Science & Technology

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New York town bans fracking discussions

The small New York town of Sanford has enraged environmental groups by prohibiting all discussion of natural gas drilling at town board meetings and is now facing a lawsuit for violating free speech rights.
Those opposed to hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” have been unable to discuss their environmental concerns since the ban was implemented in September. [...]

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Recent Posts

Nuclear Protestors To Remain Jailed In Tennessee For Months

Sister Megan Rice And Two Others Await Fate In Nuclear Breakin Trial

A judge has ruled that a nun and two other protesters must remain in jail until they are sentenced in September for breaking into a nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee.
Sister Megan Rice and protesters Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed  were convicted Wednesday of sabotaging the plant and damaging federal property last year at the Y-12 [...]

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The Truth Behind Google’s Bizarre Mission to Make Tech ‘Go Away’

goog

As a cadre of Google executives took turns touting Google’s newest products at a conference in California on Wednesday, they also described how they were working toward a future in which technology would disappear.
That might sound like a bizarre mission for a tech company. Yet they promised that by fading into the background of our lives, technology [...]

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Monsanto’s thumb on academic publishing

Independent Science News reports on how Monsanto is influencing peer-reviewed scientific journals:
by Claire Robinson and Jonathan Latham, PhD
Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has jested that instead of scientific peer review, its rival The Lancet had a system of throwing a pile of papers down the stairs and publishing those that reached [...]

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Project aims to track big city carbon footprints

Stanley Sander

Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.
Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is [...]

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Powering Ohio Schools With Wind Energy

turbine

It took nearly seven years, but the blades are finally turning on a pair of wind turbines at the Archbold and Pettisville schools in northwestern Ohio, demonstrating how school districts can take control of their energy future and create educational opportunities for their kids at the same time.
“We have controlled the price of the electricity we will [...]

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China Resources Utility Units Combine in Shift From Coal

chinagas

State-owned China Resources (836) (Holdings) Co. plans to combine two of its Hong Kong-traded subsidiaries amid a shift from coal-fired power, sending shares in its electricity generation unit down as much as 11 percent.
China Resources Power Holdings Co., an electricity generator, will offer HK$24.64 a share for all the shares of China Resources Gas Group Ltd. (1193), a [...]

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Panama Canal Cuts Water Use as Drought Prompts Energy Rationing

panama

The Panama Canal is taking preventive measures to reduce water use as a drought prompts electricity rationing in Central America’s fastest-growing economy.
Hydraulic assistance to lift boats as they exit canal locks has been temporarily suspended and two boats will be permitted in a lock at once rather than just one, the Panama Canal Authority said [...]

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Firm pays $33.7M for cleanup of Pennsauken site

penn

A Mount Laurel firm is paying more than $33 million toward a pollution-cleanup project at a Pennsauken Superfund site.
The funds from SL Industries and an affiliate will go toward remediation work at the Puchack well field, which once supplied drinking water to Camden residents. Six wells once owned by the city of Camden have been [...]

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Coal Mines’ Methane Curbs Fall Victim to EPA Budget Cuts

coalmine

Methane emissions from coal mines escaped being curbed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which said mandatory U.S. budget cuts didn’t leave it with the resources to determine if the pollution is a significant risk.
The EPA rejected a petition from environmental groups, which three years ago asked the agency to limit the greenhouse gases released from the mines.
“The [...]

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Forest Service Inflamed by Brooklyn Anti-Fracking Artist’s Smokey the Bear

smokey

Brooklyn-based artist and environmental activist Lopi LaRoe sees Smokey the Bear as a friend. As a kid raised by environmentalists, she grew up with him, she says, and feels a particular connection to the affable but informative cultural touchstone invented by the US Forest Service in 1944. “So I thought it was a perfect culture-jamming [...]

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Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

cia

“Mass surveillance is the hallmark of a tyrannical political culture.”
The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a [...]

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No shortage of green solutions for a better kind of oilsands

oillobby

But there appears to be an overarching problem in execution, which suggests a reluctance to deviate from the status quo and create the space for genuine environmental leadership and innovation.
Take for example the burst of activity and debate sparked by recent media reports that Alberta was considering strengthening its approach to managing greenhouse gas pollution. [...]

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India’s U.S. Drug Rulings Earn Trade Blacklist Spot From Obama Administration

President Obama And Vice President Biden Along With Wives Make Joining Forces Initiative Announcement

The Obama administration placed India on a special trade blacklist Wednesday, a move some public health advocates said was retaliation for the country allowing generic versions of expensive drugs preferred by the U.S. government.
India’s generic drug industry, the world’s largest maker of low-cost medicines, has been the core of a public health revolution in the [...]

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Solar cell maximizes energy output with fewer materials

solarcells

A more efficient and unobtrusive solar cell could be made with fewer materials and less energy, according to University of Michigan research. Silver nanoparticles added to a restructured and thinner silicon layer inside the solar cell captured more light and improved electricity flow. The cell efficiency improved by 8 percent. Solar panels put on roofs [...]

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How Tech Helps and Harms the Environment

greentech

As we celebrate “Earth Week” (its too important for just one day), I can’t help but think about how technology both helps and harms our environment.
On the positive side, tech is helping cut down on the use of some resources. Reading newspapers and documents on screens means chopping down fewer trees for paper. Using email [...]

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LA To End Use Of Coal By 2015

LA

In a major step toward ending the city’s reliance on coal by 2025, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a far-reaching plan to amend its agreement with the Intermountain Power Project in Utah to convert it to renewable energy.
The 12-0 vote instructed the City Attorney’s Office to prepare the final ordinances needed to [...]

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EPA: Keystone XL Pipeline Analysis By State Department Is Not Sufficient

Oil Pipeline Opponents

The Environmental Protection Agency again is raising objections to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from western Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.
Despite more than four years of study, the State Department’s analysis of the project’s environmental impact is “insufficient,” the EPA said Monday.
In a letter to the State Department, the EPA [...]

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Green Illusions

Truthout talks to Ozzie Zehner about Green Illusions:
Every day, the news about climate change and the harms that are sure to accompany it gets worse and worse. To many environmentalists, the answer is simple: power shift. That is, shift from fossil fuels to clean, green, renewable, alternative energy. Well-meaning concerned citizens and activists have jumped [...]

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RePower FL Virtual Conference

Virtual Energy Conference Focuses  on Solutions for Florida Economy, Environment & Consumers

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Powerful solutions are available now to meet energy needs of today and tomorrow. Tapping these solutions will boost environmental quality and economic vitality while helping consumers save energy and be energy secure. The Future Is Now Foundation is hosting a three day [...]

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