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Fracking is definitely causing earthquakes, another study confirms

by DaciaPamphlett Posted on January 7, 2015

Fracking is definitely causing earthquakes, another study confirms

By on 7 Jan 2015commentsShare

Yet another study has found a link between hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes. This one examined 77 minor quakes near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

The sequence of seismic events, including a rare “felt” quake of a magnitude 3.0 on the Richter scale, was caused by active “fracking” on two nearby Hilcorp Energy Co. well pads, according to the research published online [Tuesday] in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

The study found that although it is rare for fracking associated with shale gas extraction to cause earthquakes large enough to be felt on the surface by humans, seismic monitoring advances have found the number of “felt and unfelt” earthquakes associated with fracking have increased over the past 10 years.

Studies have found that it’s not just the actual drilling and extraction that causes the earthquakes; more often, the routine practice of injecting fracking wastewater into deep disposal wells is to blame. Once the toxic mix of water, sand, and chemicals is underground, it can travel for miles, changing the pressure on fault lines and sometimes triggering earthquakes.

The practice has caused a surge in earthquakes in many areas where fracking is common. Oklahoma in particular has been hard-hit. Once a state where tremors were few and far between, Oklahoma in 2014 had 564 quakes that were at least of magnitude 3 — the most in the contiguous U.S.  From 1975 until 2008, the state had, on average, only three such quakes per year. From E&E EnergyWire:

The Sooner State was shaken by 564 quakes of magnitude 3 and larger, compared with only 100 in 2013, according to an EnergyWire analysis of federal earthquake data. California, which is twice the size of Oklahoma, had fewer than half as many quakes. …

“Who’d have ever thought we’d start having so many earthquakes out here in the middle of the country?” asked Max Hess, a county commissioner in Grant County, which had 135 quakes last year. He also thinks the quakes are related to oil and gas, which has been an economic boon for the rural county northwest of Oklahoma City.

“It’s been good,” Hess said of the drilling, “but it’s got its drawbacks.”

EnergyWire reports that many in Oklahoma’s oil and gas regions are cautiously tolerant of the earthquakes because of the money that comes with the drilling boom. But scientists in the state’s geological survey are concerned about the trend. “If my research takes me to the point where we determine the safest thing to do is to shut down injection — and consequently production — in large portions of the state, then that’s what we have to do,” seismologist Austin Holland told Bloomberg this summer.

Source:
Study: Fracking caused earthquakes in existing faults in Ohio

, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Shaken more than 560 times, Okla. is top state for quakes in 2014

, E&E EnergyWire.

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Fracking is definitely causing earthquakes, another study confirms

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

by KatiaSimas Posted on September 10, 2014

Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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10 Sep 2014 5:53 PM

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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Go outside your house right now. I don’t care if it’s raining! Just do it.

Good. Now, measure the distance between your front door and the nearest fracking well. (To determine, first and foremost, whether or not this exercise will be productive, please consult this map.)

Is the distance less than 0.6 miles? GREAT! Just kidding, that’s actually terrible news — you may be more susceptible to a whole slew of fun medical problems. What kind? Oh, rashes, eczema, sinus problems, and headaches, for starters. Woof.

A new study from Yale University – claimed by the lead author to be the largest of its kind – shows a correlation between living in proximity to a fracking well and symptoms of skin and upper respiratory problems.

The study, which was published today, surveyed 180 households in Washington Co., Pa., which lies about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh and has developed into a hotbed of fracking activity in recent years – the county now plays host to over 1,000 wells. It specifically sampled houses dependent on ground-fed water wells, which can be susceptible to contamination from chemicals used in fracking.

The results? Those who lived less than 0.6 miles away from a well were twice as likely to report health issues as their friends who lived over 1.2 miles from it.

But as anyone who’s ever half-dozed through a semester of ECON101 (for shame!) well knows, correlation does not imply causation. The study’s lead author, Peter Rabinowitz, is quick to emphasize that.

However (from the New Haven Register):

“It’s more of an association than a causation,” Rabinowitz said. “We want to make sure people know it’s a preliminary study. … To me it strongly indicates the need to further investigate the situation and not ignore it.”

Particularly in light of recent revelations about the state of healthcare and fracking in Pennsylvania, our response to Rabinowitz is: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Source:
Yale study: Health problems found in people living near fracking wells

, New Haven Register.

