Friday, Feb 06th
Last update10:09:45 AM GMT
Environmental Glance
Aubrey McClendon, America's second-largest producer of natural gas, has never been afraid of a fight. He has become a billionaire by directing his company, Chesapeake Energy, to blast apart gas-soaked rocks a mile underground and pump the fuel to the surface.
"We're the biggest frackers in the world," he declares proudly over a $400 bottle of French Bordeaux at a restaurant he co-owns in his hometown of Oklahoma City. "We frack all the time. What's the big deal?"
The Schmallenberg virus causes lambs to be born dead or with serious deformities such as fused limbs and twisted necks, which mean they cannot survive.
Scientists are urgently trying to find out how the disease, which also affects cattle, spreads and how to fight it, as the number of farms affected increases by the day.
Stephen Cleghorn, a Pennsylvania farmer, knows the ins and outs of the natural gas extraction process called hydraulic fracturing. He’s studied the risks and dangers. He’s witnessed the damage it’s wreaked on the environment. He’s commiserated with fellow Pennsylvanians who have gotten sick from contaminated water and whose animals have died from toxic fracking fluids.
Soon after hearing about a geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale about six years ago, Cleghorn immersed himself in the topic. Eventually, through a self-education process, Cleghorn concluded that that the method used to extract natural gas from the shale rock and the associated industrialization of communities across Pennsylvania posed serious risks to air, water, public health and the welfare of animals.
High levels of winter ozone air pollution have been recorded in a Utah oil and gas field — after the phenomenon was seen in Wyoming — raising concerns that such pollution could become more widespread.
A team of scientists is combing the Uintah Basin to determine the link between the area's 10,000 oil and gas wells and ozone levels, which in 2011 were higher in eastern Utah than in New York City.
There is good news and bad news: The good news is that 11 months after the Fukushima meltdown, thousands of Japanese marched in the streets to protest the continuing operation of nuclear power plants in their country, and urged a shift to renewable energy.
Some 250,000 people signed petitions to close the reactors in the Tokyo area. Meanwhile in the U.S. the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the building of two new nuclear power plants in Georgia.
Demand for gasoline has dropped sharply in the last few years to the point where we export 117,000,000 gallons of gasoline and other fuels every day. Actually, this was the 2011 average, the surplus is still going up. In dollar value, this is now our largest manufactured export.
If you thought Monsanto’s lack of testing on their current GMO crops was bad before, prepare to now be blown away by the latest statement by the USDA. Despite links to organ damage and mutated insects, the USDA says that it is changing the rules so that genetically modified seed companies like Monsanto will get ‘speedier regulatory reviews’. With the faster reviews, there will be even less time spent on evaluating the potential dangers. Why? Because Monsanto is losing sales with longer approval terms.
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