Environment

japan hazmat

Japanese grapple with waste mountain

Giant piles of debris from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami scar the country’s once picturesque northeast coast — and the clear-up is hamstrung by fears the rubbish may be contaminated by radiation.
Decades-worth of waste was left behind when the waters receded in March last year after claiming more than 19,000 lives.
The survivors are desperate to rebuild, [...]

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Recent Posts

A Vast Canadian Wilderness Poised for a Uranium Boom by Ed Struzik: Yale Environment 360

The Inuit are split on the wisdom of large-scale uranium mining in their territory, with some saying their communities desperately need the economic development, while others are concerned about the environmental fallout from the industry. With a population of just 30,000 mostly Inuit people living in a territory the size of Western Europe, Nunavut — [...]

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Hydrofracking, quakes, injection wells, water contamination: what’s not to like?

Geologist Susie Beiersdorfer has discussed the connection between Youngstown earthquakes and the nearby injection well. She has said the brine toxic waste injected into the well reactivated an ancient fault by acting as a lubricant and reducing friction between layers of the shale, thereby causing earthquakes, meeting organizers said.
The situation in the Youngstown area has [...]

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Metals found in water at coal plants

Elevated levels of metals have been found in groundwater near ash basins at all 14 N.C. coal-fired power plants, state regulators say after intensified monitoring.
Coal ash holds metals that can be toxic in high doses. But the elements most widely detected at the power plants, iron and manganese, also occur naturally and aren’t considered health [...]

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Wolf makes big tracks in California

The NY Times reports:
SAN FRANCISCO — On the Chinese calendar, this week ushers in the year of the dragon. But here, it feels a lot more like the year of the wolf.

Richard Cockle/The Oregonian, via Associated Press
John Stephenson, a biologist, measured the stride of the gray wolf known as OR7 in Crater Lake [...]

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Enjoying a home fire leads to serious pollution problems

Lighting coal and wood fires will lead to hefty fines under a town hall’s plans to avoid a return to the “pea-souper” smogs of yesteryear.
Tory-run Wandsworth council plans to introduce a borough-wide “smoke control area” to stop residents lighting fires in homes. A town hall report said the move was based on the “growing contribution [...]

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Top BPA sources | cleveland.com

A growing body of research suggests that exposure to BPA, or bisphenol-A, a synthetic chemical found in plastic, is more dangerous than previously thought.
The American Chemistry Council has defended the wide use of BPA and said that low doses of the chemical pose no human health risks. Still, the National Institutes of Health noted [...]

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An Oil Minister, Plugging Renewables? – NYTimes.com

When you think of proponents of green energy, the Saudi oil minister may not be the first person who comes to mind. But in a speech on Monday in London, Ali al-Naimi, the minister from OPEC’s leading member nation, had a lot to say about renewable energy and global warming.Ali al-NaimiAssociated PressAli al-Naimi, the Saudi [...]

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Monsanto takes GMOs further to 2,4-D

Tom Laskawy writes for Grist:
When I wrote recently about the next generation of genetically engineered seeds, I was in truth referring to the next next generation. The fact is that the next actual generation of seeds is already out of the lab and poised for approval by the USDA.
And I’m not talking about Monsanto’s recently approved [...]

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Environmental goals are job creators

The East Bay Express figures out the jobs picture:
During a Republican presidential primary debate last June, Michele Bachmann lit into the Environmental Protection Agency, recommending it be renamed the “job-killing organization of America.” Her fellow contenders nodded in agreement, each explaining how shutting down the EPA, or at least instituting a moratorium on regulations, would [...]

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Race to save Ecuador’s ‘lungs of the world’ park

yasuni

The Yasuni National Park, known as "the lungs of the world" and one of the most bio-diverse places on earth, is under threat from oil drilling. The race is on to find the funds required to develop new sustainable energy programmes that would leave the oil – and the forest – untouched.
In the early light [...]

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Green Drinks Feb. 1!

Greetings, Green Drinkers and Cinema Verde Fans!

We had a great January candidates forum at Blue Water Bay – thanks to Shawn Sheppard and Jason Fults, as well to all of you who joined us! And now it’s time for some more fun next week…

Green Drinks (www.gogreennation.org/category/green-drinks/) will be held 6 – [...]

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Cinema Verde Sponsor Reception

CCBLogo

Greetings, Green Drinkers and Cinema Verde Fans!

We had a great January candidates forum at Blue Water Bay – thanks to Shawn Sheppard and Jason Fults, as well to all of you who joined us! And now it’s time for some more fun next week…

Jan. 30 Sponsor Reception: Don Davis will host a reception to thank [...]

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Industry objects to the new f-word

By Jonathan Fahey, AP Energy Writer

NEW YORK — A different kind of F-word is stirring a linguistic and political debate as controversial as what it defines.
The word is “fracking” – as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock.
It’s not in the dictionary, [...]

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California steps up on air quality

Air quality California AP

JASON DEAREN  reports for the Associated Press

Auto dealers say California’s proposed rules to require carmakers to build more electric and other less-polluting hybrid cars and trucks by 2025 will cost consumers more money and will stifle the industry’s growth.
Consumer groups say customers might pay more for the vehicles but will save in lower fuel and [...]

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Navy’s sonar testing challenged in lawsuit

 GENE JOHNSON reports for the Associated Press

SEATTLE January 26, 2012 (AP)

Conservationists and Native American tribes are suing over the Navy’s expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the Washington, Oregon and California coasts, saying the noise can harass and kill whales and other marine life.
The environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council [...]

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The man who crushed the Keystone XL pipeline – Boston.com

mckibben

On November 6, 2011, Bill McKibben arrived at Washington, D.C.’s, Lafayette Park to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. McKibben, a Vermont writer and environmentalist, had been one of 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in [...]

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Fracking chemicals spill into Texas creeks

Fracking Denton Creek Txsharon

Sharon Wilson in Texas reports:
Huge thanks go to Brett Shipp for staying on this story. To recap:

A chemical plant blew up and I knew right away that fracking was involved.
Chemical fire spawns fish kill, criminal investigation
Waxahachie chemical firm cited for environmental violations
Chemical plant relocation upsetting Ellis County residents
Ellis County Commissioners catch heat from chemical plant [...]

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Monsanto biopiracy

India’s Environmental Support Group on Monsanto:
If you missed watching Al Jazeera’s The Stream special on Monsanto’s biopiracy in India while advancing Bt Brinjal, and its implications, you can catch it on You Tube. Its about 45 mins. long).  The programme covers many diverse issues, in addition to biopiracy.
The programme was hosted by Derrick Ashong, musician [...]

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Rehabbed seals dive back into the sea

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The release is on the front page of the San Luis Obispo Tribune: I posted my own photos on my blog.
Rascal, a rare Guadalupe fur seal yearling, and Beige, a California sea lion juvenile, headed for the sea Wednesday at Leffingwell Landing in Cambria after being treated at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito.
Beige had [...]

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