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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Annie Leonard of “Story of Stuff” will be new head of Greenpeace USA

by MollyDruitt Posted on May 6, 2014

Annie Leonard of “Story of Stuff” will be new head of Greenpeace USA

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Story of Stuff Project

Today, Greenpeace USA announced that Annie Leonard, creator of The Story of Stuff, will take the reins as the organization’s new executive director.

Leonard launched what became the Story of Stuff Project in 2007 with a 20-minute web video (you can watch it below). The video examined, to put it succinctly, where the hell all our stuff comes from and where it ends up, and in doing so, she got lots of people to think critically about the ugly underpinnings of our consumer society.

The Story of Stuff turned into the little viral video that could. It beget a whole series of explainer videos, a bestselling book, and even a movement.

Leonard actually got her start at Greenpeace International in the late ’80’s, and even back then she was tracking the lifespan of seemingly mundane objects. She investigated what was happening to all the hazardous waste produced by companies in industrialized countries (spoiler alert: they were sending it to developing countries).

Leonard will start her new gig in August, replacing the outgoing executive director, Phil Radford. We’ll be interviewing her shortly, so stay tuned …

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.

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Annie Leonard of “Story of Stuff” will be new head of Greenpeace USA

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Department of Education: Title IX Prohibits Discrimination Against Transgender Students

by AntoniettaRyrie Posted on April 29, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

On Tuesday, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued explicit guidance barring schools that receive federal Title IX funds from discriminating against transgender and gender-nonconforming students.

“Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR accepts such complaints for investigation. Similarly, the actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the parties does not change a school’s obligations,” the guidance reads.

Human rights advocates are praising the new policy: “We hear from hundreds of students each year who simply want to be themselves and learn at school,” Masen Davis, Executive Director of Transgender Law Center, said in a statement. “Sadly, many schools continue to exclude transgender students from being able to fully participate. Now, every school in the nation should know they are required to give all students, including transgender students, a fair chance at success.”

“This guidance is crystal clear and leaves no room for uncertainty on the part of schools regarding their legal obligation to protect transgender students from discrimination,” said Ian Thompson, ACLU legislative representative, in a statement. The ACLU notes that the guidance builds upon the 2012 ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission protecting transgender employees from workplace discrimination.

The Title IX program is a Nixon-era law that bans schools that receive federal funding from engaging in sex discrimination. But the requirement hasn’t always extended to transgender students. The Transgender Law Center is currently representing a transgender man who filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the University of Pittsburgh violated his rights under Title IX, among other laws. While he was a student, the university allegedly banned him from using the men’s restrooms and later expelled him after he continued using the men’s facilities.

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Department of Education: Title IX Prohibits Discrimination Against Transgender Students

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15 MB of Fame: Never-Before-Seen Digital Art by Andy Warhol

by ErnestinaWrenn Posted on April 24, 2014

Mother Jones

Making art with a computer ain’t easy. Just ask Andy Warhol. The American icon mastered numerous art forms and shaped our culture with his work. But a newly-discovered collection of files from 41 floppy disks—yes, floppy disks—shows that he struggled with early digital design tools. Today, members of Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Club and STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in Pittsburgh released a previously unseen set of images Warhol created in the 1980s using a Commodore Amiga 1000. (That used to be a type of computer, kids.)

The work was discovered after artist Cory Arcangel found a fuzzy You Tube video from 1985. In it Warhol sits next to Blondie singer Debbie Harry and uses the Amiga to paint her digital portrait. Jonathan Gaugler of the Carnegie Museum of Art says Arcangel was “relatively sure” the disks containing Warhol’s digital prints would be housed in the Warhol Museum. Sure enough, they were. But, Gaugler says, “It’s risky. Because reading them in a drive, there is a chance of wiping it just by trying.”

So the museum’s curator, Tina Kukielski, connected Arcangel with the Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Club, which wrote original code to safely read the data without damaging it. The process was captured in the upcoming documentary film series The Invisible Photograph, premiering May 10 at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall.

Here are some of Warhol’s digital works, and stills from documentary showing how they were retrieved. Enjoy—while listening to Blondie if you can:

“Andy 2” Andy Warhol, 1985, ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

Campbell’s Andy Warhol, 1985, ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

“Venus”, 1985, ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum Andy Warhol

Amber Morgan of the Andy Warhol Museum and Cory Arcangel in The Invisible Photograph, Part II – Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments © Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Commodore Amiga computer equipment used by Andy Warhol between 1985-86 Courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

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15 MB of Fame: Never-Before-Seen Digital Art by Andy Warhol

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Pony up, frackers: Texas family wins $3 million in contamination lawsuit

by 1LymSlagter473 Posted on April 23, 2014

Pony up, frackers: Texas family wins $3 million in contamination lawsuit

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What should you do when a fracking company sets up a drilling site right in your backyard? After you stock up on extra-strength Tylenol and Kleenex for the forthcoming chronic headaches and copious nosebleeds, you might want to call a good lawyer.

