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DocWatch capitalist greed Twitterit? News stories about "capitalist greed," with punchlines: http://apocadocs.com/d.pl?capitalist+greed Related Scary Tags: economic myopia  ~ climate impacts  ~ anthropogenic change  ~ carbon emissions  ~ global warming  ~ governmental idiocy  ~ oil issues  ~ short-term thinking  ~ health impacts  ~ corporate malfeasance  ~ contamination   Mon, Jan 11, 2016 from Detroit Free Press: State Police to deliver water door-to-door in Flint Michigan State Police troopers and other state officials will start a door-to-door sweep of Flint on Tuesday to hand out bottled water and water filters... Flint's drinking water was contaminated with lead, and an unknown number of children were poisoned while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager in 2014 and 2015. The emergency manager, to cut costs, switched Flint's water supply source from Lake Huron, supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, to the more polluted and corrosive Flint River. ... Let them drink Flint. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 5, 2016 from Wisconsin State Journal: Pipeline company sues county over moot insurance requirement A Canadian oil pipeline company that is building a tar sands oil pumping station in northeastern Dane County sued the county on Monday over the continued inclusion of permit language requiring it to buy spill insurance, despite a new state law forbidding that requirement.... The state Legislature included language in the state budget, signed by Gov. Scott Walker in July, that prohibits such insurance requirements, but the county zoning committee on Sept. 29 voted to restore the requirement, adding a note that reflects the state law... County Board Chairwoman Sharon Corrigan has said that the board left the insurance requirement in the permit in case a future Legislature changes the law. ... One can always hope. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 28, 2015 from Inside Climate News: Basic Water Source for Most Alberta Tar Sands Could Run Dry "We show that the current and projected surface water allocations from the Athabasca River for the exploitation of the Alberta oil sands are based on an untenable assumption of the representativeness of the short instrumental record."... Tar sands projects are already threatened by a slump in oil prices, as well as pending global action to address climate change. Tar sands drilling is a prominent target of environmental groups and climate activists because the oil emits an estimated three to four times more carbon dioxide when burned than conventional crude. Its water use only adds to the environmental costs. ... Brevity is the soul of "OMG, WTF?" ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Aug 16, 2015 from Christian Science Monitor: World Resource Overdraft: Planet Earth crosses into ecological red Planet Earth crossed into the ecological red Friday. Thursday marked Earth Overshoot Day - the day when the world's population officially exhausts all the natural resources the Earth can generate in a single year, as defined by the sustainability think tank, Global Footprint Network.... GFN estimates that the current population demands the resources of 1.6 Earths. ... Humans have always been overachievers. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jun 10, 2015 from New York Times: Court Gives Obama a Climate Change Win A federal court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the nation's largest coal companies and 14 coal-producing states that sought to block one of President Obama's signature climate change policies... He concluded, "We deny the petitions for review and the petition for a writ of prohibition because the complained-of agency action is not final." ... In other words, coal states prematurely elitigated. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jun 7, 2015 from Bill McKibben, CommonDreams: How Humankind Blew the Fight Against Climate Change ... As Exxon Mobil's Rex Tillerson -- the highest-paid chief executive of the richest fossil fuel firm on the planet -- gave his talk, the death toll from India's heat wave mounted and pictures circulated on the Internet of Delhi's pavement literally melting. Meanwhile, satellite images showed Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf on the edge of disintegration. And how did Tillerson react? By downplaying climate change and mocking renewable energy. To be specific, he said that "inclement weather" and sea level rise "may or may not be induced by climate change," but in any event technology could be developed to cope with any trouble. "Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity and those solutions will present themselves as those challenges become clear,", he said. But apparently those solutions don't include, say, the wind and sun. Exxon Mobil wouldn't invest in renewable energy, Tillerson said, because clean technologies don't make enough money and rely on government mandates that were (remarkable choice of words) "not sustainable." He neglected to mention the report a week earlier from the not-very-radical International Monetary Fund detailing $5.3 trillion a year in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.... ... I'm just glad the status quo has such a well-funded support network! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 19, 2015 from Reuters: Protesters gather in Seattle to block access to Shell oil rig May 18 About 200 protesters gathered at the Port of Seattle on Monday to block access to a Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig headed for the Arctic this summer to resume exploration for oil and gas reserves... Environmental groups have planned days of demonstrations over Shell's plans, saying drilling in the icy Arctic region, where weather changes rapidly, could lead to a catastrophic spill that would be next to impossible to clean up. They also say drilling would threaten the Arctic's vast layer of sea ice that helps regulate the global temperature and that they say has already been disappearing as a result of global warming. ... Don't drill, baby, don't drill! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 14, 2015 from Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio renewable energy policies spurred growth, now driving away business, report says Ohio's renewable energy policies sparked tremendous investment in the industry, but recent moves by state lawmakers have slowed that growth and threaten its future, according to a report released Tuesday. Ohio was No. 13 in the country for new capacity and private investment in wind at the end of 2012, according to the Pew report. However, new investment halted in 2013 because of "uncertainty" created by legislative debate over Ohio's renewable energy standards and the expiration of a federal production tax credit, according to the report. ... Just what the (bad) doctor ordered. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 8, 2014 from New York Times: Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General ...Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year. They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority -- 27 -- of attorneys general's offices. ... You scratch my malfeasant back I'll scratch yours. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 24, 2014 from Public News Service: Poll Finds Support for Climate Action, Despite Some IN Opposition Some of Indiana's leaders have voiced outspoken opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants, but a new poll indicates a majority of voters don't share those views. Melissa Williams, national political director for the Sierra Club, says the group's new post-election poll of voters in six key states finds, regardless of who they supported in the 2014 midterm election, most want congressional action to address climate change. ... If we wanted leaders who listen we would elect listeners NOT leaders. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Nov 19, 2014 from NPR: Senate Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline Bill, In A Close Vote The controversial Keystone XL pipeline project to expand an oil pipeline running from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico has failed the approval of Congress, after the Senate voted against the project Tuesday. The House passed its version of the bill Friday. An early tally showed 35 for and 30 against the bill; subsequent calls for senators' votes failed to net the 60 votes needed for passage. The decisive 41st "No" vote came with 55 votes in favor, and the final tally was 59-41. ... This XL pipeline vote was Xtra close! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Oct 17, 2014 from New York Times: How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties ... With the advent of Citizens United, any players with the wherewithal, and there are surprisingly many of them, can start what are in essence their own political parties, built around pet causes or industries and backing politicians uniquely answerable to them. No longer do they have to buy into the system. Instead, they buy their own pieces of it outright, to use as they see fit. ... The (once) greatest country on earth slips further into malaise. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 30, 2014 from New York Times: President's Drive for Carbon Pricing Fails to Win at Home President Obama stood in the chamber of the United Nations General Assembly last week and urged the world to follow his example and fight global warming. But a major new declaration calling for a global price on carbon -- signed by 74 countries and more than 1,000 businesses and investors -- is missing a key signatory: the United States. The declaration, released by the World Bank the day before Mr. Obama's speech at the United Nations Climate Summit, has been signed by China, Shell, Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola. It calls on all nations to enact laws forcing industries to pay for the carbon emissions that scientists say are the leading cause of global warming. ... Carbon pricing: It's the real solution. ApocaDoc permalink Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish! Sat, Aug 30, 2014 from US Dep: Gross Domestic Product, Second Quarter 2014 (Second Estimate); Corporate Profits, Second Quarter 2014 (Preliminary Estimate) Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2014, according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 2.1 percent. ... I'm beginning to believe that "Growth is Theft (of the future)." ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 13, 2014 from Financial Review: Coal always wins and will stay No. 1, says carbon king Boyce Peabody Energy chief executive Greg Boyce is calling on coal producers to spend more time and money fighting "symbolic" movements against the industry and is confident China will not adopt a cap on carbon emissions. As the anti-coal collective gathers more mainstream backers, St Louis-based Mr Boyce says the industry needs to do more to counter the attacks, particularly the global fossil fuels divestment campaign. But he is confident that "coal always wins out". ... In fact, coal will even vanquish us. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Aug 4, 2014 from Washington Post: Water utilities charge more to offset low-flow toilets, faucets and shower heads Federally mandated low-flow toilets, shower heads and faucets are taking a financial toll on the nation's water utilities, leaving customers to make up the shortfall with higher water rates and new fees that have left many paying more for less. Utility officials say they understand that charging more for water because demand has dropped might seem to violate a basic premise of Economics 101. But utilities that generally charge by the number of gallons used are beginning to feel the financial pinch of 20 years of environmentally friendly fixtures and appliances, as older bathrooms and kitchens have been remodeled, utility experts say. ... The shareholders are thirsty for profit. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Aug 4, 2014 from New York Times: A Dozen States File Suit Against New Coal Rules Twelve states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Friday seeking to block an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to regulate coal-fired power plants in an effort to stem climate change. The plaintiffs are led by West Virginia and include states that are home to some of the largest producers of coal and consumers of coal-fired electricity.... The suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. ... The dirty dozen. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 30, 2014 from Climate Progress: Legislators, Corporations Gather For Secret Meeting Against Clean Energy And You're Not Invited ...Going into their annual meeting in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, ALEC -- the secretive organization that brings together conservative politicians and major corporate interests -- is looking to recalibrate their approach to repealing or obstructing a range of clean energy initiatives after a year of state-level defeats. The 40-year-old group, which has been pushing a corporate-backed, free market-driven agenda for decades, is beholden to a number of utilities and fossil fuel companies that bankroll them and they are expected to show results. At the same time, with renewable energy gaining momentum across the country and homeowners increasingly eager to get in on the rapid growth and falling prices, ALEC risks alienating itself from the public yet again. ... You dirty rats. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 28, 2014 from DeSmog Blog: U.S. Becomes Biggest Oil Producer After Overtaking Saudi Arabia Is President Obama's "all of the above" energy policy a success? Or a climate failure? A report issued recently by Bank of America declared the U.S. has now surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer. The daily output average for the first quarter of 2104 exceeded 11 million barrels, a significant increase from the previous quarters' (Sept-Dec 2013) average of 7 million barrels, according to the International Energy Agency. The expansion of domestic oil production in the U.S. has been significant under President Obama, supported by his "all of the above"--or rather the American Petroleum Institute's "all of the above"--energy strategy which has overseen a four-fold increase in drilling rigs under his administration. ... President Oilbama. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 28, 2014 from The Economist: The elephant in the atmosphere IN SEPTEMBER 2013 a group of institutional investors with $3 trillion of assets under management asked the 45 biggest quoted oil firms how climate change might affect their business and, in particular, whether any of their oil reserves might become "stranded assets"--unusable if laws to curb emissions of carbon dioxide became really tight. Exxon Mobil and Shell are the most recent to get back with their assessment of the risk: zero. "We do not believe that any of our proven reserves will become 'stranded'," says Shell. ... In other words, they'll keep extracting until the earth is fried. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jul 17, 2014 from AFP, via Daily Times (Pakistan): Australia abolishes divisive carbon tax Australia on Thursday axed a divisive carbon tax after years of vexed political debate, in a move criticised as regressive and out of step with the rest of the world. The upper house Senate voted 39-32 to scrap the charge, which was imposed by the former Labor government on major polluters from 2012 in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.... Prime Minister Tony Abbott went to the polls in September with repealing the pollution levy as a central campaign platform, arguing the cost was being passed to consumers, resulting in higher utility bills. "Scrapping the carbon tax is a foundation of the government's economic action strategy," said Abbott, who once said evidence blaming mankind for climate change was "absolute crap". ... Carbon taxes may be a third rail in politics, powered by demagoguery. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 8, 2014 from Bloomberg News: U.S. Seen as Biggest Oil Producer After Overtaking Saudi Arabia The U.S. will remain the world's biggest oil producer this year after overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia as extraction of energy from shale rock spurs the nation's economic recovery, Bank of America Corp. said. U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries this year with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels in the first quarter, the bank said in a report today. The country became the world's largest natural gas producer in 2010. The International Energy Agency said in June that the U.S. was the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids... The U.S., the world's largest oil consumer, still imported an average of 7.5 million barrels a day of crude in April, according to the Department of Energy's statistical arm. ... Insatiable. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jun 15, 2014 from InsideClimate News: EPA Too Fixated on the 'Global' in Global Warming, Says U.S. Chamber Business groups opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency's crackdown on carbon pollution want the Obama administration to stop paying so much attention to the "global" part of global warming... But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the fossil fuel industry are taking the position that when considering whether regulations make economic sense, the government should consider only benefits that accrue directly to Americans--since they'll bear the cost of regulations. ... What could wrong with that attitude? ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jun 8, 2014 from Huffington Post: Will New Climate Regulations Destroy the Economy? (Hint: No.) There is a long history of claims that new rules to protect the environment or human health will seriously harm the United States economy. These claims are political fodder, they are provocative, and they are always wrong. In fact, the evidence shows the opposite: environmental regulations consistently produce enormous net benefits to the economy and to human health. In 2008, for example, the United States' environmental technologies and services industry supported 1.7 million jobs. The industry at that time generated approximately $300 billion in revenues and exported goods and services worth $44 billion... Some polluting industries might suffer, but it is past time to unleash American ingenuity in the name of reducing the devastating threat of climate change. ... We can have our cake and eat it, too? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 25, 2014 from Los Angeles Times: Judge suspends Arctic drilling, orders new environmental report In the ongoing battle over offshore drilling, a federal judge in Alaska told regulators Thursday to redo an environmental impact study that underestimated the amount of recoverable oil and, potentially, the risks to delicate Arctic habitat. The decision by U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline stopped short of scrapping the $2.6 billion in leases, however. His ruling followed an appeals court decision in January that federal officials had arbitrarily decided drilling companies could extract 1 billion barrels of oil from the shallow waters off the northwest coast of Alaska. That figure led to a misguided environmental study, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. ... Sounds like an arctivist judge to me. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 11, 2014 from GreenTech Media: FirstEnergy CEO: Renewables 'Sound Good' but Should Take Backseat to Coal FirstEnergy CEO Anthony Alexander traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to speak in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about the challenges his utility is facing. With electricity use flatlining and renewable energy eroding margins for traditional generators, Alexander was not there to call for more regulatory flexibility to help the utility industry embrace these technologies. Instead, he called for a renewed focus on fossil fuels. "We need to develop a national energy plan that will allow us to take advantage of our vast supply of domestically produced resources -- both coal and natural gas -- and our superior electric system to stimulate and support our economy," he said in prepared statements. Strong promotion of renewables, said Alexander, is a threat to the electric system. ... Sounds like he's putting his business "first" and everything else a distant second. ApocaDoc permalink You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore. Fri, Mar 21, 2014 from Washington Post: The biggest lease holder in Canada's oil sands isn't Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It's the Koch brothers. You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David. The Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres -- an area nearly the size of Delaware -- in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, according to an activist group that studied Alberta provincial records. The Post confirmed the group's findings with Alberta Energy, the provincial government's ministry of energy. Separately, industry sources familiar with oil sands leases said Koch's lease holdings could be closer to two million acres. ... So there is reason behind their madness. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 3, 2014 from Wall Street Journal: Oil Boom Increases Barge Operators' Fortunes The rising tide of North American oil is lifting a lot of barges, as energy companies increasingly turn to rivers and coastal waterways to get U.S. and Canadian crude to refineries. Oil floating on barges from the Midwest down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico coast, for example, is up 13-fold since 2010, as companies find alternate routes where pipelines don't exist or have sufficient capacity. Nearly five million barrels of crude a month is being sent by barge south after companies pump it from North Dakota's Bakken Shale and, increasingly, Canada's oil sands, according to federal data. ... Stevedores rejoice! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 3, 2014 from Washington Post: Five takeaways from State Department's review of the Keystone XL pipeline The State Department has finished its massive environmental review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, down to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would move on to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Bottom line: The report concludes that blocking or approving the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline would not have a "significant" impact on overall greenhouse-gas emissions and future tar-sands expansion. That's because, it argues, most of Alberta's oil will likely find a way to get to the market anyway -- if not by pipeline, then by rail. ... Human conquest of Mother Earth is now complete. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 19, 2014 from Reuters: Canada loses patience on Keystone XL, tells U.S. to decide Canada bluntly told the United States on Thursday to settle the fate of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, saying the drawn-out process on whether to approve the northern leg of the project was taking too long. The hard-line comments by Foreign Minister John Baird were the clearest sign yet that Canada's Conservative government has lost patience over what it sees as U.S. foot-dragging. Baird also conceded that Washington might veto the project, the first admission of its kind by a Canadian government minister. ... Can't we hurry up and get down to the business of wrecking the earth already? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 14, 2014 from Planet Ark: Monsanto critics denied U.S. Supreme Court hearing on seed patents The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Monsanto Co's biotech seed patents on Monday, dealing a blow to a group of organic farmers and other activists trying to stop the biotech company from suing farmers if their fields contain a few plants containing the company's genetically modified traits. The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and a group of dozens of organic and conventional family farmers, seed companies and public advocacy interests sued Monsanto in March 2011. The suit sought to prohibit the company from suing farmers whose fields became inadvertently contaminated with corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and other crops containing Monsanto's genetic modifications. ... Might as well sue the wind. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 7, 2014 from Huffington Post: Disney And Oil Industry Team Up For 'Rocking In Ohio' Event Radio Disney, "home of the hottest kids' music," is teaming up with Ohio's oil and gas industry to teach school kids that pipelines are awesome. "Rocking In Ohio" is an interactive, game show-like presentation entirely funded by the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and presented jointly with Radio Disney. This "special partnership," as they call it, "highlights the importance of Ohio's oil and gas industry, and why science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are crucial in developing energy resources in Ohio," according to the association.... Among the show's stops was a visit to Youngstown's OH WOW!, a children's science and technology center that opened in 2011. Youngstown previously saw a whole year of "rocking in Ohio" as the city was struck by 167 earthquakes between January 2011 and February 2012. A recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research concluded the quakes were linked to an injection well that was used for disposing of the wastewater from oil and gas operations. No earthquakes had been recorded in Youngstown between the late 18th century and 2010, and the tremors have stopped since the well was shut down. ... Brought to you be the same people who made WALL-E. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 2, 2014 from Bloomberg News: Exxon Russia Ambitions Show Oil Trumps Obama-Putin Spats As Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin argue over human rights in Russia and the fate of fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the countries' biggest oil companies are preparing to drill for giant discoveries together in the Arctic Ocean. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and OAO Rosneft (ROSN) are set to start their first Arctic well this year, targeting a deposit that may hold more oil than Norway's North Sea. It will kick off a series of landmark projects and cement an alliance begun in 2011. They also plan to frack shale fields in Siberia, sink a deep-water well in the Black Sea and build a natural-gas export terminal in Russia's Far East. "We have a unique partnership," Glenn Waller, Exxon's Russian chief, said in an interview in Moscow. "They have the world's biggest reserves and we have the largest market capitalization." ... Strange breadfellows, man. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Dec 27, 2013 from London Guardian: Arctic 30 protester: 'Russia owes me a medal' The first environmental activist to leave Russia after more than two months of detention said that Russia owed him a medal rather than a pardon for his work to protect the environment. Dima Litvinov, a Greenpeace campaigner, was the first member of the Arctic 30 to be allowed to leave. His fellow activists are expected to leave Russia in the coming days... Speaking from a train to Helsinski, Litvinov said the Arctic 30 had been warmly received by ordinary Russians, but treated as criminals intent on destroying Russia by government officials. ... The difference between a hero and a criminal is a fine line. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Dec 21, 2013 from Rolling Stone: Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story If you want to understand how people will remember the Obama climate legacy, a few facts tell the tale: By the time Obama leaves office, the U.S. will pass Saudi Arabia as the planet's biggest oil producer and Russia as the world's biggest producer of oil and gas combined. In the same years, even as we've begun to burn less coal at home, our coal exports have climbed to record highs. We are, despite slight declines in our domestic emissions, a global-warming machine: At the moment when physics tell us we should be jamming on the carbon brakes, America is revving the engine. ... Bafrack Coalbama ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Dec 18, 2013 from Terre Haute Tribune-Star: Drilling for oil at ISU: Derrick debuts on campus Drilling started on Monday in what many hope will be the first successful oil well downtown in more than 100 years. Pioneer Oil of Lawrenceville, Ill., brought in more than 20 truckloads of drilling equipment over the weekend, despite heavy snow, and was set to begin boring into the ground Monday afternoon, said Steve Miller, chief financial officer for Pioneer... New drilling technology, including "horizontal drilling," has emerged in the last 10 years, making difficult-to-reach subterranean pools of oil economically viable. Technology now also allows drilling operations to capture gases and odors so that even wells in heavily populated areas are feasible... ... Let's hope the Sycamores don't get sick. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 16, 2013 from Christian Science Monitor: Australia approves coal port near Great Barrier Reef Environmentalists fear that approval for one of the world's largest coal ports and an associated dredging operation to create a 'shipping super-highway' will cause severe damage to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. ... Another reef bites the dust. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Dec 11, 2013 from London Guardian: Russia to boost military presence in Arctic as Canada plots north pole claim The political temperature in the Arctic rose on Tuesday when Vladimir Putin vowed to step up Russia's military presence in the region in response to a claim by Canada to the north pole. In typically trenchant style, the Russian president told his defence chiefs to concentrate on building up infrastructure and military units in the Arctic. He said the region was again key to Russia's national and strategic interests, following a retreat in the post-Soviet period. ... I thought I owned the north pole! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Dec 8, 2013 from InsideClimate News: Worst-Case Scenario for Oil Sands Industry Has Come to Life, Leaked Document Shows As environmentalists began ratcheting up pressure against Canada's tar sands three years ago, one of the world's biggest strategic consulting firms was tapped to help the North American oil industry figure out how to handle the mounting activism. The resulting document, published online by WikiLeaks, offers another window into how oil and gas companies have been scrambling to deal with unrelenting opposition to their growth plans. The document identifies nearly two-dozen environmental organizations leading the anti-oil sands movement and puts them into four categories: radicals, idealists, realists and opportunists -- with how-to's for managing each. It also reveals that the worst-case scenario presented to industry about the movement's growing influence seems to have come to life. ... A fifth category: people who care about their children and grandchildren. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Nov 20, 2013 from London Guardian: Arctic oil spill is certain if drilling goes ahead, says top scientist A serious oil spill in the Arctic is a "dead cert" if drilling goes ahead, with potentially devastating consequences for the pristine region, according to a leading marine scientist who played a key role in analysis of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The warning came as Russia filed court orders this week to have Greenpeace activists and journalists kept in prison for a further three months in prison before their trial over a protest at Arctic oil dirlling. Concerns about the potentially dire consequences of drilling for oil in the region have intensified as the Russian government and others have begun exploration under the Arctic seas. In such a cold region, any spill would be much more troublesome, because the oil would not naturally disperse as it does in warmer waters, and because of the difficulty of mounting a clean-up operation in hostile weather conditions. ... Imagine... A polar bear covered in oil. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Nov 20, 2013 from The Hindu: G77+China group walk out after stalemate on Loss and Damage modalities The G77+China group of 133 countries walked out of negotiations on Loss and Damage at around 3:30 am on Wednesday morning after the rich countries refused to budge from the position that the subject should be discussed only after 2015. The U.S., Australia and Canada have been the most vocal and trenchant advocates against setting up a separate mechanism on Loss and Damage while the E.U., though not belligerent, has also played a part to make sure the mechanism does not materialise at the Warsaw meeting.... While poor countries look upon Loss and Damage reparation for the damage caused by inevitable climate change which any amount of adaptation cannot avoid, the developed countries desire that the issue be defanged from any kind of legal liability it may impose upon the key countries with highest historic emissions. ... When you're rich you can afford to wait ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Nov 15, 2013 from Midwest Energy News: Wisconsin bill would grant wide latitude to sue wind farms Wisconsin legislators are scheduled to take up a bill next week that would make it easier for people to sue for perceived health symptoms and property value impacts they attribute to wind turbines. Under the proposal, anyone living within 1.5 miles of a wind turbine could sue for damages related to physical or emotional suffering, loss of property value, moving expenses, or lost profits, and the wind farm owner or operator would be forced to pick up the tab for the plaintiffs' attorney fees... Opponents say the bill (SB167), if passed, would effectively put an end to wind development in Wisconsin and potentially drive up electricity rates in the state. ... Our efforts to save the planet are now becalmed. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Nov 9, 2013 from Globe and Mail: Oil industry successfully lobbied Ottawa to delay climate regulations, e-mails show In e-mails the Alberta government released under Access to Information, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers warns against the province's proposal that oil-sands companies be forced to gradually cut emissions per barrel by 40 per cent, and pay a $40 levy for every tonne in excess their target. That would add $1 to the cost of producing every barrel.... Greenpeace Canada researcher Keith Stewart questioned CAPP's insistence that a $1-per-barrel carbon tax would seriously undermine the oil sands' competitiveness. He noted that, in the debate over the Keystone XL project, the industry has said approval of the pipeline would not affect investment or production levels in the oil sands because companies would turn to rail to move crude, which would cost $5 more per barrel. "The industry in these documents is clearly saying delay, delay, delay and then do as little as possible," Mr. Stewart said on Friday. "And the federal government seems to be taking that as marching orders." ... Delaying the inevitable regulatory response to climate catastrophe is an investment in the present. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Oct 31, 2013 from Center for Public Integrity: Coal industry's go-to law firm withheld evidence of black lung, at expense of sick miners ...Jackson Kelly, with offices throughout Appalachia, as well as in Denver and Washington, D.C., defends companies accused of polluting the environment, marketing dangerous drugs or discriminating against workers. It helps corporations avoid regulations, drafts bills and lobbies legislators. Its bailiwick, though, is mining. U.S. News & World Report recently named it the nation's top firm in mining law. Jackson Kelly's name is on the lips of clinic workers, miners and lawyers throughout Appalachia and is emblazoned atop an office overlooking the Monongahela River in Morgantown, W.Va. Now, with government scientists documenting a resurgence of black lung disease, the firm's legal strategy -- including, the Center for Public Integrity found, a record of withholding evidence -- could have significant consequences for sick miners and their families. ... Coal is cheap and so, apparently, is human life. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 23, 2013 from Al Jazeera: Gulf ecosystem in crisis after BP spill Hundreds of kilograms of oily debris on beaches, declining seafood catches, and other troubling signs point towards an ecosystem in crisis in the wake of BP's 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. "It's disturbing what we're seeing," Louisiana Oyster Task Force member Brad Robin told Al Jazeera. "We don't have any more baby crabs, which is a bad sign. We're seeing things we've never seen before." Robin, a commercial oyster fisherman who is also a member of the Louisiana Government Advisory Board, said that of the sea ground where he has harvested oysters in the past, only 30 percent of it is productive now.... Louisiana's Republican Governor Bobby Jindal ... recently said, "Three and a half years later, BP is spending more money - I want you to hear this - they are spending more money on television commercials than they have on actually restoring the natural resources they impacted." ... That may explain why, when I see oily beach debris, I think of puppies. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 23, 2013 from Huffington Post: Watchdog Report Finds Pipeline Regulators Spent More Time With Industry Than On Oil Spills The Transportation Department office charged with overseeing the 2.6 million miles of pipelines in the United States is spending more time at oil and gas industry conferences than it is addressing spills and other incidents, a watchdog group contends in a new report. Between 2007 and 2012, staff from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration spent 2,807 days at conferences, meetings and other events sponsored by the oil, gas and pipeline industries, according to the report from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). That's nearly three times as many as the 970 days the staffers spent responding to spills, explosions and other significant incidents on the pipelines they regulate. ... Fiddling while Rome is covered in oil. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 9, 2013 from Reuters: Special Report: U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes ...In golf clubs, gated communities and other housing developments across the United States, tens of thousands of families ... have in recent years moved into new homes where their developers or homebuilders, with little or no prior disclosure, kept all the underlying mineral rights for themselves, a Reuters review of county property records in 25 states shows. In dozens of cases, the buyers were in the dark. The phenomenon is rooted in recent advances in extracting oil and gas from shale formations deep in the earth, fueling the biggest energy boom in modern U.S. history. Horizontal drilling and the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," have opened vast swaths of the continental United States to exploration. ... Now THAT'S what I call getting frucked! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 2, 2013 from Huffington Post: Illinois Residents Call on State & National Groups to Join Gov. Quinn Petition: Stop Lying to Kids on Coal Outraged by the misleading information on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity's website for children on coal, former coal miners and citizen groups in the coal country of southern Illinois have launched a CREDO petition to bring the state's infamous coal education fiasco to an end. Calling on statewide and national citizens groups and education organizations to join their efforts, the petition goes straight to the point: Gov. Quinn: Stop Lying to Kids About Coal. As part of a coal education curriculum that has been widely denounced as inaccurate, deceiving and outdated--at best--the state continues to host a website for kids rife with erroneous marketing lingo that overlooks the workplace crisis of black lung disease among coal miners, as well as rising health and environmental costs from coal mining and burning, and climate change. The petition also cites a recent study that found the state of Illinois loses nearly $20 million annually to maintain the coal industry. ... Hey, kids, your future's so blighted you gotta wear shades. