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Sand-mine-happy Wisconsin mayor survives recall attempt

by FSZLazarots Posted on December 18, 2013

Sand-mine-happy Wisconsin mayor survives recall attempt

By

Carol Mitchell

A hill being excavated by frac-sand miners in Wisconsin. Watch out, horsie!

Sand, ho! Things are looking up for Vista Sand, a Texan sand-mining company that wants to excavate frac sand from hundreds of acres of farming land just outside the Wisconsin town of Glenwood City. And things are looking down for residents who don’t want their town turned into a mining mess to help out the fracking industry.

Mayor John Larson on Tuesday survived a recall attempt by opponents of the silica mine, with the latest unofficial results showing he secured 183 votes compared with the 140 votes garnered by his opponent. Once results are finalized, we expect he will waste no time in moving forward with efforts to annex the silica-rich land into town limits and allow the project to move forward. From Wisconsin Watch:

The controversy over the proposed mine, which led to the recall, pitted residents concerned about health and quality of life against others who say the mine could be run safely, bringing jobs and a better economic future to the community. The mine would be located a half mile south of the community’s sole school building.

“The recall election is a referendum,” Larson said before the election. “It’s a one-issue election, and so I guess we’ll see what the people say.”

Larson wasn’t the only public official whose support for the mine made him a recall target. Two city council members were also targeted, and they are both leading their challengers by three or fewer votes in unofficial results.


Source
Glenwood City incumbents lead in recall elections sparked by frac sand, Wisconsin Watch

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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GMO labeling becomes law in Connecticut

by ElisaSayers Posted on December 16, 2013

GMO labeling becomes law in Connecticut

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Shutterstock

Put a sticker on it.

Connecticut made food history last week when Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) signed the first state law in the nation mandating the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.

But there’s a catch that’s bigger than the fry of an escaped GMO salmon: The new law might never actually lead to the labeling of GMO foods.

That’s because the state is understandably reluctant to go it alone in the legal battles that are sure to ensue when big-spending agro-corporations are ordered to be fully transparent. The Connecticut Post explains how the Nutmeg State’s lawmakers worked around that threat:

Connecticut is the first state to enact such legislation, but the rules will take effect only after at least four other states enact similar laws. The bill also requires that any combination of Northeast states where together reside at least 20 million must adopt similar laws in order for the Connecticut regulations to take effect.

Malloy signed the legislation into law at a raw-foods café:

“This is a beginning, and I want to be clear what it is a beginning of,” Malloy said, before putting pen to paper. “It is a national movement that will requiring (food) labeling.”

Malloy said residents must speak up when they go food stores and are unable to find detailed labeling of food ingredients. “This is the time,” he said. “You better get ready; people are coming and this is not a movement you are going to stop.”

A GMO-labeling initiative died at the ballot box in Washington state last month, after agribiz interests spent big to defeat it. The same thing happened in California in 2012. But GMO-labeling bills are slowly moving through some state legislatures, so Connecticut might get company soon enough. Malloy, for one, is optimistic.


Source
Malloy signs state GMO labeling law in Fairfield, Connecticut Post
Gov. Malloy: Law gives consumers the right to know what’s in their food, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office

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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GMO labeling becomes law in Connecticut

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Triple threat: Obama orders federal agencies to boost clean energy use threefold

by Felixct7yh Posted on December 5, 2013

Triple threat: Obama orders federal agencies to boost clean energy use threefold

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Nellis Air Force Base

Two bills in the Senate would require the country to get at least 25 percent renewable electricity by 2025, but neither has a chance in hell of making it to Obama’s desk. Thanks, Republicans! So the president is doing what he can without approval from Congress: requiring the federal government to get more of its power from renewable sources.

From NPR: 

President Obama says the U.S. government “must lead by example” when it comes to safeguarding the environment, so he’s ordering federal agencies to use more clean energy.

Under a presidential memorandum out Thursday, each agency would have until 2020 to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable supplies. …

Agencies are supposed to build their own facilities when they can, or buy clean energy from wind farms and solar facilities. …

The memo also directs federal agencies to increase energy efficiency in its buildings and its power management systems.

The U.S. government currently gets about 7.5 percent of its electricity from renewables, so the new goal would almost triple that percentage.

With today’s memorandum, Obama follows through on a promise he made in his big climate speech in June. We’re looking forward to him keeping the rest of the promises from that speech.


Source
Obama Tells Government To Ramp Up Its Renewable Energy Use, NPR

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

by Norman87Pdk Posted on November 27, 2013

Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

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Someday astronauts visiting the moon could toddle out of their space shuttle, harvest basil from their lunar garden, and sprinkle it over their 3D-printed space pizza.

