Tag Archives: times

We may have to suck up CO2 to prevent planet from frying, U.N. says

by GayUYUMhwfb Posted on January 18, 2014

We may have to suck up CO2 to prevent planet from frying, U.N. says

By

Shutterstock

The climate situation is so dire that we may have to resort to geoengineering to keep the planet livable, according to a leaked draft of a forthcoming report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The New York Times reports:

Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies, experts found.

A delay would most likely force future generations to develop the ability to suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and store them underground to preserve the livability of the planet, the report found. But it is not clear whether such technologies will ever exist at the necessary scale, and even if they do, the approach would probably be wildly expensive compared with taking steps now to slow emissions.

More from Reuters, which first obtained a leaked draft summary of the report:

To get on track, governments may have to turn ever more to technologies for “carbon dioxide removal” (CDR) from the air, ranging from capturing and burying emissions from coal-fired power plants to planting more forests that use carbon to grow.

Most projects for capturing carbon dioxide from power plants are experimental. Among big projects, Saskatchewan Power in Canada is overhauling its Boundary Dam power plant to capture a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Al Gore was alarmed by the news and said resorting to mass-scale geoengineering would be “insane,” “utterly mad,” and “delusional in the extreme.” Speaking to reporters, he said, “The fact that some scientists who should know better are actually engaged in serious discussion of those alternatives is a mark of how desperate some of them are feeling due to the paralysis in the global political system.”

The draft IPCC report also calls for a big shift from dirty energy investments to clean ones, echoing comments made this week by U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres.

An IPCC spokesperson emphasized that the leaked document is just a draft and the report will change before the final version is released in April.


Source
World may have to suck gases from air to meet climate goals-UN, Reuters
U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly, The New York Times
Al Gore says use of geo-engineering to head off climate disaster is insane, The Guardian

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

See original article:  

We may have to suck up CO2 to prevent planet from frying, U.N. says

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We may have to suck up CO2 to prevent planet from frying, U.N. says

What Do We Know About the Chemical That Just Spilled in West Virginia?

by h7paisjnha Posted on January 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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

The chemical that leaked yesterday into a West Virginia river “hasn’t been studied very well,” says Deborah Blum, a New York Times science columnist who specializes in reporting on chemistry.

A state of emergency was declared for nine West Virginia counties yesterday after a chemical called 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol spilled into the Elk River. The chemical is “used to wash coal of impurities,” according to the Times.

The chemical leaked from a holding tank owned by a company called Freedom Industries, according to West Virginia American Water, a water company operating in the region. At present, the nine counties are under a “do not use” advisory from West Virginia American Water, and residents there do not know when they will be able to turn on their taps.

A rush on bottled water subsequently ensued, as documented in this tweet from a local news anchor:

Undoubtedly much more information will emerge on 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol and how dangerous it is (or isn’t) in water. But to start things off we turned to Blum, who was just a guest on our Inquiring Minds podcast.

“We know methanol is toxic, we know that methylcyclohexane is moderately toxic, but I haven’t seen a full analysis of the entire formula,” says Blum. “Still, I think we can assume there’s nothing here that we’d want to drink or like to see in our rivers.” However, given that it is in the Elk River it will be “very diluted,” she added, and likely will ultimately be broken down and digested by microbes. In the meantime, Blum praised authorities’ cautionary approach.

The fact that relatively little is known about the compound, says Blum, represents “another reminder that we have way too may poorly researched compounds in the toxic registry and we desperately need to update our creaking regulations regarding industrial materials.”

For our recent podcast with Deborah Blum, you can listen here:

Continued – 

What Do We Know About the Chemical That Just Spilled in West Virginia?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What Do We Know About the Chemical That Just Spilled in West Virginia?

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

by JEVLinwflsatfe Posted on January 3, 2014

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

By

iirraa

Hey, mainstream media — welcome back to the depressing climate-reporting party!

The Daily Climate, a nonprofit news organization, keeps tabs on articles published about climate change and related topics, and as 2014 dawns it brings us some encouraging news:

Coverage of climate change issues jumped in 2013, fueled by reporting on energy issues — fracking, pipelines, oilsands — and a heavy dose of wacky weather worldwide.

The climb, 30 percent above 2012 levels, marks the end of a three-year slide in climate change coverage and is the first increase in worldwide reporting on the topic since 2009, based on analysis of The Daily Climate’s aggregation database.

Last year The Daily Climate aggregated 24,000 news articles, opinions and editorials on climate change from “mainstream” media outlets globally. That’s well above the 2012 low of 18,546 stories, but still below the highs from 2007 through 2009, when the Daily Climate aggregated an average of nearly 29,000 a year.