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 30, 2013 from Associated Press: Big freighter traverses Northwest Passage for 1st time A large freighter completed a voyage through the hazardous Arctic Northwest Passage for the first time this week, showing the potential for cutting shipment times and costs as global warming opens new routes. The 75,000 deadweight-ton Nordic Orion, built in 2011 by a Japanese shipyard, left the Canadian Pacific port of Vancouver in early September and is scheduled to arrive in the Finnish port of Pori on October 7, according to AIS shipping data.... As the ice continues to melt, some experts have estimated that shipping via the Arctic could account for a quarter of the cargo traffic between Europe and Asia by 2030. ... Let the feeding frenzy begin... ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 30, 2013 from Bloomberg: Credits to Spur Renewable Energy Sources Seen Set to End: Taxes Tax credits for the production of wind power and other renewable energy sources face expiration at year's end amid few signs Congress will decide to continue them, tax lobbyists and other analysts say. Failure to extend the 16 tax credits could stymie the development of wind power and the other renewables by undercutting incentives to invest in them, Bloomberg BNA reported... In addition to the 2.3 cent-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit for wind, geothermal and closed-loop biomass, other expiring energy incentives include a $1 per-gallon credit for biodiesel producers, a $1.01 per gallon credit for cellulosic ethanol and multiple credits for energy-efficient homes and appliances. ... Dear God, please protect the tens of billions gifted to the fossil fuel industry each year... ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 25, 2013 from Science Daily: Whale Mass Stranding Attributed to Sonar Mapping for First Time An independent scientific review panel has concluded that the mass stranding of approximately 100 melon-headed whales in the Loza Lagoon system in northwest Madagascar in 2008 was primarily triggered by acoustic stimuli, more specifically, a multi-beam echosounder system operated by a survey vessel contracted by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production (Northern Madagascar) Limited.... Based on these findings, there is cause for concern over the impact of noise on marine mammals as these high-frequency mapping sonar systems are used by various stakeholders including the hydrocarbon industry, military, and research vessels used by other industries. The report concluded: "The potential for behavioral responses and indirect injury or mortality from the use of similar MBES [multi-beam echosounder systems] should be considered in future environmental assessments, operational planning and regulatory decisions." ... HEY! WHALES! STOP GOING CRAZY JUST BECAUSE OF OUR INCREDIBLY LOUD SOUNDS! WE NEED THAT CHEAP ENERGY! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 21, 2013 from Mother Jones: The Solar Industry's New Dirty Secret It's no secret that manufacturing solar panels often requires toxic heavy metals, explosive gases, and rare-earth elements that come from shoddy mines in war-torn republics. But here's a surprise: The solar industry is actually getting dirtier in some respects. The latest Solar Scorecard from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), released last week, reports that the industry has slipped on several key environmental metrics, with many solar-panel manufacturers now refusing to provide any information about their manufacturing practices at all. ... The Sun: She never hides the truth. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 13, 2013 from Midwest Energy News: Q&A: ALEC's new tactics to weaken renewable laws The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) continued its assault on state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) during its 40th annual conference in Chicago earlier this month, with members voting on model legislation that could limit the power of the laws to spark new clean energy construction. Though bills meant to revoke or undercut renewable standards in numerous states failed last session, clean energy advocates say the model Market Power Renewables Act and the Renewable Energy Credit Act proposed by ALEC's energy task force during the conference pose a fresh threat. The Market Power Renewables Act argues for a "voluntary market" that would allow people to invest in renewable energy if they choose without instituting mandates... ... The only thing "voluntary" the fossil fuel industry does is voluntarily ruin the earth. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 7, 2013 from Contra Costa Times: Chevron pleads no contest to criminal charges stemming from Richmond refinery fire Chevron will pay $2 million in fines and restitution after pleading no contest Monday to six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a fire at its Richmond refinery last year. Chevron attorneys accepted the terms, including 3 1/2 years of probation, $1.28 million in fines, and more than $720,000 in restitution payments to three different agencies. ... Chevron profit for 2012 was $26 billion. Two million is chump change! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 30, 2013 from Grantham Research Institute/Carbon Tracker: Investing in vapor: financial risks of stranded fossil fuel investments (PDF) ... The modelling used in previous analyses by Carbon Tracker and the IEA showed that the carbon budget for a 2 degree C scenario would be around 565 - 886 billion tonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) to 2050.... This budget, however, is only a fraction of the carbon embedded in the world's indicated fossil fuel reserves, which amount to 2,860Gt CO2. A precautionary approach means only 20 percent of total fossil fuel reserves can be burnt to 2050. As a result the global economy already faces the prospect of assets becoming stranded, with the problem only likely to get worse if current investment trends continue - in effect, a carbon bubble. ... I'm banking on the bubble keeping the balloon afloat! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 17, 2013 from Mother Jones: Mining Company Deploys More Masked Militiamen Against "Eco-Terrorists" Debate over a proposed open-pit iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin went from heated to outright bizarre last week when masked guards brandishing assault rifles showed up at the site in the remote and scenic wilderness of Penokee Hills. Local activist Rob Ganson, 56, first came upon three heavily armed guards while leading a small group on a hike to view the mining site. (The drilling site is on private land, but the owner has been given a tax break in exchange for keeping it open to public use.) The guards, said Ganson, carried semi-automatic guns, were dressed in camouflage, and wore masks covering their faces. "As you can imagine, it was quite a shock for five middle-aged people out for a walk," he said. Ganson tried to engage the guards, but was "met with stony-faced silence."... Gov. Scott Walker signed sweeping changes to the state's mining regulations into law in March, thus allowing the mine to move forward. The new law, which creates a separate set of laws for taconite mining, abbreviates the permitting process, reduces the number of opportunities for public comment, and weakens rules on dumping mine waste into wetlands and waterways. ... Wisconsin: Forward into darkness! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 17, 2013 from DeSmogBlog: Keystone XL Conflict of Interest: Obama Attorney's Law Firm Represents TransCanada A recent DeSmogBlog investigation reveals that Robert Bauer, former White House Counsel and President Obama's personal attorney, works at the corporate law firm Perkins Coie LLP, which does legal work for TransCanada's South Central Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Project, formerly known as Alaska Gas Pipeline Project. Furthermore, Dan Sullivan, current Commissioner of Alaska's Department of Natural Resources, and former Alaska Attorney General and former Assistant Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, is also a former Perkins attorney. ... It's as if everybody's in bed together! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 15, 2013 from OccupyMonsanto: Monsanto Patent Rejected by Indian Government and Rejection Upheld, Saving Small Farmers On 5th July, Hon Justice Prabha Sridevi, Chair of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India, and Hon Shri DPS Parmar, technical member, dismissed Monsanto's appeal against the rejection of their patent application to the Patent office for "Methods of Enhancing Stress Tolerance in plants and methods thereof." The title of the patent was later amended to "A method of producing a transgenic plant, with increasing heat tolerance, salt tolerance or drought tolerance".... 270,000 farmers in India have committed suicide in India in the last decade and a half. Most of these suicides are in the cotton belt. Monsanto now controls 95 percent of the cotton seed supply through its GMO Bt cotton, and the associated Intellectual property claims. Costs of cotton seed jumped 8000 percent with the introduction of Bt cotton. In defining seed as their creation and invention, corporations like Monsanto shaped the Global Intellectual Property and Patent Laws so that they could prevent farmers from seed saving and sharing and force them into dependence on their patented GMO seeds. This is how the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of the World Trade Organization was born. ... 8,000 percent seems pretty reasonable to me. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 3, 2013 from Reuters: Judge tosses SEC's resource payment disclosure rule A U.S. judge tossed out on Tuesday a new rule requiring oil, natural gas and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments, in a blow to U.S. securities regulators and human rights groups. U.S. District Judge John Bates said the Securities and Exchange Commission erred in its interpretation of part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law that called for the rule and did not properly consider requests for relief. Proponents of the resource extraction rule, including international relief organization Oxfam America, say it would help combat corruption and wasteful spending in resource-rich nations. But business groups say it would cost billions of dollars and yield little shareholder benefit. ... And the shareholders shall inherit (what's left of) the earth. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 10, 2013 from Washington Post: Carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2012, IEA report says Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued Monday. The agency said continuing that pace could mean a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much as 5.3 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), which IEA chief economist Fatih Birol warned "would be a disaster for all countries." ... Sounds like hell on earth. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 3, 2013 from Associated Press: Exxon CEO concerned about world's poor? Tillerson says cutting oil use to fight climate change would make poverty reduction harder The CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. says there's no quick replacement for oil, and sharply cutting oil's use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would make it harder to lift 2 billion people out of poverty. "What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?” CEO Rex Tillerson said at the oil giant's annual meeting Wednesday. Tillerson jousted with environmental activists who proposed that the company set goals to reduce emissions from its products and operations. Shareholders sided with the company and voted nearly 3-to-1 to reject the proposal. ... Shareholders don't like to share when it comes to the earth. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 3, 2013 from Bloomberg: TransCanada CEO says Keystone aids jobs and environment TransCanada Corp. (TRP)'s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline would benefit U.S. employment and support efforts to tackle climate change, according to the company's Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling. ... And smoking is good for you, too! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, May 25, 2013 from Tom Englehardt: Terracide: The Biggest Criminal Enterprise in History We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the conscious destruction of aspects of the environment: ecocide. But we don't have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on, the world as humanity had known it until, historically speaking, late last night. A possibility might be "terracide" from the Latin word for earth. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.... And yes, when it comes to terror attacks, the Boston Marathon bombings weren't pretty either. But in both cases, those who committed the acts paid for or will pay for their crimes. In the case of the terrarists -- and here I'm referring in particular to the men who run what may be the most profitable corporations on the planet, giant energy companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell -- you're the one who's going to pay, especially your children and grandchildren. You can take one thing for granted: not a single terrarist will ever go to jail, and yet they certainly knew what they were doing. ... Terrarism in the name of the Profit is still a crime. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, May 13, 2013 from Associated Press: Plans to export US natural gas stir debate A domestic natural gas boom already has lowered U.S. energy prices while stoking fears of environmental disaster. Now U.S. producers are poised to ship vast quantities of gas overseas as energy companies seek permits for proposed export projects that could set off a renewed frenzy of fracking. Expanded drilling is unlocking enormous reserves of crude oil and natural gas, offering the potential of moving the country closer to its decades-long quest for energy independence. Yet as the industry looks to profit from foreign markets, there is the specter of higher prices at home and increased manufacturing costs for products from plastics to fertilizers. ... A fwacking fwenzy? Vewy fwightening! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, May 13, 2013 from RT: US approves new pesticides linked to mass bee deaths as EU enacts ban In the wake of a massive US Department of Agriculture report highlighting the continuing large-scale death of honeybees, environmental groups are left wondering why the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to approve a "highly toxic" new pesticide.... One group, Beyond Pesticides, has called the EPA's recent green light for use of a new insecticide known as sulfoxaflor irresponsible in light of its "highly toxic” classification for honey bees. ... Here in the US we expect our bees to toughen up. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 8, 2013 from Al Jazeera: Climate talks end inconclusively, again Another week of international climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany on Friday, but there was little mid-level bureaucrats could do when world leaders remain in thrall to the fossil fuel industry, say environmentalists. ... Sources say Al Jazeera is in thrall to the fossil fuel industry. Perhaps not? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 7, 2013 from Greenwire: EPA to defend its greenhouse gas emission rules tomorrow U.S. EPA will return to court tomorrow to defend its regulations for fighting climate change from multiple challenges by Texas and industry groups. At issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit are two cases that center on EPA's implementation of greenhouse gas air emissions standards under the Clean Air Act after the agency determined the emissions endangered public health. ... Amazing that the health of the populace needs to be justified in some way. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 23, 2013 from Bloomberg News: U.S. States Turn Against Renewable Energy as Gas Plunges More than half the U.S. states with laws requiring utilities to buy renewable energy are considering ways to pare back those mandates after a plunge in natural gas prices brought on by technology that boosted supply. Sixteen of the 29 states with renewable portfolio standards are considering legislation that would reduce the need for wind and solar power, according to researchers backed by the U.S. Energy Department. North Carolina lawmakers may be among the first to move, followed by Colorado and Connecticut. The efforts could benefit U.S. utilities such as Duke Energy Corp (DUK). and PG&E Corp (PCG). as well as Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM)., the biggest U.S. oil producer, and Peabody Energy Corp (BTU)., the largest U.S. coal mining company. ... A veritable rogue's gallery of profiteers. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 23, 2013 from Los Angeles Times: EPA criticizes environmental review of Keystone XL pipeline The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday criticized the State Department's environmental impact review of the Keystone XL pipeline, saying there was not enough evidence to back up key conclusions on gas emissions, safety and alternative routes. In a letter to top State Department officials, the agency said it had "environmental objections" to their review, which concluded the pipeline would have minimal impact on the environment. The analysis could complicate efforts to win approval for the controversial $7-billion project. ... Ooo-boy! Gonna be some fisticuffs at the Fed! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 23, 2013 from Sydney Morning Herald: Indonesian forest open for mining, logging A mining company has boasted of an Indonesian government decision to free up 1.2 million hectares of virgin forest in Aceh for commercial exploitation. The announcement to the Canadian stock exchange late on Tuesday was met with disbelief by environmental groups worried about endangered orang-utans, Sumatran tigers, rhinos and elephants across the heavily forested region. But Ed Rochette, chief executive of Canadian mining company East Asia Minerals, celebrated the ''good progress and positive news for mineral extraction in the area''. The company's announcement quotes Anwar, chairman of the Aceh government's spatial planning committee, as saying the Indonesian forestry ministry had accepted ''almost 100 per cent of the province's new spatial plan'' that would ''zone large blocks of previously protected forest for mineral extraction, timber concessions and oil palm plantations''. ... "Orangs and Tigers and 'phants, oh my!" ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 15, 2013 from Politico: Environmentalists fear weaker fracking rule Environmentalists fear the oil and gas industry has the Obama administration's ear as the government prepares to release a new draft rule to govern fracking on federal lands. Though the Interior Department has yet to release an official draft, each subsequent leaked version contains less of what environmental groups want, the activists say, taking the rule further away from its potential of setting strict standards for the industry. "What we see is every step of the way, these rules are getting weaker,” said Fran Hunt, senior Washington representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Natural Gas campaign. ... Perhaps we'll end up with guidelines instead, which are rules with wiggle room. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 9, 2013 from Planet Ark: Greens ask U.S. to delay Keystone decision after Arkansas leak Environmental groups on Monday asked the Obama administration to extend the approval process of the Keystone XL pipeline, using last month's spill of heavy Canadian crude oil in Arkansas as their latest reason to delay the project. The Obama administration is deciding whether to approve the Canada-to-Nebraska leg of TransCanada Corp's proposed pipeline, which would link Canada's oil sands, the world's third richest crude oil deposit, to refineries in Texas. The State Department, which issued a draft environmental assessment of the $5.3 billion project on March 1, indicated then that a final decision could come by July or August. ... Remember the Mayflower! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 8, 2013 from TomDispatch: Is the Keystone XL Pipeline the "Stonewall" of the Climate Movement? ...Recently, I had a long talk with an administration insider who kept telling me that, for the next decade, we should focus all our energies on "killing coal." Why? Because it was politically feasible. And indeed we should, but climate-change science makes it clear that we need to put the same sort of thought and creative energy into killing oil and natural gas, too. I mean, the Arctic -- from Greenland to its seas -- essentially melted last summer in a way never before seen. The frozen Arctic is like a large physical feature. It's as if you woke up one morning and your left arm was missing.... ... And, the missing arm returned to choke you to death! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 5, 2013 from HSBC, via GoFossilFree: Oil & Carbon Futures Revisited The IEA(s World Energy Outlook (2012 edition) estimated that in order to have a 50 percent chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees C, only a third of current fossil fuel reserves can be burned before 2050. The balance could be regarded as "unburnable."... In a low-carbon world, defined as limiting future CO2 emissions until 2050 to 1,440Gt, oil demand would fall post 2010. Gas demand would continue to grow but at a slower rate than currently. This means some potential oil and gas developments would no longer be needed. ... Price risk a material threat: Although not directly related to 'unburnable' carbon, a greater risk to the [oil] sector would be if lower demand led to lower oil and gas prices. In that case, the potential value at risk could rise to 40-60 percent of market cap. Low costs are the key: Because of its long-term nature, we doubt the market is pricing in the risk of a loss of value from this issue. ... This bottle is half-full of risky value. Or is that half-empty of valuable risk? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Mar 29, 2013 from Guardian: Ecuador auctions off Amazon to Chinese oil firms Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China's insatiable thirst for energy.... On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of Chinese oil companies at a Hilton hotel in central Beijing, on the fourth leg of a roadshow to publicise the bidding process. Previous meetings in Ecuador's capital, Quito, and in Houston and Paris were each confronted with protests by indigenous groups.... According to the California-based NGO Amazon Watch, seven indigenous groups who inhabit the land claim that they have not consented to oil projects, which would devastate the area's environment and threaten their traditional way of life.... In an interview, Ecuador's secretary of hydrocarbons, Andr�s Donoso Fabara, accused indigenous leaders of misrepresenting their communities to achieve political goals. "These guys with a political agenda, they are not thinking about development or about fighting against poverty," he said. Fabara said the government had decided not to open certain blocks of land to bidding because it lacked support from local communities. "We are entitled by law, if we wanted, to go in by force and do some activities even if they are against them," he said. "But that's not our policy." ... This is what kleptocracy looks like. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 20, 2013 from Guardian: Monbiot: Japan's 'frozen gas' is worthless if we take climate change seriously There's only one way of knowing whether or not governments are serious about climate change: have they decided to leave most of their fossil fuel reserves in the ground? We have already discovered far more carbon than we can afford to burn, if we are not to commit the world to very dangerous levels of heating. Only if most of it - four-fifths according to a detailed estimate - is left where it sits is there a good chance of preventing more than 2 degrees C of global warming. Forgive me if you've heard me say this many times before. But it is the only point that is really worth making. It doesn't matter how many wind turbines you build, or energy-saving lightbulbs you install, or more economical cars you manufacture: unless most of our fossil fuel reserves are declared off-limits they will, sooner or later, be extracted and burned. The question of whether it is sooner or whether it is later makes little difference: we have already identified more underground carbon than we can afford to burn between now and the year 3000.... Like all the nations which continue to extend the fossil fuel frontier (such as Britain, where companies intend to start producing gas through fracking) Japan is adding to the mountain of fossil fuels we cannot responsibly burn. The brave new technology it has developed, now lauded in the media, would be worthless in a world that took climate change seriously. ... George, whattaya tryna do, derail the economic recovery? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 19, 2013 from London Guardian: China pours cash into melting Arctic in bid to win influence At face value, it is not one of the world's most important relationships. When Norway and China fell out two years ago over a Nobel prize awarded to a Chinese dissident, the spat had little wider resonance. But diplomatic relations are thawing as quickly as Arctic ice �" and the upshot could be significant for the frigid northern wastes of the planet, which are thought to sit on formidable quantities of mineral reserves. China has been cosying up to Arctic countries as part of its effort to secure "permanent observer" status on the Arctic Council, an eight-country political body that decides regional policy. Norway was initially sniffy at the approaches because of the Nobel row, but appears to have changed its tune before a formal decision in May. ... It's Norway or the highway! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 19, 2013 from NPR: Where The Bank Really Keeps Your Money Cyprus has about as many residents as the Bronx. All Cypriot banks combined are smaller than the 30th-largest U.S. bank. So why is the country's financial system front-page news today? The answer, in large part, comes down to two words: Deposit insurance. Deposit insurance is one of those boring-sounding finance terms that's central to the way the world works today. Everybody is freaking out over Cyprus because the country just called into question the sanctity of deposit insurance. Deposit insurance was invented because of a frightening fact: Even the most boring, safe, neighborhood bank is in a crazy, risky business. A bank takes money people put in checking and savings accounts -- money those people are allowed to withdraw at any time -- and lends it out to people who don't have to pay it back for 30 years.... In Cyprus, deposit insurance covers accounts up to 100,000 euros. At least, it was supposed to. But this weekend, the country broke the fundamental promise of deposit insurance..... ... I thought generalized environmental collapse was scary, but this... is serious! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 18, 2013 from Huffington Post: Bills Pushed By State Legislators Would Make Farm Animal Abuse Investigations More Difficult in a pushback led by the meat and poultry industries, state legislators across the country are introducing laws making it harder for animal welfare advocates to investigate cruelty and food safety cases. Some bills make it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation. Others make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant...the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank backed by business interests... has labeled those who interfere with animal operations "terrorists," though a spokesman said he wishes now that the organization had called its legislation the "Freedom to Farm Act" rather than the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act." ... I say let's call it the "Freedom to Do Whatever the Hell We Want That Ensures Profit for our Shareholders." ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 18, 2013 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Company could nearly double pipeline capacity Enbridge Inc. is seeking approval from the U.S. State Department to sharply upgrade its oil delivery from Canada's tar sands region to Superior, according to government documents published on Friday. Enbridge potentially could nearly double its capacity, the documents showed, indicating that the Canadian firm has plans to transport more oil through Wisconsin than previously reported.... Enbridge has occasionally struggled with pipeline problems, including a massive spill in 2010 that required the cleanup of 819,000 gallons of oil that entered a creek and then flowed into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. ... What could go wrong? ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Mar 16, 2013 from Bloomberg: Cradle of Mankind Offers Kenyans Three Centuries of Oil The U.K.'s Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) and Canada's Africa Oil Corp (AOI). found crude at two wells last year and now plan as many as 11 more test wells in 2013. The valley could yield 10 billion barrels, Tullow estimates, enough to supply Kenya for three centuries or the U.S. for about 18 months.... With the continent's oil industry centered on Nigeria in West Africa, East Africa has been largely overlooked. Of the more than 30,000 wells drilled in Africa, fewer than 500 were in East Africa, according to Afren Plc (AFR), an oil explorer active in the region. "There was a giant under-explored hole on the map," Africa Oil Chief Executive Officer Keith Hill said in an interview in Nairobi. "Now the world has woken up to East Africa. I've never seen a basin of this magnitude." ... Cradle... to grave. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 12, 2013 from Truthout: Tar Sands Resistance Escalates in Massachusetts The national week of actions against the Keystone XL pipeline called for by the nonviolent direct action group Tar Sands Blockade is supposed to run from March 16-23. Activists in Massachusetts decided they wanted to turn up the heat a little early. On Monday, March 11, 2013, at about 10:30 AM, over 100 protesters stormed the Massachusetts offices of TransCanada, the company that stands to profit most from the pipeline's construction. After two hours, 26 people were arrested for handcuffing their bodies together, blockading the entrance and refusing to leave until the pipeline project was abandoned. The action was billed as a Funeral for Our Future and included somber songs, construction paper flowers and a homemade coffin. This was the third protest as part of an escalating direct action campaign in Westborough, Massachusetts, targeting the TransCanada offices there. ... It's getting hot in here so take off all your clothes. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 12, 2013 from Grist: 'State Department' Keystone XL Report Actually Written By TransCanada Contractor The State Department's "don't worry" environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, released late Friday afternoon, was written not by government officials but by a private company in the pay of the pipeline's owner. The "sustainability consultancy" � Environmental Resources Management (ERM) was paid an undisclosed amount under contract to TransCanada to write the statement, which is now an official government document. The statement estimates, and then dismisses, the pipeline's massive carbon footprint and other environmental impacts, because, it asserts, the mining and burning of the tar sands is unstoppable. ... This isn't a conflict of interest, it's a confluence of interest. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 11, 2013 from New York Times: No to Keystone. Yes to Crazy. I HOPE the president turns down the Keystone XL oil pipeline. (Who wants the U.S. to facilitate the dirtiest extraction of the dirtiest crude from tar sands in Canada's far north?) But I don't think he will. So I hope that Bill McKibben and his 350.org coalition go crazy. I'm talking chain-themselves-to-the-White-House-fence-stop-traffic-at-the-Capitol kind of crazy, because I think if we all make enough noise about this, we might be able to trade a lousy Keystone pipeline for some really good systemic responses to climate change. We don't get such an opportunity often -- namely, a second-term Democratic president who is under heavy pressure to approve a pipeline to create some jobs but who also has a green base that he can't ignore. So cue up the protests, and pay no attention to people counseling rational and mature behavior. ... We're already crazy in love with Mother Earth! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 6, 2013 from InsideClimate News: Critical Part of Keystone Report Done by Firms with Deep Oil Industry Ties The State Department's recent conclusion that the Keystone XL pipeline "is unlikely to have a substantial impact" on the rate of Canada's oil sands development was based on analysis provided by two consulting firms with ties to oil and pipeline companies that could benefit from the proposed project. EnSys Energy has worked with ExxonMobil, BP and Koch Industries, which own oil sands production facilities and refineries in the Midwest that process heavy Canadian crude oil. Imperial Oil, one of Canada's largest oil sands producers, is a subsidiary of Exxon. ICF International works with pipeline and oil companies but doesn't list specific clients on its website. It declined to comment on the Keystone, referring questions to the State Department. ... That fox we hired to guard hen house? He's eating all the hens! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 5, 2013 from Minneapolis Star Tribune: Canadian crude oil finds a new pathway through Minnesota If President Obama rejects the Keystone XL pipeline, large quantities of the Canadian oil it's designed to carry will still roll into the United States -- on railroads with tracks through Minnesota. The proposed pipeline across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska has provoked opposition from environmental activists who say extraction of crude oil from tar sands increases greenhouse gases that cause global warming. As anti-pipeline groups have pressed the White House to kill the project, the oil and railroad industries have been building oil-loading terminals and buying tank cars to ship Canadian crude oil by rail. ... The show must go on. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 26, 2013 from Associated Press: High-stakes trial begins over 2010 Gulf oil spill BP put profits ahead of safety and bears most of the blame for the disastrous 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a U.S. Justice Department attorney charged Monday at the opening of a trial that could result in the oil company and its partners being forced to pay tens of billions of dollars more in damages... Justice Department attorney Mike Underhill said the catastrophe resulted from BP's "culture of corporate recklessness." "The evidence will show that BP put profits before people, profits before safety and profits before the environment," Underhill said in opening statements. He added: "Despite BP's attempts to shift the blame to other parties, by far the primary fault for this disaster belongs to BP." ... Buggered by its quest for Profits. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 15, 2013 from London Guardian: Ecuadorean tribe will 'die fighting' to defend rainforest In what looks set to be one of the most one-sided struggles in the history of Amazon forest conservation, an indigenous community of about 400 villagers is preparing to resist the Ecuadorean army and one of the biggest oil companies in South America. The Kichwa tribe on Sani Isla, who were using blowpipes two generations ago, said they are ready to fight to the death to protect their territory, which covers 70,000 hectares of pristine rainforest. Petroamazonas - the state-backed oil company - have told them it will begin prospecting on 15 January, backed by public security forces. Community members are launching a last-ditch legal battle to stop the state-run firm assisted by a British businesswoman, who is married to the village shaman, and who was recently appointed to run the local eco lodge. ... Hollywood, are you paying attention? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 14, 2013 from London Independent: Made in Britain: The toxic tetraethyl lead used in fuel sold to world's poorest A British company convicted of bribing foreign officials to maintain sales of a poisonous lead fuel additive is continuing to sell the chemical abroad to unstable countries, despite mounting evidence that it is responsible for long- term damage to human health and may be linked to violent crime. ... In America, we call that trickle-down. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 7, 2013 from InsideClimate News: The Year Ahead in Keystone XL: Climate Worry Introduces Big Unknown After years of protests and lobbying, the Obama administration is expected to decide within months on the fate of the 1,200-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline. The State Department is finalizing a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for the project, which would ship tar sands oil from Canada, through America's heartland, and to the Gulf Coast via other pipelines.... For most of 2012, climate disappeared from the political agenda -- including from the administration's discussions of the Keystone XL -- but the issue unexpectedly gained the national spotlight post-Sandy. It remains unclear how, or whether, global warming will be addressed in the forthcoming SEIS and, more generally, by Obama in his second term. ... Let's hope for another disaster! Oh, wait... ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 7, 2013 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green-power, low-energy users get brunt of utility rate increase The sting of the We Energies rate increase that just went into effect will hurt most for those who use less energy and those who buy green power ... a We Energies customer who uses about half as much power as a typical customer will see bills jump by nearly 7 percent, whereas residential bills overall will rise by 5.6 percent, to about $90 a month. Meanwhile, the premium paid by We Energies' green-power customers went up 74 percent, according to the PSC. That means an average customer who's paying extra for green power will pay more than $104 a month for electricity, an increase of more than 11 percent from last year. ... No good deed goes unpunished. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 1, 2013 from London Guardian: 2012: the year we did our best to abandon the natural world It was the year of living dangerously. In 2012 governments turned their backs on the living planet, demonstrating that no chronic problem, however grave, will take priority over an immediate concern, however trivial. I believe there has been no worse year for the natural world in the past half-century. Three weeks before the minimum occurred, the melting of the Arctic's sea ice broke the previous record. Remnants of the global megafauna -- such as rhinos and bluefin tuna -- were shoved violently towards extinction. Novel tree diseases raged across continents. Bird and insect numbers continued to plummet, coral reefs retreated, marine life dwindled. And those charged with protecting us and the world in which we live pretended that none of it was happening. ... Who'd want to be in charge of this ecotastrophe? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Dec 27, 2012 from New York Times: EPA Chief to Step Down, With Climate Still Low Priority Lisa P. Jackson is stepping down as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after a four-year tenure that began with high hopes of sweeping action to address climate change and other environmental ills but ended with a series of rear-guard actions to defend the agency against challenges from industry, Republicans in Congress and, at times, the Obama White House... She informed the E.P.A. staff of her decision on Thursday morning and issued a brief statement saying that she was confident "the ship is sailing in the right direction." ... I would counter the ship is sinking! