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Category Archives: Environmental policy
NSF: Oceans Acidifying Faster Today Than in Past 300 Million Years
The oceans may be acidifying faster today than they did in the last 300 million years, according to scientists publishing a paper this week in the journal Science. “What we’re doing today really stands out in the geologic record,” says lead … Continue reading
Low-carbon technologies ‘no quick-fix’, say researchers
A drastic switch to low carbon-emitting technologies, such as wind and hydroelectric power, may not yield a reduction in global warming until the latter part of this century, research published today suggests. Furthermore, it states that technologies that offer only … Continue reading
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Don’t be too worried about the environment – it’s bad for your health. Or so goes the sophistical argument presented in this analysis of risk perception: Even today, when media warnings about the latest health or safety risk are commonplace, … Continue reading
Tighten fracking regulations, scientists urge US officials
Tighten fracking regulations, scientists urge US officials | Environment | The Guardian.
Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science
The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks… The papers indicate that discrediting established climate science remains a core … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Environmental policy
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A Dangerous Shift in Obama’s ‘Climate Change’ Rhetoric
Maxwell Boykoff, assistant professor at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, gives a trenchant critique of the Obama administration’s strategy to address climate change solely in terms of clean energy: A … Continue reading
Who Wins if We All Lose?
As he belligerently wades into the debate around the Keystone XL pipeline, NY Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera seems unaware that the tragedy of the commons is, in fact, a tragedy: Over the past two decades, energy companies have invested tens of … Continue reading
No Need to Panic About Anti-Regulatory Propaganda
Not that you didn’t know that Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal carries its fair share of anti-regulatory propaganda, but here’s a refresher in the form of an op-ed co-authored by 16 “concerned” scientists: “No Need to Panic About Global Warming.” The … Continue reading
Cornell Study Links Fracking Wastewater with Mortality in Farm Animals
A recently completed study by two Cornell University researchers indicates the process of hydraulic fracturing deep shale to release natural gas may be linked to shortened lifespan and reduced or mutated reproduction in cattle—and maybe humans… In one case, an accidental … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking
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Urban gardens: The future of food?
I’m not so sure urban agriculture is going to develop along the lines of the “hipster boutique” model described below. Not only is it far too energy and capital intensive, it’s easily criticized as culturally elitist (with some justification), which … Continue reading
Communities can drive corporations away
Maybe we are entering into a new age – a time where we can no longer rely solely in the government to protect us from the big corporations (and perhaps other obstacles). But is this a good or a bad … Continue reading
The Natural Gas Bridge to Nowhere
Natural gas is often touted as a “bridge fuel” to get us from coal to renewable sources like wind and sun. I have long been suspicious of this metaphor…we should remember that coal used to be described as a bridge … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Uncategorized
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ignorance
The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. And the more urgent the … Continue reading
‘Fracking’ (and its risks) Goes Global
Ian Urbina at the New York Times has written another excellent piece on the character of the economic momentum behind and environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing: this time in a global context. He focuses on South Africa, but Poland, Peru, … Continue reading
The Uneasy Technocratic Alliance
John Siegmund set the tone for the City of Denton’s appointed Gas Well Task Force. He articulated a classic engineering technocratic position that goes as follows. The problem with fracking is capitalism. The short-term profit motive of capitalists leads to … Continue reading
Ohio – Sites of Two Earthquakes Nearly Identical – NYTimes.com
Just as the Oil & Gas industry ramps up their attempts to have the public go along with fracking, the earth herself keeps bucking at the “opportunity.” Maybe it would be good for the superstitious animal part of us to … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking
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Environmental Alarm Grows in Urban China
An incipient environmental awareness is increasingly emerging among the urban middle-class in China, but the almost apocalyptic scale of the pollution must be discouraging to activists, to say the least: The statement posted online along with a photograph of central … Continue reading
NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes
A very interesting article posted by the NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) on their blog. It talks not only about the already known effects of the human-induced climate change upon ice caps, rising sea levels, and so forth. Their goal … Continue reading
“Why so risky?”
If the Joker was an environmental philosopher, this would be his “catch phrase”. But since he is a fictional character it’s up to us to deal with our current crisis, which is not only an environment crisis, it is also … Continue reading
Fracking may be causing groundwater pollution, says EPA report
The US Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution… The EPA found that compounds likely … Continue reading
Outsourcing Pollution
An unregulated global market repeatedly leads national environmental regulations toward the same outcome: pollution shifting to where it’s cheaper to pollute. Whether it’s European limits on carbon dioxide emissions shifting industrial production (and the associated emissions) to China or American … Continue reading
At Climate Talks, a Familiar Standoff
China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has once again emerged as the biggest puzzle at international climate change talks, sending ambiguous signals about the role it intends to play in future negotiations. This week the nation’s top climate envoy said that … Continue reading
Geoengineering Might Be Gaining Traction
Notions of manipulating the climate to impede global warming have been on the fringe of scientific discussion for some time, but is moving increasingly toward the mainstream…. At a time of deep concern over global warming, a group of scientists, … Continue reading
Hydrofracking Debate Spurs Huge Spending by Industry
I wonder to what extent the corporate impact on public policy is currently being taken into account in mainstream STS (Science, technology, and society) studies. Is attention being paid to the role of lobbying and advertising in driving innovation or … Continue reading
Contra Global-Warming Skepticism
Over the last two years, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project has looked deeply at all the issues raised above… Our work covers only land temperature—not the oceans—but that’s where warming appears to be the greatest. Robert Rohde, our chief … Continue reading