BREAKING NEWS !
NEW: Online Pipeline Informational Meeting is coming soon.
Don't Buy Koch Products: They're the largest holders of TAR SANDS land. Click here for a list.
Climate impacts 'overwhelming' - UN. The impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible", a major report by the UN has warned. Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world. Some impacts of climate change include a higher risk of flooding and changes to crop yields and water availability. Humans may be able to adapt to some of these changes, but only within limits. An example of an adaptation strategy would be the construction of sea walls and levees to protect against flooding. Another might be introducing more efficient irrigation for farmers in areas where water is scarce. Natural systems are currently bearing the brunt of climatic changes, but a growing impact on humans is feared. Members of the UN's climate panel say it provides overwhelming evidence of the scale of these effects. Read more here.
Municipal & Rural Water Systems. Where does your water come from? Whether you live in a city or rural area, your water comes from ground or surface water. You can help your city develop a water monitoring program. Check out Garrettsville's Water Monitoring Program checklist.
If you live in the country, read how How to Take Care of Your Water Well. Read about Concerned Citizens Ohio's Neighbors Helping Neighbors water monitoring program.
If you live in the country, read how How to Take Care of Your Water Well. Read about Concerned Citizens Ohio's Neighbors Helping Neighbors water monitoring program.
Officials not keeping track of oil trains. With oil being produced in new areas that don’t have pipelines, more crude is heading to refineries in rail cars. Yet neither federal nor state regulators track the shipments that are increasingly crisscrossing the country – potentially cutting through neighborhoods and business districts nationwide. . . .“Regulators across North America simply have not kept up with the boom in moving oil by train,” said Keith Stewart, a Canadian-based researcher for the environmental group Greenpeace. “You would be shocked how little governments know how much and where and when this oil is moving by rail.” Read more here.
There is already a natural gas depot for exporting American natural gas. There are 26 more applications on the table to be approved. If these are indeed approved, then big oil will move forward and sign LONG TERM CONTRACTS to guarantee American natural gas to foreign countries. This industry will have to make good on these contracts. That will mean more drilling at any cost, and at the expense of Americans. That will mean tens of thousands of more wells. Hundreds of billions of gallons of fresh drinking water polluted. And the attempted disposal of hundreds of billions of gallons of toxic waste water. Read here.
Mountaineer Keystone's Plans for NE Portage County. NE Portage County has had only a few High Volume Horizontal Shale (HVHS) wells drilled, and those were drilled by Mountaineer Keystone. Because gas or oil is everywhere in shale, productive drilling requires well pads to be placed as frequently as possible (in many heavily drilled states, every square mile). Our members have been looking up public records to discover which parts of Portage County have been leased for drilling and have discovered that Mt. Keystone has also obtained easements for pipelines. The parcels of land in NE Portage (red, green and blue) on which Mt. Keystone has leases or easements have now been mapped by FracTracker. Click here to see large Map and Explanation.
Pipelines proposed across the United States. FracTracker is digitizing data about proposed pipelines across the U.S. They are still working on 10-12 proposals out west; they hope to have those pipelines mapped by next week. Check FracTracker. Or click here to look at the interactive U.S. Map.
