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BBC News – Air pollution ‘causing deadly public health crisis’
BBC News – Air pollution ‘causing deadly public health crisis’.
New schools, care homes and hospitals should be built far away from major roads because of the dangers of air pollution, a report by MPs says.
The Environmental Audit Committee argues air pollution is a “public health crisis” causing nearly as many deaths as smoking.
It also suggested a scrappage scheme for diesel cars to cut emissions.
The government said it was “investing heavily” in clean air, but campaigners said it was ignoring the issue.
There are an estimated 29,000 deaths annually in the UK from air pollution.
Nitrogen dioxide is known to cause inflammation of the airways, reduce lung function and exacerbate asthma.
Particulate matter – tiny invisible specks of mineral dust, carbon and other chemicals – are linked to heart and lung diseases as well as cancer.
Some particulate matter lodges in the lungs, while the finest particles can enter the bloodstream, risking damage elsewhere in the body.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food
The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food.
The first researchers to systematically document ill health in livestock, pets, and people living near fracking drill sites were Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald. Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University, used a case study approach–looking at individual households–to search for possible effects (Bamberger and Oswald 2012).
Many fracking chemicals are known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors or other classes of toxins (Colborn et al. 2011). Bamberger and Oswald’s studies, carried out during the ongoing fracking boom, uncovered serious adverse effects including respiratory, reproductive, and growth-related problems in animals and a spectrum of symptoms in humans that they termed “shale gas syndrome”. Ultimately, their research led them to consider fracking’s broader implications for farming and the food system (Bamberger and Oswald 2012 and 2014).
Their new book, The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food describes the results of this research. However, it is by showing the pervasiveness of fracking’s harmful effects on the lives of the householders that Bamberger and Oswald best convey its true costs.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Taxpayers to fund hundreds of fracking boreholes across the country | Environment | The Guardian
Taxpayers to fund hundreds of fracking boreholes across the country | Environment | The Guardian.
Hundreds of government-funded boreholes are set to be drilled across Britain to try to persuade the public that a looming shale gas boom can be developed safely, the Observer has learned. Sensors in the boreholes would detect possible water pollution or earthquakes caused by fracking and the information would be made public.
“We will be taking the pulse of the sub-surface environment and will reveal if things are going wrong, but also if they are going right,” said Professor Mike Stephenson, director of science and technology at the British Geological Survey, which would drill the boreholes. “The aim is to reassure people that we can manage the sub-surface safely.”
The plan, called the energy security and innovation observing system, will cost taxpayers £60m-£80m. It is awaiting final approval from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where energy minister Matthew Hancock, afracking enthusiast, holds another ministerial post.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shipping Traffic Increases Fourfold Leading To Pollution Concerns
Shipping Traffic Increases Fourfold Leading To Pollution Concerns.
Global ship traffic has exploded during the past two decades, likely bringing with it more air, water and even noise pollution, according to a new study by the American Geophysical Union.
Using satellite data to estimate oceangoing transport, the Union estimated that the number of ships on the seas increased in every year covered by the study, from 1992 through 2012. It jumped by 60 percent between 1992 and 2002, then accelerated in the subsequent decade, reaching a peak of 10 percent annual growth in 2011, the study found. Total growth over the 20-year period was fourfold.
This growth in shipping occurred in every ocean throughout these 20 years except in waters off Somalia, where commercial shipping has come to a virtual halt since 2006 because of rampant piracy. The adjacent Indian Ocean, though, is the busiest area for maritime shipping, and there traffic grew by more than 300 percent during the study period.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
3 Billion Gallons Of Fracking Wastewater Pumped Into Clean California Aquifiers: “Errors Were Made” State Admits | Zero Hedge
Dear California readers: if you drank tapwater this morning (or at any point in the past few weeks/months), you may be in luck as you no longer need to buy oil to lubricate your engine: just use your blood, and think of the cost-savings. That’s the good news.
Also, the bad news, because as the California’s Department of Conservation’s Chief Deputy Director, Jason Marshall, told NBC Bay Area, California state officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump up to 3 billion gallons (call it 70 million barrels) of oil fracking-contaminated waste water into formerly clean aquifiers, aquifiers which at least on paper are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity, and are protected by the government’s EPA – an agency which, it appears, was richly compensated by the same oil and gas companies to look elsewhere.
And the scariest words of admission one can ever hear from a government apparatchik: “In multiple different places of the permitting process an error could have been made.”
Because nothing short of a full-blown disaster prompts the use of the dreaded passive voice. And what was unsaid is that the “biggest error that was made” is that someone caught California regulators screwing over the taxpayers just so a few oil majors could save their shareholders a few billion dollars in overhead fees.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
BBC News – Fossil fuel promises are being broken, report says
BBC News – Fossil fuel promises are being broken, report says.
World governments have been breaking promises to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, a report says.
The Overseas Development Institute says G20 nations spent almost £56bn ($90bn) a year finding oil, gas and coal.
It comes despite evidence that two thirds of existing reserves must be left in the ground if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
A government spokesman said the North Sea oil and gas industry “creates jobs and generates investment” in the UK.
The spokesman said the tax regime for oil and gas includes a number of allowances which reduce the tax burden on specific, challenging gas or oil fields.
Allowances did not constitute a subsidy, he added.
The UK government has previously said it was helping firms find fossil fuels within the UK to increase energy security, attract royalties and help with the balance of payments.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
When the Shale Runs Dry: A Look at the Future of Fracking | DeSmogBlog
When the Shale Runs Dry: A Look at the Future of Fracking | DeSmogBlog.
If you want to see the future of the shale industry — what today’s drilling rush will leave behind — come to Bradford, Pennsylvania.
A small city, it was home to one of America’s first energy booms, producing over three quarters of the world’s oil in 1877. A wooden oil rig towering over a local museum commemorates those heady days, marking the first “billion dollar oil field” in the world.
But times have changed dramatically in Bradford. Most of the oil has been pumped out, leaving residents atop an aging oil field that requires complicated upkeep and mounting costs. Since its height in the 1940’s, Bradford’s population has steadily declined, leaving the city now home to only 8,600 people, down from over 17,000.
The story of Bradford these days is a story of thousands of oil and gas wells: abandoned, uncapped, and often leaking.
To drive through McKean County, home to Bradford and much of the Allegheny National Forest, is to witness an array of creative ways people have found to hide the remnants of this bygone boom. Rusted metal pipes — the old steel casings from long abandoned wells — jut from lawns and roadsides. Mailboxes are strapped to some of the taller pipes. In autumn, abandoned wells are tucked behind Halloween props and hay bales in front yards.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
