Climate change researchers have been able to attribute recent examples of extreme weather to the effects of human activity on the planet's climate systems for the first time, marking a major step forward in climate research.
The findings make it much more likely that we will soon – within the next few years – be able to discern whether the extremely wet and cold summer and spring so far experienced in the UK this year are attributable to human causes rather than luck, according to the researchers.
Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change
New study explodes gas industry's claim that fracking won't contaminate local drinking water
One of the key arguments in the case for fracking rests on an appeal to common sense. The hydraulic fracturing process — pushing gallons upon gallons of chemical-laden water into shale rock in order to bubble up natural gas — takes place deep in the ground, thousands of feet below the earth’s surface and thousands of feet below the shallow aquifers that provide drinking water.
Given the distance between the water and the fracking fluid, there’s just no way fracking could contaminate aquifers, the gas industry and its allies argue. So many layers of rock lie between noxious fracking fluid and water that the risks of chemical-laced drinking water don’t compute.
First half of 2012 USA's warmest on record
It won't be a news flash for the 250 million sweltering Americans east of the Rockies, but the first half of the year has been the USA's warmest on record, federal climate scientists announced Monday.
Twenty-eight states and more than 100 cities have posted their warmest first six months on record, based on national weather data that go back to 1895, according to the report from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
Gates and Monsanto Go After Milk
Monsanto's head of the FDA's food safety division is threatening to get rid of raw (real) milk, and the real reason for this may have reared its ugly head.
While Gates is looking to genetically engineer milk and perhaps gut bacteria itself, a significant study has just shown that normal bacteria-rich yogurt which supports the person's own gut bacteria (their immune system) equals or even outdoes AIDS drugs. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056109/
This US summer is 'what global warming looks like'
Horrendous wildfires. Oppressive heat waves. Devastating droughts. Flooding from giant deluges. And a powerful freak wind storm called a derecho.
These are the kinds of extremes climate scientists have predicted will come with climate change, although it's far too early to say that is the cause. Nor will they say global warming is the reason 3,215 daily high temperature records were set in the month of June.
Gunfire blamed for more wildfires; target shooting limited
Target shooting or other firearms have started at least 21 wildfires in Utah and nearly a dozen in Idaho, the Associated Press says. Gunfire has also been cited for causing wildfires in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Washington.
But as officials seek to limit outdoor shooting or ammunition, they are running up against a formidable force: the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Gasland Director Josh Fox on His New Film, Gas Industry Lies and Government Collusion
In 2010, the documentary film "Gasland" exploded onto the public consciousness, exposing many people to the next wave of energy extraction: fracking. The practice was taking place across swaths of the United States overlying shale rock formations, as companies had found a new way to access the natural gas and oil below, blasting millions of gallons of water and hundreds of gallons of chemicals to break up the rock and allow the fuels to reach the surface.
The industry assured property owners and city governments that the practice was controllable and safe. Yet "Gasland" showed many communities transformed into industrial zones, their water leaching explosive methane.
North Carolina Governor Vetoes Fracking Law
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue on Sunday vetoed legislation that would have lifted a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and opened the door to shale gas exploration in that state.
Perdue, a Democrat, said she supports shale gas exploration and fracking, but that a measure approved by the Republican-led legislature in June to permit the practices would not ensure adequate environmental protections.
Fracking companies target gas under cemeteries in Ohio
Loved ones aren't the only thing buried in the 122-year-old Lowellville Cemetery in eastern Ohio. Deep underground, locked in ancient shale formations, are lucrative quantities of natural gas.
Whether to drill for that gas is causing soul-searching as cemeteries — including veterans' final resting places in Colorado and Mississippi — join parks, playgrounds, churches and residential backyards among the ranks of places targeted in the nation's shale drilling boom.
More Articles...
- Fracking Industry Enjoyed Privileged Access to Controversial New York DEC Environmental Review
- LA council votes to strictly enforce Clean Air Act
- Study: Airborne methane plume found near Bradford County, PA. gas migration site
- Sea level in Northeastern US rising more than three times faster than global average
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