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Dec 20, 2012 from Mother Jones: Major News Outlets Give Fossil-Fuel-Funded Think Tanks a Free Platform The fossil fuel industry has long been a source of talking points and "studies" aimed at spreading doubt about climate change, and over the past few years, it has broadened its scope to undermine support for clean energy, as well. Often, this criticism is published in the form of articles in major media outlets -- penned by employees of think tanks who don't disclose their groups' industry funding, a new study finds. The Checks and Balances Project, a pro-clean-energy watchdog group, surveyed stories published over the past five years in 60 news outlets, including national and regional newspapers, the Associated Press, and Politico. Researchers found that only 6 percent of the stories disclosed the funding when they cited "experts" from those think tanks. Typically, the stories referred to the groups as "free-market" or "libertarian," without mentioning the dirty-energy support. ... Just so you know, The ApocaDocs are funded by their own ApocaSweat. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 3, 2012 from London Guardian: Climate change compensation emerges as major issue at Doha talks ...Whether rich countries should compensate vulnerable communities like those on Kosrae, in the central Pacific, for the "loss and damage" caused by events linked to climate change has emerged as a major new issue for developing countries in the UN talks that have just entered their second week in Doha ... But the US and Europe are resisting strongly the idea that they should compensate for losses, fearing that it would lead to potentially endless financial claims. ... "Endless financial claims" for our endless culpability. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Nov 27, 2012 from BusinessInsider: Jeremy Grantham: We're Headed For An Economic Disaster Of Biblical Proportions What Malthus did not foresee was the discovery of oil and other natural resources, which have (temporarily) supported this population explosion. Those resources are now getting used up... The story for metals, by the way, is the same as for oil: The low-hanging fruit has been picked. Despite the use of new technologies, the yield per ton of metal ores continues to drop.... The fact is that no compound growth is sustainable. If we maintain our desperate focus on growth, we will run out of everything and crash. We must substitute qualitative growth for quantitative growth. ... Perhaps cataclysmic, or globally catastrophic. But not Biblical. Let's not exaggerate! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Nov 10, 2012 from Foreign Policy: The Arctic is the Mediterranean of the 21st century. If climate scientists' prophesies of an ice-free Arctic Ocean pan out, the world will witness the most sweeping transformation of geopolitics since the Panama Canal opened. Seafaring nations and industries will react assertively -- as they did when merchantmen and ships of war sailing from Atlantic seaports no longer had to circumnavigate South America to reach the Pacific Ocean. There are commercial, constabulary, and military components to this enterprise. The United States must position itself at the forefront of polar sea power along all three axes.... Former U.S. Navy chief oceanographer David Titley estimates that "sometime between 2035 and 2040 there is a pretty good chance that the Arctic Ocean will be essentially ice-free for about a month" each year. If so, polar shipping lanes will cut transit distances by up to 40 percent, saving ship owners big bucks on fuel and maintenance. They could pass those savings on to producers and consumers of the cargo their vessels carry. Global warming, it appears, could bestow significant advantages on mariners, fostering economic growth in the bargain. New sources of wealth concentrate minds. ... Makin' lemonade from a foetid lemon! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Nov 6, 2012 from Reuters: Insight: Great expectations fill Greenland as China eyes riches ...With global warming thawing its Arctic sea lanes, and global industry eyeing minerals under this barren island a quarter the size of the United States, the 57,000 Greenlanders are wrestling with opportunities that offer rich rewards but risk harming a pristine environment and a traditional society that is trying to make its own way in the world after centuries of European rule. Great expectations could lead to greater disappointments, for locals and investors. Yet a scramble for Greenland already may be under way, in which some see China trying to exploit the icebound territory as a staging ground in a global battle for Arctic resources and strategic control of new shipping routes. ... We just can't leave anything alone. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 10, 2012 from Anchorage Daily News: Shell begins offshore drilling in Chukchi Sea After a day of slower-than-expected preparations in the Chukchi Sea, Shell Alaska officially began drilling into the seafloor above its Burger prospect at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, the company said. The action marks the first drilling offshore in the Alaska Arctic in two decades and is being closely watched by Alaskans and the oil industry -- and criticized by environmentalists... Shell has invested close to $5 billion in its quest to drill in the Alaska Arctic. A federal government assessment last year estimated the Alaska Arctic offshore region holds nearly 27 billion barrels of "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil. ... As of today, the planet is sooooooo Chukchied. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 3, 2012 from Chemical & Engineering News: Romney To Focus On Fossil Fuels Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wants to significantly boost U.S. fossil-fuel production while ending federal subsidies and loan guarantees for most forms of alternative energy, such as solar and wind power. Romney's energy plan, which the former Massachusetts governor outlined on Aug. 23, sets an ambitious goal for the U.S. of reaching energy independence by 2020 through increased production of oil, natural gas, and coal, accompanied by reduced regulation. The plan does not mention climate change. "Three million jobs come back to this country by taking advantage of something we have right underneath our feet," Romney said at a campaign stop in New Mexico. "That's oil and gas and coal." ... Also underneath our feet... our graves. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 3, 2012 from Associated Press: Arctic becomes cold war zone Global warming has ignited a rush to exploit Arctic resources -- and Greenpeace is determined to thwart that stampede. Employing the same tactics it has used against nuclear testing or commercial whaling, the environmental group is now set on preventing oil companies from drilling for oil near the Arctic's shrinking ice cap ... Greenpeace officials said 1.6 million people since June have signed the group's online petition urging world leaders to declare the Arctic a global sanctuary, off limits to oil exploration and industrial fishing. Dozens of celebrities, including Robert Redford, Paul McCartney and Penelope Cruz have announced their support, said Greenpeace activist Sarah North. ... If this works, let's declare the globe a global sanctuary. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Aug 27, 2012 from Los Angeles Times: Shell seeks more time to drill exploratory well in Chukchi Sea With its bid to launch offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean running up against a deadline to protect against sea ice, Shell Alaska has requested an extension in its window for drilling in the Chukchi Sea. Peter E. Slaiby, vice president of the Alaska venture, said Sunday that the company has proposed extending the time allowed for drilling in the Chukchi by slightly less than two weeks beyond the Sept. 24 deadline set by the U.S. Department of Interior to allow time for cleanup of any oil spill before the onset of winter sea ice. Meeting with reporters at an Arctic Imperative Summit here, Slaiby said the company's latest models for forecasting the onset of winter sea ice now show the first freeze-up occurring somewhat later than originally envisioned when federal officials imposed their initial deadline for ending operations in the Chukchi Sea. ... When it comes to oil, hey we'll letcha slide! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 1, 2012 from Charleston Gazette: EPA mine water-pollution guidelines thrown out Dealing another blow to the Obama administration's crackdown on mountaintop removal, a federal judge on Tuesday threw out new federal guidance that aimed to reduce water pollution from Appalachian coal mining operations. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority under federal water protection and strip mining laws when it issued the water quality guidance. ... Humans: 1, Mountaintops: 0 ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 23, 2012 from Bloomberg News: Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case Pennsylvania remains the largest U.S. state without a tax on natural gas production, thanks in part to a study released under the banner of the Pennsylvania State University. The 2009 report predicted drillers would shun Pennsylvania if new taxes were imposed, and lawmakers cited it the following year when they rejected a 5 percent tax proposed by then- Governor Ed Rendell.... What the study didn't do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the University of Wyoming, with a history of producing industry-friendly research on economic and energy issues.... As the U.S. enjoys a natural-gas boom from a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, producers are taking a page from the tobacco industry playbook: funding research at established universities that arrives at conclusions that counter concerns raised by critics. ... This is a fracking outrage! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 3, 2012 from Yale Environment 300: Oh Canada: The Government's Broad Assault on Environment ...Canada's pristine image -- and more importantly its environment -- is not likely to recover from what critics across the political spectrum say is an unprecedented assault by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper on environmental regulation, oversight, and scientific research. Harper, who came to power in 2006 unapologetic for once describing the Kyoto climate accords as "essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," has steadily been weakening environmental enforcement, monitoring, and research, while at the same time boosting controversial tar sands development, backing major pipeline construction, and increasing energy industry subsidies. ... Copycat. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jun 5, 2012 from Bloomberg News: Romney against tax breaks for wind energy Mitt Romney's opposition to tax breaks for wind farms puts him at odds with conservative support for renewable energy in states such as Iowa and Texas that have built the largest wind industries with taxpayer help. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee favors more oil drilling and fewer clean-air regulations and has voiced opposition to government backing for wind and solar projects. Romney hasn't taken a position on renewing a federal tax credit for wind power that's set to expire Dec. 31, though he's ridiculed government subsidies for turbines. ... Might mess up his hair. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 4, 2012 from Washington Post: Canadian government overhauling environmental rules to aid oil extraction For years, Canada has been seen as an environmental leader on the world stage, pushing other nations to tackle acid rain, save the ozone layer and sign global treaties to protect biodiversity. Those were the old days. The government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is rewriting the nation's environmental laws to speed the extraction and export of oil, minerals and other materials to a global market clamoring for Canada's natural resources. ... Come on, let's hurry up and make some money! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 22, 2012 from InsideClimate News: Gas Industry Aims to Block 2030 Zero-Carbon Building Goal The natural gas industry and some allies are working behind the scenes in Washington to block a green building rule that was expected to be a national model for carbon-neutral construction. The rule, called Fossil Fuel-Generated Energy Consumption Reduction, would zero out fossil-fuel use -- coal, fuel oil and natural gas -- in all new and renovated federal buildings by 2030. The natural gas industry says the policy would harm its image as a more environmentally friendly fuel than coal. ... By all means, let's put at the top of our priority list preserving the image of natural gas! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 9, 2012 from London Guardian: Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama's clean energy strategy A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda. A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which also has financial links to the Kochs, has drafted bills to overturn state laws promoting wind energy. Now a confidential strategy memo seen by the Guardian advises using "subversion" to build a national movement of wind farm protesters. ... These thinktanks are sure full of gas. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 8, 2012 from Chronicle of Higher Education: As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving? Scores of animal scientists employed by public universities have helped pharmaceutical companies persuade farmers and ranchers to use antibiotics, hormones, and drugs like Zilmax to make their cattle grow bigger ever faster. With the use of these products, the average weight of a fattened steer sold to a packing plant is now roughly 1,300 pounds--up from 1,000 pounds in 1975. It's been a profitable venture for the drug companies, as well as for the professors and their universities. ... You could call it a cash cow. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 16, 2012 from Associated Press: As ice cap melts, militaries vie for Arctic edge To the world's military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts. By Arctic standards, the region is already buzzing with military activity, and experts believe that will increase significantly in the years ahead. ... Would that it was a "Cold" War. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Apr 11, 2012 from Associated Press: AZ House OKs secrecy for environmental reports Mining companies and other businesses will be allowed to keep environmental studies secret, even if they detail possible pollution problems, under industry-backed legislation that gained final House approval Monday. Under the measure headed to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, environmental audits generally could not be used as evidence in civil cases. ... A pox upon this House. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 14, 2012 from Postmedia News: Feds discreet about foreign funding of climate skeptics While it has aggressively slammed environmental groups for using foreign dollars to finance a small portion of their budgets, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is being tight-lipped about revelations that climate change skeptics in Canada are getting money from an American think-tank with corporate funding. Newly released documents have revealed three Canadians were part of a network of academics receiving monthly payments from the Chicago-based Heartland Institute as part of its advocacy work to cast doubt on scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming observed in recent decades. Two of the three Canadians mentioned in the internal records have confirmed they were getting paid by the Heartland Institute. ... Heartland Institute... the Mephistopheles of think-tanks. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 7, 2012 from Center for Public Integrity: Energy-backed firms award bonuses, file bankruptcy President Obama's Department of Energy financed a fleet of green energy companies that later fell into bankruptcy -- but not before the firms doled out six-figure bonuses and payouts to top executives, a Center for Public Integrity and ABC News investigation found.... Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, maker of lithium-ion battery systems, landed a $118.5 million energy grant in August 2009. About one-and-a-half years later, Vice President Joe Biden toured a company plant in Indiana and heralded its taxpayer-supported expansion as one of the "100 Recovery Act Projects That Are Changing America." Two months after Biden's visit, corporate parent Ener1 paid $725,000 in bonuses to three executives -- including $450,000 to then-CEO Charles Gassenheimer, who led Biden on the tour. This January, Ener1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. ... It's touching how we strive to reward failure in this culture. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 7, 2012 from Washington Post: Two years after BP oil spill, executive compensation still flowing BP paid out $1.1 million worth of shares on Feb. 15 to former chief executive Tony Hayward under a three-year incentive plan, even though Hayward resigned in the wake of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. Hayward also earned $194,973 in fees in 2011 as a director of BP's TNK-BP joint venture in Russia, according to the company's annual report released Tuesday. ... Once a one-percenter always a one-percenter ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 5, 2012 from Los Angeles Times: Shell oil rig set for landmark Alaska journey Amid the tangle of towering steel, heavy cranes and overcast skies of Seattle's busy commercial shipyards, Shell Oil's massive Kulluk drilling rig is preparing to push off for the Arctic Ocean. When it does, America's balance between energy needs and environmental fears will enter a new era. Barring unexpected court or regulatory action, by July the Kulluk will begin drilling exploratory oil wells in the frigid waters off Alaska's northern coast. ... Apo-Kullukse! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 28, 2012 from The Denver Post: Hickenlooper's spiel in oil, gas ad irks environmentalists Environmental groups on Monday urged Gov. John Hickenlooper to yank ads paid for by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association in which he claims there has been no contamination of groundwater associated with drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Hickenlooper's office declined to address that request, but COGA issued a statement saying it stands by "our Public Service Announcements." ... This cozy relationship between government and business is fascistnating. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 28, 2012 from Los Angeles Times: Canadian firm to proceed with southern leg of Keystone pipeline The Keystone XL battle isn't over. The Canadian company behind the controversial pipeline announced Monday that it would proceed immediately with a shorter version of the project south of Oklahoma -- even as it seeks a new permit for the segment through the northern U.S. Opponents immediately vowed to fight on both fronts.... The southern segment of the pipeline would extend from Cushing, Okla., which already has a glut of crude oil, to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast; those refineries now import much of their oil from abroad. ... If you build it, they will succumb. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 27, 2012 from London Daily Mail: U.S. billionaire Donald Trump funds £10m anti-wind farm war chest to 'preserve nature' ... Donald Trump, the American property tycoon, is bankrolling a £10 million fighting fund for British anti-windfarm campaigners. The move follows proposals for 11 giant turbines off the Aberdeenshire coast, which Mr Trump says will spoil the view from his golfing resort on the Balmedie estate, near Menie. The billionaire believes the structures, each as high as a 64-storey building, will besmirch the unspoilt landscape surrounding the �750million, 1,200 acre complex. ... NBMGC: Not By My Golf Course ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 20, 2012 from London Guardian/The Observer: Attacks paid for by big business are 'driving science into a dark era' Most scientists, on achieving high office, keep their public remarks to the bland and reassuring. Last week Nina Fedoroff, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), broke ranks in a spectacular manner. She confessed that she was now "scared to death" by the anti-science movement that was spreading, uncontrolled, across the US and the rest of the western world. "We are sliding back into a dark era," she said. "And there seems little we can do about it. I am profoundly depressed at just how difficult it has become merely to get a realistic conversation started on issues such as climate change or genetically modified organisms." ... Perhaps enlightenment is just around the corner! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Feb 12, 2012 from Globe and Mail: Ottawa's new anti-terrorism strategy lists eco-extremists as threats After vowing to take on radical environmentalists determined to stop the Northern Gateway pipeline, the Harper government has released a new anti-terrorism strategy that targets eco-extremists as threats. With his announcement this week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has increased the concern among environmentalists that Ottawa regards them as implacable adversaries to be monitored and battled, rather than well-meaning advocates to be consulted.... The minister said that, in addition to foreign threats, the government would be vigilant against domestic extremism that is "based on grievances - real or perceived - revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism and anti-capitalism." ... Exactly what animal abusers, fascists, ecokillers, and corporatists want to hear! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Feb 9, 2012 from MarketWatch: How you can profit from the end of civilization: Doomsday Capitalists' winning strategy commentary Doomsday Capitalists know how to get rich by playing the short-term stock market and ignoring long-term warnings of a global economic collapse. How? They have a secret weapon, a Doomsday Capitalists Winning Strategy.... So how can average Main Street investors build a winning portfolio? ... Start by thinking about Mad Max and Swiss Family Robinson. ... Then add a positive spin to Diamond's 12-part analysis of the historical collapse of civilizations. ... Mix in the Doomsday Capitalists short-term strategy. ... Ignore future consequences because you know you won't be around later, and hope new solutions will emerge through new technologies?. Well folks, if Biggs can achieve this goal successfully for Super Rich clients who are preparing their well-stocked farming compounds for the "collapse of the civilization," you can too. Start by picking some blue-chip stocks that fit Diamond's 12-part "Collapse Equation," hoping that while Diamond warns that throughout history politicians inevitably fail to plan or act in time to avoid a collapse, this time, maybe, just maybe, our profit-making capitalist giants will finally wake up to Adam Smith's vision and protect both their own self-interest and the public interest, thus reversing the inevitable historical trend into a collapse.... ... Investment strategy... is destiny. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Feb 8, 2012 from Bill McKibben, on TomDispatch: The Great Carbon Bubble Still, [the energy companies] could theoretically invest all that cash in new clean technology or research and development for the same. As it happens, though, they've got a deeper problem, one that's become clear only in the last few years. Put briefly: their value is largely based on fossil-fuel reserves that won't be burned if we ever take global warming seriously. When I talked about a carbon bubble at the beginning of this essay, this is what I meant. Here are some of the relevant numbers, courtesy of the Capital Institute: we're already seeing widespread climate disruption, but if we want to avoid utter, civilization-shaking disaster, many scientists have pointed to a two-degree rise in global temperatures as the most we could possibly deal with. If we spew 565 gigatons more carbon into the atmosphere, we'll quite possibly go right past that reddest of red lines. But the oil companies, private and state-owned, have current reserves on the books equivalent to 2,795 gigatons -- five times more than we can ever safely burn. It has to stay in the ground. Put another way, in ecological terms it would be extremely prudent to write off $20 trillion worth of those reserves. In economic terms, of course, it would be a disaster, first and foremost for shareholders and executives of companies like ExxonMobil (and people in places like Venezuela). If you run an oil company, this sort of write-off is the disastrous future staring you in the face as soon as climate change is taken as seriously as it should be, and that's far scarier than drought and flood. It's why you'll do anything -- including fund an endless campaigns of lies -- to avoid coming to terms with its reality. ... That's twenty trillion dollars of economic development! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 31, 2012 from Associated Press: Natural resources chief wants mission statement change The commissioner of the state's Department of Natural Resources wants to change the agency's mission statement, and the proposed changed is not sitting well with at least one lawmaker and conservation groups who are worried about a pro-development bent. The current statement says the department's mission is to "develop, conserve and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans," KSKA reported. The new statement removes "conserve" and "enhance," leaving only "develop" in the statement. It also removes the reference to "future Alaskans." ... In the crazy world of doublespeak this level of honesty is downright admirable! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 17, 2012 from Inter Press Service: Melting Ice Makes Arctic Access a Hot Commodity China, Brazil and India want seats on the Arctic Council as global warming creates new opportunities for shipping and resource extraction in the vast Arctic region. There are concerns this is the beginning of a 21st century "scramble for the Arctic", but rather than staking territorial claims, non- Arctic countries want to exert economic and political influence in the region. China already has a research station in Norway's high Arctic and is building an 8,000-tonne icebreaker. ... "Hot commodity"? Sounds like a hot mess to me! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 13, 2012 from US Chamber of Commerce: The State of American Business 2012, Address by Thomas J. Donohue President & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce As we begin 2012, we can say that the state of American business is improving -- but it is doing so weakly, slowly, and insufficiently to put our nation back to work.... Recent discoveries have confirmed that this nation is truly blessed with energy resources. We have 1.4 trillion barrels of oil, enough to last at least 200 years. We have 2.7 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to last 120 years. We have 486 billion tons of coal, enough to last more than 450 years -- and we need to use more of this strategic resource cleanly and wisely here at home while selling it around the world. To tap our energy resources, we must speed up permitting and end many of the restrictions that have put key areas off-limits. Instead of handpicking a few technologies, we must harness all our resources, traditional and alternative --while expanding nuclear power and driving greater efficiency. Our biggest and most reliable foreign energy supplier is Canada. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would bring Canadian oil sands down to our Gulf Coast refineries and to other destinations along the way. ... Welcome to the Mouth of the Beast. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 12, 2012 from London Guardian: Oil lobby's financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed New analysis of oil industry contributions to members of Congress has revealed the level of the oil lobby's financial firepower that Barack Obama can expect to face in the November elections if he refuses to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Obama has until 21 February to make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline, under a compromise tax measure approved late last year. America's top oil lobbyist warned last week that the president would face "huge political consequences" if he did not sign off on the project to pump tar sands crude across the American heartland to refineries on the Texas coast. ... If he approves Keystone we'll have to call him Oilbama. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 10, 2012 from Toronto Star: Titanic clash looms over proposed Northern Gateway pipeline A biologist, an energy lawyer and an aboriginal geologist will sit down Tuesday in a recreation centre in the wilderness of northern British Columbia to initiate what could be the fiercest environmental standoff ever seen in Canada. Before the hearings in B.C. and Alberta are completed next year, more than 4,000 people are expected to appear before the three-member panel vetting the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta through the Rockies to the B.C. coast. Like the now-stalled Keystone XL project in the United States, the planned pipeline to carry tarsands-derived crude oil across the mountains to a new supertanker port in northern B.C. is shaping up as a titanic clash of economic and environmental imperatives. ... The other pipeline. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 20, 2011 from Greenwire: With federal green light, Shell hits the gas on Arctic plans In a sign that the Obama administration is willing to clear the regulatory decks for oil drilling in Alaska's remote Arctic waters, the Interior Department on Friday gave a conditional green light allowing Royal Dutch Shell PLC to explore for oil this summer in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. More than 20 years after sinking its first exploratory well in the Chukchi, only to later abandon the project, Shell is seeking to reopen drilling in the nation's northern-most federal waters. The campaign has already had a colossal price tag. So far, Shell officials say they have sunk $4 billion in the project, including $350 million to build two of their own ice-breaking ships. If exploration is successful, it will take 10-12 years before Shell can begin producing oil. During that time, the company would have to build a new ice-resistant drilling facility, install 100 miles of subsea pipeline from the pumping rig to the tiny community of Wainwright and construct a 500-mile pipeline from the shoreline to the beginning of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. ... It will be worth all the work, if we can indeed destroy the planet! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 20, 2011 from Greenwire: 40 percent of state drilling regulators have industry ties ...More than 40 percent of officials regulating oil and gas production in the top drilling states, records show, come from the industry they are charged with policing. It is a degree of self-regulation enjoyed by few other industries, if any. And it heightens suspicion among critics of the nation's drilling boom that companies are allowed to damage the environment with impunity. Supporters of the industry, and the regulators themselves, say it simply makes sense to have technical experts deciding technical issues. ... That's the fox drilling the henhouse. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 19, 2011 from Associated Press: Russia slams Kyoto Protocol MOSCOW (AP) Russia supports Canada's decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, says its foreign ministry, reaffirming Friday that Moscow will not take on new commitments. Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told Friday's briefing that the treaty does not cover all major polluters, and thus cannot help solve the climate crisis. Canada on Monday pulled out of the agreement -- initially adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, to cut carbon emissions contributing to global warming. Its move dealt a blow to the treaty, which has not been formally renounced by any other country. ... Sayonara, Kyoto. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 13, 2011 from Los Angeles Times: Vermont Law School's Top 10 Environmental Watch List for 2012 Vermont Law School, which has one of the top-ranked environmental law programs in the country, just released its second annual Top 10 Environmental Watch List of issues and developments that should be closely followed in 2012. Top of the list? Republican attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency. According to an innovative online database set up by L.A.'s own Rep. Henry Waxman, there have been 170 anti-environmental votes under the Republican majority in the 112th Congress, and 91 of them attacked the EPA. Other hot topics on the watch list include that same EPA and the White House clashing over ozone standards, the activist effort to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and landmark settlements under the Endangered Species Act. ... Actually, top of the list: Republicans' farts; they're way worse than Democrats' farts. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 13, 2011 from Associated Press: Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change Monday, saying the accord won't help solve the climate crisis. It dealt a blow to the anti-global warming treaty, which has not been formally renounced by any other country. Environment Minister Peter Kent said that Canada is invoking its legal right to withdraw and said Kyoto doesn't represent the way forward for Canada or the world... "The Kyoto Protocol does not cover the world's largest two emitters, United States and China, and therefore cannot work," Kent said. "It's now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward to a global solution to climate change. If anything it's an impediment." ... More like CANTada! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Dec 8, 2011 from Indiana Public Media: Senator Lugar Introduces Bill To Approve Keystone Pipeline Senator Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is leading a charge to push the construction of an oil pipeline through Congress. The North American Energy Security Act would force the Obama administration to issue a construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days of the bill's passage. Lugar says the pipeline, which would bring Canadian crude oil directly to gulf coast refineries, is a "shovel ready" jobs project that would also reduce America's dependence on foreign oil from the Middle East and Venezuela. ... My shovel's ready to clean up oil spills. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Dec 7, 2011 from E&E News/ClimateWire: Green groups claim U.S. is blocking a climate change deal Along the coast of the shark-infested Indian Ocean where the United Nations global warming negotiations are being held, the United States increasingly is being viewed as a pariah. Despite the presence of thousands of Obama supporters in this sub-tropical surf city, even liberal environmental activists at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference say disappointment and frustration toward the administration have reached new levels. The past several days of talks have seen the U.S. seemingly unwilling to discuss more ambitious ways to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. China, meanwhile, has softened its once hardline position, indicating it could be willing to make binding carbon cuts. As countries head into ministerial-level negotiations, the dynamic appears to have left the U.S. isolated and vulnerable to attack by disillusioned former friends. ... Yes we ran. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 28, 2011 from New York Times: Another Try for a Global Climate Effort With intensifying climate disasters and global economic turmoil as the backdrop, delegates from 194 nations gather in Durban, South Africa, this week to try to advance, if only incrementally, the world's response to dangerous climate change. To those who have followed the negotiations of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change over their nearly 20-year history, the conflicts and controversies to be taken up in Durban are monotonously familiar -- the differing obligations of industrialized and developing nations, the question of who will pay to help poor nations adapt, the urgency of protecting tropical forests, the need to develop and deploy clean energy technology rapidly. ... C'mon, folks, let's give it a shot. The planet's pretty important. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 21, 2011 from London Guardian: Rich nations 'give up' on new climate treaty until 2020 Governments of the world's richest countries have given up on forging a new treaty on climate change to take effect this decade, with potentially disastrous consequences for the environment through global warming. Ahead of critical talks starting next week, most of the world's leading economies now privately admit that no new global climate agreement will be reached before 2016 at the earliest, and that even if it were negotiated by then, they would stipulate it could not come into force until 2020. The eight-year delay is the worst contemplated by world governments during 20 years of tortuous negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions, and comes despite intensifying warnings from scientists and economists about the rapidly increasing dangers of putting off prompt action. ... Given the lack of enthusiasm among our leaders, it's time to Occupy Mother Earth. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 7, 2011 from Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Corporate funding of Marcellus Shale studies at universities raises alarms As development of the Marcellus Shale spreads across Pennsylvania, Penn State University has taken a central role in doing research about the industry, from its economic impact to its geological properties. Some of the research is paid for by companies extracting the gas, according to petroleum geologists who do the work. But the state-related university, which took in $214 million in taxpayer funding last year, declined to say how much individual companies spend or what the money pays for. Universities welcome the money and say there's no impact on their research, but critics are concerned that the lack of transparency is dangerous to independence. ... So that's what they mean by the trickle-down effect. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 7, 2011 from Center for Public Integrity: Many Americans left behind in the quest for cleaner air ...Americans might expect the government to protect them from unsafe air. That hasn't happened. Insidious forms of toxic air pollution -- deemed so harmful to human health that a Democratic Congress and a Republican president sought to bring emissions under control more than two decades ago -- persist in hundreds of communities across the United States, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and NPR shows. Congress targeted nearly 200 chemicals in 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which the first Bush administration promised would lead to sharp reductions in cancer, birth defects and other serious ailments. But the agencies that were supposed to protect the public instead have left millions of people from California to Maine exposed to known risks -- sometimes for years. ... News flash... the government doesn't give a shit. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Oct 13, 2011 from London Independent: Exclusive: BP to risk worst ever oil spill in Shetlands drilling BP is making contingency plans to fight the largest oil spill in history, as it prepares to drill more than 4,000 feet down in the Atlantic in wildlife-rich British waters off the Shetland Islands. Internal company documents seen by The Independent show that the worst-case scenario for a spill from its North Uist exploratory well, to be sunk next year, would involve a leak of 75,000 barrels a day for 140 days -- a total of 10.5 million barrels of oil, comfortably the world's biggest pollution disaster. ... How refreshing to have a clear sense of what could go wrong! