The 2012 Arctic report card: We’re going to need some summer school

By Philip Bump

Each year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration releases a “report card” for how the Arctic is doing. This year, the Arctic gets an incomplete and a notice to be signed by its parents stating that it will require tutoring.

Warning: sad polar bears.

The report focuses on two primary findings. First, that the year’s record ice loss comes despite a relatively unremarkable year, temperature-wise.

A major finding of the Report Card 2012 is that numerous record-setting melting events occurred, even though, with the exception of a few limited episodes, Arctic-wide it was an unremarkable year, relative to the previous decade, for a primary driver of melting — surface air temperatures. From October 2011 through August 2012, positive (warm) temperature anomalies were relatively small over the central Arctic compared to conditions in recent years (2003-2010). Yet, in spite of these moderate conditions, new records were set for sea ice extent, terrestrial snow extent, melting at the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, and permafrost temperature.

A reminder: Here’s how this year’s ice melt compared to the past.

Pettit Climate Graphs

Click to embiggen.

The unusually severe melt despite non-unusual temperatures is in part due to the feedback loop of melt itself.

A major source of this momentum is the fact that changes in the sea ice cover, snow cover, glaciers and Greenland ice sheet all conspire to reduce the overall surface reflectivity of the region in the summer, when the sun is ever-present. In other words, bright, white surfaces that reflect summer sunlight are being replaced by darker surfaces, e.g., ocean and land, which absorb sunlight. These conditions increase the capacity to store heat within the Arctic system, which enables more melting — a positive feedback.

The other main finding is that the melt of ice in the Arctic region is affecting the food chain.

A second key point in Report Card 2012 is that changes in the Arctic marine environment are affecting the foundation of the food web in both the terrestrial and marine ecosystems. …

For instance, new satellite remote sensing observations show the near ubiquity of ice-edge blooms throughout the Arctic and the importance of seasonal sea ice variability in regulating primary production. These results suggest that previous estimates of annual primary production in waters where these under-ice blooms develop may be about ten times too low. At a higher trophic level, seabird phenology, diet, physiology, foraging behavior and survival rates have changed in response to higher water temperatures, which affect prey species.

Changes in the terrestrial ecosystem are exemplified by vegetation and mammals. The tundra continues to become more green and in some locations above-ground plant biomass has increased by as much as 26% since 1982.

That change in surface vegetation has caused the lemming population to drop, which, in turn, has done the same to the Arctic fox, a species near extinction. At the same time, red foxes are migrating north, providing additional competition for shrinking food supplies.

So: That’s grim.

The report is loaded with graphs featuring lines that typically start at the upper left corner and then plummet down and to the right. It also contains interesting graphics like this one, showing the effect that an August storm had on ice breakup and melt near Alaska.

NASA

Click to embiggen.

It’s probably not really accurate to call this document a report card. It’s far more of a crystal ball, sort of an SAT gauging how the future might look. And it doesn’t look very good.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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