Yesterday, a jury in a Texas county court issued a landmark ruling against Aruba Petroleum for contaminating a family’s property and making them sick. The company has been ordered to pay $2.925 million in damages to Lisa and Bob Parr of Wise County, Texas.

In March 2011, the Parrs filed a lawsuit against Aruba Petroleum, alleging that air and water contamination from the company’s 22 drilling sites within two miles of their ranch had devastating effects on the family’s property and health.

“My daughter was experiencing nosebleeds, rashes,” said Ms. Parr in a 2011 press conference. “There were mornings she would wake up about 6:00 … covered in blood, screaming, crying.”

Before filing the lawsuit, the Parrs had been forced to sell their ranch and move due to fracking-related contamination to both their land and their animals — oh, and also the small matter of regularly waking up soaked in blood pouring from their nasal cavities.

Parr v. Aruba Petroleum, Inc. is being called the first case in which a jury has awarded compensation for fracking-related contamination. Most such cases are settled out of court. Like the suit filed in 2010 by Stephanie and Rich Hallowich of the ironically named Mount Pleasant, Penn., who were forced to relocate after shale drilling in the area polluted the air and water near their home, resulting in serious health problems. They sued Range Resources and ended up settling their case for $750,000. The terms of the settlement famously included a highly restrictive lifelong gag order that prohibits the Hallowich family, including their children, from ever discussing their case or fracking in general.

The Parrs’ lead attorney, David Matthews, praised the family for persisting in its fight: “It takes guts to say, ‘I’m going to stand here and protect my family from an invasion of our right to enjoy our property.’ It’s not easy to go through a lawsuit and have your personal life uncovered and exposed to the extent this family went through.”

Julia Roberts, are you listening? Erin Brockovich 2: Get Off My Shale is guaranteed box office gold!


Source
$3 million verdict for ‘first fracking trial’, MSNBC
In Landmark Ruling, Jury Says Fracking Company Must Pay $3 Million To Sickened Family, ClimateProgress

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.

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Pony up, frackers: Texas family wins $3 million in contamination lawsuit

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READ: The Clinton Administration’s Internal Memo on the “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”

by dfu815a3x Posted on April 18, 2014

Mother Jones

In a 1995 internal memo, President Bill Clinton’s White House Counsel’s Office offered an in-depth analysis of the right-wing media mill that Hillary Clinton had dubbed the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Portions of the report, which was reported on by the Wall Street Journal and other outlets at the time, were included in a new trove of documents released to the public by the Clinton presidential library on Friday.

The report traced the evolution of various Clinton scandals, such as Whitewater and the Gennifer Flowers affair allegations, from their origins at conservative think tanks or in British tabloids, until the point in which they entered the mainstream news ecosystem. Making matters even more complicated was new technology, the report explained: “Evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange the ideas and information.” The administration even had a name for the process: “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce.”

Per the document:

The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce refers to the mode of communication employed by the right wing to convey their fringe stories into legitimate subjects of coverage by the mainstream media. This is how the stream works. Well funded right wing think tanks and individuals underwrite conservative newsletters and newspapers such as the Western Journalism Center, the American Spectator and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Next, the stories are re-printed on the internet where they are bounced all over the world. From the internet, the stories are bounced into the mainstream media through one of two ways: 1) The story will be picked up by the British tabloids and covered as a major story, from which the American right-of-center mainstream media (i.e. the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and New York Post) will then pick the story up; or 2) The story will be bounced directly from the internet to the right-of-center mainstream American media. After the mainstream right-of-center media covers the story, Congressional committees will look into the story. After Congress looks into the story, the story now has the legitimacy to be covered by the remainder of the American mainstream press as a “real” story.