The Daily Climate says that climate reporting increased at major news outlets around the world from 2012 to 2013, with one notable exception: The New York Times, which did away with its environment desk and Green blog last year:

Bloomberg News was up 133 percent, the Globe and Mail doubled its reporting, USA Today boosted its effort 48 percent and stories in the Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Post each were up 40 percent, according to The Daily Climate’s archives.

Of the world’s news outlets, Reuters led the pack in climate change coverage, with almost 1,100 news stories. Associated Press was second, with 1,030, followed closely by The Guardian, with 1,025.

The New York Times, having dismantled its “green desk” in early 2013, was the only major publisher worldwide to see coverage drop in 2013, dipping 10 percent from 2012′s level to 883.

Here’s hoping that the trend continues — and that the bosses at the Times take notice of their competition.


Source
Climate coverage soars in 2013, spurred by energy, weather, The Daily Climate

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

View the original here – 

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

BP targets celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse over oil-spill claims

by Natalia681 Posted on December 16, 2013

BP targets celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse over oil-spill claims

By

Innisfree Hotels

BP is angry that it’s being forced to compensate Gulf Coast businesses for income they lost after its Deepwater Horizon blowout. It’s so angry that it has taken the curious step of airing its vendettas in national advertisements.

The oil company took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times last week lambasting celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, complaining that his restaurant management company is undeserving of more than $8 million in spill-related claims awarded to it by a federal court. Lagasse is a star of food-themed TV shows, author of popular cookbooks, and owner of a national chain of restaurants. BP’s advertisement didn’t name Lagasse, but he was clearly the target. The New Orleans Times-Picayune explains:

In the ad — the latest in a series from BP — the company asks “would you pay this claim?” and outlines the story of an unnamed “celebrity chef” whose restaurant management company “was awarded more than $8 million” based on a “fictional loss” in its finances that year. It holds up the claim as an abuse of the settlement program. …

BP argues that more than $500 million has already been paid for undeserving claims.

Claims administrator Patrick Juneau responded to BP’s ad in a statement, saying the settlement claim identified by BP “satisfied those requirements agreed upon by BP” and plaintiffs’ lawyers. BP appealed the initial approval.

Ironically, Lagasse has been one of BP’s few allies, saying earlier this year that the company had “stepped up to the plate and they did what they had to do” after the oil spill. We’re guessing his opinion of the oil giant may now have shifted — particularly because it still hasn’t coughed up any of $8 million it’s whining about. “We have not received any payment,” a spokesperson for Lagasse’s company said.


Source
Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse targeted by BP in fight over oil spill payments, New Orleans Times-Picayune

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

See original article:  

BP targets celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse over oil-spill claims

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on BP targets celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse over oil-spill claims

If your pot isn’t organic, you’re probably inhaling pesticides

by gorso6 Posted on November 30, 2013

If your pot isn’t organic, you’re probably inhaling pesticides

By

Shutterstock

Bummer news for pot smokers: Up to 70 percent of the pesticides found on a marijuana bud can end up in the smoke you’re inhaling. That’s according to recent research conducted by Jeffrey Raber, who holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Southern California and operates a medical cannabis testing laboratory in L.A.

The Eureka Times-Standard reports:

“I think that what’s so alarming to us is that such a huge amount of pesticide material could be transferred,” Raber said. “And, you have to consider that when you inhale (something), it’s much like injecting it directly into your blood stream.” …

Raber said it’s important to remember that smoking a marijuana bud that’s been sprayed with chemicals is far different than eating a non-organic tomato. First and foremost, he said, there are no controls over what’s sprayed on marijuana crops. And, while most people would rinse off a tomato before eating it, they can’t wash a bud before putting it in their pipe. The body also has filters in place for things that are ingested, he said, but not for what’s inhaled.

“You don’t have the first pass metabolism of the liver,” he said. “You don’t have the lack of absorptivity going through the stomach or the gut lining. It’s a very different equation when you’re inhaling.”

Pot farms are notorious for heavy use of pesticides, and even ones selling to legal medical marijuana dispensaries often go heavy on the toxic chemicals.

Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey said his deputies have been finding massive amounts of high-powered pesticides at marijuana gardens throughout the county, many of which have posted medical marijuana recommendations — meaning the marijuana grown there could be heading for collectives and, ultimately, to patients.

“I would be very concerned if I were a consumer,” Downey said.

Our takeaway: Go organic. And if you’re not sure of the provenance of your pot, take it brownie form.


