Energy/Climate Watch: January 2014

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2014-01-16 11:50:48 UTC
Modified: 2014-01-16 11:55:34 UTC

Summary: Stories from across the globe about pollution, weather, environmental issues, and wildlife

Government accused of 'bribing local councils' on controversial fracking projects

MPs accused the government of seeking to bribe local councils to grant planning permission for controversial fracking projects today, just as new figures showed Britain’s shale gas regulator has only six staff dedicated to fracking full time.

They fear that the shale gas industry could be allowed to balloon without proper scrutiny and are especially concerned because, in only a fortnight, the regulator will be required to issue new fracking permits within two weeks, compared to the current 13-week wait.
Four States Confirm Water Contamination From Fracking

In at least four states that have nurtured the nation’s energy boom, hundreds of complaints have been made about well-water contamination from oil or gas drilling, and pollution was confirmed in a number of them, according to a review that casts doubt on industry suggestions that such problems rarely happen.

Fukushima failure: Decontamination system stops functioning

On Wednesday, TEPCO stopped operating all 3 ALPS systems at the facility. The company officials say the system may take a long time to restart.

The container where the radioactive substances are stored has to be replaced when it fills up.

TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, said that the company plans to decontaminate all radioactive water stored in the tanks by March 2015, NHK reported.
ABC News: Gov’t, scientists ‘baffled’ over white spots on cows around Fukushima plant — Farmer: No one knows what they are, I think it’s from radiation; “Our town’s contaminated like Chernobyl… We were just thrown away like trash” — Officials order the animals to be slaughtered (VIDEOS)

Climate change denial and motivated reasoning

US weather: 'So cold boiling water freezes in mid-air'

Parts of the US are braced for potentially record-breaking low temperatures as a "polar vortex" brings more freezing weather.

How Cold Is It in the Midwest Today? This Cold.

Everything You Wanted To Know About The ‘Polar Vortex’

Deep freeze stretches across US

There's a "polar vortex" sweeping across America, and it is NASTY

This cold front is no joke, people. For the first time in 17 years, Minnesota called off school Monday for the entire state. "A person not properly dressed could die easily in those conditions," warned National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett in St. Louis, describing the expected wind chill in Missouri tomorrow morning. The National Weather Service has described the wind chill as "life-threatening."

New Penan blockade against oil palm plantation

More Than 300 Sharks In Australia Are Now On Twitter

Government researchers have that monitor where the animals are. When a tagged shark is about half a mile away from a beach, it triggers a computer alert, which tweets out a message on the . The tweet notes the shark's size, breed and approximate location.

The unstoppable rise of bikes

In five years, bicycling will be so common that it's boring, says author Elly Blue