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Oct 11, 2011 from Los Angeles Times: A GOP assault on environmental regulations Republicans in the House are best known for their inflexible opposition to tax hikes and government spending, but that's nothing new for the GOP; what marks this group as different is that it is perhaps the most anti-environment Congress in history. So far, that hasn't had much impact because Republicans control only one house, and Democrats in the Senate have blocked their most extreme attempts to gut the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. But recent legislative moves in the House provide a preview of what's to come in 2013 if the balance of power shifts further in favor of a GOP that is more united than ever in opposition to environmental regulation. ... Does Mother Earth get a vote? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 5, 2011 from InsideClimate News: Koch Subsidiary Told Regulators It Has 'Direct and Substantial Interest' in Keystone XL A document filed with Canada's Energy Board appears to cast doubt on claims by Koch Industries that it has no interest in the controversial pipeline. In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has "nothing to do with any of our businesses." But the company has told Canadian energy regulators a different story. In 2009, Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, an Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries, applied for -- and won -- "intervenor status" in the National Energy Board hearings that led to Canada's 2010 approval of its 327-mile portion of the pipeline. The controversial project would carry heavy crude 1,700 miles from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. ... It seems the Koch brothers are giving apoca-lip service on this issue. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Oct 4, 2011 from Sydney Morning Herald: US government breaks the ice in Arctic drilling dispute THE US government has decided to uphold the sale of nearly 500 leases to drill for oil in Arctic waters near Alaska, in response to a successful lawsuit by environmentalists and native Alaskan organisations that had thrown the contracts into jeopardy. The move on Monday by the Interior Department was celebrated by Shell and other companies that snapped up some of the 487 leases to drill in the Chukchi Sea during a government auction in 2008. Shell hopes to launch exploratory drilling in the Chukchi next northern summer. The decision was criticised by conservationists, who blasted the Obama administration for bypassing calls for more scientific research on the region's marine life and better studies of how to clean up oil spills in remote icy waters. ... Chuk-ching! The Chukchi Sea's the place to be! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 21, 2011 from New York Times: For Obama, Peer Pressure from Nobel Laureates With his approval rating among American voters at an all-time low, President Obama could use a little support from his peers. But this month nine fellow recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama, sent the president a letter urging him to veto the construction of a huge pipeline that would bring bring crude oil to the United States from Canada. On Monday, the letter was published as an advertisement in The Washington Post. It reads in part: "The night you were nominated for president, you told the world that under your leadership -- and working together -- the rise of the oceans will begin to slow and the planet will begin to heal. You spoke of creating a clean energy economy. This is a critical moment to make good on that pledge." ... Obama may be tarred and feathered by these otherwise peaceful souls. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 14, 2011 from Wall Street Journal: Coal Industry Backs Boehner U.S. coal companies have pumped $1.5 million into House Speaker John Boehner's political operation this year, a sign of the industry's beefed-up efforts to fight new and proposed regulations from the Obama administration. The coal industry now ranks as one of the top sources of cash for the Ohio Republican, rivaling such perennial GOP donors as Wall Street and the real-estate industry. A large part of the coal industry's donations came in a single week at the end of June. ... all that coal money / must be giving Congressman / Boehner a woody ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 5, 2011 from New York Times: A Debate Arises on Job Creation and Environment Do environmental regulations kill jobs? Republicans and business groups say yes, arguing that environmental protection is simply too expensive for a battered economy. They were quick to claim victory Friday after the Obama administration abandoned stricter ozone pollution standards. Many economists agree that regulation comes with undeniable costs that can affect workers. Factories may close because of the high cost of cleanup, or owners may relocate to countries with weaker regulations. ... My job is to die prematurely due to toxic pollution. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Sep 1, 2011 from New York Times: Exxon Reaches Arctic Oil Deal With Russians MOSCOW -- Exxon Mobil won a coveted prize in the global petroleum industry Tuesday with an agreement to explore for oil in a Russian portion of the Arctic Ocean that is being opened for drilling even as Alaskan waters remain mostly off limits. The agreement seemed to supersede a similar but failed deal that Russia's state oil company, Rosneft, reached with the British oil giant BP this year -- with a few striking differences. Where BP had planned to swap stock, Exxon, which is based in Texas, agreed to give Rosneft assets elsewhere in the world, including some that Exxon owns in the deepwater zones of the Gulf of Mexico and on land in Texas. ... Folks, these are your Oil Overlords. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 31, 2011 from Gannett News Service: House GOP to focus on EPA, labor regulations this fall WASHINGTON - Scaling back environmental regulations on coal ash and power plant pollution will be a top priority for House Republicans when they return from summer recess next week, according to a memo that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent fellow Republicans on Monday. Several proposed or recently enacted Environmental Protection Agency rules addressing coal ash disposal and emissions from power plants number among Cantor's list of 10 "job-destroying regulations" that the GOP will seek to undo in the next few months, his memo said. ... Back to the people's business of poisoning the planet! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Aug 26, 2011 from Washington Post: State Department review to find pipeline impact "limited," sources say The State Department will remove a major roadblock to construction of a massive oil pipeline stretching from Canada to Texas when it releases its final environmental assessment of the project as soon as Friday, according to sources briefed on the process. The move is critical because it will affirm the agency's earlier finding that the project will have "limited adverse environmental impacts" during construction and operation, according to sources familiar with the assessment who asked not to be identified because the decision has not been made public. ... Limited environmental impact; unlimited profits for the oil industry. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 23, 2011 from Toronto Globe and Mail: Dozens arrested outside White House during oil sands protest A Canadian woman was among as many as 50 environmental activists handcuffed and taken to jail Sunday on the second day of peaceful White House protests against TransCanada Corp.'s controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Fifty protesters are already in a downtown D.C. jail following their arrests outside the White House on Saturday, the opening day of a two-week civil disobedience campaign.... President Barack Obama will decide by the end of the year whether to allow Calgary-based TransCanada to build the controversial, $7-billion (U.S.) pipeline. It would transport millions of barrels of Alberta oil sands crude a week through the American heartland and to Gulf Coast refineries. Opponents say Keystone is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, pointing to a number of recent spills along pipelines. They also oppose Alberta's oil sands due to their high greenhouse gas emissions. Advocates, meantime, say the pipeline will create thousands of American jobs amid a lingering recession, and will also help end U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil. ... Someday soon, we'll all have jobs dying of the heat. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 16, 2011 from Washington Post: White House mulls stricter smog standards The White House is engaged in an intense debate over how much it should tighten national smog standards, an issue that has sparked a battle between business and public health groups. On Friday the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would "shortly" issue the final rules, which were delayed three times last year and again late last month. As the Office of Management and Budget reviews the agency's final proposal, which was submitted July 11, business groups have joined many state and local officials in launching a concerted push to delay any new standards until 2013...While the most polluted areas would have up to 20 years to meet the new standards, business leaders suggest it could delay the permitting of not only new industrial facilities but the expansion of existing ones. ... These darn standards are in the way of us ruining the planet! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Aug 13, 2011 from Associated Press: Federal judge throws out Obama drilling rules A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land. U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said... "Western Energy has demonstrated through its members recognizable injury," she said. "Those injuries are supported by the administrative record." ... Poor poor put-upon oil and gas companies! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Aug 6, 2011 from Agence France-Press: US opens ways for Shell drilling in Arctic Ocean US officials have granted Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell conditional approval to begin drilling exploration wells in the Arctic Ocean from next year, in a move swiftly slammed by conservationists as "inexcusable." The US Interior Department has opened the doors to Shell's proposal for four shallow water exploration wells in Alaska's Beaufort Sea to start in July 2012, said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in a statement Thursday. ... The Apocalypse has now officially commenced. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 3, 2011 from Greenwire: House Democrats Take Aim at GOP Environmental Voting Record The Republican-led House has voted to "stop," "block" or "undermine" efforts to protect the environment 110 times since taking over the majority in January, two senior Democrats said last week. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who sponsored a bill that passed the House in 2009 that would have established a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions, said the current House has done more to scuttle environmental protections than any in history. "The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants, oil refineries and factories," said Waxman, who serves as top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Natural Resources ranking member Markey, meanwhile, said the Republican agenda was a rifle "pointed right at the heart of America's clean energy future." ... Republicans are good people who just tend to prefer a crappy, deadly environment. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 27, 2011 from Los Angeles Times: Activist who faked Utah energy lease bids sentenced to 2 years A Utah man lionized by environmentalists for crashing a 2008 government auction of energy leases near two national parks was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $10,000 on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City ordered Tim DeChristopher taken into custody immediately. "I'm not saying there isn't a place for civil disobedience," Benson said. "But it can't be the order of the day." In a roughly 35-minute address to the court, DeChristopher, 29, said his actions were necessary to highlight the threat that climate change poses to the planet. "My intent both at the time of the auction and now was to expose, embarrass and hold accountable the oil and gas industry, to point that it cut into their $100-billion profits," he said. ... Thankfully, the status quo of complicity with our planet's destruction has been preserved. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jul 21, 2011 from Reuters: Ohio leads list of top 20 states with toxic air People living in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida are most at risk in the United States from toxic emissions spewing from coal and oil-fired power plants, two leading American enviromental groups said in a report on Wednesday. Electricity generation and chemical processing were the top culprits for dangerous emissions, which can lead to or worsen ailments such as asthma and cancer, according to the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social Responsibility... "Power plants are the biggest industrial toxic air polluters in our country, putting children and families at risk by dumping deadly and dangerous poisons into the air we breathe," said Dan Lashof, director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council...The findings underline the need for strong action by the Environmental Protection Agency to spur industry to clean up the emissions, Lashof said. ... Or, we can just consider this outrage as acceptable casualties. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 19, 2011 from Reuters: BP pipeline leaks oily mixture onto Alaskan tundra BP reported yet another pipeline leak at its Alaskan oilfields, frustrating the oil giant's attempts to rebuild its reputation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP said on Monday that a pipeline at its 30,000 barrel per day Lisburne field, which is currently closed for maintenance, ruptured during testing and spilled a mixture of methanol and oily water onto the tundra. The London-based company has a long history of oil spills at its Alaskan pipelines - accidents which have hurt its public image in the U.S., where around 40 percent of its assets are based. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said the spill occurred on Saturday and amounted to 2,100 to 4,200 gallons. ... Aw hell, no worries, we're used to it, now! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jul 8, 2011 from GreenBiz: How Shareholder Activism Moved the Needle on Sustainability in 2011 From fracking by companies such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Ultra Petroleum to greater use of recyclable cups by McDonald's and Starbucks, a host of CSR issues captured shareholders' attention and support this year, according to reports on the 2011 proxy season from As You Sow and Ceres. A record number of shareholder resolutions calling for companies to be more responsible in handling corporate sustainability challenges were filed, according to Ceres' report.... "The number of shareholders that actually realize they have power has been increasing and, overall, the number of votes have been increasing," Behar told GreenBiz.com. On matters such as natural gas fracking, the votes on resolutions clearly show that "shareholders are looking at issues and saying, 'This is really risky and the company has to do something about it,' " Behar said. ... The new protest tactic is a good investment! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jun 26, 2011 from New York Times: Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States. But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells. In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves.... "Money is pouring in" from investors even though shale gas is "inherently unprofitable," an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company, wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. "Reminds you of dot-coms." "The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work," an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009. ... Madoff... Enron... Disaster Capitalism... Inverse Credit Default Swaps... what is the best comparator? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jun 15, 2011 from Reuters: U.S. EPA delays rollout of CO2 rule on power plants The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from Republicans and big utilities, said on Monday it had extended a deadline by two months on draft rules that would for the first time limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The EPA said it had moved the date for proposing the rule from July 26 to Sept. 30 after listening to businesses and states that will have to implement the regulation. The rule, known as a performance standard, would limit the amount of carbon dioxide that U.S. power plants may emit. ... Sounds like the EPA is having performance anxiety. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jun 9, 2011 from Los Angeles Times: Former Interior secretary calls out Obama on the environment President Obama has failed to answer Republican attacks on environmental safeguards "forcefully and persuasively" and to articulate his own vision for conserving American wilderness and water, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt charged Tuesday. Babbitt, who served under President Clinton, said in an interview that he would lay out his concerns about the Republican environmental agenda and the Obama administration's response in a speech in Washington on Wednesday. ... Babbitt, Run ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 25, 2011 from Politico: Cold shoulder for climate change Climate scientists are in a tough spot. They have never been more certain about what they know. Powerful new satellites can hone in on mountainous regions to measure ice melt. Stronger computers model changes in disruptive weather patterns. Scientists are even more comfortable attributing climate change to visible effects around the globe, from retreating Himalayan glaciers to southwestern U.S. droughts and acidifying oceans. Yet scientists are still stuck in the mud trying to get that message out in Washington, where House Republicans made one of their first orders of business passing legislation to zero out research budgets for domestic and international climate efforts and unraveling a key EPA declaration that humans have played a critical role in changing the planet. ... Oh you Republicans what a fantastical world you inhabit! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, May 20, 2011 from BBC: Brazil: Amazon rainforest deforestation rises sharply Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased almost sixfold, new data suggests. Satellite images show deforestation increased from 103 sq km in March and April 2010 to 593 sq km (229 sq miles) in the same period of 2011, Brazil's space research institute says. Much of the destruction has been in Mato Grosso state, the centre of soya farming in Brazil. The news comes shortly before a vote on new forest protection rules. Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said the figures were "alarming" and announced the setting up of a "crisis cabinet" in response to the news. ... All I gotta say is that "crisis cabinet" better not be made of wood! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, May 13, 2011 from Post Carbon Institute, via Huffington Post: Natural Gas Revolution Is Overblown, Study Says A veritable explosion in the number of natural gas wells in the United States in the late 2000's resulted in only modest gains in production, a new study finds, suggesting that the promise of natural gas as a bountiful and economical domestic fuel source has been wildly oversold. The findings, part of a broader analysis of natural gas published Thursday by the Post Carbon Institute, an energy and climate research organization in California, is one of a growing number of studies to undermine a natural gas catechism that has united industry, environmental groups and even the Obama White House in recent years.... But the actual productivity profile of new, unconventional wells -- often tapped at tremendous expense -- is far less clear than is normally portrayed, Hughes said. Studies at existing fields, or plays, suggest that many shale wells tend to be highly productive in their first year, and then decline steeply -- sometimes by as much as 80 percent or more -- after that, requiring new wells to be plumbed.... If that's the case, Hughes said, then those hoping that the shale gas boom might one day provide enough natural gas to replace coal for electricity generation, or oil as a transportation fuel, will be sadly disappointed. Indeed, he said, the number of new wells that would be needed to meet these goals would create a dystopian landscape of well pads and gas pipelines that few people would want to inhabit. ... If energy was too cheap to meter, who knows what I'd put up with. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, May 6, 2011 from Center for Public Integrity: Four years after oil company's criminal conviction for pollution, still no sentencing Almost four years ago, a federal jury convicted Citgo Petroleum Corp. of two criminal violations of the Clean Air Act, having found that the company's refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, afflicted a nearby community with toxic air pollution. For nearly a decade, the jury found, emissions of benzene and other hazardous chemicals -- from two hulking, uncovered tanks -- regularly swept into a mostly poor, minority neighborhood known as Hillcrest. That was in June 2007. To the dismay of the refinery's neighbors, Citgo still hasn't been sentenced -- a delay legal scholars say is unusual. ... Ya gotta figure the guilt is eating away at them. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, May 5, 2011 from Greenwire: 'Anti-Environmental' House Freshman Leads Charge Against Obama's Clean Water Agenda Just months into his first term, Rep. Bob Gibbs admits he has much to learn. But the Ohio Republican holds strong reservations about environmental regulation in general... Republicans across the United States capitalized in the last election on a similar business-now, environment-later message, stoking an anti-incumbent mood among voters still smarting from the recession with hopeful promises of business-friendly, job-creating policies. Few in the GOP capitalized as much as this 56-year-old political unknown from rural southeastern Ohio. This white-haired Midwestern farmer has since emerged as critic-in-chief of a top Obama administration priority: strengthening clean water protections. ... Because who needs clean water when we can be making some dirty money? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 4, 2011 from Agence France-Press: China pays price for world's rare earths addiction Peasant farmer Wang Tao used to grow corn, potatoes and wheat within a stone's throw of a dumping ground for rare earths waste until toxic chemicals leaked into the water supply and poisoned his land. Farmers living near the 10-square-kilometre expanse in northern China say they have lost teeth and their hair has turned white while tests show the soil and water contain high levels of cancer-causing radioactive materials. "We are victims. The tailings dam has contaminated us," Wang, 60, told AFP at his home near Baotou city in Inner Mongolia, home to the world's largest deposits of rare earths, which are vital in making many high-tech products... China produces more than 95 percent of the world's rare earths -- 17 elements used in the manufacture of products ranging from iPods to flat-screen televisions and electric cars. ... iPoisoned ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 25, 2011 from Toronto Star: Activists embark on five-day walk to protest 'mega quarry' Farmers, ranchers and First Nations groups embarked on a 115-kilometre trek to Melancthon Township on Friday to show their opposition to a "mega quarry" planned for the region. The group departed on foot from Queen's Park, where roughly 200 people had gathered to discuss the project's potentially negative impact on the region's water, farming and quality of life.... "It's going to be the second-largest quarry in North America["]...The application for the project, put forward by The Highland Companies, says the limestone quarry planned for Dufferin County will use 600 million litres of groundwater every day... ... Sometimes, just getting up off your butt is the hardest part. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 25, 2011 from Edinburgh Scotsman: Greenpeace activists hijack Scots oil rig bound for Greenland GREENPEACE activists climbed aboard an oil rig off Turkey yesterday to prevent it leaving for Greenland to begin deep-water drilling in the Arctic. Eleven activists used speedboats to intercept and then climb on to the Leiv Eiriksson after it had left a port in Istanbul. They climbed the rig's derrick, unfurling a banner that read: "Stop Arctic destruction" and "Go Beyond Oil, Choose Clean Energy." The platform, bound for Greenland's Baffin Bay, did not stop and stayed on course, heading towards the Dardanelles strait with the activists on board, Deniz Sozudogru, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said. ... This has all the makings of an ongoing drama. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Apr 24, 2011 from Associated Press: Costly gasoline clouds Obama re-election prospects With gas prices climbing and little relief in sight, President Barack Obama is scrambling to get ahead of the latest potential obstacle to his re-election bid, even as Republicans are making plans to exploit the issue....As Obama well knows, Americans love their cars and remain heavily dependent on them, and they don't hesitate to punish politicians when the cost of filling their tanks goes through the roof. ... This Easter, give your car a big bunny hug because it's the most important thing on the planet. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 22, 2011 from Reuters: GOP Begins New Push to Delay EPA Rules on Toxic Power Plant Emissions Under pressure from industry, Congressional Republicans are urging the U.S. EPA to further delay long-overdue rules that would limit more than 80 air toxics emitted by coal-burning power plants, barely a month after the agency announced them. At least one lawmaker, Rep. Edward Whitfield of Kentucky -- a state which gets more than 90 percent of its power from coal -- has said he will soon introduce legislation to postpone implementation of the regulations... According to EPA, the mercury and air toxics standards alone would prevent up to 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks each year. Utilities and business groups say the anti-pollution rules would be too costly to implement and would force early shutdowns of power plants, threatening jobs and economic recovery. ... I know I'd rather die than watch a poor power plant shut down. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Apr 20, 2011 from Discovery News: As Gold Prices Go Up, Forests Are Coming Down A worldwide growth in the price of gold has accelerated the pace of deforestation in some of the most pristine parts of the Peruvian Amazon, where miners are cutting down trees in order to extract the valuable natural resource. From 2003 to 2009, found a new study, the rate of deforestation in two gold-mining areas increased six-fold alongside record-setting leaps in the international price of gold. During one two-year period, as gold prices climbed steadily, forests disappeared at a rate of 4.5 American football fields a day from one of the two sites. Alongside the accelerating paces of both mining and deforestation, the study found, there has also been an exponential rise in the use of mercury, which helps miners extract gold from the Earth. ... Someday soon we'll realize these trees were worth their weight in gold. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Apr 20, 2011 from Associated Press: AP Enterprise: BP is looking strong a year later It's hard to tell that just a year ago BP was reeling from financial havoc and an American public out for blood. The oil giant at the center of one of the world's biggest environmental crises is making strong profits again, its stock has largely rebounded, and it is paying dividends to shareholders once more. It is also pursuing new ventures from the Arctic to India. It is even angling to explore again in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it holds more leases than any competitor. ... Oil is thicker than blood. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 15, 2011 from Bloomberg BusinessWeek: World markets down as commodities threaten profits World stocks were mostly down Thursday amid concerns that rising food and fuel costs could undermine consumer demand, hurting economic growth and company profits. Oil prices hovered above $107 a barrel in Asia as a large drop in U.S. gasoline supplies suggested the two-month crude rally hasn't yet undermined consumer demand. Crude has risen about 27 percent since mid-February. In currencies, the dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.... "While softness in U.S. growth is a concern, the real issue for investors is the second-round effects of high and rising commodity prices," said Clive McDonnell of BNP Paribas in Singapore. "For Asia in particular, margins in the consumer sectors are at risk as we pass the sweet spot of rising commodity and equity prices."... ... That "sweet spot" is kinda sour, for the rest of us. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Apr 9, 2011 from Associated Press: World stumbles toward climate summit Nineteen years after the world started to take climate change seriously, delegates from around the globe spent five days talking about what they will talk about at a year-end conference in South Africa. They agreed to talk about their opposing viewpoints. Delegates from 173 nations did agree that delays in averting global warming merely fast-forward the risk of plunging the world into "catastrophe." ...the U.N. meeting in Bangkok, which concluded late Friday after delegates cobbled together a broad agenda for the December summit, failed to narrow the deep divisions between the developing world and the camp of industrialized nations led by the United States. These may come to plague the summit in Durban. ... Participants in this summit were given commemorative bronze fiddles. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 7, 2011 from Chemical & Engineering News: Trade Secret Anxiety The chemical industry is on edge over the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to make public some of the information companies claim as proprietary in submissions on commercial chemicals to EPA. That nervousness was a significant theme running through the industry's annual global chemical regulation conference, which was held last month in Baltimore. Companies are anxious about the agency revealing to the public the identity of proprietary chemicals, components of secret formulations, or the name of the business that makes them. This confidential business information is included in submissions required by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). ... Can't the chemical industry just create a chemical that makes us stop caring? OH... they already did! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 7, 2011 from Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Pollution rules could be eased despite increase in asthma Students in the South Allegheny School District, downwind of U.S. Steel Corp.'s Clairton Coke Works, have asthma rates 300 to 400 percent higher than national rates, convincing district officials to install air filtration systems in school buildings.... a study released Wednesday by Health Care Without Harm, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and the National Association of School Nurses, said the already staggering human and financial toll of asthma in the United States "is likely to increase" if Congress carries through with its threat to weaken the Clean Air Act and block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from tightening air pollution regulations. Congressional action could include blocking the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. ... Whaddaya want? The government to actually protect us? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 5, 2011 from Guardian: MBA course: 'blind pursuit of profit is destroying the planet' "Lies, cheat, deceit, distortion, hype, and a blind pursuit of profit have poisoned the business world. The price of this has been the destruction of the planet, its ecosystems and the alienation of humans from their soul and genuine inner needs. Pollution, contamination, climate change, poverty, rising sea level, unemployment, financial crisis, social unrest, war, and a general lack of trust has taken over as a result."... [T]hese words come from the press release of a new MBA course now being offered at Marbella University in southern Spain. Yes, an MBA course: that rarefied habitat that has long been the butt of jokes due to the air of self-importance and unworldliness nurtured within. (The same is often said of the environmental movement, of course!)... So it comes as something of a shock to see an MBA course being advertised in such a way. ... As long as it's only an elective. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 28, 2011 from St. Petersburg Times: Bill will adversely affect environment, but will it create jobs? Builders of homes, offices, roads and other projects have been allowed to wipe out more wetlands in Florida than in any other state. But now, in the name of sparking job growth, state lawmakers want to make it even easier to develop wetlands and just write a check for the damage. The 63 pages of CS/HB 991, which passed its latest committee vote Wednesday 14-0, are packed with changes to the state's wetlands, water pollution and development permitting rules. The bill makes it easier to build roads through wetlands, easier for polluters to escape punishment, easier to open new phosphate mines and harder for regulators to yank a permit from someone who did things wrong. ... No worries. All this raping of the earth will create plenty of jobs in the Post-Apocalypse. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 16, 2011 from New York Times: E.P.A. Proposes New Emission Standards for Power Plants The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first national standard for emissions of mercury and other toxins from coal-burning power plants on Wednesday, a rule that could lead to the early closing of dozens of generating stations and is certain to be challenged by the utility industry and Republicans in Congress. Lisa P. Jackson, the agency's administrator, unveiled the new rule with fanfare at agency headquarters, saying control of dozens of poisonous substances emitted by power plants was two decades overdue and would prevent thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of cases of disease a year. ... Apparently, the utility industry and Republicans in Congress are impervious to death and disease. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 14, 2011 from Wall Street Journal: EPA Tangles With New Critic: Labor The Obama administration's environmental agenda, long a target of American business, is beginning to take fire from some of the Democratic Party's most reliable supporters: Labor unions. Several unions with strong influence in key states are demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency soften new regulations aimed at pollution associated with coal-fired power plants. Their contention: Roughly half a dozen rules expected to roll out within the next two years could put thousands of jobs in jeopardy and damage the party's 2012 election prospects. "If the EPA issues regulations that cost jobs in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Republicans will blast the President with it over and over," says Stewart Acuff, chief of staff to the president of the Utility Workers Union of America. "Not just the President. Every Democratic [lawmaker] from those states." ... Those of you hoping the US will get its shit together... are dreaming! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Mar 5, 2011 from The Nation: The Story of 'Citizens United' vs. the FEC This is the best short history of the growth of corporate power I've ever read, heard or seen. It's also a primer on exactly why the Supreme Court's closely divided Citizens United decision is incompatible with basic notions of democratic governance. Created by the good folks at The Story of Stuff project, founded by Annie Leonard to creatively amplify public discourse on environmental, social and economic concerns, The Story of Citizens United v FEC explores the crisis in American democracy sparked by the Court decision that gave corporations the right to spend unlimited funds to influence elections... The ultimate solution is the Free Speech for People Amendment to the US Constitution. Corporations are not people, they do not vote, and they should not be able to influence election outcomes. ... The revolution will be animated. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 1, 2011 from Greenwire: Regulators Face Deep Cuts as Governors Close Budget Gaps As they battle record deficits, governors nationwide are digging into state environmental regulatory bodies in budget proposals, many in the name of increasing efficiency and creating states that are "open for business." In some states, environmental groups say budget proposals unfairly target those departments over other state agencies and would set back conservation efforts by years. They also argue that cutting environmental spending will end up costing more jobs than are created by bolstering other state programs.... Industry supporters and budget hawks say environmental agencies have to face the ax like everyone else. ... I know. Let's let the US have this planet to kill, and the rest of us can go find a new one. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 1, 2011 from Center for Public Integrity: Issa Oversight Committee Staffs Up with Industry Insiders First as ranking minority member and now as chairman of one of the most powerful committees in Congress, San Diego Republican Darrell Issa has built a team that includes staff members with close connections to industries that could benefit from his investigations. Issa took control of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last month, and asked companies, nonprofits and industry associations for guidance on federal regulations. The committee, which includes 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats, has broad powers to investigate government and industry, and to issue subpoenas. Issa's staff already has released findings sympathetic to industries bent on softening or eliminating certain government regulations. ... This is what happens when power shifts to the GOP: the environment goes to shit! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Feb 27, 2011 from Topeka Capital-Journal: House seeks to choke EPA regs Nearly every member of the Kansas House is convinced air-quality regulators at the federal Environmental Protection Agency are spewing toxic rules. Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, took the lead on pushing through a resolution declaring convergence of EPA carbon-limiting edicts, tied to anxiety about greenhouse gases and global warming, should be likened to a runaway railroad engine screaming down the tracks toward certain disaster... 116 members of the House voted for a resolution urging Congress to prohibit EPA by any means necessary -- such as stripping funding from the federal agency -- to block regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. ... Kansans have a proud history of undermining their own existence. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Feb 12, 2011 from Huffington Post: Wendell Berry Joins Retired Coal Miners and Residents in Kentucky Capitol Sit-in More than six years after Kentucky became the first state in the nation to introduce a bill that would halt the dumping of toxic coal mining wastes into headwater streams and effectively rein in the devastating fall-out of mountaintop removal operations, a group of affected coalfield residents, retired coal miners and bestselling authors have launched a sit-in in the office of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear this morning.... "This is not something we're doing for pleasure," said Wendell Berry, who has been active in the movement to abolish mountaintop removal mining for years. "We're doing it because it's the next thing to do after all our attempts to attract serious attention to these problems have failed. We're doing this as a last resort. Our intention is to appeal first to our elected representatives and the governor, and failing that, to appeal over their heads to our fellow citizens."... While national media attention on mountaintop removal mining has largely been focused on West Virginia, organizers are reminding the nation that more than 290 mountains... have been blown to bits in eastern Kentucky. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council last year found that while more than 574,000 acres of hardwood forests in eastern Kentucky have been irreversibly destroyed by mountaintop removal strip mining, less than four percent yielded any verifiable post-mining economic reclamation excluding forestry and pasture. ... Don't call it "mountaintop removal." It's "landscape altitude averaging." ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from Associated Press: Global warming heats up Republican attacks on EPA Vowing to curb the authority and the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, congressional Republicans are attacking the agency to a degree not seen since President Richard Nixon created it 40 years ago. The EPA's effort to tackle the latest and perhaps most challenging environmental problem -- global warming -- has made it a central target of the new Republican leadership's anti-regulatory agenda. Having failed last year to enact new legislation to curb global warming, the administration is left to use existing law -- the Clean Air Act -- to start reducing the pollution causing the planet's temperature to rise. During a hearing on Wednesday, GOP members of a House subcommittee contended that such actions will only raise electricity prices and penalize industries that otherwise could be creating jobs. ... ...ack... ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from Wall Street Journal: Business Groups' Target: EPA The Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces rules that affect the U.S. economy from factories to farms, is the No. 1 target of complaints from business groups collected by House Republican leaders. EPA rules were cited more than those from any other agency in more than 100 letters sent by trade associations, businesses and some conservative groups to House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) in response to his call for businesses to identify regulations they deemed burdensome, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The letters are scheduled for release today. ... I have this sneaking suspicion Issa is gonna pissa me off! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from San Francisco Chronicle: Chevron files RICO suit in Ecuador case Using a law written to prosecute the Mafia, Chevron Corp. on Tuesday filed a racketeering lawsuit against a team of lawyers who have been fighting the company over oil field pollution in Ecuador. Chevron accused the lawyers - as well as their clients and their spokeswoman - of conspiring to extort up to $113 billion from the oil company, based in San Ramon.... As a verdict in the marathon lawsuit nears, Chevron has tried to prove corruption among the lawyers and Ecuadoran officials involved in the case. Last year, Chevron persuaded judges in the United States to grant the company access to many of the lawyers' private documents, arguing that they could provide evidence of fraud. Chevron also won access to outtakes from a documentary film about the lawsuit, despite the objections of the filmmaker and many media companies (including Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle). ... In a case like this it's hard to tell who's Mafia and who's not. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from London Guardian: Greenpeace protests at Koch brothers' rally Prominent figures on both the right and left of the US political spectrum gathered in the luxury enclave of Rancho Mirage in the Californian desert today amid increasingly heated debate about the influence of the secrecy-loving billionaires Charles and David Koch on the political process. About 200 key figures in business, energy, the media and law were expected to assemble at a five-star hotel at the invitation of the Koch brothers for the latest of their twice-yearly discussion groups on how to forward their libertarian causes... As the attendees arrived in their private jets, they were greeted by an airship that circled over the hotel's golf courses and tennis courts bearing the logo: "Koch brothers dirty money." It was sent up by Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, which has joined forces with several other left-leaning organisations to hold a counter-rally to the Koch meeting. ... In an air battle, I fear the jets would win. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 27, 2011 from Reuters: Arctic short-cut shipping to leap in 2011 -Russia Russia predicted on Tuesday a surge in voyages on an Arctic short-cut sea route in 2011 as a thaw linked to climate change opens the region even more to shipping and oil and mining companies. High metals and oil prices, linked to rising demand from China and other emerging economies, is helping to spur interest in the Arctic and the route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as an alternative to travelling via the Suez canal. ... The Apocalypse is nigh -- LET'S PARTY!!! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 27, 2011 from Associated Press: Gingrich calls for replacing EPA Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Tuesday for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, which he wants to replace with a new organization that would work more closely with businesses and be more aggressive in using science and technology... Gingrich, who has made several visits to Iowa recently, said the EPA was founded on sound ideas but has become a traditional Washington bureaucracy. Gingrich had previously mentioned his desire to change the EPA, but Tuesday's explanation was the first time he made a specific proposal for replacing the agency...Gingrich denied his proposal would result in environmental damage, saying he would replace the EPA with what he called the Environmental Solution Agency. ... An agency formerly known as the Business Aggrandizement and Earth Ruination Agency. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 26, 2011 from New York Times: Industry Group's Self-Depiction Raises Eyebrows At first glance, the Waters Advocacy Coalition could be mistaken for a typical environmental group. The home page of its Web site, protectmywater.org, features a banner reading "Protect the Clean Water Act" across a photo slide show of flowing streams and clear mountain lakes. On Facebook and Twitter, where the group's handle is @ProtectCWA, its bio reads: "Our coalition is made up of diverse organizations that have an interest in and actively protect our nation's waters and wetlands resources." ...As it turns out... the Waters Advocacy Council is not an environmental organization, but a lobbying outfit for some of the nation's largest industrial and agricultural concerns, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Industrial Sand Association and the National Mining Association. ... Protect is the new destroy. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 26, 2011 from Rolling Stone: 12 Politicians and Execs Blocking Progress on Global Warming No one does more to spread dangerous disinformation about global warming than [Rupert] Murdoch. In a year of rec­ord heat waves in Africa, freak snowstorms in America and epic flooding in Pakistan, the Fox network continued to dismiss climate change as nothing but a conspiracy by liberal scientists and Big Government. Glenn Beck told viewers the Earth experienced no warming in the past decade -- the hottest on record. Sean Hannity declared that "global warming doesn't exist" and speculated about "the true agenda of global-warming hysterics." Even Brian Kilmeade, co-host of the chatty Fox & Friends, laughed off the threat of climate change, joking that the real problem was "too many polar bears." ... This is the dirtiest dozen of all. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 14, 2011 from HuyffingtonPost: Sylvia Earle Talks Gulf Oil Spill Effects In Exclusive Interview It's hard to get a straight answer on the effects of the Gulf oil spill amid all of the headlines, hearsay, and word of mouth tidbits from a friend of a friend of a friend. But we managed to track down an expert who gave us not just one answer, but four detailed, honest responses to questions that we have all been wondering for nearly nine months now.... Q. Have the cleanup efforts been adequate, and if not, who should be considered responsible -- BP or the government? A. There is no way to "adequately clean up" the consequences of the blowout any more than you can uncook an egg. Most of the efforts succeeded in magnifying, not diminishing the impacts. In some ways, we are all responsible for this catastrophe. Our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and the corporate mandate to maximize shareholder value encourages drilling without taking into account the costs to the ocean, even without major spills. Nonetheless, the thousands of individuals who have done their best to protect areas that escaped oiling and have attempted to clean up areas damaged by the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon well deserve recognition. However, we need to hold accountable those who authorized massive applications of toxic dispersants, especially at 5,000 ft depth, as well as those who allowed beaches to be upended, scraped, bulldozed and otherwise altered to give the appearance that the oil magically disappeared. Deployment of hundreds of miles of booms did little to contain the oil but did succeed in creating hundreds of miles of oily trash now contaminating landfills. ... Does that mean we can't uncook our goose, either? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 14, 2011 from Reuters: Filmmaker must surrender Chevron footage: court A U.S. appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court's order that a filmmaker must hand over to Chevron Corp raw footage from a documentary as part of a legal fight over oil pollution in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. At stake in the 17-year-old case are $27 billion in damages and clean-up costs the Ecuadorian government is claiming from Chevron. Indigenous communities accuse the oil company Texaco -- taken over by Chevron in 2001 -- of damaging their health and environment by polluting rivers. Filmmaker Joe Berlinger had argued that raw footage from his documentary "Crude" was a form of journalism and was therefore protected by press privileges. ... Chevron is some kind of monster! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 11, 2011 from Washington Post: As Arctic melts, U.S. ill equipped to tap resources ...Like the rest of the 2.5-million-square-foot area at the top of the world, this chunk of the U.S. Arctic is melting quickly because of accelerated climate change. The prospect of newly thawed sea lanes and a freshly accessible, resource-rich seabed has nations jockeying for position. And government and military officials are concerned the United States is not moving quickly enough to protect American interests in this vulnerable and fast-changing region. ... The Empire is sooo melting. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jan 11, 2011 from Reuters: EPA "pollution diet" starves agriculture: farm group The head of the largest U.S. farm group called on Congress to stop ruinous EPA "over-regulation" of agriculture and announced on Sunday a lawsuit against EPA rules to reduce Chesapeake Bay pollution. Bob Stallman, president of the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation, announced the lawsuit during a speech that opened the group's annual meeting. He said the Environmental Protection Agency's "over-regulation endangers our industry." Farmers have been leery of EPA for years. Opposition has grown in the past couple of years out of concern that regulation of greenhouse gases will drive up farming expenses and that EPA may tell farmers to limit dust from fields. ... And YOUR pollution endangers OUR environment! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jan 1, 2011 from Associated Press: Japanese whalers, activists clash off Antarctica SYDNEY - Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists on Saturday, the conservationist group's founder claimed, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is chasing the fleet in the hopes of interrupting Japan's annual whale hunt, which kills up to 1,000 whales a year. The two sides have clashed violently in the past, including last year, when a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling ship.... New Zealand-based Glenn Inwood, spokesman for Japan's Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, which sponsors the whale hunt, said he had no comment. ... I'd like to do a little "research" on their asses. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 28, 2010 from Politico: President Obama under pressure to deliver on climate Jan. 2 isn't just your ordinary Sunday. It's the day the Obama administration will officially start regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and critics have issued dire predictions of economic destruction. With all the fiery rhetoric about how damaging the regulations could be, the White House is under pressure to fulfill its pledge to tackle climate change while avoiding the appearance that it's hindering job growth.... Incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) last week accused EPA of advancing a "long regulatory assault" against domestic energy producers. "The EPA has its foot firmly on the throat of our economic recovery," he said. "We will not allow the administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate." ... Better than a noose firmly on the throat of the planet's neck! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Dec 22, 2010 from Guardian: The day my innocence bit the dust On the tour, the environmental director pointed out all the buggies spraying water on the track - this was to keep the coal dust under control. Dust rising from the mine and drifting in the wind was blamed by local communities for lung problems and environmental damage.... "See, all this fuss about coal dust. Look, there really isn't any." I looked across the pit and had to admit that he was right - the air seemed fairly clean.... The cab driver asked if he could take a friend along for the long drive. About five minutes into the journey the friend turned around from the front seat and said: "Were you the visitors to the mine today?" "Yes," I said. "I thought so. I work there, with the cutting machinery," said the passenger. "I just wanted to tell you something. Just before you arrived at the viewpoint we received an order to turn off the cutting machines. And after you left, we were instructed to switch them back on again."... What interested me most was the reaction of my local colleague, a lawyer who had been working on these issues for some time. She was utterly unsurprised. In her world, big multinational, and smaller national, companies lie and deceive as a matter of course to get their way in the world and to make a quicker buck. ... Corporations might lie just to make more money, even if it endangers lives?? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 20, 2010 from ProPublica: Med Schools Flunk at Keeping Faculty Off Pharma Speaking Circuit As medical schools wrestle with how to keep drug companies from corrupting their faculties, Stanford University is often lauded for its tough stance. The school was one of the first to stop sales representatives from roaming its halls in 2006 [1]. It cut off the flow of free lunches and trinkets emblazoned with drug names. And last year, in a blow to its physicians' wallets, Stanford banned them from giving paid promotional talks for pharmaceutical companies. One thing it didn't do was make sure its faculty followed that rule. A ProPublica investigation found that more than a dozen of the school's doctors were paid speakers in apparent violation of its policy--two of them earning six figures since last year. ... Money... is the sweetest drug of all. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Dec 16, 2010 from Greenpeace: Free 'print 'n' play' game: Big Oil Vs Greenpeace to save the Arctic It's a free print & play board game called Deepsea Desperation. It's all about Greenpeace against Big Oil, with one player struggling to establish marine reserves in the very territory the other player wants to exploit. Through a mix of strategic lobbying, oil exploration, direct action and reserve creation, one of you will triumph. But beware: If you choose to be oil and get too many blowouts you'll have a deepwater slaughter on your hands, a mock twitter account handling your PR, pictures of dead animals in the paper, billions in damages and all those things that are so bad for your bottom line. And if a species falls extinct, you both lose.... Of course this isn't just a game. The world's oil companies really are trying to drill in some of the riskiest and most environmentally sensitive areas in the world. Marine reserves - think national parks at sea - really are the answer. World Park Antarctica is closed to industry because you helped us win the campaign to protect it. There's no reason we can't do the same in the Arctic, where oil companies are licking their lips as, without a trace of irony, they welcome the shrinking of the ice caps due to climate change. See, retreating ice frees up more places they can drill for oil. Unfortunately that will lead to more climate change. You see the problem here. We like to call this humanity's "Stupid Test." ... Maybe the sides ought to be "future civilization" and "carbon producers." ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 7, 2010 from ABC News: GOP's Global Warming Skeptics to Take House Chairs on Energy, Science All of the contenders in line to head the prestigious House committees responsible for setting America's energy and science policy are global warming skeptics, and that's causing scientists to worry that Republicans will use their new positions for political grandstanding at the expense of scientific advancement. The Republicans, who will take over leadership of the House in January, have not yet announced who will chair the Energy and Commerce Committee or the Science and Technology Committee, but the short lists for both committees consist solely of congressmen who question the veracity of climate change. ... The Rapture can't come soon enough. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Dec 4, 2010 from New York Times: Shrugging Off Criticism, Europe Will Keep Trawling European nations will keep trawling the deep sea bottom, officials said this week, confounding hopes that they would honor commitments made to the United Nations General Assembly to stop the destructive practice. The Council of Fisheries Ministers, made up of officials from the 27 member nations of the European Union, said on Monday that there would be little change in deep-sea quotas for the next two years, despite strong objections from the conservationist camp.... A British study published in September found that bottom trawling commercial fishing fleets have a more negative impact on the seafloor than all other major human activities combined. ... Scraping the very bottom of the barrel of earth. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Nov 20, 2010 from TheEnergyCollective: Oil industry insider exposé: what it took to wake some of them up on climate. I've just read Challenged by Carbon: The Oil Industry and Climate Change, which was written by Dr. Bryan Lovell, a former senior executive at British Petroleum.... Lovell writes about how it came to be that the senior European oil executives backed Kyoto while Exxon-Mobil continued on with its denial campaign. In the process, he also shows us what he and his European counterparts believe about how dangerous climate change is. I was astonished.... The oil execs understand and believe that the amount of carbon that is being moved into the atmosphere as civilization accelerates its use of fossil fuels is going in at such a rate that the only comparable event in Earth's history is the PETM (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum). They believe a recurrence of this event is not only possible but likely. They can't face being held responsible by history. The European senior oil execs, unlike their American counterparts, and perhaps only briefly, lost their nerve about the denial policy, backed Kyoto, and confronted the Americans. The science described by Lovell is why BP started its "Beyond Petroleum" campaign. The science hasn't changed. Obviously, BP has. ... Hey, you think there'll even be any historians left? Ha! I'm safe. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Nov 11, 2010 from London Guardian: Arctic oil spill clean-up plans are 'thoroughly inadequate', industry warned The next big offshore oil disaster could take place in the remote Arctic seas where hurricane-force winds, 30ft seas, sub-zero temperatures and winter darkness would overwhelm any clean-up attempts, a new report warns. With the ban on offshore drilling lifted in the Gulf of Mexico, big oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell are pressing hard for the Obama administration to grant final approval to Arctic drilling. Shell has invested more than $2bn to drill off Alaska's north coast, and is campaigning to begin next summer. But the report, Oil spill prevention and response in the US Arctic Ocean, by the Pew Environment Group, warns that oil companies are not ready to deal with a spill, despite the lessons of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. ... Why don't we just wait to worry about this? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 1, 2010 from The Vancouver Tyee: US Tea Party's Deep Ties to Oil Sands Giant The Tea Party movement, poised to help shift the U.S. legislature to the right and stymie President Obama's green agenda, has financial and organizational ties to Koch Industries, one of America's biggest processors of Alberta oil sands crude. Congressional midterm elections on Tuesday could create a U.S. government less amenable to climate change action, partly a result of Tea Party influence. That would likely bode well for Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands industry, which has long worried that national greenhouse gas standards south of the border will reduce profits and restrict future growth.... Koch Industries provides critical support for the Tea Party movement through Americans for Prosperity (AFP), an advocacy group it established in 2003 and now helps fund. AFP sponsored and helped organize nearly 1,000 Tea Party rallies in April. ... Sounds like a bunch of dicks to me. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Oct 17, 2010 from The Walrus: The Last Great Water Fight Sixteen hundred kilometres downstream from Fort Chip, the Mackenzie River empties a watershed nearly the size of Western Europe into the Arctic Ocean. Draining half of Alberta and most of the Northwest Territories, as well as parts of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon, the Mackenzie is one of the world's great water arteries.... At their deepest level, the [river development] negotiations feature two starkly different views of humanity's prerogatives. One has framed four centuries of North American development under Euro-colonial management. It puts man first, fashioning nature primarily as a resource for the fulfillment of human desires. The other sees our species as one -- but only one -- of nature's creations, as dependent on a healthy habitat as any moose or beaver.... A 2009 effort by the Ottawa-based Canadian Boreal Initiative to put a value on "non-market" services provided by the Mackenzie ecosystem tallied the total at $570.6 billion a year -- ten times the market price of all the gold, diamonds, and oil clawed from its soil annually. ... This is, sadly, a watershed decade. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Oct 15, 2010 from Jerry Mander, in the Guardian: Climate change v capitalism: the feast is almost over So, while Obama talked climate change in Copenhagen, he pushed for accelerated growth and consumption, emphasising such climate-deadly industries as private automobile production, new road construction, nuclear power generation, and continued coal extraction (including horrendous "mountain top removal") while extolling an entirely theoretical "clean coal".... Whether it's the political left or right, Obama, or Cameron, or Sarkozy, or Putin, or Wen, or Harper or Miliband or Gingrich or Palin, or any political candidate for any office, they're all talking about the necessity to stimulate growth. The media does, too, whether it's the Guardian or the Murdoch press, the Financial Times or the New York Times. They all agree on the one thing: growth, growth, growth. That's the lifeblood of the system. Everyone is hunting the magic elixir to revive rapid growth. How to build and sell more cars? How to increase industrial production, from computers to heavy equipment to industrial agriculture? How to increase exports? But there's a missing link in the discussion, ignored by nearly everyone in the mainstream debate: nature. They speak about our economy as if it were a separate entity, its own ever-expanding universe, unconnected to any realities outside itself, not embodied within a larger system from which, actually, it emerged and can't escape. Nature cannot be left out of the discussion. It may be the most important detail of the entire conversation. Leaving it out of consideration is, well, suicidal. Here's the point: never-ending growth on a small planet with finite resources is a profound impossibility. It's an absurdity. A fantasy. It's time to wake up. ... Just so's you know, that fantasy has been makin' me rich. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 13, 2010 from Greenwire: It's Red States vs. Blue in Legal War Over EPA Greenhouse Gas Rules With climate legislation stalled in Congress and U.S. EPA just months away from regulating greenhouse gases for the first time, 37 states have taken sides in a court battle that could end up steering U.S. climate policy for years... The states' positions hew closely to a broader split in sentiments on climate change, said Matthew Kahn, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the geography of climate politics. After looking over a map of the breakdown in the court battle, Kahn said the data seem to reflect what he called the "Prius factor" -- the divide between wealthier, more educated states that are sympathetic to green causes and blue-collar, more carbon-intensive states that would stand to lose the most if greenhouse gas regulations ended up imposing heavy costs on the economy. ... Red... blue... green... what color will the Apocalypse be? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 13, 2010 from Washington Post: U.S. lifts ban on deep-water drilling Under pressure from Gulf Coast lawmakers warning of job losses, the Obama administration Tuesday lifted the moratorium on deep-water drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico weeks ahead of schedule, pledging closer oversight in the wake of the worst spill in U.S. history. "We are open for business," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters in a phone call Tuesday afternoon, adding, "We have made, and continue to make, significant progress in reducing the risks associated with deep-water drilling." ... And so another moment of reckoning has passed. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Oct 10, 2010 from Associated Press: US, China blame each other for slow climate talks Modest progress at U.N. climate talks Saturday was overshadowed by a continuing deadlock between China and the United States, clouding prospects for a major climate conference in Mexico in less than two months' time. Marred by an atmosphere of mistrust, negotiations have made limited headway as the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed each other for holding up talks. Chief U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing said he was disappointed by the resistance of China and other developing nations to a major issue: allowing the monitoring and verification of their efforts to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming.... Meanwhile his Chinese counterpart, Su Wei, hit back, charging developed countries with failing to commit to substantial reductions in carbon emissions while making unfair demands of developing nations. ... Why don't we at least find common ground by monitoring and verifying our failures to commit. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Oct 9, 2010 from CNN: What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths Few ecological disasters have been as confounding as the massive and devastating die-off of the world's honeybees. The phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- in which disoriented honeybees die far from their hives -- has kept scientists, beekeepers, and regulators desperately seeking the cause.... The long list of possible suspects has included pests, viruses, fungi, and also pesticides, particularly so-called neonicotinoids, a class of neurotoxins that kills insects by attacking their nervous systems. For years, their leading manufacturer, Bayer Crop Science, a subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG (BAYRY), has tangled with regulators and fended off lawsuits from angry beekeepers who allege that the pesticides have disoriented and ultimately killed their bees... A cheer must have gone up at Bayer on Thursday when a front-page New York Times article, under the headline "Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery," described how a newly released study pinpoints a different cause for the die-off: "a fungus tag-teaming with a virus."...What the Times article did not explore -- nor did the study disclose -- was the relationship between the study's lead author, Montana bee researcher Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, and Bayer Crop Science. ... Neonicotinoids... Take out the "neo" and the "oids" and you have nicotin... sound familiar? The bees are dying from smoking, not pesticides. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Oct 4, 2010 from Politico: Environmental Protection Agency rules could hurt Barack Obama in 2012 President Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is putting some hazardous speed bumps on his 2012 electoral road in key swing states. Controversial rules covering everything from power plants to petroleum refiners, manufacturers, coal mines and farmers could come back to haunt the White House in industrial and Midwestern states that carried Obama to the presidency two years ago. Political battlegrounds like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia that Obama won in 2008 will be watching how the EPA moves on climate change. Coal-reliant states such as Missouri -- which Obama lost by less than 1 percentage point -- will be monitoring clean air rules and coal ash standards. And farm states that Obama carried, including Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, are waiting on a proposal to tighten air quality limits for microscopic soot. ... By all means let's play it safe! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from PR Watch: Lauria Quit Cigarettes, But Now He's on the Bottle ...Bottled water means big money for beverage manufacturers, but people are starting to realize that it's also big drain on their wallets and the environment. Bottled water costs a whopping 2,000 times more than tap water, and about 40 percent of mass-produced bottled water brands come from the same sources as tap water. Tap water is also subjected to more regulations than bottled water. Moreover, bottled water also siphons money from taxpayers' pockets. Last March, Corporate Accountability International surveyed the budgets of five states and found that taxpayers in those states were shelling out between $78,000 and $450,000 for bottled water, a resource that essentially flows free from public taps. People are discovering this information to the detriment of the bottled water companies, which made $11 billion on the product in 2008.... When he worked for the tobacco industry, Tom Lauria used to deny smoking was addictive. He denied the connection between secondhand smoke and respiratory disease. He also denied the health affects of parental smoking on children, opposed restrictions on cigarette vending machines and told us that efforts to end smoking in public places would lead to Prohibition. Now Lauria works for the International Bottled Water Association, which occupies the same address as the American Beverage Association, the soft drink companies' lobbying group. Lauria is running a campaign to try to convince people that bottled water is indisposable. ... When Lauria's free, I'd like to hire him to convince people that the planet is not warming! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Aug 30, 2010 from Center for Investigative Reporting: Under fire from industry, scientific panel is 'gutted' Five out of nine members of a scientific panel that advises the state on toxic chemicals have been fired in recent weeks, following disputes with the chemical industry and a conservative group that targets environmental laws... Among the dismissed members is panel chairman John Froines, who also heads the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA's School of Public Health. Froines has served on the panel since it was founded and has been its chairman since 1998. Froines says he learned of his dismissal July 22 in a two-sentence letter from Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles. Panel members, including Froines, have come under fire over the years when their designation of certain substances as toxic came at a cost to industry. ... Given the toxic relationship between business and science, I'd suggest purchasing one of these. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 25, 2010 from BBC Magazine: Why is Britain braced for a mackerel war? Britain is said to be bracing itself for a re-run of its Cod Wars with Iceland - except this time the fish being fought over is mackerel. Yet, until recently, few were interested in a fish regarded as unclean. As far as fishing is concerned, relations between the UK and Iceland have been as turbulent as the waters of the North Atlantic where their disputes have been played out. So it is perhaps no surprise to see a British MEP, Conservative Struan Stevenson, calling for an EU-wide blockade of Icelandic boats - along with those from the Faroe Islands - in a row over quotas. However, while rows in the past have been over the coveted and dwindling stocks of cod, this time the nations are clashing over mackerel.... Iceland, which landed practically no mackerel before 2006, has allocated itself a 130,000-tonne quota. The Faroes, a collection of islands 250 miles north of Scotland, has tripled its usual entitlement.... "The mackerel stock has been sustainably managed for many years ensuring that all those involved in the fishery have benefited," he says. "The actions of Iceland and the Faroe Islands could undo all the good work in a matter of months."... But a recent fall in the the island's herring catch means [mackerel] has been "like a Godsend to us". ... Why? Because every bigger fish has already been fished out! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Aug 15, 2010 from Miami Herald: Tiny toxic town takes on a corporate Goliath A Florida hamlet where parts for nuclear weapons were made is fighting both an environmental calamity and a major defense contractor... Environmental contamination threatens to destroy this historic black town and its heritage. In one of the nation's most emotional environmental divides, the residents find themselves pitted against giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin, Manatee County, and the state of Florida. The divide takes root at the former American Beryllium Company plant, anchoring five acres at 1600 Tallevast Road across from a community church. Opened in 1961 and shuttered in 1996, the plant manufactured machine parts for nuclear weapons using beryllium-containing metals. Workers inhaled hazardous dust and handled a toxic degreaser that cleaned machine parts. ... They better have some bad-ass slingshots. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Aug 7, 2010 from Associated Press: Climate talks appear to slip backward Global climate talks appeared to have slipped backward after five days of negotiations in Bonn, with rich and poor countries exchanging charges of reneging on agreements they made last year to contain greenhouse gases. Delegates complained that reversals in the talks put negotiations back by a year, even before minimal gains were scored at the Copenhagen summit last December. "It's a little bit like a broken record," said European Union negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger. "It's like a flashback," agreed Raman Mehta, of the Action Aid environment group. "The discourse is the same level" as before Copenhagen. ... We're a planet full of slackers. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Aug 6, 2010 from SciDev.net: Sufferers urge progress on sickle cell drug Nicosan "This remedy changed my life," said Tosin Ola, a US-based advocate for sufferers from the disease, who had used the drug since 2007. She has written an open letter, for which she is collecting signatures, to three banks.... "Dust gathers at the Xechem factory that could be our salvation ... equipment to manufacture Nicosan [is] rusting wastefully away while you sit behind your desk ignoring all attempts to put this matter to rest," says the letter. The banks --Bank PHB, Diamond Bank and Nexim -- control Xechem's Nigerian subsidiary following the company's failure to repay loans it obtained from them. Niprisan is based on extracts from West African plants known to a Nigerian family which made a pioneering agreement with NIPRD, widely cited as a case study in "benefit sharing" -- allowing local groups to have a stake in the profits from commercialising indigenous products. The licence to produce the drug was subsequently bought by Xechem International, which held it for six years -- during the last few of which it was dogged by allegations of fraud and mismanagement. ... The free market rises to the occasion again. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 12, 2010 from Washington Post: Historic oil spill fails to produce gains for U.S. environmentalists For environmentalists, the BP oil spill may be disproving the maxim that great tragedies produce great change. Traditionally, American environmentalism wins its biggest victories after some important piece of American environment is poisoned, exterminated or set on fire. An oil spill and a burning river in 1969 led to new anti-pollution laws in the 1970s. The Exxon Valdez disaster helped create an Earth Day revival in 1990 and sparked a landmark clean-air law. But this year, the worst oil spill in U.S. history -- and, before that, the worst coal-mining disaster in 40 years -- haven't put the same kind of drive into the debate over climate change and fossil-fuel energy. The Senate is still gridlocked. Opinion polls haven't budged much. Gasoline demand is going up, not down. ... Too bad we can't turn selfishness and apathy into a renewal energy source. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jun 26, 2010 from Guardian: China: the next superconsumer Liu is a member of the fastest-growing consumer class: single women - or xiaobailing (white-collar princesses). They have high levels of disposable income and a craving for designer labels. For marketing moguls, they are the future face of consumer power. State planners forecast that half the population will be middle class by 2020. Until recently, China was living within the planet's means. If everyone in the world consumed what the average Mr or Mrs Wang did in 2007, we'd just about stay within the sustainable resources of our planet. Humanity would have a balanced ecological budget. But, understandably, Mr and Mrs Wang wanted to keep up with Mr and Mrs Jones on the other side of the Pacific. That was human nature. It was also bad news for the environment, because if we all ate, shopped and travelled like those average Americans, we'd need 4.5 Earths.... At her first sale, she blew a third of her salary on Fendi sunglasses. "It is like a fever," she says. "The price is so low, you cannot refuse." ... Earthdebt is just a mortgage -- and since the value of our Earth will only rise, let's keep borrowing! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jun 15, 2010 from Politico: Henry Waxman puts Big Oil on trial Henry Waxman's war on Big Oil has begun. The California Democrat, along with Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), will force top oil executives to defend or condemn industry practices and profits, according to series of pre-hearing questions obtained by POLITICO, foreshadowing an intense, made-for-TV hearing Tuesday that could create an iconic Washington moment for the petroleum industry... BP may be first in the line of fire, but experts said the whole industry will be on trial Tuesday. Executives from BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron are scheduled to testify. ... The Waxman Cometh! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jun 12, 2010 from Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Canada Won't Seek Delay in Greenland 'Iceberg Alley' Drilling Canada will ask Greenland for information about safety plans for drilling in arctic waters, without seeking a request to delay exploration following the Gulf of Mexico spill, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said.... The drilling program "is a challenging one in that we are speaking about drilling activity in the Baffin Basin; it's known as iceberg alley."... Those waters, including some shared with Canada, may hold 17 billion barrels of oil, 148 trillion cubic feet of gas and 9.3 billion barrels of gas liquids, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates. ... Iceberg Alley has enormous bowling balls. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jun 10, 2010 from Epoch times: Monsanto's Gift Not Needed in Haiti Monsanto Company sent more than 60 tons of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to help with relief efforts in Haiti in May, but the gift was not entirely welcomed. According to numerous media reports, 10,000 members of The Movement of Papay (MMP) lead by Chavannes Jean-Baptiste took to the streets to protest the planting of Monsanto's crops, which were accepted by the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture. Monsanto -- an American giant of agricultural produce -- has a reputation of producing large amounts of hazardous pollution and dispersing branded herbicides, like Roundup, around the world to make resource-poor countries dependent on Monsanto's supply of the chemical. Hybrid seeds donated by Monsanto will allow farmers to grow crops for only one year as the plants do not reproduce, thus making the farmers dependent on buying the same crops the following year. ... Like The Pusher says, first one's free. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jun 6, 2010 from BusinessGreen: Only business can save us now It has been a sobering week for anyone with an interest in the low-carbon economy. While the good news continues to pour in for individual firms and countries, the prognosis for the international climate talks that reconvened in Bonn on Monday looks as bleak as at any point in the past two years. Anyone hoping that a line had been drawn under the acrimonious row that marred the final few days of the Copenhagen summit would have been left disillusioned within minutes of the latest round of talks getting under way.... Barring miracles, the obstacles faced by the US climate bill and the UN climate negotiations look increasingly insurmountable. But climate change and its associated risks will not wait for us to complete our political machinations, which leaves us facing one crucial question: where will the miracles come from? The answer is the business community. ... How great that we have had the last century of practice letting the desire for profit change the world. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, May 31, 2010 from London Guardian: Presence of world leaders 'paralysed' climate summit, UN letter claims A leaked letter from the United Nations' climate chief suggests the Copenhagen climate summit failed because the presence of 130 world leaders paralysed decision-making and the Danish presidency backed the US and other western nations over the interests of the poor. The revelations - made as the UN climate talks resume in Bonn tomorrow - come in Yvo de Boer's candid letter, written to colleagues days after the summit broke up in acrimony in December. More than 130 world leaders had been persuaded by Britain and other countries to go to Denmark, where they were expected to put the finishing touches to a historic global agreement to limit carbon emissions, protect forests and put in place a mechanism to transfer billions of dollars from rich to poor countries each year. Instead, they arrived at a summit seething with mistrust. ... Egopocalypse ApocaDoc permalink Sat, May 29, 2010 from New York Times: Not Dead, Only Resting? The Climate Bill A popular parlor game in Washington is trying to figure out whether the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has helped or hurt chances for passage of comprehensive energy and climate change legislation. President Obama tried to bolster its prospects in his news conference on Thursday, saying the crisis highlights the need to find alternatives to the deadly and dirty fossil fuels oil and coal. ... Games are over, dude. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 26, 2010 from National Wildlife Federation: Hold Big Oil Accountable to Paying Full Price The snowy plover is one of the most at-risk species from the BP oil spill. In addition to coming in direct contact to the oil, the snowy plover is at-risk of being poisoned by eating smaller invertebrates that have been tainted with oil. Rather than assuming full responsibility for the costs of their recklessness on wildlife like the snowy plover, BP is trying to push the price tag off on the American taxpayer. Currently, outdated legislation puts BP off the hook for damages above $75 million, even though this is less than one day's profit for BP! Edit and send the message below, urging Congress to hold Big Oil polluters accountable to paying the full cost of their negligence. ... Sign, baby, sign! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 25, 2010 from New York Times: Inspector General's Inquiry Faults Regulators Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil -- and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general's report to be released this week. The report, which describes inappropriate behavior by the staff at the Minerals Management Service from 2005 to 2007, also found that inspectors had accepted meals, tickets to sporting events and gifts from at least one oil company while they were overseeing the industry. ... From an efficiency standpoint this is genius! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 25, 2010 from New York Times: Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new permits for various types of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted, according to records. The records also indicate that since the April 20 explosion on the rig, federal regulators have granted at least 19 environmental waivers for gulf drilling projects and at least 17 drilling permits, most of which were for types of work like that on the Deepwater Horizon shortly before it exploded, pouring a ceaseless current of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. ... It's not so much a moratorium as it is a lessatorium. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 11, 2010 from New York Times: Energy Interests Spend Millions for Their Seat at the Climate Table Businesses with significant stakes in the outcome of climate and energy legislation ramped up lobbying spending earlier this year as they worked to shape the Senate bill scheduled to be unveiled this week. Electric utilities and the coal, chemical and natural gas industries in particular boosted influence efforts and appear poised to receive key parts of what they sought in new climate policies. Utilities and coal are likely to see language that lets power plants escape most penalties for greenhouse gas emissions in the early years of a carbon restriction program, according to those familiar with the draft legislation. Chemical companies could garner a delay in having to comply with new rules. Natural gas hopes to win incentives that would help companies increase their share of the energy market. ... We wouldn't want to be in a hurry would we? ApocaDoc permalink Sun, May 2, 2010 from Mobile Press-Register: Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010: The worst-case scenario The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons per day. If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate, perhaps up to 150,000 barrels -- or more than 6 million gallons per day -- based on government data showing daily production at another deepwater Gulf well. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill was 11 million gallons total. The Gulf spill could end up dumping the equivalent of 4 Exxon Valdez spills per week. ... If you like shrimp, eat your last today. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, May 1, 2010 from London Daily Telegraph: Gulf oil slick is a disaster for world climate deal Could the greatest casualty of the giant oil slick surging through the Gulf of Mexico turn out to be not Louisiana's magnificent wildlife, or the biggest US fishery outside Alaska, but the last remaining chance of an international agreement to combat climate change? It seems counter-intuitive. Surely an economic and ecological disaster, caused by exploiting the fossil fuels that emit all that carbon dioxide, should make the world keener to tackle global warming by moving to cleaner sources of energy? But that would be in a rational universe - one where agreement did not depend on two increasingly dysfunctional institutions: the UN climate treaty negotiations and the US Congress. In the real world, there is no possibility of a new treaty unless Congress first passes legislation to reduce emissions from the United States. And, until the oil started gushing from the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, the best chance of getting this through was for Capitol Hill, and the whole of the United States, to stop worrying about slicks and learn to love offshore oil drilling. ... Don't you want to just take the US, spank 'em, and send 'em to bed without their energy. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 27, 2010 from NPR: How Cap And Trade Was 'Trashed' It's not clear whether climate-change legislation has any chance in the Senate this year. What is clear is that even if the chamber does manage to pass a bill, it will be much less ambitious than the version approved by the House last year. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spent months negotiating with Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) over what was expected to be the Senate's blueprint for action on the issue. Over the weekend, Graham pulled out of the effort, canceling the bill's introduction, which had been set for Monday... Graham has been castigated in his home state for working with Democrats on the issue and had not been able to win over any GOP co-sponsors. Climate change has become an increasingly partisan issue. ... The planet is not partisan, though the poor will suffer far more than the rich. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Apr 26, 2010 from Reuters: Climate debate gets ugly as world moves to curb CO2 Climate scientists, used to dealing with sceptics, are under siege like never before, targeted by hate emails brimming with abuse and accusations of fabricating global warming data. Some emails contain thinly veiled death threats. Across the Internet, climate blogs are no less venomous, underscoring the surge in abuse over the past six months triggered by purported evidence that global warming is either a hoax or the threat from a warmer world is grossly overstated. A major source of the anger is from companies with a vested interest in fighting green legislation that might curtail their activities or make their operations more costly. ... Livelihoods ... over lives. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 20, 2010 from Los Angeles Times: Foes of California's global warming law pour money into a campaign to delay it Oil companies and conservative activists poured nearly $1 million last week into their campaign to place an initiative on the November ballot that would delay enforcement of California's global warming law. The effort, which also sought to enlist "tea party" activists, came as organizers failed to meet their original goal of gathering the 433,000 necessary signatures by Friday. But with the infusion of $930,000 to pay signature gatherers, bringing the total to $1.9 million, "We will all do what it takes to win," said Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville), an initiative backer. "This will be an epic battle like no other between environmental extremism and job growth." ... This makes me feel all logey. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 20, 2010 from Greenwire: Iconic Status Can't Spare Grand Canyon From Myriad Threats From the rim, the Grand Canyon, 15 miles wide at its most expansive and a mile deep, looks like one of the wildest, most timeless places on earth... But a closer look reveals a canyon ecosystem that has been deeply altered by human forces. And today, the park is facing an unprecedented convergence of threats, the long-term effects of which are largely unknown... But as more and more people have followed Roosevelt's advice -- about 4.5 million tourists visit the Grand Canyon each year, compared to about 44,000 in 1918, the year Congress elevated the monument to national park status -- pressures on the unique environment have increased in ways Roosevelt likely could not have foreseen. A major upstream dam now regulates the Colorado River's flow through the park and has rendered the river unnaturally clear and cool. And invasive species like salt cedar and trout are crowding out native species such as willow and the endangered humpback chub. ... Tourists: the most invasive species of all. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Apr 11, 2010 from Paul Kedrosky: Hundreds of ApocaDocs visitors from Paul Kedrosky Financial blogger Paul Kedrosky, writing in his "Infectious Greed" blog, included in his "Readings" segment an ApocaDocs item (Natural World Vanishes: How Species Cease to Matter), a quipped shout-out to Yale360's full story. Hundreds, via his site, its RSS feeds, its email outreach, and other sites' republishing, ended up visiting ApocaDocs. The story focuses on the key take-away: "Every generation takes the natural environment it encounters during childhood as the norm against which it measures environmental decline later in life. With each ensuing generation, environmental degradation generally increases, but each generation takes that degraded condition as the new normal." It names a particular beast: the ever-changing "new normal," in which extant nature becomes "normal," no matter how threadbare and tattered. While the stock-watchers at Kedrosky are seemingly not a natural audience for the ApocaDoc message, we hope to see more of them -- since, after all, environmental collapse is and will be the single most important economic drive of the next decade. ... Anyone who thinks the environment drives the economy doesn't recognize the innovative talent of Homo sapiens! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Apr 10, 2010 from London Guardian: US denies climate aid to countries opposing Copenhagen accord The US State Department is denying climate change assistance to countries opposing the Copenhagen accord, it emerged today. The new policy, first reported by The Washington Post, suggests the Obama administration is ready to play hardball, using aid as well as diplomacy, to bring developing countries into conformity with its efforts to reach an international deal to tackle global warming. The Post reported today that Bolivia and Ecuador would now be denied aid after both countries opposed the accord.... However, Alden Meyer, the climate change director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned that such a policy risked further inflaming the tensions between the industrialised world and developing countries that have been a major obstacle to getting a deal. ... Perhaps we should send them to bed without their suppers as well! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Apr 4, 2010 from The Charleston Gazette: EPA study confirms damage from strip mining Federal government scientists say a "growing body of evidence" shows that mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian forests and dangerously polluting vital headwater streams...While EPA scientists focused on direct damage to streams that are buried and on pollution downstream from valley fills, the 119-page report also warns that damage to ecologically important forests is greater than some routinely cited statistics suggest. Last week, EPA published the study by the agency's Office of Research and Development in conjunction with the issuance of new water quality guidance intended to reduce mining's adverse impacts on aquatic life. ... This study, courtesy of the Duh!partment of the Obvious. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Apr 3, 2010 from Political Economy Research Institute via Truthout: Meet the Toxic 100 Corporate Air Polluters Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst today released the Toxic 100 Air Polluters, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States.... The Toxic 100 Air Polluters index is based on air releases of hundreds of chemicals from industrial facilities across the United States. The rankings take into account not only the quantity of releases, but also the toxicity of chemicals, transport factors such as prevailing winds and height of smokestacks, and the number of people exposed. The top five air polluters among large corporations are the Bayer Group, ExxonMobil, Sunoco, DuPont, and Arcelor Mittal. ... We're gonna need, like, a whole extra planet to detox from all this poison. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 2, 2010 from Reuters: Ecologists fear for Baikal as Putin saves factory On the shores of Lake Baikal, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is held up as a saviour and cursed as a scourge after allowing a Soviet-era paper mill to reopen beside the world's largest freshwater lake. Ecologists have branded Russia's most powerful man as the killer of Baikal, a 25-million-year-old lake believed by local tribes to be sacred, and have mustered thousands of people at protests calling for his resignation. Putin's opponents say he has misjudged the public mood and is risking Baikal to save 1,470 jobs at the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill, which was mothballed in late 2008 amid a pollution row. ... How could a lake that old be fresh? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 31, 2010 from New York Times: Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday. The proposal -- a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations -- would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean. ... Drill Obaby drill! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Mar 25, 2010 from New Scientist: Petropolis: Filming Canada's tar sands Canadian media artist and filmmaker Peter Mettler aerially filmed the tar sands of Alberta, Canada from a helicopter to highlight the vast scope and impact that the industrial mining site has on the environment. The result is his new film, Petropolis, which screens tomorrow evening at the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, UK. The mining area of the tar sands is as big as all of England and the tar sands oil production releases five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil production. As Mettler explains, getting the oil out of the tar sands uses roughly as much water as a city of two million people. Afterwards, 90 per cent of this water is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that it must be stored in tailings ponds so huge that they can be seen from outer space. ... I'm not liking the visible hand of the marketplace. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Mar 4, 2010 from Mother Jones: The Chamber of Commerce vs. Climate Science William Kovacs, the US Chamber of Commerce's vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs, last year famously called for a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" on climate change. Kovacs was referencing the lightning-rod 1925 court case that made it illegal to teach anything other than divine creation in Tennessee public schools -- and he wanted a similar public hearing in which climate science would be put on the stand. The remark drew plenty of bad press, and Kovacs soon recanted his "inappropriate" analogy. But it looks like the chamber is angling for that monkey trial after all, by way of a lawsuit it's filed against the Environmental Protection Agency that could be the first wave of a big-business assault on greenhouse gas regulations. ... We need a US Chamber of Climate. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Feb 20, 2010 from San Jose Mercury News: Shipping firm sentenced to pay $10 million for causing Cosco Busan oil spill With a sharp warning to the maritime industry, justice officials on Friday ordered a Chinese shipping firm to pay $10 million for its role in a spill that dumped 53,000 gallons of thick bunker fuel into the San Francisco Bay. Fleet Management, a Hong Kong-based firm, pleaded guilty last year to criminally violating federal pollution laws and felony obstruction of justice. The company admitted that it caused the spill and acted negligently after the Cosco Busan, which it owned, struck the Bay Bridge on a foggy morning Nov. 7, 2007, leading to the biggest Bay Area spill in 20 years. In addition, the firm was convicted of creating false and forged documents at the direction of shore-based supervisors with an intent to deceive the U.S. Coast Guard... After the Cosco Busan struck one of the support towers of the Bay Bridge, tearing a huge gash in the hull and causing the massive spill, at least 2,000 migratory birds died, including birds listed on the federal endangered species list. ... Ten million dollars sounds like a kiss on the wrist to me. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Feb 10, 2010 from Independent (UK): 'Climate emails hacked by spies' Interception bore hallmarks of foreign intelligence agency, says expert.... A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said that the hacking and selective leaking of the unit's emails, going back 13 years, bore all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence operation -- especially given their release just before the Copenhagen climate conference in December.... In an interview with The Independent, Sir David suggested the email leaks were deliberately designed to destabilise Copenhagen and he dismissed the idea that it was a run-of-the-mill hacking. It was carried out by a team of skilled professionals, either on behalf of a foreign government or at the behest of anti-climate change lobbyists in the United States, he said. ... Now who could possibly benefit from disrupting Copenhagen? ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from Los Angeles Times: Movement to suspend California's global-warming law gathers steam Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.... "We are on fire," said GOP Assemblyman Dan Logue, a sponsor of the proposed initiative. "People are calling from all over the country. This will be the most intense campaign the state has seen in 50 years." ... A rather unfortunate metaphor, dude. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Feb 5, 2010 from New York Times: U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak....The system was created by the Bush administration in 2004 after the discovery in late 2003 of a cow infected with mad cow disease. Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed. In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry.... ... Y'all ain't going Big Brother on my pigs! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from Climate Wire: 'All Kinds of Yelling' Expected From Obama's Lobbyist Crackdown The Obama administration's call for a lobbying crackdown created confusion on K Street yesterday even as it spawned cheers among environmental and watchdog groups. The issue came to the forefront this week after Norm Eisen, White House special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, blogged about how the administration plans to revolutionize how lobbyists disclose their activities and contribute money to candidates for federal office... Considering that climate change is an issue producing lobbyists from almost every industry in the United States, the plans, if enacted, could generate a flood of data about the discussions and attendees at pivotal meetings during the drafting of global warming legislation. ... No matter what, a reduction in lies and bullshit is good for the planet. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from London Guardian: Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible' A global deal to tackle climate change is all but impossible in 2010, leaving the scale and pace of action to slow global warming in coming decades uncertain, according to senior figures across the world involved in the negotiations. "The forces trying to tackle climate change are in disarray, wandering in small groups around the battlefield like a beaten army," said a senior British diplomat. An important factor cited is an impasse within the UN organisation charged with delivering a global deal, which today will start assessing the pledges made by individual countries by a deadline that passed last night. ... What's the hurry? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 29, 2010 from Louisville Courier-Journal: Kentucky greenhouse-emission growth is worst in nation, panel told Kentucky's greenhouse gas emissions are increasing at twice the rate of the rest of the nation, according to a draft inventory prepared for state environment officials. The Center for Climate Strategies found greenhouse gases -- mainly carbon dioxide -- rose 33 percent from 1990 to 2005, compared to 16 percent for the nation. Left unchecked, emissions are projected to increase to 62 percent above 1990 levels by 2030... "it's an important issue, said Len Peters, secretary of the state's Energy and Environment Cabinet, because many thousands of jobs are at stake in the state's coal, automotive, aluminum and steel industries if electricity rates go too high. "As we go forward, we have to link energy, the economy and the environment together," he said. ... Good luck with that. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 24, 2010 from Sydney Morning Herald, via DesdemonaDespair: Koala forest to be logged for wood chips LOGGING is set to start within weeks in a forest that supports the last known koala colony on the NSW far south coast. The NSW Government is yet to release data from a comprehensive survey of koala habitat and population in Mumbulla and Murrah state forests, near Tathra, even though some trees have been marked for removal.... One source described a map of the area that had been drawn and redrawn in search of a compromise between felling trees and maintaining enough forest to allow the koalas to survive.... The logging operation, due to begin in early March, would involve taking some high-quality timber and some timber for woodchips. Most of the timber from felled trees in the region goes to a mill in Eden, which exports woodchips to Japan. ... With these chips, the koalas are forced to go "all in." Holding a pair of threes. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 22, 2010 from New York Times: Senators Want to Bar E.P.A. Greenhouse Gas Limits In a direct challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's authority, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, introduced a resolution on Thursday to prevent the agency from taking any action to regulate carbon dioxide and other climate-altering gases. Ms. Murkowski, joined by 35 Republicans and three conservative Democrats, proposed to use the Congressional Review Act to strip the agency of the power to limit emissions of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court gave the agency legal authority to regulate such emissions in a landmark 2007 ruling. "Make no mistake," Ms. Murkowski said in a floor statement, "if Congress allows this to happen there will be severe consequences." She said businesses would be forced to close or move overseas, domestic energy production would be curtailed, housing would become more expensive and agricultural costs would rise. ... As opposed to the no-consequence future of severe climate change.... ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 21, 2010 from Chicago Tribune: Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan The DNA of Asian carp has been found in Lake Michigan for the first time, researchers said Tuesday, igniting a new round of calls for urgent action and renewed criticism of Illinois and the federal government for allowing the voracious carp to migrate up the state's waterways. The alarming find came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to address the carp issue, rejecting Michigan's request for an injunction to force Illinois to stop its waterways from flowing into Lake Michigan. That left the issue in the hands of federal and state officials in Illinois....the discovery may bring the region a step closer to a scenario in which the carp devastate the Great Lakes' fragile ecology and commercial fishing interests. ... Don't they get these carp are also a metaphor?!? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 21, 2010 from Reuters: Massachusetts vote hurts US climate bill Republican Scott Brown's upset victory on Tuesday in the special U.S. Senate race has dealt a further blow to Democrats' drive to pass a climate control bill in 2010. Last June, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a cap and trade bill that would require reductions in industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the next four decades. It also would allow pollution permits to be traded in a new regulated market. But the global warming bill has languished in the Senate, where some members have been trying to find a compromise. Once Brown takes office, Democrats will hold 59 of the 100 votes in the Senate and the Republicans 41. The bill needs 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles that could block passage. ... What the hell... we have all the time in the world. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 21, 2010 from Bloomberg News: Exxon Hid Radiation Risk to Workers, Witness Says Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, "knew or should have known" that drilling pipes it sent to a Louisiana pipe yard were contaminated with dangerous radioactive material, a trial witness testified. Paul Templet, a former secretary of Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality, told jurors yesterday in a lawsuit trial in state court in Gretna, Louisiana, that internal Exxon memos showed the company had information beginning in the 1930s about cancer-causing radium in the residue, or "scale," that built up inside its pipes. Templet was the first witness for 19 former pipe workers who are suing Exxon, claiming they were exposed to radiation and now fear they may get cancer. He said Exxon failed to report the contamination to his former agency until as late as 1988, endangering workers who cleaned the pipes at a Louisiana site. ... Those double "x"s in Exxon always seemed suspicious to me. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 20, 2010 from Times Online (UK): Car giants giving false hope of emission-free future, report says Car companies are raising false hopes of emission-free motoring in order to continue profiting from large, fuel-hungry vehicles, according to a study. Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are not expected to be available widely until after 2050 because of the high cost of the platinum in their catalysts. Battery-powered vehicles will also remain a niche product because of their limited battery life. It urges the Government to impose higher taxes on drivers of large, inefficient vehicles and to reinvest the proceeds in better public transport and measures to encourage walking and cycling. The authors accuse car manufacturers of exaggerating the potential for switching to hydrogen or battery-powered vehicles in the next decade. ... That's how it's done these days: being just green enough to seem green. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 17, 2010 from The Tennessean: NASA public relations flap follows official to TVA TVA's new spokesman -- brought in to help rehab its credibility after the coal ash disaster -- was enmeshed at his previous job at NASA in a Bush administration controversy in which climate change scientists said they were censored. David Mould's name is sprinkled throughout a National Aeronautics and Space Administration inspector general's 2008 investigation report that says the agency's public affairs headquarters "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science." ... Spokespeople who dissemble are a type of toxic waste. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 17, 2010 from The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio lets power plants, factories ignore federal mercury limits Since 2004, the state has allowed 42 treatment facilities, power plants and factories to ignore federal limits on dumping mercury into lakes, rivers and streams. This year, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering more than 30 new requests for variances from companies that argue that the cost of keeping mercury out of the water far exceeds any benefits to wildlife and human health. Some argue that the technology needed to meet the limits set in 1995 does not exist. "There is no treatment technology available to get to these low levels," said Pat Hemlepp, a spokesman for Columbus-based American Electric Power. But critics say governments are doing little, if anything, to make businesses develop cheap, reliable filters to remove mercury. ... Government + business versus you + me. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jan 9, 2010 from Washington Post: White House, EPA at Odds Over Coal-Waste Rules Agency's Move to Designate Ash as Hazardous Is Slowed by Regulatory Czar's Assessment of Impact on Industry... The Obama administration is engaged in an unusual internal spat as the White House and Environmental Protection Agency tussle over how to handle millions of tons of waste from coal-fired power plants. Utility and environmental groups are watching the coal-ash dispute as an indicator of the administration's pliability on the regulatory front.... environmental groups are pointing to a flurry of industry meetings on the coal-ash issue as evidence that utilities and other companies are using a foothold within the White House to fight back against potentially far-reaching new rules. ... "Pliability" meaning... we bend over & take it from the coal industry! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 4, 2010 from Washington Post: Use of potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under law Of the 84,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States -- from flame retardants in furniture to household cleaners -- nearly 20 percent are secret, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, their names and physical properties guarded from consumers and virtually all public officials under a little-known federal provision. The policy was designed 33 years ago to protect trade secrets in a highly competitive industry. But critics -- including the Obama administration -- say the secrecy has grown out of control, making it impossible for regulators to control potential dangers or for consumers to know which toxic substances they might be exposed to. ... A little mystery so goes a long way. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jan 2, 2010 from China Daily: China seizes 8,500 tons of smuggled waste tires from US The Chinese customs authority said it had seized more than 8,500 tons of highly-polluting used tires smuggled from the United States, the biggest amount in recent years. Smugglers pretended they were importing rubber and shipped the pollutants to the coastal city of South China's Guangzhou via Hong Kong between December 2008 and February 2009, the General Administration of Customs said Thursday. The Huangpu Customs officials in Guangzhou found in late December 366 uncleared containers of the smuggled waste at the Dongjiangkou Port, which had lain there for almost a year, said Chen Wen, an inspection department official with the customs. The containers, if lined up, would stretch a length of 4.7 kilometers, according to customs officials. ... Can't they turn all those tires into finger puzzles or firecrackers or something? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Dec 31, 2009 from London Guardian: Shell must face Friends of the Earth Nigeria claim in Netherlands A judge in the Netherlands has opened the door to a potential avalanche of legal cases against Shell over environmental degradation said to be caused by its oil operations in the Niger Delta. The oil group expressed "disappointment" tonight that a court in The Hague had agreed to allow Friends of the Earth Netherlands and four local Nigerian farmers to bring a compensation case in its backyard for the first time... Friends of the Earth claims the oil spills are not accidents but represent a pattern of systematic pollution and contempt for the rights of the local population that had been going on for decades, something denied by the oil group. Up until now compensation claims have been brought in Nigeria, but many have become bogged down in a congested court system. ... Stay tuned... for the next couple of decades to see how this turns out. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Dec 30, 2009 from USA Today: How McDonald's makes sure its burgers are safe The hamburger you buy at McDonald's may look just like the hamburger you cook at home. But, in terms of safety, the two burgers are not close. Not unless you buy your own meat directly from a packing plant that you'd not only inspected yourself but was also inspected by a third party. And you demand the meat be tested multiple times for E. coli O157:H7, salmonella and coliform bacteria.... A day spent at the Keystone Foods plant here, one of five in the United States that makes hamburger patties for McDonald's, is a glimpse into the world of extreme food safety. McDonald's (MCD) is considered one of the best, if not the best, company in the United States when it comes to food safety. "They're the top of the top," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. ... No matter how safe the burgers, meat farms are still perilous to the habitat! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 29, 2009 from Associated Press: Malaria and other diseases coming back worldwide in new and more deadly forms ...Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, the AP found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying. Already, The Associated Press found, resistance to malaria has spread faster and wider than previously documented. Dr. White said virtually every case of malaria he sees in western Cambodia is now resistant to drugs.... People generate drug resistant malaria when they take too little medicine, substandard medicine or -- as is all too often the case around O'treng -- counterfeit medicine with a pinch of the real stuff. Once established, the drug-resistant malaria is spread by mosquitoes. So one person's counterfeit medicine can eventually spawn widespread resistant disease. ... That's a bit self-serving of those mosquitoes, don't you think? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 28, 2009 from POLITICO: Senate Democrats to W.H.: Drop cap and trade Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year... The creation of an economywide market for greenhouse gas emissions is the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative -- especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support. "We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it's very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now," said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economywide cap and trade "unlikely." ... Thank God tomorrow never comes. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 28, 2009 from The Center for Public Integrity: The Climate Lobby from Soup to Nuts The next round of the battle over climate change policy on Capitol Hill will involve more than the usual suspects. Way more... the overall number of businesses and groups lobbying on climate legislation has essentially held steady at about 1,160, thanks in part to a variety of interests that have left the fray. But a close look at the 140 or so interests that jumped into the debate for the first time in the third quarter shows a marked trend: Companies and organizations which feel they've been overlooked are fighting for a place at the table... Take the concerns raised by the world's largest maker of soup, Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Company... "It wasn't until we analyzed what was going on in the House that we thought, 'Oh, gosh, we are being affected by this,'" said Kelly Johnston, Campbell Soup's vice president for public affairs, in an interview. ... Surprise, Campbell's soup VP! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Dec 27, 2009 from Sarasota Herald Tribune: Katrina survivors battle a new foe: drywall It is fitting that the massive litigation moving forward on contaminated Chinese drywall should be heard in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina and its associated flooding killed more than 1,800 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and businesses and inflicted upwards of $81 billion in damages. Now, potentially thousands who returned to New Orleans and surrounding communities to rebuild their homes after Katrina are faced with having to do so all over again. The crisis of contaminated drywall may have first come to light in Florida, but as the Herald-Tribune first reported, records show that at least 60 million pounds of Chinese drywall came into the Port of New Orleans beginning in January 2006, enough to build 6,500 average-sized homes. ... New Orleans: America's favorite guinea pig in the coalmine! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Dec 27, 2009 from ProPublica: New gas wells leave more chemicals in ground Three company spokesmen and a regulatory official said in separate interviews with ProPublica that as much as 85 percent of the fluids used during hydraulic fracturing is being left underground after wells are drilled in the Marcellus Shale, the massive gas deposit that stretches from New York to Tennessee.... for each modern gas well drilled ... more than three million gallons of chemically tainted wastewater could be left in the ground forever. Drilling companies say that chemicals make up less than 1 percent of that fluid. But by volume, those chemicals alone still amount to 34,000 gallons in a typical well. These disclosures raise new questions about why the Safe Drinking Water Act, the federal law that regulates fluids injected underground so they don't contaminate drinking water aquifers, should not apply to hydraulic fracturing, and whether the thinking behind Congress' 2005 vote to shield drilling from regulation is still valid. When lawmakers approved that exemption it was generally accepted that only about 30 percent of the fluids stayed in the ground... Ninety percent of the nation's wells now rely on the process, ... Doesn't "aquifer" translate to "hairy water"? ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Dec 26, 2009 from New York Times: Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast. Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs. ... I dunno... sounds a lot like the coal industry to me! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 22, 2009 from London Financial Times: UN agrees to reform climate process The United Nations bowed to intensifying pressure yesterday to start sweeping reforms of its processes for reaching agreement on climate change. Developed and developing countries have condemned the bureaucratic and unwieldy process of reaching unanimous agreement from 192 countries, which many blamed for the chaotic end of the Copenhagen climate change conference at the weekend... Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, led the calls for reform yesterday, saying: "What happened at Copenhagen was a flawed decision-making process." He attacked, without naming, the small group of countries that prevented the formal adoption of the accord. The group is known to include Venezuela, Bolivia and Sudan. Ed Miliband, the British climate secretary, also blamed China yesterday for the outcome, as China had vetoed two important commitments that other countries wanted left in. ... Just so the new process includes even more blaming! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 21, 2009 from London Times: Gordon Brown calls for new group to police global environment issues A new global body dedicated to environmental stewardship is needed to prevent a repeat of the deadlock which undermined the Copenhagen climate change summit, Gordon Brown will say tomorrow. The UN�s consensual method of negotiation, which requires all 192 countries to reach agreement, needs to be reformed to ensure that the will of the majority prevails, he feels. The Prime Minister will say: �Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries. One of the frustrations for me was the lack of a global body with the sole responsibility for environmental stewardship..." ... Hopefully this global body will carry big sticks. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Dec 20, 2009 from Associated Press: Climate reality: Voluntary efforts not enough Around the world, countries and capitalism are already working to curb global warming on their own, with or without a global treaty.... But the impact of such piecemeal, voluntary efforts is small. Experts say it will never be enough without the kind of strong global agreement that eluded negotiators at the U.N. summit this past week in Copenhagen... Dozens of countries - including the top two carbon polluters, China and the United States - came to the climate talks with proposals to ratchet down pollution levels. But analysis by the United Nations and outside management systems experts show that those voluntary reductions will not keep temperatures from increasing by more than 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with now. ... Let's consider putting ourselves out of our misery. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Dec 18, 2009 from Associated Press: UN document shows Copenhagen summit falling short COPENHAGEN — Carbon emissions cuts pledged at U.N. climate talks would put the world on "an unsustainable pathway" toward average global warming 50 percent higher than industrial countries want, a confidential U.N. draft document showed Thursday... Scientists say such rises in average temperatures could lead to catastrophic sea level rises, which would threaten islands and coastal cities, kill off many species of animals and plants, and alter the agricultural economies of many countries. ... ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 15, 2009 from George Monbiot, Guardian: This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity The meeting at Copenhagen confronts us with our primal tragedy. We are the universal ape, equipped with the ingenuity and aggression to bring down prey much larger than itself, break into new lands, roar its defiance of natural constraints. Now we find ourselves hedged in by the consequences of our nature, living meekly on this crowded planet for fear of provoking or damaging others. We have the hearts of lions and live the lives of clerks. The summit's premise is that the age of heroism is over. We have entered the age of accommodation. No longer may we live without restraint. No longer may we swing our fists regardless of whose nose might be in the way. In everything we do we must now be mindful of the lives of others, cautious, constrained, meticulous. We may no longer live in the moment, as if there were no tomorrow.... A new movement, most visible in North America and Australia, but now apparent everywhere, demands to trample on the lives of others as if this were a human right. It will not be constrained by taxes, gun laws, regulations, health and safety, especially by environmental restraints. It knows that fossil fuels have granted the universal ape amplification beyond its Palaeolithic dreams. For a moment, a marvellous, frontier moment, they allowed us to live in blissful mindlessness. The angry men know that this golden age has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings. ... Nobody listens to you, George: you're an environmentalist. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Dec 4, 2009 from Center for Public Integrity: Canada's About-Face on Climate ...Since [Stephen] Harper became prime minister in 2006, his message has consistently been that action on global warming cannot stand in the way of Canada's economic growth, that the terms of the Kyoto agreement are economically irresponsible, and that Canada could act in concert with the United States. He has maintained that position despite a recent report, sponsored by one of Canada's largest banks, which concluded that meeting Canada's Kyoto commitments would not significantly harm the economy. Shaped by oil-rich Alberta, Harper's position represents a stunning about-face in Canada's policy on climate change. It is a shift environmentalists and other critics attribute to the legions of lobbyists who represent the big industrial greenhouse gas emitters that for years have struggled to weaken Canadian climate change legislation. ... O Canada! We stand on guard for thee profit! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Nov 30, 2009 from New York Times: Intrigue and Plot Twists in Global Climate Talks In the otherwise ponderous and unhurried context of global climate negotiations, the past two weeks have seen a variety of gripping twists. It started this month in Singapore, where Barack Obama, the U.S. president, and other leaders used the sidelines of an economic forum to deflate expectations for a treaty at the December climate summit meeting in Copenhagen... Those rooting for a climate pact at Copenhagen were left to mull over the meeting's shrinking significance until -- twist! -- computer hackers turned the global climate conversation on its head with a trove of spicy e-mail messages. ... With the amount of sex available in Copenhagen, the spiciness has only begun. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Nov 29, 2009 from London Independent: Bhopal: The victims are still being born Bhopal is a calamity without end. On 3 December 1984, clouds of poison leaking from a Union Carbide pesticides plant brought death to thousands in this central Indian city. Today, fully a quarter of a century later, victims of this, the world's worst industrial disaster, are still being born. Here, in neighbourhoods where people depend on water contaminated by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory and to mothers exposed to the toxic gas as children, brain damaged and malformed babies are 10 times more common than the national average. Doctors at Bhopal's Sambhavna Clinic say that as many as one in 25 babies are still born with defects and developmental problems such as a smaller head, webbed feet and low birth weight. ... Presumably, the perpetrators continue to be born as well. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Nov 17, 2009 from London Guardian: Copenhagen climate talks: US refusal to rush gives Obama time to get Senate onside International agreements such as Kyoto and any successor deal do not come into force the moment they are signed, but after they are subsequently ratified by individual countries. Kyoto, which Bill Clinton did not even submit to the Senate because he knew it would be rejected, took seven years to come into force. Under the US constitution, such ratification needs a two-thirds majority in the Senate. It is this, not Obama, that stands in the way of a deal at Copenhagen. Obama needs time to build domestic support for any treaty, and specifically to get legislation in place to set up a US carbon trading scheme. Until that is done, he dare not nose the US international position ahead of the domestic one. To do so would risk another Senate rejection, which would leave such a deal fatally wounded. ... So fascinating, these machinations on the Eve of the Apocalypse! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Nov 15, 2009 from New York Times: Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change SINGAPORE -- President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific "politically binding" agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future. At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on. ... How sweet they agree! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Nov 1, 2009 from Greenpeace, via Mongabay: China's Pearl River suffers from 'almost impossible to remove' pollution A new study by Greenpeace has found high volumes of heavy metals and organic chemicals in China's Pearl River, which provides drinking water for 47 million people. In June 2009, Greenpeace took 25 samples from manufacturing facilities' discharge points into the river. They found heavy metals like beryllium, a known carcinogen; manganese which has been linked to brain damage; alkyl phenols which disrupts hormones; and a number of hazardous organic chemicals.... While many of the hazardous pollutants found in the river are not regulated by China, samples from the discharge sites of Kingboard Fogang facility contained beryllium at 25 times the levels allowed by local Chinese regulation, while samples from Wing Fung Printed Circuit Board Ltd. contained 12 times the level of allowed copper. Both companies produce printed circuit boards for the global market. ... It's just consumer capitalism's way of dealing with overpopulation. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Oct 31, 2009 from McClatchy Newspapers: Farmers fight climate bill, but warming spells trouble for them ...The Missouri Farm Bureau started the letter campaign early, weeks before the bill was fully written and made public. It was followed this month with a pitch from the American Farm Bureau , the nation's largest agriculture lobby, to get farmers to take farm caps, sign their bills and send them to senators with notes that say, "Don't cap our future." Agriculture is likely to have a central place in the debate on the bill later this year about the short-term costs of acting to curb climate change -- and the costs of failing to address the long-term risks. Farm lobby groups and senators who agree with them argue that imposing limits on the nation's emissions of heat-trapping gases from coal, oil and natural gas would raise the cost of farming necessities such as fuel, electricity and natural gas-based fertilizer. A government report, however, warns of a dire outlook for farms if rising emissions drive more rapid climate shifts in the decades ahead. ... Ultimately, "long-term" is as vague a concept as "tomorrow." ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 28, 2009 from Cold Truth: The chemical industry hides behind touchy-feely name... The Coalition for Chemical Safety sounds like just the kind of group to which environmental activists would swarm. The images on their Web site are iconic: A child holding the hand of a grownup, a worker's hard hat with an American flag decal, a family photo.... But if you check the interactive map on the coalition's website, the three or four "members" in the 13 states listed are mostly agri-business, chemical and industry trade associations....earlier this month, the chemical industry received an unexpected gift when the White House Office of Management and Budget prevented EPA from requiring safety data on pesticides that Congress had required years earlier. The OMB -- which oversees regulatory policies -- was notorious for bending over backwards in previous administrations to please industry, especially in regulations involving the environment and public health and safety. ... Vhat? You prefer they name themselves We Vant Pesticides to Harm You? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 14, 2009 from Greenwire: EPA Releases Bush-Era Endangerment Document U.S. EPA released a long-sequestered document on global warming today showing the George W. Bush administration had concluded in December 2007 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles were endangering public welfare and needed to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The 29-page EPA analysis (pdf) -- labeled "Deliberative, Do Not Distribute" -- ticked through the climate-changing effects that heat-trapping gases have on air pollution, precipitation patterns, sea-level rise, glacial melting and wildlife patterns.... congressional investigators last year determined that Bush ultimately backed down after hearing counterarguments from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the Office of Management and Budget, the Transportation Department, Exxon Mobil Corp. and others in the oil industry (E&E Daily, July 18, 2008). ... I propose that Cheney, Bush and co. be prevented from emitting carbons for the rest of their pitiful lives! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Oct 6, 2009 from London Guardian: China leads accusation that rich nations are trying to sabotage climate treaty The US and other developed countries are attempting to "fundamentally sabotage" the Kyoto protocol and all-important international negotiations over its next phase, according to coordinated statements by China and 130 developing countries at UN climate talks in Bangkok today. As 180 countries started a second week of talks, the developing countries showed their deep frustration at the slow pace of the negotiations on a global climate deal, which are planned to be concluded in two months' time in Copenhagen. "The reason why we are not making progress is the lack of political will by Annex 1 [industrialised] countries. There is a concerted effort to fundamentally sabotage the Kyoto protocol," said ambassador Yu Qingtai China's special representative on climate talks. "We now hear statements that would lead to the termination of the protocol. They are introducing new rules, new formats. That's not the way to conduct negotiations," said Yu. ... Copenhagen... is going to be one giant bitchfest! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Oct 5, 2009 from Mother Jones: Chamber: Global Warming is Good for You After losing several high-profile members over its climate policy, the US Chamber of Commerce spent much of this week attempting to convince the public that it does believe global warming is a serious concern that Congress should act upon. But in comments recently submitted by the group to the Environmental Protection Agency, the group advanced a very different view. In its submission, the Chamber questioned the science behind the phenomenon of climate change, suggested that humans are now less vulnerable to rising temperatures because of the growing use of air conditioners -- and theorized that even if the planet is getting warmer, that might be a good thing. ... A Chamber of fools. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Oct 5, 2009 from The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Nestle Waters bottling plant draws fire Sacramento banned bottled water from its City Council meetings last year, but over the summer it welcomed a Nestle Waters plant that would churn out millions of those bottles every week. With California in its third year of drought and Sacramentans facing watering restrictions, Councilman Kevin McCarty thinks the plant needs a closer look.... Nestle signed a lease on an industrial building in July. Mayor Kevin Johnson and the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization both lauded the project, which the company says will employ 40 people....the plant is likely to draw 30 million gallons of water in 2010 from the city water system. That includes water to be filtered, disinfected and remineralized to produce the company's Pure Life brand, as well as other water needed for plant operations. ... Pure Life... pure profit... ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Oct 2, 2009 from Los Angeles Times: Chevron's shifty shifting of venue When Chevron was in a New York courtroom battling a lawsuit by thousands of indigenous Ecuadoreans, it argued that the case rightly belonged in their country. But now that the company is poised to lose in the Andean nation and could be assessed as much as $27 billion in damages, it says Ecuador isn't the right place either. Last week, the oil giant shopped the case to yet another court, filing a claim at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Chevron has long maintained that it would appeal an adverse decision, which is entirely understandable. But this action is different. By going to The Hague before a verdict is issued in Ecuador, the company shuts out the private citizens who brought the suit and who have no standing there. ... Me, I read that headline as "Chevron's SHITTY shifting..." ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from New York Times: Climate Bill Splits Exelon and U.S. Chamber Exelon, one of the country's largest utilities, said Monday that it would quit the United States Chamber of Commerce because of that group's stance on climate change. It was the latest in a string of companies to do so, perhaps a harbinger of how intense the fight over global warming legislation could become. "The carbon-based free lunch is over," said John W. Rowe, Exelon's chief executive. "Breakthroughs on climate change and improving our society's energy efficiency are within reach." ... Just so's we can still have the occasional martini. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from London Times: Third World population controls won't save climate, study claims The population explosion in poor countries will contribute little to climate change and is a dangerous distraction from the main problem of over-consumption in rich nations, a study has found. It challenges claims by leading environmentalists, including Sir David Attenborough and Jonathon Porritt, that strict birth control is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study concludes that spending billions of pounds of aid on contraception in the developing world will not benefit the climate because poor countries have such low emissions. It says that Britain and other Western countries should instead focus on reducing consumption of goods, services and energy among their own populations. ... Door #3: Rich nations should have population controls! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from DC Bureau: Fish and Paint Chips Part II: The Politics of Ocean Trash When it comes to reducing garbage in the world's oceans, the political angle is just as important as the scientific, to judge by industry's behavior. On Aug. 18, Seattle voters passed by a 53-47 margin a referendum to overturn a 20-cent fee approved last year by the city council for using plastic bags at supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other public information, the referendum was backed primarily by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the plastics industry trade association, and the 7-11 chain of convenience stores. The ACC made local headlines with its all-out summer media blitz to promote the referendum, ultimately spending $1.4 million before the vote was held. In comparison, the Seattle Green Bag Campaign to support the fee raised less than $100,000. In a press release trumpeting its victory, the ACC argued that whatever its environmental implications, plastic is good for the economy. ... Sometimes... I just don't think we deserve the earth. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 23, 2009 from Johannesburg Business Report: High level of toxins detected in shoes High levels of toxic chemicals have been found in the shoes of well-known South African retailers, raising concern about the health hazards contained in these "throwaway items" the world over. In a study released last week, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) found high levels of a toxic chemical known as diethyl-hexyl phthalate (DEHP) in 17 out of 27 pairs of shoes manufactured in various countries including India, Indonesia, Tanzania, The Philippines, Sweden and South Africa. The chemical can cause cancer, severe damage to a developing foetus and the central nervous system. Following an analysis for different types of harmful chemicals, a pair of sandals from Woolworths (imported from Brazil) was found to contain the highest concentration of DEHP of all the shoes in the global sample, with the substance constituting 23 percent of the total weight of the shoe. ... Walk a mile in my (toxic) shoes. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 22, 2009 from Associated Press: UN climate chief says China poised to take lead China's ambition to grow quickly but cleanly soon may vault it to "front-runner" status — far ahead of the United States — in taking on global warming, the U.N. climate chief said Monday. China could steal the show by unveiling new plans Tuesday at a U.N. climate summit of 100 world leaders. India has also signaled that it wants to be an "active player" on climate change. "China and India have announced very ambitious national climate change plans. In the case of China, so ambitious that it could well become the front-runner in the fight to address climate change," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press Monday. "The big question mark is the U.S." The development would mark a dramatic turnabout. The United States, under former President George W. Bush's administration, long cited inaction by China and India as the reason for rejecting mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases. ... Oh... we'll think of SOMETHING. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Sep 19, 2009 from Agence France-Presse: Car sales spike in Beijing, capital nears 4 million auto mark Sales of new cars in Beijing have spiked to about 2,000 a day, a trend that will put up to four million vehicles on the streets of China's capital by year's end, state media said Friday. About 60,100 cars were sold in the month of August in Beijing -- the largest number of auto purchases this year and nearly double the amount of vehicles sold in the same month in 2008, the China Daily said....an increase of one million cars in just two years. ... It's the Carpocalypse! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Sep 19, 2009 from Washington Post: Left in the Flat-Screen Dust ...America's unquenchable craving, even in a recession, for the latest and greatest in electronics, and the nation's switch to digital television broadcasting in June, have combined to send consumers racing for flat-screen TVs -- and has made them anxious to rid their homes of their tube-based relics... nobody will take their old TVs, not even for free, and local governments are scrambling to stop the rejects, laden with lead, from being dumped in landfills or poor Asian countries.... As new TVs enter the home, many people hide the old ones in basements, garages or closets. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 99 million TVs were stored this way two years ago. But many TVs are simply tossed. In 2007, 27 million units were discarded, and 77 percent of them were tossed out with the trash (most of the rest are recycled). ... I know! Let's turn the TVs into aquariums � to replace our collapsing ocean and lake ecosystems! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 16, 2009 from Paul Gilding, in ClimateProgress: In its place we are entering a period of consequences Some days my head hurts, as I shift between what feels like two parallel universes in the climate change debate.... They tell me the science says it is almost certain the impacts will be serious and destabilising for our society and our economy. The science also describes a lower level of risk -- which they find hard to quantify but generally say between 10 percent and 50 percent -- that the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic, perhaps even civilisation threatening. This could include widespread famine, war and economic collapse. Not certain, but a reasonable possibility.... Then I shift into the parallel universe. I spend time in corporate boardrooms and listen to the analysis of business executives who explain how we mustn't damage the economy by "over-reacting."... But they still fall for the easy way out, the path of denial and avoidance. Not because they�re bad people, but because they're not thinking clearly and courageously. My message on this topic is clear and direct. We are at a crucial moment in human history. 2009 is to climate change what 1939 was to WWII. Poland has been invaded -- the Arctic is melting, the bushfires are burning, the droughts are strengthening and the floods are sweeping away communities. There is only one question you have to ask yourself: "what will I tell my children?" ... I'm resolved to be irresolute. Dithering is so much more pleasant. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Sep 10, 2009 from Environmental Health News: Unprecedented levels of antibiotics pollute India's water. Levels of antibiotics measured in streams, lakes and well water near pharmaceutical factories in India are 100,000 to 1,000,000 times higher than levels measured in waters that receive sewage effluent in the US or China. Much of the world's supply of generic antibiotics is produced in the study area.... These levels of contamination are alarming for two reasons. First, they may adversely affect human health following exposure to contaminated water. The health effects of ongoing exposure to high concentrations of mixtures of pharmaceutical mixtures are largely unknown. This is especially true for a developing fetus, baby or child. Second, they generate conditions that may foster development of antibiotic resistant strains of pathogens. ... Ground zero for all kinds of patient zeros! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 9, 2009 from Lexington Herald-Leader: Massey CEO blasts climate bill at rally The chief executive of coal mining giant Massey Energy blasted supporters of climate-change legislation and other environmental issues affecting the coal industry at a free Labor Day concert and rally in southern West Virginia. CEO Don Blankenship said he wanted to show people at the event how government regulation is hurting the coal industry, driving up energy prices and making the country less competitive.... Headlining the event were Fox News personality Sean Hannity and [Hank] Williams, [Jr.], while rocker Ted Nugent served as master of ceremonies and played briefly. "Today's the day when the American worker takes back this country," Nugent said. Hannity blasted President Barack Obama on several topics, including energy policy. "Barack Obama hates the coal industry. Barack Obama hates the oil industry," Hannity said. "If they shut down the coal industry, we lose America as we know it." ... I hear Obama wants coal-loving people to go before death panels. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 8, 2009 from BBC (UK): Climate deal is 'in the balance' Prospects for reaching a new global deal on climate change are "in the balance", according to UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. There is a "real chance" that December's UN summit in Copenhagen will not reach agreement, he said. Mr Miliband was briefing reporters prior to a whirlwind tour of European capitals aimed at stepping up EU diplomacy on the Copenhagen process.... Developing countries say that as the industrialised west grew rich through intensive fossil fuel use, emitting carbon dioxide in the process, western countries bear historical responsibility for climate change and must take the lead in cutting emissions. So far, the scale of cuts pledged by western leaders has not met the expectations of the developing world. ... "Trust us! We have your best interests at heart! Do as we say, not as we do. Really, we know best." ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 1, 2009 from Louisville Courier-Journal: Ky., Ind. lead nation in coal ash ponds Indiana and Kentucky are the nation's top two states for coal ash ponds -- and many of the holding basins for the toxic mess were built without the guidance of trained engineers, according to new information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The accounting, which found nearly 600 ash ponds across the U.S. -- 53 in Indiana and 44 in Kentucky -- is based on a survey of the nation's electric utilities that the EPA conducted after a massive December coal ash spill in Tennessee.... The EPA reported numerous ponds that had not been designed by an engineer, including three at Duke Energy's Gibson County, Ind., plant, seven Kentucky Utilities ponds scattered around Kentucky, and LG&E's 10 ponds at its Cane Run and Mill Creek plants in Louisville. Some also weren't overseen by a professional engineer during construction. ... I play an engineer on television! I'll help! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Aug 23, 2009 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: BPA industry fights back ...For decades, the chemical industry has been able to control the debate on whether BPA is harmful to human health. Now the Food and Drug Administration, which had relied on industry-financed studies to declare the chemical safe, is reconsidering its determination. The decision is expected by Nov. 30.... The industry has launched an unprecedented public relations blitz that uses many of the same tactics - and people - the tobacco industry used in its decades-long fight against regulation. This time, the industry's arsenal includes state-of-the-art technology. Their modern-day Trojan horses: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube. A four-month investigation by the Journal Sentinel reveals a highly calibrated campaign by plastics makers to fight federal regulation of BPA, downplay its risks and discredit anyone who characterizes the chemical as a health threat. ... Boy. They're playing some hard plastic ball. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 19, 2009 from Climate Wire: How the World Bank Let 'Deal Making' Torch the Rainforests The World Bank ignored its own environmental and social protection standards when it approved nearly $200 million in loan guarantees for palm oil production in Indonesia, a stinging internal audit has found. The report, detailing five years of funding from the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank, lambastes the agency for allowing commercial pressures to influence four separate loans aimed at developing the industry. "The IFC was aware for more than 20 years that there were significant environmental and social issues and risks inherent in the oil palm sector in Indonesia," auditors wrote. "Despite awareness of the significant issues facing it, IFC did not develop a strategy for engaging in the oil palm sector. In the absence of a tailored strategy, deal making prevailed." ... It's a small-minded world bank after all. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 19, 2009 from New York Times: Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill Hard on the heels of the health care protests, another citizen movement seems to have sprung up, this one to oppose Washington�s attempts to tackle climate change. But behind the scenes, an industry with much at stake � Big Oil � is pulling the strings. The event on Tuesday was organized by a group called Energy Citizens, which is backed by the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry�s main trade group. Many of the people attending the demonstration were employees of oil companies who work in Houston and were bused from their workplaces. ... Fieldtrip! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Aug 16, 2009 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW linked to ghostwriting As fears were growing about the link between hormone therapy and breast cancer, a drug company paid the University of Wisconsin to sponsor ghostwritten medical education articles that downplayed the risks, records obtained by the Journal Sentinel show. The five articles were funded by Wyeth, the company that made the top-selling hormone therapy products. The articles, published in 2001, appeared under the names of doctors who specialized in diseases common to menopausal women, but actually were written by professional writers paid by the company. The articles came shortly before a long-term $1.5 million arrangement between Wyeth and UW to educate doctors and patients around the country about hormone therapy. The initiative promoted the benefits and softened the risks of drugs that produced sales of more than $1 billion a year. The five articles alone reached up to 128,000 doctors and other clinicians who could get medical education credit by reading the reports and taking a quiz. ... A twist on the Cyrano de Bergerac story. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Aug 13, 2009 from Sacramento Bee: Sacramento judge tentatively rules against bid to list styrene as carcinogenic A Sacramento judge sided with the styrene industry and against state environmental officials on Wednesday in ruling that the chemical doesn't have to be listed under Proposition 65 as a cause of cancer. Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang said the listing would have had a "devastating effect" on a $28 billion industry that uses the product widely in food packaging, as well as in thousands of plastic items ranging from bicycle helmets to synthetic marble... "The court agrees with plaintiff that the designation of a product as a carcinogen, particularly associated with food, could have a devastating effect on that product's use," Chang wrote. "Such a designation would likely have the intended 'stigmatizing' effect.'" ... Sounds like styrene is just too big to fail... ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Aug 13, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: Thumbnail Explanations of Current Carbon Markets Companies and governments are turning to emissions trading as a weapon to fight climate change in a carbon market worth $125 billion last year. Here are some of the proposed plans and existing schemes. Carbon markets allow polluters to buy rights to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Under cap and trade schemes, companies or countries face a carbon limit. If they exceed their limit they can buy allowances from others. Alternatively, they can buy carbon offsets from projects which avoid greenhouse gas emissions outside the scheme, often in developing countries.... [Thumbnail overviews of Kyoto, EU, NE US, Japan, Australia, US, US & Canada, New Zealand's carbon markets.] ... Milk-toast insufficient solutions soppy with special interest juice. I'll have mine with despair sauce, please. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 5, 2009 from Washington Post: Florida Bay's ecology on the brink of collapse Experts fear a collapse of the entire ecosystem, threatening not only some of the nation's most popular tourism destinations - Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys - but a commercial and recreational fishery worth millions of dollars. Florida Bay is a sprawling estuary at the state's southern tip, covering nearly three times the area of New York City... to the north of the bay, man's unforgiving push to develop South Florida has left the land dissected with roads, dikes and miles of flood control canals to make way for homes and farms, choking off the freshwater flow and slowly killing the bay. ... A "collapse" sounds like a great tourist destination to me! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 4, 2009 from Toronto Globe and Mail: Modified corn seeds sow doubts Next spring, farmers in Canada will be able to sow one of the most complicated genetically engineered plants ever designed, a futuristic type of corn containing eight foreign genes. With so much crammed into one seed, the modified corn will be able to confer multiple benefits, such as resistance to corn borers and rootworms, two caterpillar-like pests that infest the valuable grain crop, as well as withstanding applications of glyphosate, a weed killer better known by its commercial name, Roundup. But a controversy has arisen over the new seeds, which were approved for use last month by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Health Canada hasn't assessed their safety. The health agency said in response to questions from The Globe and Mail that it didn't have to do so, because it is relying on the two companies making the seeds, agriculture giants Monsanto Co. and Dow AgroSciences LLC, to flag any safety concerns. But the companies haven't tested the seeds either, because they say they aren't required to. ... Is it just me, or is this the craziest thing you've ever heard? