The environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” as a method for natural gas drilling investigated recently by ProPublica and displayed in the documentary film Gasland, have led to a nationwide backlash against this dangerous fossil fuel touted as a “clean burning alternative to oil.”
Recent Posts
World’s Dirtiest Oil – Alberta Tar Sands
The world’s dirtiest oil is produced by strip mining the Athabascan Tar Sands of Alberta, Canada, destroying an area of Northern Boreal forest and wetlands the size of Florida, with toxic settling ponds that pollute rivers fished by First Nations people, requiring pipelines to the Gulf Coast and hauling routes through the Northern Rocky Mountains.
Nature: Extreme Weather Linked to Greenhouse Gas Levels
Two Studies in the Journal of Nature show that climate warming is responsible for extreme weather events, directly linked with rising greenhouse gas levels.
ProPublica: EPA to Study Pollution from Natural Gas Fracking
The EPA wants to study impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas.
Coming Disaster: Peak Oil and Climate Change
Peak Oil is the point at which petroleum production reaches its greatest rate just before going into perpetual decline. In “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate,” a new video series from The Nation and On The Earth productions, radio host Thom Hartmann explains that the world will reach peak oil within the next year if it hasn’t already. As a nation, the United States reached peak oil in 1974, after which it became a net oil importer.
Bison Wild Recolonization Stopped With Slaughter – By George Wuerthner
The bison slaughter is proposed to appease the intractable and unreasonable demands of Montana’s livestock industry to zero tolerance for native bison on Montana soil. All of this is justified in the name of controlling brucellosis, a disease that can cause domestic livestock to abort their first calf.
Stop Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Coup Over Organics – By Ronnie Cummins
In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, USA’s organic consumers and producers are losing the battle to Monsanto’s dominance over Obama’s corporate-friendly USDA.