NASA hopes to begin growing radishes, basil, and other plants on the moon in 2015. A two-pound “greenhouse” is planned to be delivered there using an uncrewed Google Lunar X-Prize mission. From New Scientist:

The aim is to find out if the crews of moon bases will be able to grow some of their own greens, a capability that has proved psychologically comforting to research crews isolated in Antarctica and on the International Space Station, NASA says.

Factors that could confound lunar plant growth include the virtual absence of an atmosphere and high levels of solar and cosmic radiation that bombard the moon’s surface. So the space agency is developing a sealed canister with five days’ worth of air, in which seeds can germinate on nutrient-infused filter paper. The idea is that water will be released on touchdown and sunshine will do the rest.

And NASA isn’t hoping to take just agriculture to new heights — it is working to bring food production into space as well, using 3D printing. From the agency’s website:

As NASA ventures farther into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending astronauts to Mars, the agency will need to make improvements in life support systems, including how to feed the crew during those long deep space missions.

NASA recognizes in-space and additive manufacturing offers the potential for new mission opportunities, whether “printing” food, tools or entire spacecraft. Additive manufacturing offers opportunities to get the best fit, form and delivery systems of materials for deep space travel.

If NASA can figure out how to grow some space grapes to make moon wine to accompany the herb-enhanced printed pizza, we’ll be up there quicker than you can say Stanley Kubrick.


Source
3D Printing: Food in Space, NASA
Lunar thyme lords: can NASA bloom the moon?, New Scientist

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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Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

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Bill would promote bogus wind-turbine syndrome lawsuits in Wisconsin

by Larry Daichea Posted on November 16, 2013

Bill would promote bogus wind-turbine syndrome lawsuits in Wisconsin

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– Deb –

Wind-turbine syndrome doesn’t exist. Sure, wind turbines can be annoying. But there isn’t a shred of peer-reviewed medical evidence that they can actually make anybody sick.

Yet a new Wisconsin bill scheduled for a hearing next week would make it easier for people living within 1.5 miles of a wind turbine to sue the energy developer for “physical and emotional harm suffered by the plaintiff, including for medical expenses, pain, and suffering.” And to sue for relocation expenses if they want to move away from turbines. And to sue over drops in property values. Never mind that researchers have also ruled out any impacts of wind farms on the value of nearby properties.  

SB 167 wouldn’t just affect new turbines. It could be applied retroactively to sue existing wind farms out of existence.

Needless to say, the bill is just another effort to stamp out the growth of renewable energy in coal-friendly Wisconsin, which is already lagging behind much of the rest of the country in wind power.

The legislation is sponsored by State Sen. Frank Lasee (R), a notorious opponent of wind energy. A hearing into the bill on Wednesday will be overseen by a fellow wind foe, State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R), whose district includes a large wind farm.

“I’ve talked to a dozen people in my area who made a very credible case that their health has been damaged,” Grothman told Midwest Energy News. “Obviously their property values have gone through the floor.”

Well, obviously. I mean, if y’all say so. Let’s resume the outdated approach of building more coal plants and see how that affects property values and public health, shall we?


Source
Wisconsin bill would grant wide latitude to sue wind farms, Midwest Energy News

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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Bill would promote bogus wind-turbine syndrome lawsuits in Wisconsin

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Look who’s eating your plastic now: A whole unprecedented ecosystem

by LucasHarbin Posted on November 14, 2013

Look who’s eating your plastic now: A whole unprecedented ecosystem

By

Environmental Science and TechnologyYum, plastic.

We already knew that barnacles, lanternfish, and whales have been gobbling up plastic. It turns out that the problem is even bigger than we thought — because it is much, much smaller. Welcome to the “plastisphere,” the tiny plastic-based ecosystem developing within the world’s oceans.

The alien-sounding title is fitting, as scientists have found more than 1,000 species of microbes living there, some of which still have not been identified. The group of organisms supported by the plastic was significantly different from, and much more diverse than, other microbial communities in the ocean, suggesting that the plastic particles are providing a haven for microbes that otherwise might not survive, or even arise in the first place.

The study, done by a team in Woods Hole, Mass., took a high-resolution look at plastic particles between 1 and 5 millimeters in size (I believe the unscientific term is “itty bitty specks”). The critters camped out on them are even tinier, but taken together act as a full-blown ecosystem, not unlike a coral reef. Plant-like microbes cluster at the giving end of the food chain while other, animal-like microbes feed on them, and on each other. There are even decomposers and a few synergistic microbes getting along like Disney woodland creatures. 

How big a deal is it to discover a new ecosystem developing in the middle of an old one? (An old one which supports about a billion people, that is.) The answer is that no one knows quite yet. Still, it is pretty likely that this new microbial cocktail (yum!) will alter the ocean ecosystem in some larger way.