Source
What are you smoking? Study finds pesticides transfer to marijuana smoke, Eureka Times-Standard

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Living

See more here:  

If your pot isn’t organic, you’re probably inhaling pesticides

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, organic, oven, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on If your pot isn’t organic, you’re probably inhaling pesticides

Fed-up Chicago residents sue over petcoke ashheaps

by Toni Tolve Posted on November 27, 2013

Fed-up Chicago residents sue over petcoke ashheaps

By

Josh Mogerman

Residents of Chicago’s southeast side aren’t going to sit idly by as their city, state and federal governments try to protect them from byproducts of tar-sands oil refining — the black dust that’s been blowing over their homes from nearby petcoke piles. The residents have called in a team of lawyers, and they are going after the companies that produce and store the uncovered piles of carbon powder.

The petcoke is left over after the refining of tar-sands oil, most of which is coming into the Midwest from Canada. Petcoke can’t be legally burned as fuel in the U.S., but subsidiaries of Koch Industries have been buying up the waste across the country anyway, presumably for sale into countries with less strict air pollution laws. And two of the defendants named in the lawsuit are subsidiaries of Koch Industries, including KCBX Terminals, which is storing some of the piles of petcoke along the Calamut River.

Koch isn’t the only familiar name listed as a bad guy in the new lawsuit. BP is also named as a defendant. That’s because much of the problem petcoke is coming from the company’s nearby Whiting refinery, where billions of dollars have been spent to help it process Canadian crude. From a Nov. 15 Bloomberg story:

The 420,000-barrel-a-day Whiting plant brought online a new delayed coker, according to a person familiar with operations at the plant. Combined with a crude unit that started in June, the equipment will allow Whiting to process as much as 85 percent Canadian heavy crude, up from about 20 percent, the company’s website shows. The refinery is scheduled to ramp up heavy oil consumption over a three-month period, the company said in an Oct. 29 presentation.

The Chicago Sun Times reports on the lawsuit:

The suit, filed Monday in federal court, accuses BP, Koch Carbon, KCBX Terminals [another Koch subsidiary], George J. Beemsterboer Inc. and KM Railways of each knowingly and intentionally producing, marketing and selling the chemical mixture of petroleum coke instead of destroying it, with residue coating the homes and property of residents throughout the surrounding South Chicago neighborhood. …

The six-count suit alleges willful and wanton conduct, abnormally dangerous activity, strict liability in tort, trespassing, public nuisance, private nuisance and declaratory relief. The residents are seeking an undisclosed amount in damages.

As the U.S. is flooded with tar-sands oil from the mining boom up north, you can expect this problem will only deepen.


Source
Canada Heavy Oil Gains as BP Refinery Said to Ramp Up New Coker, Bloomberg
Southeast Side residents sue companies over petcoke storage, Chicago Sun-Times

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Link: 

Fed-up Chicago residents sue over petcoke ashheaps

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Oster, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fed-up Chicago residents sue over petcoke ashheaps

Israel Ups the Anti-Obama Ante

by Seraphinakbj Posted on November 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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

Last week Israel announced it would build 20,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank. It kinda sorta withdrew this plan in the face of international outrage. Then Benjamin Netanyahu went on CNN to blast President Obama’s peace overtures to Iran, while a key advisor told the Financial Times that Israel was ready and willing to bomb Iran whether America liked it or not. Dan Drezner says the technical IR term for this behavior is “wigging out”:

Israeli jaw-jawing about a military strike puts it into a corner with no good exit option. Netanyahu’s definition of a bad nuclear deal seems to include… any nuclear deal. So say that one is negotiated. What can Israel do then? Netanyahu could follow through on his rhetoric and launch a unilateral strike. Maybe that would set Iran back a few years. It would also rupture any deal, accelerate Iran’s nuclear ambitions, invite unconventional retaliation from Iran and its proxies, and isolate Israel even further. If Netanyahu doesn’t follow through on his rhetoric, then every disparaging Israeli quote about Obama’s volte-face on Syria will be thrown back at the Israeli security establishment. Times a hundred.

“Right now,” Drezner says, “Israel is pretty much pissing all over the Obama administration.” Netanyahu obviously has good reason to think that Republicans will support him in this unreservedly, but he better be careful. Even Obama-hating tea party types can start to get a little antsy when a foreign leader is so obviously contemptuous of American interests and the American president.

Continue reading:

Israel Ups the Anti-Obama Ante

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Israel Ups the Anti-Obama Ante

Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

by ncf01r Posted on October 30, 2013

Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

By

gynti_46

The U.S. is set to virtually stamp out construction of new coal-fired power plants domestically, thanks to proposed climate regulations. And now it’s setting its sights internationally.