2026 is the Year of Blockchains, Says IBM's CEO a Decade Ago?: "falling upwards"
Most Coders Used to be Women, Not Men (and Men Who Dropped Out of College Now Plunder Everything They Can): "Ethics For Hackers"
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Down But Not Out – Costa's Comeback: he managed to secure a top-level EU position in June 2024
IBM is "Making an Exit". Only the Executives Will Get Rich.: failure disguised as success
Microsoft's LinkedIn Called "Dying Platform" by One Who Worked There: The co-founder of LinkedIn has just stepped down too
GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) Layoffs Are Due to Surging Debt, or About 120 Billion Dollars Borrowed in One Year Alone: It's well above 150 billion dollars if one adds Oracle
After One Jeffrey Epstein Associate 'Leaves' Microsoft's Board Another Jeffrey Epstein Associate Steps Down, Workers Concerned About the Mass Layoffs: How many more loans can Microsoft receive? Those loans are becoming increasingly risky.
IBM Exploits Overambitious, Hungry Young Men to Help the "Great Quantum Hype Campaign" (Pumping the Stock Based on Deliberate Misinformation or Outright Disinformation): The boot-licking campaign is live...
What Will Likely Happen When the Slop Bubble Pops (and When It'll be Widely Accepted That It Popped): all the "most successful" slop companies are so deep in debt
The Register MS is Part of the Problem, It's Publishing "AI" SPAM Because it's Paid by Chinese Military-Connected Firms: Given that The Register MS is run by a Microsofter (since last summer), destruction seems inevitable
IBM's CEO Does Not Use GNU/Linux, So Why Did He Suggest Buying Red Hat Only to Lay Off Its Workers, Market Slop Instead of Linux, and Sack UNIX Professionals?: Shortly after IBM had bought Red Hat and there were mass layoffs we pointed out that Red Hat's CEO was not using GNU/Linux
If You're Not Focusing on Software Freedom, All You'll Get is Slopware and Buzzwords: If you're not focusing on attaining Software Freedom (and remember "Linux" is just a brand), then you're losing sight of the goals that actually matter
Red Hat/IBM: Microsoft is Our Partner of the Year: Red Hat is a really bad gravy
Gemini Links 05/06/2026: Enshittification of Institutes for Project Management, Codebases Contaminated With Slop, Personal Stories: Links for the day
Communicating With Freedom - Part II - Quibble Breathing New Life Into LibreJS: Notice how work on one thing led to thousands of lines of code added to a mostly dormant (but nevertheless important) project
Slop Has no ROI, an Economy Built on False Assumptions of Slop is Doomed: we're all going to suffer from this Ponzi scheme
Links 05/06/2026: More GAFAM Layoffs, Google Faces Regulatory Crackdown in UK Over Plagiarism in "AI" Clothing: Links for the day
Rumour That Layoffs at Microsoft Will Kick Off on July 1st, 2026 (Impacting 10,000 or More Workers): this is what the rumour mill or the word through the grapevine is
Mission:Libre, Which Teaches Young People Free Software Ideals, Needs Financial Backing: plea for assistance with Mission:Libre
The Slop Ponzi Scheme is a Problem and Threat to All of Us (Even Those Who Don't Invest in or Use Slop at All): This problem is systemic, not contained
"Blind Justice" Examines the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Turning a Blind Eye to Abuse by British Solicitors: We have some jaw-dropping examples of how the SRA does not do actual regulation - to the point where its staff does not actual work and does not look into any evidence at all!
7 Days From Now the FSF's Founder Gives a Talk in Bern, the FSF Has Just Advertised This: Meanwhile the FSF (or GNU) processes and uploads many recent talks by RMS
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 04, 2026: IRC logs for Thursday, June 04, 2026
Links 04/06/2026: Self-hosting Remotely and GemText Emphasis: Links for the day
Links 04/06/2026: Ukraine’s Daily Moment of Silence and Uber Lays off 23% of HR: Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 98 Out of 200: Microsoft Threatening Real Security Researcher With Criminal Investigation for Talking About Microsoft's Bug Doors/Back Doors: The crime should be the back doors (deliberate attack on every user's data protection), not talking about those back doors
Microsoft Would Get Away Even With Pedophilia: "Microsoft should never be above the law"
Journalists Should be Ashamed for Parroting False Claims From IBM Management About "Quantum Computing", Say IBM Insiders Who Work on "Quantum Computing": IBM is a buzzwords vendor. International Buzzwords Machines.
Free Software is Nourishment to Software Users, Unlike Proprietary Software: Quit treating "mere users" of software "like animals"
The "Peanut Gallery" of GAFAM Has Infiltrated Free Software Projects or Disrupts Free Software Communities: They contribute nearly nothing and do substantial damage; they're freeloaders who attack the most productive members of projects
Coding is Not a Quantity Game (It Never Was!): "less is more"
Exposing Corruption Using a Highly Resilient Platform: Growing levels of trust, based on our track record, help us attract whistleblowers
Mass Layoffs Expected at Microsoft in July 2026: They're preparing more "lists" of people
Reflection on EPO Leadership That Harbours Cocaine, IBM Leadership That Pumps-and-Dumps the Shares, and More: ManCity replaced Manuel Pellegrini with a more famous manager it didn't envision winning 20 titles in 10 years (it could only hope) [...] Team-building is something that "Pep" seemed to be good at, as was Jürgen Klopp
Pump and Dump by IBM Insider Traders: Nickle LaMoreaux, Gary Cohn, James Kavanaugh, Arvind Krishna, Robert Thomas, and Others: the shares are already collapsing
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) Has Weakened If Not Ruined What's Left of Big Media: Many things that have existed for decades are now being rebranded as "AI"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 97 Out of 200: Garrett in Hiding (From the Simple Observable Fact He's Closely Connected to the Microsofter Who Strangles Women, Tells Women to Kill Themselves, and Worse): They use one another; they are coordinating this via the SLAPP industry in another continent