Chief among the White House’s frustrations was conservative reaction to the death of Vince Foster, the president’s former chief of staff. Right-wing outlets alleged that the Clintons had murdered Foster (or hired someone to do it) and covered it up as a suicide. According to the report:

The controversy surrounding the death of Vince Foster has been, in large part, the product of a well-financed right-wing conspiracy industry operation. The “Wizard of Oz” figure orchestrating the machinations of the conspiracy industry is a little-known recluse, Richard Mellon Scaife. Scaife uses his $800 million dollar inherited Mellon fortune to underwrite the Foster conspiracy industry. Scaife promotes the industry through his ownership of a small Pittsburgh newspaper, the Tribune-Review. Scaife’s paper, under the direction of reporter Chris Ruddy, continually publishes stories regarding Foster’s death. The stories are then reprinted in major newspapers all over the country in the form of paid advertisements. The Western Journalism Center (WJC), a non-profit conservative think tank, places the ads in these newspapers. The WJC receives much of its financial backing from Scaife.

(Ruddy went on to found Newsmax, a conservative media outlet now promoting the theory that Chelsea Clinton decided to have a baby in order to help her mother’s 2016 presidential bid.)

Read the document in all of its glory:

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width: 630,
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Clinton Memos: “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” (PDF)

Clinton Memos: “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” (Text)

 Clinton Memos: “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” (PDF)
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 Clinton Memos: “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” (Text)

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READ: The Clinton Administration’s Internal Memo on the “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”

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Why you should be skeptical of Walmart’s cheap organic food

by LesliJZAuqcp Posted on April 12, 2014

Walmarts and all

Why you should be skeptical of Walmart’s cheap organic food

By

Walmart

Out on the mean streets of the U.S. organic foods industry, Walmart has stepped onto the corner with both guns drawn. On Thursday, the superstore behemoth announced its plan to partner with Wild Oats (which you may recognize as a former subsidiary of Whole Foods) to offer a line of organic goods at unprecedentedly low prices in 2,000 of its U.S. stores. To start, the line will offer primarily canned goods and other pantry staples that will cost up to 25 percent less than those of other organic brands.

At first blush, this appears to be great news. Cheaper, more accessible organic food – isn’t that one of the prerequisites for the kind of healthy food system we’ve all been waiting for? The New York Times notes that Walmart’s big move could ultimately create a larger supply of organic goods, pushing down organic prices in the long run.

From The New York Times:

“We’re removing the premium associated with organic groceries,” said Jack L. Sinclair, executive vice president of Walmart U.S.’s grocery division. The Wild Oats organic products will be priced the same as similar nonorganic brand-name goods.

If that sounds suspicious to anyone familiar with organic growing practices, it should. For those not as well-versed, we’re here to help! We spoke with Coach Mark Smallwood, executive director of The Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Penn., about how Walmart could manage to offer such low prices, and what that might mean for organic farmers across the country.

Smallwood explains that the concept of a “premium” associated with organic food is misleading, because the price of an organic good reflects the true cost of its production.

“The issue is that there aren’t the subsidies available to organic farmers that there are [for conventional farmers.] So there’s a question in my mind about how Walmart is going to pull this off and be able to make profit,” Smallwood said. “And for them to even come out and make that statement before they’ve started is a huge question mark. Somebody’s going to have to pay, and my hope is that it’s not the organic farmer.”

Smallwood also shared his concern that if Walmart were to incentivize large-scale organic production, industrial organic practices would become more widespread. In this model, farmers adhere to just the bare minimum of organic standards and ultimately end up depleting soil health on a piece of land, abandoning it, and moving on to another.

“Will a large agricultural operation come in and buy up tens of small family farms and put them all under one name, and then create that slash-and-burn model?” Smallwood said. “That’s what I’m afraid of. That’s the [possible] downside.”

For the optimists in all of us, let us remember that it’s too soon to know exactly which approach Walmart will take. As Smallwood says: “The potential is there for [organic farmers] to be treated very well, and paid handsomely for the wonderful artisan stewardship of the planet. What is that worth to Walmart? We’re going to find out.”

We reached out to Walmart specifically to ask if the company was planning to source from small-scale farmers, and where its farmers would be located geographically. This was their response via email:

Regarding your questions, we are working with our suppliers to create a surety of demand which ultimately helps us pass along savings to our customers. We’re using our scale to deliver quality, organic groceries to our customers for less. When we do this, it’s a win, win, win situation for our customers, our suppliers and our company. Our customers can trust that they will save money at Walmart, our suppliers can count on us for the demand and we are able to offer innovative new products.

Hey — we didn’t say it was a good response. Since it provides exactly none of the specifics that we sought out, we’ll just have to wait and see, and hope for the best.