The Obama administration said Tuesday it plans to use its influence with international lending bodies like the World Bank to curtail financial support for new coal power plants overseas. From Reuters:

The U.S. Treasury said it would only support funding for coal plants in the world’s poorest countries if they have no other efficient or economical alternative for their energy needs.

For richer countries, it would only support coal plants that deploy carbon capture and sequestration, an advanced technology for reducing emissions that is not yet commercially viable. That essentially means the United States would limit coal funding to only the world’s poorest for now.

The announcement follows the president’s pledge in June that he would call for an “end to public financing for new coal plants overseas unless they deploy carbon-capture technologies, or there’s no other viable way for the poorest countries to generate electricity.”

The New York Times, however, raises questions about America’s ability to actually sway decisions about coal-plant construction abroad:

The United States does not have a veto over which projects in other countries get financed through organizations, and the number of coal plants built overseas with public money is small relative to the number that are likely to be built with private investment.

By leading a coalition of like-minded countries — including several European ones that have already announced similar intentions — officials said the administration would be able to influence the direction of power plant construction.

“We believe that if public financing points the way, it will then facilitate private investment,” [said Lael Brainard, the under secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department]. …

Treasury officials said the United States would also seek to push private investors to favor energy technologies that are better for the environment.

A test of the new policy is expected next year. That’s when the World Bank, which recently announced it will finance coal power plants only in rare circumstances, is set to decide whether to support a 600-megawatt coal-fired plant in Kosovo.


Source
U.S. Says It Won’t Back New International Coal-Fired Power Plants, New York Times
U.S. lays out strict limits on coal funding abroad, Reuters

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Read More: 

Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

Eat Move Sleep – Tom Rath

by Myrna Posted on October 8, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Eat Move Sleep
How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes
Tom Rath

Genre: Health & Fitness

Price: $11.99

Publish Date: July 24, 2013

Publisher: Missionday, LLC

Seller: The Perseus Books Group, LLC


Once in a while, a book comes along that changes how you think, feel, and act every day. In Eat Move Sleep, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Rath delivers a book that will improve your health for years to come. While Tom’s bestsellers on strengths and well-being have already inspired more than 5 million people in the last decade, Eat Move Sleep reveals his greatest passion and expertise. Quietly managing a serious illness for more than 20 years, Tom has assembled a wide range of information on the impact of eating, moving, and sleeping. Written in his classic conversational style, Eat Move Sleep features the most proven and practical ideas from his research. This remarkably quick read offers advice that is comprehensive yet simple and often counterintuitive but always credible. Eat Move Sleep will help you make good decisions automatic &#151; in all three of these interconnected areas. With every bite you take, you will make better choices. You will move a lot more than you do today. And you will sleep better than you have in years. More than a book, Eat Move Sleep is a new way to live.

Follow this link – 

Eat Move Sleep – Tom Rath

Posted in alo, FF, GE, ONA, oven, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Eat Move Sleep – Tom Rath

Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

by Morona Jill Posted on October 3, 2013

Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

By

roger.williams

Park visitors gaze at what remains of the Lyell Glacier.

Hasta la vista, glacier.

The world’s glaciers are withering quickly — researchers say they are contributing to nearly one-third of sea-level rise, despite holding just 1 percent of the planet’s surface ice. And while the glaciers in California’s Yosemite National Park aren’t the largest, they are suffering the same alarming fate as their icy ilk in other parts of the world.

Yosemite’s granite cliffs and valleys were carved during the Ice Age as glaciers expanded. Now these vestigial masses of ice are mostly retreating — and fast. The park employs a full-time glaciologist, Greg Stock, who recently returned from a trek to Lyell Glacier, which is the park’s largest. He told the L.A. Times that it had shrunk visibly since he made the same back-country hike last year:

Lyell has dropped 62% of its mass and lost 120 vertical feet of ice over the last 100 years. “We give it 20 years or so of existence —  then it’ll vanish, leaving behind rocky debris,” Stock said. …

Yosemite’s other glacier, Maclure, is also shrinking, but it remains alive and continues to creep at a rate of about an inch a day.

Lyell, however, hasn’t budged. It is the second largest glacier in the Sierra Nevada and the headwater of the Tuolumne River watershed, but it no longer fits the definition of a glacier because it has ceased moving.

“Lyell Glacier is stagnant — a clear sign it’s dying,” Stock said. “Our research indicates it stopped moving about a decade ago.”

Stock warned that when the glaciers disappear, steady water supplies that feed the park’s meadows and other ecosystems will disappear with them. ”We don’t know what the impacts of that will be on plants and animals that evolved with these ice flows,” he told the newspaper.


Source
Yosemite’s largest ice mass is melting fast, L.A. Times

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

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

Follow this link:  

Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier