(via earthday)
UCF Unifying Theme
Our Planet. Our Education. Our Future.
http://www.ut.ucf.edu/
Another brilliant climate themed editorial cartoon from The Washington Post’s Tom Toles. It’s time to put out the fire (s).
(Source: Washington Post via Go Comics)
Thoughts?
American Responce to Climate Change
america is not the only one too, several countries leading in industrial use are kicking climate change warnings down the road, so it’ll be someone elses more severe problem…
THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT- LOOK AT IT.
good:
Infographic: From Energy Production to Electricity Consumption
- GOOD Partnerships and Focus the Nation and Oliver Munday contributed in Environment, Energy and NewsIt’s Energy month at GOOD, so we’ve teamed up with Portland, Oregon’s Focus the Nation, an organization that’s empowering youth to make smart environmental choices in their communities. This infographic is part of a series exploring our use of energy resources.
Powering on your computer is more than just pressing a button. The flow of electricity is made possible from multiple energy sources, whether they’re imported and exported fossil fuels, like natural gas, petroleum, and coal, or domestically-produced nuclear electric power and renewable energy. Check out our latest infographic above that shows how the electricity around us flows from source to consumption. You can follow the U.S. electricity flow from production on the left to consumption on the right, with energy’s measured in quadrillion British ton units (Btu). With all this electricity wasted, it is clear we need to conserve our energy sources.
What is primarily fueling the activities of our modern economy today are the fossil fuels which have stored the sun’s energy over more than a millenium, coupled with nuclear power, which has been around for only the last five decades. If the United States is to prepare for a more sustainable future, it must start turning to renewable energy to meet our energy needs, using sources like hydroelectric power, biomass, geothermal, solar-photovoltaic, and wind.
To learn more about the Energy discussion on GOOD, visit our Energy hub and follow Focus the Nation.
I just signed this WH petition. The White House will have to respond to it if it reaches the 25,000 mark.
Fracking, or drilling for natural gas, is as of 2005 exempt from a major environmental regulation called the Clean Water Act. Drillers pump a water/chemical mixture into the ground under pressure, which fractures certain rocks that hold natural gas. The gas is piped out and the water and chemicals remain in the ground. Here’s an excellent video explainer. And here are some background on how fracking became exempt from pollution controls. Basically, drillers got the exemption by claiming that the chemical mixture they use are proprietary information - an industry secret.
Now, there are about 500,000 fracking wells in the U.S.Tens of thousands are being opened right now. The petition asks that frackers show how their chemicals affect water in rivers, lakes, streams, wells, and aquifers.
I don’t think it’s controversial for the public, farmers, cities, beer and softdrink manufacturers, or anyone to know which chemicals are in their water. I know petitions are a pain. Please give this one your two minutes. Here’s the link:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/repeal-legislation-making-oil-and-natural-gas-companies-exempt-safe-drinking-water-act/d9SB9kfw
Death rate per watts, Nuclear, Oil, Coal. Classic chart exposes cognitive dissonance, and persistent self-denial…
Do you have an opinion about nuclear power? About the relative safety of one form of power over another? How did you come to this opinion?
Here are the stats. For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced.
Vivid is not the same as true. It’s far easier to amplify sudden and horrible outcomes than it is to talk about the slow, grinding reality of day to day strife. That’s just human nature. Not included in this chart are deaths due to global political instability involving oil fields, deaths from coastal flooding and deaths due to environmental impacts yet unmeasured, all of which skew it even more if you think about it.
This chart unsettles a lot of people, because there must be something wrong with it. Further proof of how easy it is to fear the unknown and accept what we’ve got.
Via Seth Godin
Update: Nuclear waste is not an issue.
Update II: The reblog comments are incredible. Not one acknowledged or seems to have read the post. Nor, it seems, has a single reader clicked through to read the original post. Only one commenter, that I could tell, attempted to discuss the underlying facts. Instead, there were mostly “But” type replies that repeat the very myths this chart aims to debunk. What an incredible experience from my point of view, and a major lesson learned…
Sorry Mother Jones, but Damon’s Promised Land is in fact having positive impact. The movie, contrary to MoJo’s out of touch movie review, is helping educate the public on fracking’s environmental issues. And, as this video shows, helping create a national conversation about energy.
Natural gas pipeline explosion Dec. 11 2012 Sissonville, West Virginia. Fire is out. Pipeline capped. Area evacuated. No casualties. Via
Update: Local WSAZ reports:
Four homes have been destroyed and at least five others have been damaged, according to county leaders.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said 2-5 people have been taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Emergency crews say that there are no reported fatalities and that everyone has been accounted for, according to Tomblin.
Tomblin says the area has been evacuated within 1000 feet of the explosion site.
“After looking at the damage, I’m grateful for the quick action of our local and state emergency responders who immediately called for a shelter in place,” Gov. Tomblin said.
According to a news release from NiSource, there was an incident in the vicinity of the Columbia Gas Transmission Lanham Compressor Station.
“Our first priority is the safety of the community and our employees,” Mike Banas, Communications Manager stateed. “The site where the incident occurred has been secured and the fire - on a 20-inch transmission line - has been contained.”
A fiber optic line has also been damaged affecting phone lines in several states, according to Commissioner Carper.
Right now, 16-hundred people are without power, but AEP is bringing in a transformer to help restore power. A shelter has been set up at Aldersgate United Methodist Church is Sissonville to provide food and shelter to families who can’t get home.
The flames shot across Interstate 77, severely damaging the road. Tomblin says an 800-foot section of the interstate was damaged during the blast.
I-77 from Charleston split to Pocatalico/Sissonville exit will remain closed through the night, but is expected to reopen Wednesday afternoon.
WVDOT reports 325 feet of each side of I-77 was damaged.
According to WVDOT, crews will mill down to the concrete and repave the road. President Carper reports emergency crews have been brought in to help fix the road.
The Basics of Fracking
In this week’s Untamed Science video Rob explores the basics of hydraulic fracturing via a Skype call with geoligist Dan Bertalan. He explains what they pump into the ground, how it fractures the rock and how that allows natural gas to then come to the surface.
by Rob Nelson Films.
(via climateadaptation)
Scientist asks, "Is Earth Fucked?"
Short answer: Yes, so long as we continue extracting and polluting the earth’s resources.
Brad Werner, a complex-systems analyst at UC San Diego, spoke Wednesday in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union conference, io9 reports. The talk’s title: “Is Earth F**ked? Dynamical Futility of Sustainability via Direct Action Activism:”
“What happens is not too surprising: the economy very fast chews up the environmental resources, depletes those reservoirs, resulting in a significant amount of environmental damage,” Werner said during his talk. He is still finishing up the model, so no details on the inputs and the final simulations are available. Still, I asked him afterward to clarify if his model had answered his baseline question. Is Earth fucked? “More or less,” he said.The answer, he says, is activism.Werner’s presentation (search for it here) is being covered by a lot of sci-news sites. But, the best coverage I’ve read is by science blogger Michael Ricciardi of Planet Save.