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jul 30, 2009 from AlterNet: Naomi Klein: Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism ...Think about it: Sarah Palin stepped onto the world stage as Vice Presidential candidate on August 29 at a McCain campaign rally, to much fanfare. Exactly two weeks later, on September 14, Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering the global financial meltdown. So in a way, Palin was the last clear expression of capitalism-as-usual before everything went south.... This is the most comforting and dangerous lie that there is: the lie that perpetual, unending growth is possible on our finite planet. And we have to remember that this message was incredibly popular in those first two weeks, before Lehman collapsed. Despite Bush's record, Palin and McCain were pulling ahead. And if it weren't for the financial crisis, and for the fact that Obama started connecting with working class voters by putting deregulation and trickle-down economics on trial, they might have actually won. ... Dude, I just got the chills reading this! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jul 19, 2009 from Columbus Dispatch: House-passed global-warming bill proposes barrage of regulations ...Because the Senate is nowhere near approving its own version of the [1,428-page global-warming bill approved last month by the U.S. House of Representatives], these regulations might never become law. But as details of the House bill emerge, they have provoked intense criticism from conservative Republicans and business organizations. "That bill is so bad, it's really pathetic," said Bill Kovacs, a chamber lobbyist. "I'm not sure what they thought they were accomplishing by focusing the power of the federal government on the tiniest details of life versus creating a clear path for replacing fossil fuels with cleaner technologies." ... Appears to me letting business and conservatives run amok didn't work out so hot! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jul 17, 2009 from Mongabay, via DesdemonaDespair: Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP Paribas to finance razing of rainforests for palm oil Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS, together with the French BNP Paribas, are helping Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources raise up to 280 million Swiss francs ($258 million) to finance conversion of large areas of rainforest in New Guinea and Borneo for oil palm plantations, reports the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a group that campaigns on behalf of forest people in Southeast Asia.... "The vast majority of future expansion is likely to involve deforestation, some on peatlands and in the habitats of the critically endangered orangutan", said Greenpeace in the report.... ... Now that's enhancing shareholder value! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 14, 2009 from Climate Wire: SEC Turnaround Sparks Sudden Look at Climate Disclosure Federal regulators are preparing to launch "a very serious look" at requiring corporations to assess and reveal the effects of climate change on their financial health, according to a commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission. Initial efforts are under way, moving the commission toward a conclusion that investment groups had sought unsuccessfully throughout much of the Bush administration: forcing public companies to report the dangers they face from releasing carbon dioxide and its warming aftermath... Big emitters like oil and gas companies, for example, might have to formally reveal the output of their greenhouse gases and the disadvantages they face from federal efforts to charge polluters for every ton of carbon that's released. ... They should have always had to do this! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jul 5, 2009 from Guardian (UK): Fears for the world's poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food The acquisition of farmland from the world's poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say. New reports from the UN and analysts in India, Washington and London estimate that at least 30m hectares is being acquired to grow food for countries such as China and the Gulf states who cannot produce enough for their populations. According to the UN, the trend is accelerating and could severely impair the ability of poor countries to feed themselves. Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as "land grabbing" or "neo-colonialism" at the G8 meeting next week. A spokesman for Japan's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that it would raise the issue: "We feel there should be a code of conduct for investment in farmland that will be a win-win situation for both producing and consuming countries," he said. ... The win-win will be for a) shipping, and b) armed-guard full employment. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jun 13, 2009 from London Guardian: 'We are fighting for our lives and our dignity' Across the globe, as mining and oil firms race for dwindling resources, indigenous peoples are battling to defend their lands -- often paying the ultimate price... Peru is just one of many countries now in open conflict with its indigenous people over natural resources. Barely reported in the international press, there have been major protests around mines, oil, logging and mineral exploitation in Africa, Latin America, Asia and North America. Hydro electric dams, biofuel plantations as well as coal, copper, gold and bauxite mines are all at the centre of major land rights disputes.... What until quite recently were isolated incidents of indigenous peoples in conflict with states and corporations are now becoming common as government-backed companies move deeper on to lands long ignored as unproductive or wild. As countries and the World Bank increase spending on major infrastructural projects to counter the economic crisis, the conflicts are expected to grow. ... But my toaster and my car and my job have to run on something! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jun 9, 2009 from Mother Jones: Could Cap and Trade Cause Another Market Meltdown? You've heard of credit default swaps and subprime mortgages. Are carbon default swaps and subprime offsets next? If the Waxman-Markey climate bill is signed into law, it will generate, almost as an afterthought, a new market for carbon derivatives. That market will be vast, complicated, and dauntingly difficult to monitor. And if Washington doesn't get the rules right, it will be vulnerable to speculation and manipulation by the very same players who brought us the financial meltdown... According to data compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, the financial services industry has 130 lobbyists working on climate issues, compared to almost none in 2003. They represent companies like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and AIG (before it was shamed into temporarily halting its lobbying activities last fall). The industry "wants lawmakers to create a brand-new revenue stream for its bottom line, and cap and trade would do it," says Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen, who is a member of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) advisory committee considering how carbon trading should be regulated. ... Cap and trade and exploit and swindle... ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 8, 2009 from London Guardian: Pirate fishing causing eco disaster and killing communities, says report Pirate fishing is out of control, depriving some the most world's most vulnerable communities of food and leading to ecological catastrophe, a three-year investigation has found. "Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most serious threats to the future of world fisheries. It is now occurring in virtually all fishing grounds from shallow coastal waters to deep oceans. It is believed to account for a significant proportion of the global catch and to be costing developing countries up to $15bn a year," says the report by the Environmental Justice Foundation. Unscrupulous Chinese, European and Latin American companies, using flags of convenience, are operating illegal gear, fishing in sea areas they are not allowed and are not reporting their catches, the investigators found. In addition, ships are laundering illegally caught fish by transferring them at sea to legal boats making it impossible to identify catches. ... Figuring out the acronym is half the battle! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 8, 2009 from Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. orders all rescued bats to be destroyed Seeking to halt the spread of a disease ravaging bat populations in the Northeast, the Pennsylvania Game Commission laid down the law: All bats collected by wildlife rescuers - regardless of whether they were sick or injured - would have to be euthanized. The order, issued in response to white-nose syndrome, a highly contagious fungal disease, came just before the busy spring season when baby bats take flight. It has angered bat advocates, who consider the Game Commission's response extreme. "It's a draconian approach," said Laura Flandreau, a volunteer from Chestnut Hill who launched a petition drive urging Gov. Rendell to persuade the commission to lift the ban. She says none of the other eight states where the disease has been found has banned rescue and release efforts. In New Jersey, she said, efforts are under way to treat infected bats in a research facility. But Game Commission officials say they issued the bat-release ban to protect thousands of bats from the fatal and, so far, untreatable disorder. ... Kind of calls into question the whole idea of "rescue." ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jun 3, 2009 from Greenwire: Low-key governor becomes leading GOP voice on climate Since their drubbing in last year's election, Republicans have been looking for someone who can go toe-to-toe with President Obama and other top Democrats, with most suggesting that person must come from beyond Washington. On energy and climate, at least, such a Republican has emerged. Indiana's two-term governor, Mitch Daniels, has delivered an energy message that has drawn praise from conservatives and raised the rumored presidential candidate's profile in what is likely to be a crowded Republican field in 2012. ... What do you expect from a governor who campaigned by driving a gas guzzling RV all over Indiana! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jun 3, 2009 from Los Angeles Times: California Senate approves ban on BPA in plastics Despite a fierce lobbying effort by the U.S. chemical industry, the state Senate narrowly approved a proposal Tuesday that would ban the use of a substance in baby bottles, toddler sippy cups and food containers that independent scientists say is a threat to childhood development. The bill by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A -- commonly dubbed BPA -- now goes to the Assembly, where it is expected to face a wall of resistance from manufacturers of the products that contain the chemical... Researchers from the chemical industry say the public health threat has been vastly overblown, and manufacturers of BPA argue that it has passed muster with nearly a dozen regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States. ... Perhaps these chemical industry researchers have been hitting the bottle a bit too much! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, May 30, 2009 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: BPA industry seeks to polish image Frustrated at media portrayals of bisphenol A as a dangerous chemical, food-packaging executives and lobbyists for the chemical makers met this week at an exclusive Washington, D.C., club where they hammered out a strategy, including showcasing a pregnant woman to talk about the chemical's benefits....A pregnant woman would be "the holy grail" to serve as a spokeswoman, the memo says. Attendees said they doubted they could find a scientist to serve as a spokesman for BPA....Richard Wiles, executive director of the activist Environmental Working Group, said he was surprised by the content of the memo. "I mean, it seems over the top, even by industry," Wiles said. "I'm amazed in this day and age they'd write this stuff down." He said the document suggests that the chemical industry can't rely on science to sell its product. ... If only they could have found a pregnant scientist! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, May 30, 2009 from Associated Press: GOP belittles Democrats' climate change proposal ...Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, said the House's climate bill was "a classic example of unwise government." The address culminated a week of coordinated Republican attacks on the Democratic proposal, which would require the first nationwide reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming... The proposal to cap greenhouse emissions "will cost us dearly in jobs and income and it stands no chance of achieving its objective of a cooler earth" because other nations such as China and India will not have to follow, Daniels said. "The cost for all American taxpayers will be certain, huge, and immediate. Any benefits are extremely uncertain, minuscule, and decades distant," he contended. ... Then by all means let's just destroy the habitat, together, ASAP! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 26, 2009 from ABC News: From Oct 27, 2006: Senators to Exxon: Stop the Denial ExxonMobil should stop funding groups that have spread the idea that global warming is a myth and that try to influence policymakers to adopt that view, two senators said today in a letter to the oil company. In their letter to ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., appealed to Exxon's sense of corporate responsibility, asking the company to "come clean about its past denial activities." The two senators called on ExxonMobil to "end any further financial assistance" to groups "whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth."... Since 1990, the report said, the company has spent more than $19 million funding groups that promote their views through publications and Web sites that are not peer reviewed by the scientific community. ... "Corporate responsibility"? But what about their responsibilities to the stockholders? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, May 25, 2009 from London Guardian: Climate change summit hijacked by biggest polluters, critics claim A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today. Among those attending the World �Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as "the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world". There is concern that the big energy companies will be pushing carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of keeping the oil-based economy running....Six of the companies involved in the summit have been nominated for Climate Greenwash Awards because of their failure to live up to their PR spin on tackling climate change. ... You mean the foxes are watching the foxhouse AGAIN? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 20, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Energy industry blocking grid connection for wind projects The established energy industry is deliberately blocking reforms to the process that would allow more renewable energy to be connected to the National Grid, according to the chief executive of Ofgem.... "What we have to stop going forward is vested interests within the sector blocking reform," said Buchanan.... Wind developers argue the current system, where enough connection requests must be made in a certain area to justify upgrades to the grid, is weighted in favour of large-scale power plants. ... We can't let the upstarts innovate willy-nilly, now can we? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Mar 27, 2009 from The Nation: The Dirt on Clean Coal ...the American coal industry, which pumps 2 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year and contributes more than one-third of the nation's overall greenhouse gas emissions, is nothing if not resilient. Despite rising public concern about global warming and a growing awareness that coal is an irrevocably dirty business, the industry is spending millions of dollars on a slick messaging campaign stressing its "commitment to clean." Critics argue that "clean coal" means anything the industry wants it to, pointing out that of the country's 616 coal plants, none are carbon-free or close to it. The viability of an environmentally sustainable future for coal is questionable, and so is the industry's commitment to cleaning itself up. The Center for American Progress recently released a report showing that the country's biggest coal companies have spent only a fraction of their multibillion-dollar profits developing technologies to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. "The ads and other public clean coal activities are merely designed to delay global warming solutions without suffering a public relations black eye," the CAP report stated. ... Public Relations = Public Ruination! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Mar 26, 2009 from Associated Press: Biologists worry over increased turtle harvest Surging demand for turtle meat in southeast Asia has prompted a huge jump in turtle harvesting, leading to concerns that populations of the reptiles could suffer permanent damage. Freshwater turtle populations have plunged in Asia, where the meat is a delicacy, leading to increased trapping in U.S. ponds and streams, said Fred Janzen, an Iowa State University professor who studies ecology. In Iowa, harvests have increased from 29,000 pounds in 1987 to 235,000 pounds in 2007. And during that period the number of licensed harvesters more than quadrupled to 175 people. In Arkansas, an average of 196,460 aquatic turtles a year were harvested from 2004 to 2006, according to the state Fish and Game Commission. ... The hare no longer naps. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 23, 2009 from Denver Post: Nestle plan sets off water war A plan to suck, truck and bottle Arkansas Valley spring water has residents here crusading against the world's largest food and beverage company. "Nestle is seeking to drain the blood of Chaffee County," said Salida local Daniel Zettler during a fiery public hearing last week. Nestle -- with 12 U.S. brands of bottled water and almost $4.3 billion in North American sales in 2007 -- came calling for Arkansas Valley spring water about two years ago. The company wants to draw 65 million gallons a year from an aquifer feeding two freshwater springs near Nathrop, pipe it 5 miles to a truck stop and ship it 100 miles to a Denver bottling facility. It would be sold under the company's Arrowhead brand. ... Sing with me now... Nestle makes the very best ... bottled water... ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 18, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Shell halts wind and solar spending in favour of biofuels Oil giant Shell has announced it is to focus its future renewable energy strategy on biofuels and halt investment in technologies such as wind and solar, which it maintains are failing to offer sufficient economic returns. Executives at its annual strategy presentation said that the company remained committed to building a "material business in alternative energy", but would take a more targeted approach to investment and primarily focus on biofuels.... "If there aren't investment opportunities which compete with other projects we won't put money into it," she said. "We are businessmen and women. If there were renewables [which made money] we would put money into it." ... Hard to argue with that! Money makes the the world go around! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 17, 2009 from Globe and Mail (Canada): Give up seafood, save the planet? Although negative views about fish consumption are almost never expressed, a group of medical and fisheries experts is making an argument against eating the seafood in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In an analysis being released Tuesday, they say that the purported benefits of fish for such things as cardiovascular health have been overstated, while the growing demand among health aficionados for the food is destroying global fish stocks.... "The demand for fish is higher than what oceans can supply," said Rashid Sumaila, acting director of the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre, who predicted that many of the world's most important fisheries are going the way of Newfoundland's exhausted cod stocks. ... But I love sea bass! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Feb 28, 2009 from New York Times: Why 2007 I.P.C.C. Report Lacked 'Burning Embers' Diagram Several authors of the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the projected effects of global warming now say they regret not pushing harder to include an updated diagram of climate risks in the report. The diagram, known as "burning embers," is an updated version of one that was a central feature of the panel's preceding climate report in 2001. The main opposition to including the diagram in 2007, they say, came from officials representing the United States, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. That frustration led them to seek publication of the climate-risk diagram in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In emails and phone interviews over the past week, several of researchers said the diagram was omitted in favor of written descriptions of levels of risk from increments of warming. Some scientists thought that the diagram's smears of color, reflecting gradients of risk, were too subjective. But Stephen H. Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University who has been involved in writing the I.P.C.C. reports since 1988, said the real opposition came from a bloc of countries that thought the colorful diagram was too incendiary.... "Unfortunately governments of 5 fossil fuel dependent and producing nations opposed it.... No matter how much New Zealand, small islands states, Canada, Germany, Belgium and the UK said this was an essential diagram, China, the U.S., Russia and the Saudis said it was too much of a "judgment". ... That information was too hot to handle. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Feb 28, 2009 from New York Times: Obama's Greenhouse Gas Gamble In proposing mandatory caps on the greenhouse gases linked to global warming and a system for auctioning permits to companies that emit them, President Obama is taking on a huge political and economic challenge. Business lobbies and many Republicans raised loud objections to the cap-and-trade program Mr. Obama proposed as part of his budget this week, saying the plan amounted to a gigantic and permanent tax on oil, electricity and manufactured goods, a shock they said the country could not handle during economic distress.... "Let�s just be honest and call it a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch, pure and simple," said John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. "And if you look at this whole budget plan, they use this carbon tax as a way to fund all of their big government ideas." ... "It's a coal state stickup," ... ... How 'bout we call it a survival tax, eh? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Feb 26, 2009 from Nature: International Polar Year: In from the Cold ...It might seem that, as so often in the past, science reigns supreme at the planet's poles. But as climate change opens up vast parts of the Arctic to commerce, nations are starting to exert their influence in the region more purposefully, and long-simmering political tensions might soon boil over.... Warming in the Arctic, and the retreat of summertime sea ice, is opening up the region to interests such as mineral exploitation, shipping, fishing and tourism. Some researchers fear that the commercial potential could shift international interactions from mainly scientific collaboration to hard-nosed politics. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace have proposed a 50-year moratorium on all exploitation in the Arctic, but this is unlikely to gain much support. The shift towards economic and geopolitical competition poses a new threat for vulnerable Arctic environments, which should prompt scientists to speak out... ... Me, I want to open the first Anthropologie! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 23, 2009 from Guardian (UK): World's biggest wind turbine-maker says global downturn slashing demand The world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer Vestas says the current economic downturn has left it with 15 percent excess manufacturing capacity as demand for the technology falls short of projections. The news came as company works to restore its reputation following the discovery of fraud in its Spanish subsidiary.... "Six months ago everyone (in the investment community) said we were not doing enough to meet demand growing at an expected 40 percent this year. Now people are saying 'Why have you put in place plans for a 40 percent increase in capacity when growth levels are only going to be 25 percent?'," he explained. ... The investment community's time horizon is that short and their perceptions that wrong? These are the Masters of the Universe? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jan 22, 2009 from University of Leeds, via EurekAlert: Industrialization of China increases fragility of global food supply Global grain markets are facing [a] breaking point according to new research by the University of Leeds into the agricultural stability of China. Experts predict that if China's recent urbanisation trends continue, and the country imports just 5 percent more of its grain, the entire world's grain export would be swallowed whole. The knock-on effect on the food supply -- and on prices -- to developing nations could be huge. ... So once again, the invisible hand would price the poor into starvation. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 2, 2009 from The Economist: Troubled waters -- the ocean collapse The evidence abounds. The fish that once seemed an inexhaustible source of food are now almost everywhere in decline: 90 percent of large predatory fish (the big ones such as tuna, swordfish and sharks) have gone, according to some scientists. In estuaries and coastal waters, 85 percent of the large whales have disappeared, and nearly 60 percent of the small ones. Many of the smaller fish are also in decline. Indeed, most familiar sea creatures, from albatrosses to walruses, from seals to oysters, have suffered huge losses. All this has happened fairly recently. Cod have been caught off Nova Scotia for centuries, but their systematic slaughter began only after 1852; in terms of their biomass (the aggregate mass of the species), they are now 96 percent depleted. The killing of turtles in the Caribbean (99 percent down) started in the 1700s. The hunting of sharks in the Gulf of Mexico (45-99 percent, depending on the variety) got going only in the 1950s. ... You mean the ocean is a finite resource? Why didn't anyone tell me? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 30, 2008 from Indo-Asian News Service: Jan 31 deadline to remove Bhopal gas waste unlikely to be met Bhopal, Dec 30 (IANS) It has been 24 years since over 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) spewed out of the now defunct Union Carbide's pesticide plant here, killing thousands of people instantly and maiming many for life. But the state government is still grappling with ways to dispose of the toxic waste left behind that poses grave health hazards to people living nearby. The world's worst man-made disaster - the Bhopal gas tragedy - occurred on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, and the Madhya Pradesh High Court had set a Jan 31, 2009, deadline to remove the poisonous waste from the plant site, but this seems to be a tough task....According to medical experts, the site is a virtual storehouse of deadly chemicals including lead, mercury and chlorinated naphthalene that can cause cancer, affect the growth of children and lead to other health disorders. But more than 25,000 people living in 14 colonies around the factory have no option but to continue drinking the contaminated water. ... When it comes to methyl isocyanate spills this is the Mother of All Craps. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 30, 2008 from Bloomberg News: Texaco Toxic Past Haunts Chevron as $27 Billion Judgment Looms Bolivar Cevallos walks around the farm where his family once lived amid the oil fields of Ecuador's Amazon rain forest. His boots sink ankle deep in tar. Everywhere he steps, oily muck seeps from the ground. A gasolinelike smell hangs in the sweltering jungle air. The mess is a remnant of oil drilling in a 120-mile-long swath of the tropical jungle in northeastern Ecuador where Texaco Inc. and Ecuador's state-run oil company, PetroEcuador, have pumped billions of barrels of crude from the ground during the past 40 years. The ruined land around Cevallos's home is part of one of the worst environmental and human health disasters in the Amazon basin, which stretches across nine countries and, at 1.9 billion acres (800 million hectares), is about the size of Australia. And depending on how an Ecuadorean judge rules in a lawsuit over the pollution, it may become the costliest corporate ecological catastrophe in world history. If the judge follows the recommendation of a court-appointed panel of experts, he could order Chevron Corp., which now owns Texaco, to pay as much as $27 billion in damages. ... When it comes to oil, this is the Mother of All Craps. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Dec 19, 2008 from Boston Phoenix: 20 reasons the Earth will be glad to see Bush go ...We've selected 20 specific environmental transgressions of the Bush administration for scrutiny here, drawn primarily from conversations with and reports issued by the nation's leading environmental-advocacy groups. Were we to have written about all the ecological crimes committed by the Bush team -- the damage already done, the policies that have since been reversed, the individuals who have moved on to do their damage elsewhere -- we'd only be wringing our hands and wasting more paper. Thus, we've limited our Top 20 list to the horrific environmental scenarios still ongoing � these are the assaults on the planet that Bush and his cronies are continuing to this day, and surely would go on doing were their time not coming to a merciful end.... ... Really? Did I do all this? Well, if Mother Nature doesn't love me, at least my own mom does. Doesn't she? ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Dec 5, 2008 from New York Times: Mountaintop Mining Rule Approved The White House on Tuesday approved a final rule that will make it easier for coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys. The rule is one of the most contentious of all the regulations emerging from the White House in President Bush's last weeks in office.... "This is unmistakably a fire sale of epic size for coal and the entire fossil fuel industry, with flagrant disregard for human health, the environment or the rule of law," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund. ... Coming soon: the great West Virginia plateau. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 1, 2008 from BBC: UN climate summit seeks clarity The talks, in the city of Poznan, mark the halfway point in a two-year process agreed at last year's UN conference. The meeting will not produce a new deal but is likely to clarify what countries are looking for on issues such as emission cuts and forest protection. The US will be represented by officials of the outgoing Bush administration. The two-year process which began at last December's talks in Bali is designed to conclude in a year's time with an agreement that can enter force in 2012 when the current emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol expire. ... They better get clarity and get it fast! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from Williamson Daily News: Coal CEO calls environmentalists crazy Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal company in the country, blasted politics and the press, comparing Charleston Gazette Editor James. A. Haught to Osama Bin Laden Thursday evening when he addressed the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson.... "They can say what they want about climate change," he said. "But the only thing melting in this country that matters is our financial system and our economy."... Many people would give support to groups who work to disprove global warming if it was not so politically incorrect, Blankenship said. ... Maybe he should try hitting up the Flat Earth Society for some funds to disprove global warming. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Indianapolis Star: Indiana lands on group's Top 50 list of mercury emitters Three Indiana power plants have landed on an environmental group's tally of the 50 facilities in the nation that emit the greatest amount of poisonous mercury into the air and water. Together, the 50 plants last year released about 20 tons of mercury, which can cause permanent damage to brains, kidneys and developing fetuses, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit that advocates for stricter enforcement of environmental regulations.... Indiana has no restrictions specifically addressing mercury emissions from power plants.... Environmental activists would like the state to do more to reduce emissions from power plants. ... Maybe Hoosiers ought to get some of them restrictions! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from London Guardian: President for 60 more days, Bush tearing apart protection for America's wilderness George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January. With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America's wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste. In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office. The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them. ... Even if Bush can't read, apparently he can count! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Nov 19, 2008 from Washington Post: EPA Moves to Ease Air Rules for Parks The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, even though half of the EPA's 10 regional administrators formally dissented from the decision and four others criticized the move in writing. Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the administration's push to weaken Clean Air Act protections for "Class 1 areas" nationwide has sparked fierce resistance from senior agency officials. All but two of the regional administrators objecting to the proposed rule are political appointees. ... What a crazy idea: fresh air at a park! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Oct 12, 2008 from McClatchy Newspapers: U.S. taps Canada's oil sands -- but at an environmental cost ...While oil supplies are dwindling in some places, or disrupted by hurricanes, threatened by terrorist attacks or controlled by hostile governments, Alberta's oil sands -- a patch of forest about the size of Florida with a sea of oil beneath it -- produce more crude than all the wells in Texas or Alaska...The sands contain a form of crude oil called bitumen that's as thick as peanut butter. To remove the sand and clay to turn the bitumen into heavy crude that can flow to refineries takes a lot of energy. ... Crude oil from bitumen sounds a lot like blood from a turnip. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 26, 2008 from NaturalNews: Canada's Oil Sands Declared "Most Destructive Project on Earth" as Eco Disaster Looms The report accuses the Canadian government of allowing the Tar Sands Project to emit levels of greenhouse gases that far outstrip any reductions made in other areas. "Ottawa is letting the Tar Sands hold Canadians hostage on global warming," said Program Manager Matt Price.... The group also says that the project has contaminated rivers and groundwater with toxic chemicals, caused an increase in acid rain and created "health sacrifice zones" in the surrounding region. ... "Health sacrifice zones" sound a lot like "collateral damage" to me. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Aug 9, 2008 from London Daily Telegraph: Amazonian Chernobyl -- Ecuador's oil environment disaster "Once it was pristine rainforest. Now it has been described as an Amazonian Chernobyl. Millions of gallons of crude oil and toxic waste -- the legacy of an oil extraction programme -- has blighted 1,700 hectares of land and poisoned the rivers and streams in Sucumbios in the north-east corner of Ecuador... Indigenous Indian people blame the pollution on the US oil giant Chevron -- formerly Texaco -- and say it has caused a catalogue of health problems including severe birth defects, spontaneous miscarriages and cancers." ... It takes the power of human energy to so completely ruin a planet. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jun 17, 2008 from Perth Now (Australia): Housing plan at toxic waste dump A toxic waste plant shut down after a shocking history of government cover-ups will become part of an eco-friendly residential development in Armadale. Almost five years after the closure of a toxic waste plant that was linked to residents' sickness, there are plans to build an residential development for 40,000 people incorporating land that contained big stockpiles of noxious chemicals and sludge with harmful pathogens. ... Australia's population is so high-density, maybe they have no choice. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Jun 5, 2008 from Pew Institute for Ocean Science, via ScienceDaily: Quotas Allow More Caviar Export, Further Jeopardize Endangered Sturgeon [M]ore caviar will be exported from Caspian Sea and Amur River states this year as a result of unacceptably permissive new trade quotas... Most sturgeon species are endangered and some, like beluga sturgeon, are threatened with extinction. These quotas will further damage this ancient fish's chance of recovery and survival, since sturgeon must be killed to harvest their prized eggs which are then processed into caviar, the group says.... "Sturgeon have been on earth since the time of the dinosaurs, but are being wiped out because of inadequate international and domestic controls. We urge consumers to protest with their wallets by not purchasing any wild-caught caviar." ... Once they're gone, we'll just have to find another exotic item to value to extinction, lovey. Turtle tongues, anyone? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jun 4, 2008 from Stabroek News (Guyana): Quartz Hill mining highlights environment threat Breaches of the mining regulations were evident during a recent visit to Quartz Hill and nearby areas, resulting in pollution and fouling of waterways even as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) strives to enforce the rules and advocate self-regulation.... Meanwhile, unsafe use of mercury, breached tailings ponds and mining activities close to water courses were some of the infringements.... As a result of the breached tailings ponds, a section of the Omai Creek was heavily discoloured with a yellow sludge, which made its way to the Essequibo River. ... We've noticed that when the profit motive is involved, self-regulation is appealing only to the profiteers. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 24, 2008 from Jeff Vail, via The Oil Drum: The Problem of Growth "This has been a whirlwind tour of the structural bias in hierarchy toward growth, but it has also, by necessity, been a superficial analysis. Books, entire libraries, could be filled with the analysis of this topic. But despite the scope of this topic, it is remarkable that such a simple concept underlies the necessity of growth: within hierarchy, surplus production equates to power, requiring competing entities across all scales to produce ever more surplus�to grow�in order to compete, survive, and prosper. This has, quite literally, Earth shaking ramifications. We live on a finite planet, and it seems likely that we are nearing the limits of the Earth�s ability to support ongoing growth...." ... Why is this entry in "Recovery"? Because it means the fundamental basis of the capitalist free market systems is being questioned again, after almost two decades of self-declared "victory." ApocaDoc permalink Copyright 2009 The Apocadocs.com