TV News LIES

From earthquakes to poisoning drinking water this image spells out all the concerns

An info graphic posted on CleanTechnica outlines the concerns that people around the world are raising about hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – as it is commonly called, is an industrial process where poisonous chemicals are mixed with water and injected into the ground at high pressures to get to natural gas supplies.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth released e-mails this week revealing a cozy and collaborative relationship between TransCanada Corporation lobbyist Paul Elliott and an employee at the U.S. State Department, the agency currently weighing approval of TransCanada's permit application for the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

A New York Times report notes that the emails show the State Department official providing "subtle coaching and cheerleading" for TransCanada:

France will maintain a ban on fracking until there is proof that shale gas exploration won’t harm the environment or “massacre” the landscape, President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

“Development of hydrocarbon resources underground is strategic for our country but not at any price,” Sarkozy said during a visit to Ales in southern France. “This won’t be done until it has been shown that technologies used for development respect the environment, the complex nature of soil and water networks.”

E-mails between lobbyists for a firm proposing a Canada-U.S. oil pipeline and the State Department reveal a sometimes-cozy relationship, environmentalists say.

The New York Times reports environmental groups say the e-mails show "complicity" between TransCanada, the pipeline company, and U.S. State Department officials charged with evaluating its environmental impact.

Ozone loss over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an "ozone hole" like the Antarctic one, scientists report. About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say.

The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude. In cold conditions, the chlorine chemicals that destroy ozone are at their most active.

Nobody has systemically tracked how many health complaints there are, whether the complaints are similar, whether they can be tied to any specific chemical exposure or any environmental cause. It makes it very difficult beyond an anecdotal answer to get a handle on how widespread a problem this might be."

Part of the problem, writes Lustgarten, is that "the drilling companies have complicated efforts to gather pollution data and to understand the root of health complaints."