Links 04/06/2026: Microsoft Threatening Security Researcher for Naming Back Doors in BitLocker, "Demand is Booming for" Old Tech: Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2026: "Word Vomit", Slop", and Moving to Gopher/Gemini: Links for the day
Rust Outsources its Financing (or Financial Control) to Microsoft: How long before the third "E"?
"Format Sovereignty" Can Only be Accomplished With LaTeX or OpenDocument Format (ODF) or Vendor-Neutral Standards for Editable Documents: Microsoft is, in effect, above the law
IBM's Shares Fell Nearly 13% in One Day (Including After Hours): its main product is false promises
The Cyber Show on the Importance of Software Freedom and Why GNU/Linux Could Not be Stopped: an excellent article
Drew DeVault Can Still Redeem His Reputation. Revisiting His Attacks (and Attack Site) on Richard Stallman Might be a Good Start.: DeVault has openly apologised (this past spring)
The Register MS is Publishing Paid SPAM; Some of It is Designed to Prop Up the "AI" Pyramid Scheme: The Register MS participates in scams
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: "Operation Influencer": Costa's political career was far from finished
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 03, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, June 03, 2026
GNU/Linux Usage Rising Among Gamers, But "Hardware Survey Data Not Available.": Not anymore, not for now anyway
Jumping Up and Down on the Shoulders of Giants, Never Talking About What Bill Gates Did: We're back to 2019
Despite LLM Slop or Chatbots, Our Traffic Has Doubled Since We Moved Everything to the UK (in 2023): The demise of news sites was not what we thought it would be
Software Developers Attacked by Plagiarism Engines Because These Developers Can Teach People How to Exercise Control, Not Outsource to Monopolies of Slop and Back Doors: "Universities should be telling industry what is to be done next, not the other way about. Present education policy has the tail wagging the dog."
Quantum Quantum Quantum Quantum (Pump, Then Dump): What has IBM become?
Communicating With Freedom - Part I - Developing “Quibble” and Improving GNU LibreJS in the Process: In the next part we shall examine where things currently stand
Quantum Computers Are "All the Rage" (35 Years Ago, What IBM Promises This Year is What People Promised When the CEO Was in His 20s): "Quantum" hype is high on the agenda
How IBM Removes 15% of Its Staff Without Even Checking Performance of Staff (or Calling That "Layoffs"): Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) as veiled RAs
Links 03/06/2026: Mobile Systems, Openwashing, and New Antenna: Links for the day
Canonical as Reseller of Back Doors in "Ubuntu" Clothing: Microsoft is the antithesis of security and autonomy
Romania Used to be Windows Stronghold, But That's No Longer the Case: Windows was once upon a time so ubiquitous that institutions didn't bother supporting anything except it
KDE Has Long Used Dragons, and Dragons Come From Hatched Eggs: That Microsoft Lunduke tries to paint this as some "trans agenda" thing says a lot about Microsoft Lunduke and his COVID-19-damaged brain
IBM Announces 5 Billion Dollars "Invested" in "AI", in "Security", and 10 Billion Dollars for "Quantum", But IBM Does Not Have This Kind of Money (It's Fake News to Manipulate the Share Price): IBM has fast-growing debt and liabilities, it does not intend to invest this kind of money, it's a smokescreen and false promises timed to alleviate the sagging share price (52-week low)
When Science and Religion Are on the Same Side, United Against Slop Pushers: The "Mathematics Pope" (sometimes known as "Pope Pi") brought together science and religion, united against technofascists who are mostly college drop-outs who abhor women
Links 03/06/2026: "In Turkey, Criticizing a Corporation Can Land You in Jail" and "Court Bans X Account of Turkey's Oldest Newspaper": Links for the day
Web Censorship Benefits the Corrupt and the Criminal: More so when corrupt politicians are in charge
Have a "Lifetime" Without Microsoft: The online rage over this is still ongoing
Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine Undoing Censorship of Corporate Wrongdoing: That won't go away anymore
"For Entertainment Purposes Only" But Everyone Must Adopt It for Work and Governance, Say Anti-Scientific Technocrats: "The present mentality around "AI" is like driving to the gym to use a treadmill - it's walking for people who hate fresh air and beautiful changing scenery."
Gemini Links 03/06/2026: Ian Murdock's Ex-wife Footprint in Debian and Alhena 5.6.1 Released: Links for the day
Irish Company statCounter Recognises It Overestimated Microsoft Windows' Market Share in Ireland: it seems like the Irish people are gradually moving away from Windows
Corporate Media Participates in the Lie That Mass Layoffs at GitLab and Loss of Geographic Footprint in More Than a Third of Countries is "AI" and Thus "Success Story": There's no way to spin this as positive news
Slop Prompting is Not a Coding Skill and Slop Deserves Shunning: Red Hat is hypocritically shunning the very same thing it keeps promoting
IBM colleagues "handed out a PIP and then right after the end date they are gone": Some go into early 'retirement' to save face
SLAPP Censorship - Part 96 Out of 200: When You Receive Death Threats From Anonymous Sockpuppets/Burner Accounts Connected to People Who Strangle Women and Tell Women to Kill Themselves: Women are not objects and my wife ought not be mentioned in "threats to kill" (how cops have described this)
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Tale of Two Antónios - Introducing the Other António: António Costa
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 02, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, June 02, 2026

Energy/Climate Watch: January 2014

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