SOLAR SHINGLES MADE FROM COMMON METALS OFFER CHEAPER ENERGY OPTION
U.S. scientists say that emerging photovoltaic technologies will enable the production of solar shingles made from abundantly available elementsrather than rare-earth metals, an innovation that would make solar energy cheaper and more sustainable. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, a team of researchers described advances in solar cells made with abundant metals, such as copper and zinc. While the market already offers solar shingles that convert the sun’s energy into electricity, producers typically must use elements that are scarce and expensive, such as indium and gallium. High-tech products increasingly make use of rare metals, and mining those resources can have devastating environmental consequences. But two experts look at the consequences of blocking projects like the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska. Read More. READ THE e360 REPORT
U.S. scientists say that emerging photovoltaic technologies will enable the production of solar shingles made from abundantly available elementsrather than rare-earth metals, an innovation that would make solar energy cheaper and more sustainable. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, a team of researchers described advances in solar cells made with abundant metals, such as copper and zinc. While the market already offers solar shingles that convert the sun’s energy into electricity, producers typically must use elements that are scarce and expensive, such as indium and gallium. High-tech products increasingly make use of rare metals, and mining those resources can have devastating environmental consequences. But two experts look at the consequences of blocking projects like the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska. Read More. READ THE e360 REPORT
Durango TX Pipeline Explosion (6.7.10)
FRIDAY, JAN 31, 2014 08:00 AM EST
The scariest thing about fracking is the risk nobody is talking about: A dense, poorly regulated network of pipelines [emphasis added] carries explosive gas hundreds of miles away drilling sites. . . . According to former Mobil Oil executive Lou Allstadt, the greatest danger of fracking is the methane it adds to the atmosphere through leaks from wells, pipelines, and other associated infrastructure. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found leakage rates of 2.3% to 17% of annual production at gas and oil fields in California, Colorado, and Utah. Moreover, no technology can guarantee long-term safety decades into the future when it comes to well casings (there are hundreds of thousands of frack wells in the U.S. to date) or in the millions of miles of pipelines that crisscross this country. . . . Carl Weimer, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust, a non-profit watchdog organization, says that, on average, there is “a significant incident — somewhere — about every other day. And someone ends up in the hospital or dead about every nine or ten days.” This begs the question: are pipelines carrying shale gas different in their explosive potential than other pipelines?
“There isn’t any database that allows you to get at that,” says Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline safety expert and consultant of 40 years’ experience. “If it’s a steel pipeline and it has enough gas in it under enough pressure, it can leak or rupture.” Read More.
The scariest thing about fracking is the risk nobody is talking about: A dense, poorly regulated network of pipelines [emphasis added] carries explosive gas hundreds of miles away drilling sites. . . . According to former Mobil Oil executive Lou Allstadt, the greatest danger of fracking is the methane it adds to the atmosphere through leaks from wells, pipelines, and other associated infrastructure. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found leakage rates of 2.3% to 17% of annual production at gas and oil fields in California, Colorado, and Utah. Moreover, no technology can guarantee long-term safety decades into the future when it comes to well casings (there are hundreds of thousands of frack wells in the U.S. to date) or in the millions of miles of pipelines that crisscross this country. . . . Carl Weimer, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust, a non-profit watchdog organization, says that, on average, there is “a significant incident — somewhere — about every other day. And someone ends up in the hospital or dead about every nine or ten days.” This begs the question: are pipelines carrying shale gas different in their explosive potential than other pipelines?
“There isn’t any database that allows you to get at that,” says Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline safety expert and consultant of 40 years’ experience. “If it’s a steel pipeline and it has enough gas in it under enough pressure, it can leak or rupture.” Read More.
Industry Awakens to Threat of Climate Change
Coral Davenport
New York Times January 24, 2014
WASHINGTON — Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a lucrative operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change.
Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.
“Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years,” said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke’s vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company’s supply of sugar cane and sugar beets, as well as citrus for its fruit juices. “When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats.”
Coke reflects a growing view among American business leaders and mainstream economists who see global warming as a force that contributes to lower gross domestic products, higher food and commodity costs, broken supply chains and increased financial risk. Their position is at striking odds with the longstanding argument, advanced by the coal industry and others, that policies to curb carbon emissions are more economically harmful than the impact of climate change. Read Whole Article. Click here for larger image and more information about the evidence for climate change.
Coral Davenport
New York Times January 24, 2014
WASHINGTON — Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a lucrative operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change.
Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.
“Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years,” said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke’s vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company’s supply of sugar cane and sugar beets, as well as citrus for its fruit juices. “When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats.”
Coke reflects a growing view among American business leaders and mainstream economists who see global warming as a force that contributes to lower gross domestic products, higher food and commodity costs, broken supply chains and increased financial risk. Their position is at striking odds with the longstanding argument, advanced by the coal industry and others, that policies to curb carbon emissions are more economically harmful than the impact of climate change. Read Whole Article. Click here for larger image and more information about the evidence for climate change.
Pipelines.
CCO has developed a pipeline informational program. We've presented the information in different venues around Portage County. If you missed the presentations and would like the information for your community, church, garden club, or neighborhood, contact CCO at concernedcitizensohio@gmail.com.
CCO has developed a pipeline informational program. We've presented the information in different venues around Portage County. If you missed the presentations and would like the information for your community, church, garden club, or neighborhood, contact CCO at concernedcitizensohio@gmail.com.
