On Our Radar: A Fracking Confrontation in Ohio

On Our Radar: A Fracking Confrontation in Ohio

New York Times (blog) - ‎Jan 12, 2012‎

By THE NEW YORK TIMES A crowd jeers at Ohio environmental officials as they take questions at a public forum about the relationship between fracking for a deep-injection well in Youngstown and 11 recent earthquakes there.

New rumblings: Earthquakes intensify scrutiny of shale gas methods

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/rumblings+Earthquakes+intensify+scrutiny+shale+methods/5991967/story.html#ixzz1jMrYpRXt

Climate-Related Severe Weather Made 2011 Costliest Year on Record: Reports

Published on Friday, January 6, 2012 by CommonDreams.org

Climate-Related Severe Weather Made 2011 Costliest Year on Record: Reports

2011 Disasters Make it Costliest Year on Record

Vatican Condemns Monsanto Genetically Modified Crops as “New Form of Slavery”

Bacteria and Gulf currents help clean Deepwater oil spill

Bacteria and Gulf currents help clean Deepwater oil spill
The massive oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico ultimately dissipated far faster than anticipated. Researchers now believe they can attribute this to a combination of topography and huge numbers of bacteria.
Full Article

Embridge investigates leak in vicinity of Stingray Natural Gas Pipeline

Enbridge investigates leak in vicinity of Stingray Natural Gas Pipeline Enbridge Inc. is investigating the report of a small natural gas leak in the West Cameron Block 275, approximately 66 miles off thecoast of Louisiana in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Full Article

What We Talk About When We Talk About Protecting and Saving

New Oil Sprill study shows how Macondo disaster could have been prevented by risk management procedures

New oil spill study shows how Macondo disaster could have been prevented by risk management procedures

Fracking risk is exaggerated

Super Fracking Goes Deeper to Pump Up Natural Gas Production

7.3 magnitude quake strikes off western Indonesia: USGS

7.3 magnitude quake strikes off western Indonesia: USGS

from Earth News, Earth Science, Energy Technology, Environment News

Jakarta (AFP) Jan 11, 2012
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Northern Sumatra on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey reported. A tsunami warning has been issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The quake, which had a depth of 29 kilometres, hit at 2:37 am (1837 GMT) around 261 miles southwest of Banda Aceh. An official at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics

Population: The Elephant in the Room; Peak Oil Implications on Population Growth; What Level of Human Population is Sustainable?

Population: The Elephant in the Room; Peak Oil Implications on Population Growth; What Level of Human Population is Sustainable?

from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock)

"In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder." says Professor Stephen Hawking as reported by Edward Morgan in Looking at the New Demography.

Suffice to say the rate of population growth will not continue, and Morgan makes the case we are already in stage 5 of The Demographic Transition Model

click on chart for sharper image

Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff

From Houston, I focus on oil, gas and the Big Rich.

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1/10/2012 @ 10:48AM |346 views

Should We Freak Out About Fracking-Induced Earthquakes?

Oil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds

Oil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds
Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released in late December sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be inadequate. The report was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ohio quakes probably triggered by waste disposal well, say seismologists

Ohio quakes probably triggered by waste disposal well, say seismologists
(PhysOrg.com) -- Earthquakes that have shaken an area just outside Youngstown, Ohio in the last nine months—including a substantial one on New Year’s Eve—are likely linked to a disposal well for injecting wastewater used in the hydraulic fracturing process, say seismologists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who were called in to study the quakes. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has shut down the injection well and put four other proposed wells on hold. In the meantime, steps have been taken to ease pressure in the well to avert further rumblings.

Some climate updates from PhysOrg Newsletter Sunday, Jan 8

Climate change is altering mountain vegetation at large scale, European research says
The decade from 2000 to 2009 was the warmest since global climate has been measured, and while localized studies have shown evidence of changes in mountain plant communities that reflect this warming trend, no study has yet taken a continental-scale view of the situation – until now.

Study finds a better way to gauge the climate costs of land use changes
Those making land use decisions to reduce the harmful effects of climate change have focused almost exclusively on greenhouse gases – analyzing, for example, how much carbon dioxide is released when a forest is cleared to grow crops. A new study in Nature Climate Change aims to present a more complete picture – to incorporate other characteristics of ecosystems that also influence climate.

Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future: study
Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado's Rocky Mountains by 2070, according to a new modeling study by scientists from NOAA and several other institutions.

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays natural patterns of glaciation
Unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are disrupting normal patterns of glaciation, according to a study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher and published online Jan. 8 in Nature Geoscience.

Related articles

• Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays next Ice Age (scienceblog.com)
• Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays natural patterns of glaciation, researchers say (eurekalert.org)
• Next Ice Age Delayed For Thousands Of Years Warn Scientists (faktensucher.wordpress.com)
• Perhaps the ultimate in wishful thinking (junkscience.com)
• Study finds a better way to gauge the climate costs of land use changes (physorg.com)
• Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future (eurekalert.org)
• Melting Permafrost Could Release Greenhouse Gases: NYT (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Dot Earth Blog: The Next Ice Age and the Anthropocene (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Ted Kaufman: Climate Change Must Be Addressed Now (huffingtonpost.com)
• Climate Change Is Undeniable and Must Be Addressed Now, Says Former U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman (thinkprogress.org)

The Post’s View Does fracking for natural gas cause earthquakes?

The Post’s View

Does fracking for natural gas cause earthquakes?