Source
Walmart to Sell Organic Food, Undercutting Big Brands, The New York Times

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.

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Why you should be skeptical of Walmart’s cheap organic food

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Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65

by KeeleyBriseno Posted on March 17, 2014

Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65

By

Shutterstock

Gather round, ladies and gentlemen, for today the technology behind hydraulic fracturing turns 65. We’d personally like to take this moment to remind all the fracking wells out there that they’re now eligible for a free beverage at Taco Bell. Get that Pepsi, girl!

The American Petroleum Institute has thoughtfully organized a publicity campaign around this momentous occasion. In the spirit of birthdays being the time of year that we lie to ourselves to feel better about our lives, API’s “happy birthday, fracking!” press release is basically chock-full of fun falsehoods:

“Americans have long been energy pioneers, from the 1800’s [sic] when the first wells were drilled to today,” said API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito. “As part of that history, on March 17, 1949, we developed the technology to safely unlock shale and other tight formations, and now the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas.”

In fact, the United States is not the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas yet, but we are set to overtake Russia in shale energy production and reach the No. 1 spot by 2015. Back pats all around! The use of “safe” as a descriptor for fracking is, however, debatable at best. The charade continues:

“Thanks to fracking, we can produce more energy, with a smaller environmental footprint — changing America’s energy trajectory from scarcity to abundance,” said Milito. “This is a birthday worth celebrating.”

Indeed! On this most holy of days, let us completely disregard the studied effects that fracking has had on both drinking water and air quality!

While the technology that makes fracking possible was first developed in 1949, it wasn’t successfully implemented until 1997, when energy baron George Mitchell started using fracking drills to extract gas from the Barnett Shale in Texas. Since then, the industry has exploded, both literally and figuratively: In 2000, shale beds only produced less than 1 percent of natural gas in the United States, and in 2013, that share increased to 35 percent.

However, the API seems set on portraying fracking as an established, reliable source of energy, complete with delightfully old-timey photos:

energyfromshale.orgBaby’s first drill!

Let’s all take our cue from 2 Chainz and say: When I die, bury me inside the Marcellus Shale. Get it? Because fracking has been shown to endanger human lives. Admittedly, that’s not quite as catchy on a birthday card.

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65

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Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65 today

by NickolasNelms Posted on March 17, 2014

Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65 today

By

Shutterstock

Gather round, ladies and gentlemen, for today the technology behind hydraulic fracturing turns 65. We’d personally like to take this moment to remind all the fracking wells out there that they’re now eligible for a free beverage at Taco Bell. Get that Pepsi, girl!

The American Petroleum Institute has thoughtfully organized a publicity campaign around this momentous occasion. In the spirit of birthdays being the time of year that we lie to ourselves to feel better about our lives, API’s “happy birthday, fracking!” press release is basically chock-full of fun falsehoods:

“Americans have long been energy pioneers, from the 1800’s [sic] when the first wells were drilled to today,” said API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito. “As part of that history, on March 17, 1949, we developed the technology to safely unlock shale and other tight formations, and now the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas.”

In fact, the United States is not the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas yet, but we are set to overtake Russia in shale energy production and reach the No. 1 spot by 2015. Back pats all around! The use of “safe” as a descriptor for fracking is, however, debatable at best. The charade continues:

“Thanks to fracking, we can produce more energy, with a smaller environmental footprint — changing America’s energy trajectory from scarcity to abundance,” said Milito. “This is a birthday worth celebrating.”

Indeed! On this most holy of days, let us completely disregard the studied effects that fracking has had on both drinking water and air quality!

While the technology that makes fracking possible was first developed in 1949, it wasn’t successfully implemented until 1997, when energy baron George Mitchell started using fracking drills to extract gas from the Barnett Shale in Texas. Since then, the industry has exploded, both literally and figuratively: In 2000, shale beds only produced less than 1 percent of natural gas in the United States, and in 2013, that share increased to 35 percent.

However, the API seems set on portraying fracking as an established, reliable source of energy, complete with delightfully old-timey photos:

energyfromshale.orgBaby’s first drill!

Let’s all take our cue from 2 Chainz and say: When I die, bury me inside the Marcellus Shale. Get it? Because fracking has been shown to endanger human lives. Admittedly, that’s not quite as catchy on a birthday card.

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Birthday, it’s ya birthday: Fracking technology turns 65 today

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