Climate and Ecology Watch: News About a World Being Destroyed
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-13 09:20:16 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-13 09:20:16 UTC
Climate Change
In an earlier opinion piece, I characterized many otherwise caring folks who truly worry about the earth's survival as "capitalism deniers" because of their unwillingness to utter the "C" word. This, despite the fact that blame for environmental degradation lies squarely with our growth-and-profit-at-any-cost economic system. The system's apologists exist within and outside government and they will never be the solution.
Sealife/Pollution
There's a ton of trash in the Indian Ocean.
The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Japan to halt its Antarctic whaling program as it violates a moratorium on commercial whaling (which is in place since 1986). The court ruled that the whaling program was not for scientific research as claimed by the Japanese government.
Oilsands
Journalist Dan Grossman and photographer Alex MacLean are in the middle of their week long tour of the Alberta oilsands. Their on-the-scene reporting is meant to bring greater public attention to the scale – and the stakes – of developing oil from the world’s largest deposit of carbon-intensive bitumen.
Fracking/Gas
Sparse public data on onshore oil and gas drilling makes full extent of failures in hydrocarbon wells unknown, experts say
The way to beat Vladimir Putin is to flood the European market with fracked-in-the-USA natural gas, or so the industry would have us believe. As part of escalating anti-Russian hysteria, two bills have been introduced into the US Congress – one in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6), one in the Senate (S. 2083) – that attempt to fast-track liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, all in the name of helping Europe to wean itself from Putin's fossil fuels, and enhancing US national security.
Geologists have for the first time linked earthquakes deep under Ohio’s Appalachian Mountains to hydraulic fracturing, leading the state to issue strict permit conditions Friday on the gas extraction process.
Researchers found that five small tremors last month near Youngstown, Ohio were likely the result of the injection of sand and water that occurs during the hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — process, the Associated Press reports. Fracking involves injecting rocks with pressurized water or other liquids in an effort to extract gas which can be turned into usable fuel.
Because the geology of each shale formation is different, the discovery in Ohio may not apply everywhere across the country. However, other instances of fracking causing small earthquakes have been recorded elsewhere, including in Oklahoma, England and British Columbia, Canada.
After his recent meeting with EU leaders Obama issued the incredible statement that the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is being secretly negotiated behind closed doors by the major private multinational companies would make it easier for the United States to export gas to Europe and help it reduce its dependency on Russian energy: “Once we have a trade agreement in place, export licenses for projects for liquefied natural gas destined to Europe would be much easier, something that is obviously relevant in today’s geopolitical environment,” Obama stated.
That bit of political opportunism to try to push the stalled TTIP talks by playing on EU fears of Russian gas loss after the US-orchestrated Ukraine coup of February 22, ignores the fact that the problem in getting US shale gas to the EU does not lie in easier LNG licensing procedures in the USA and EU.
In other recent statements, referring to the recent boom in unconventional US shale gas, Obama and Kerry have both stated the US could more than replace all Russian gas to the EU, an outright lie based on physical realities. At his Brussels meeting Obama told EU leaders they should import shale gas from the US to replace Russian. There is a huge problem with that.
Recent Techrights' Posts
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- Just as we've been saying for over a month
- Last Article From Australia's Sam Varghese Was a Year Ago and It Covered the Release of Julian Assange, Who Will Apparently Come Back as 'Politician'
- It'll soon be exactly 12 months
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- Windows probably peaked in "XP" or "2000"
- India: Windows Falls to 50% in Desktops/Laptops and 8% Overall
- laptops/desktops fell to 16% of the whole
- statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 4.7% "Market Share" This Month
- 30,000 Microsoft jobs may be eliminated by year's end
- Microsoft is in Trouble and Microsofters Know It
- "I've been happy on Win 3.11 for years."
- Links 02/06/2025: Political Leftovers, DRM, and Patents
- Links for the day
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- Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
- "Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
- The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
- Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
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- Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
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- "More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
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- Links for the day
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- IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025
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- If it loses those "regions", then what's left?
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- Really bad news for shareholders of Microsoft
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- Bing has been part of the mass layoffs for quite some time
- Microsoft's Demise is a Global Phenomenon
- mass layoffs justified using mindless buzzwords
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- from the channel previously bullied for supporting RMS
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- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
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- there's a lesson to be learned here
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- When it comes to news sites, what can we say?
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- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Sunday, June 01, 2025
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- The OSI of today pretends to be something that it is not
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- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025