One very interesting but very hypothetical possibility proposed by the Woods Hole team is that some of these microbes may actually be cleaning up the plastic for us, since they were found hunkered down in ‘pits’ on the surface of the plastic particles. If these microbes can degrade petroleum-based materials, that could be an explanation for why the level of plastic debris in the ocean has appeared relatively stable for the last 22 years.

Gee, wouldn’t it be great if the alien lifeforms of the plastisphere could just go all-you-can eat on the mess we have made? Unfortunately, the plastic raft of microbes also could also potentially serve as a vector for harmful pathogens, since plastic can travel much farther on ocean currents than other materials. Researchers found one genus of bacteria called Vibrio, a few species of which are associated with fun gastrointestinal diseases like cholera, which normally cannot survive in the open ocean. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if the plastisphere ends up being more like Alien or Wall-E.


Source
The “Plastisphere:” A new marine ecosystem, Smithsonian Ocean Blog
New life discovered growing on plastic waste dubbed the ‘plastisphere’, ABC Environment

Amelia Urry is Grist’s intern.

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Look who’s eating your plastic now: A whole unprecedented ecosystem

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U.N.: Hurry up on climate action or we’re screwed!

by Obeey99 Posted on November 7, 2013

U.N.: Hurry up on climate action or we’re screwed!

By

Shutterstock

World, don’t lose heart, but you really need to hustle.

That’s the message from the United Nations as international climate delegates prepare to launch into a new round of negotiations next week aimed at cutting global greenhouse gas emissions.

The world agreed in 2009 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.7 Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. But a report released Tuesday by the U.N. Environment Program reminds us that we’re not on track to meet that goal — not even close.

Even if all the pledges made to date by various governments to reduce their emissions are fulfilled, the report warns that temperature rise would still overshoot the 2-degree goal. That’s not to say it would be impossible to meet the goal, but a serious sense of urgency would be required.

The report focuses on the “emissions gap” — the difference between anticipated and needed emissions cuts. From a UNEP press release:

Even if nations meet their current climate pledges, greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 are likely to be 8 to 12 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) above the level that would provide a likely chance of remaining on the least-cost pathway.

If the gap is not closed or significantly narrowed by 2020, the door to many options to limit temperature increase to a lower target of 1.5° C will be closed, further increasing the need to rely on faster energy-efficiency improvements and biomass with carbon capture and storage.

The report authors suggest initiatives that could keep warming within 2 degrees:

Massively and urgently boost energy efficiency — that could reduce annual emissions by 2 GtCO2e by the year 2020.
Stop subsidizing fossil fuels — that could reduce emissions by 0.4 to 2 GtCO2e.
Curb releases of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants — that could reduce emissions by 0.6 to 1.1 GtCO2e.
Continue to foster the development and deployment of renewable energy — that could reduce emissions by 1 to 3 GtCO2e.
Overhaul the agricultural sector, which is directly responsible for 11 percent of the world’s emissions — that could reduce emissions by 1.1 to 4.3 GtCO2e.

If you add up the best-case scenarios using those five strategies, you get an annual emissions reduction of 12.4 gigatonnes by 2020 — more than enough to get us on track to meet the goal of limiting warming by 2 degrees Celsius.

Actually doing that, of course, is another matter altogether.


Source
The Emissions Gap Report 2013: A UNEP Synthesis Report, UNEP

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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Hundreds of oil spills kept secret by North Dakota

by ncf01r Posted on October 28, 2013

Hundreds of oil spills kept secret by North Dakota

By

Shutterstock

Shhh … oil spills are unpopular.

North Dakota’s fracking frenzy is leaking like a sieve. And you haven’t heard about it because fracking companies, oil pipeline owners, and state officials have been keeping information about hundreds of oil spills secret for years.

After a huge spill of more than 20,000 barrels on a wheat farm was hushed up for 11 days, the Associated Press discovered the extent of the years-long cover-up:

Records obtained by the AP show that so far this year, North Dakota has recorded 139 pipeline leaks that spilled a total of 735 barrels of oil. In 2012, there were 153 pipeline leaks that spilled 495 barrels of oil, data show. A little more than half of the spills companies reported to North Dakota occurred “on-site,” where a well is connected to a pipeline, and most were fewer than 10 barrels. The remainder of the spills occurred along the state’s labyrinth of pipelines.

“The public really should know about these,” [said Don Morrison, director of the Dakota Resource Council, an environmental-minded landowner group with more than 700 members in North Dakota]. “If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to them.”

North Dakota also had 291 “incidents” this year that leaked a total of about 2,209 barrels of oil. Data show that all but 490 barrels were contained and cleaned up at the well site. In 2012, there were 168 spills reported that leaked 1,089 barrels of oil; all but 376 barrels were contained on site, data show. Only one incident — a crash involving an oil truck last year — was reported publicly.

Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms — the state’s top oil regulator — said regulators worry about “over-reporting” spills. The goal, he said, is to find a balance to so that “the public is aware of what’s happening but not overwhelmed by little incidents.”

Stung by criticism, the state announced Friday that it’s preparing to launch a new website that will be used to post details of oil spills and cleanup efforts. And on Oct. 17, state officials took the unusual step of notifying the public about a seven-barrel oil spill.

So far, there are no reports of North Dakotans feeling overwhelmed.


Source
ND spills went unreported; state testing website, Associated Press

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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Hundreds of oil spills kept secret by North Dakota

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Barnacles are accidentally eating our plastic trash

by Margurite Axley Posted on October 24, 2013

Barnacles are accidentally eating our plastic trash

By

thaths

Gooseneck barnacles attached to a washed-up boot.

Barnacles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are attaching themselves to trash and eating little plastic particles. Researchers don’t yet know the implications of these findings, but it’s a safe bet that they’re not good.

American scientists inspected the gastrointestinal tracts of 385 gooseneck barnacles collected from the garbage patch, aka the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and found microplastic in a third of them. Some specimens had a single piece of plastic in their stomach, while others had gobbled down as many as 30. Results of this research were published Tuesday in the journal PeerJ.

Miriam Goldstein of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography described her research in the blog Deep Sea News:

Gooseneck barnacles look kind of freaky. Like acorn barnacles (the ones that more commonly grow on docks), they’re essentially a little shrimp living upside down in a shell and eating with their feet. Unlike acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnacles have a long, muscular stalk. …

[E]ventually I found myself in the lab dissecting barnacles in order to identify them. As I sat there, I thought “Well, I’m working on these barnacles anyway — wonder what they’re eating?” So I pulled out the intestine of the barnacle I was working on, cut it open, and a bright blue piece of plastic popped out. I reached into my jar o’ dead barnacles and dissected a few more, and found plastic in their guts as well.

Thinking about it logically, it makes a lot of sense that gooseneck barnacles are eating plastic. They are really hardy, able to live on nearly any floating surface from buoys to turtles, so they’re very common in the high-plastic areas of the gyre. They live right at the surface, where tiny pieces of buoyant plastic float. And they’re extremely non-picky eaters that will shove anything they can grab into their mouth.

Simon_Nathan

Gooseneck barnacles look freaky when they come out of their shells.

The barnacles are eaten by crabs, nudibranchs, and other marine creatures that are hunted, in turn, by birds, fish, and dolphins. Such plastic is known to block the digestive systems of these larger creatures, wreak havoc with their hormone levels, and damage their reproductive organs.

As Goldstein says, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that barnacles are eating the ubiquitous plastic waste. One 2006 study estimated that at least 267 sea-faring species had been found to have ingested such trash.

Here’s what some of the plastic barnacle food looked like. Perhaps they mistook our garbage for Lucky Charms breakfast cereal. It’s hard to say which is worse for you, really:

PeerJBarnacle diet.


Source
Behind the scenes: plastic-eating barnacles in the North Pacific Gyre, Deep Sea News
Gooseneck barnacles (Lepas spp.) ingest microplastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, PeerJ

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 frackers paying tiny fines for keeping chemicals secret

by myku0p3hmd Posted on October 21, 2013

Colorado frackers paying tiny fines for keeping chemicals secret

By

Shutterstock

What exactly are Colorado frackers pumping into the soil? They’re supposed to be telling us.

One of the few things that frackers need to do when they operate in fracker-friendly Colorado is post information about some of the chemicals they pump into the ground. But even that seems too hard for the industry.

Following press reports that Colorado frackers were failing to report their chemicals as required on the FracFocus website, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission warned companies it would begin actively enforcing its rules in the summer.

Since then, 11 companies have been cited for failing to disclose their chemicals on the website. From EnergyWire:

Seven of the companies have agreed to settle the cases with $1,000 fines, and commission staff is still negotiating with one of the companies. Two cases have been continued to December, and one case, against Marathon Oil Corp., has been set for a contested hearing at the commission’s Oct. 28 meeting in the eastern Colorado city of Limon. …

Bruce Baizel, director of Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project, said he’s glad to see the state following through on its promise of more diligent enforcement.

But he said it showed that industry groups “should be spending more on educating members about compliance with regulatory requirements and less on fighting residents over drilling in backyards.”

So frackers in Colorado have paid a total of $7,000 in fines so far. Meanwhile, they’ve spent $606,000 fighting anti-fracking ballot initiatives in four Colorado cities.


Source
Hydraulic fracturing: Colo. starts levying fines for late FracFocus reports, EnergyWire

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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