The environment thread

[NorthSideSox72]

Its really too bad that will all this sudden progress Congress is making in the lame duck session, we couldn't have also gotten a decent energy bill passed. Because once the GOP takes control, we will see nothing of the sort.

 

[Balta1701]

This is how you market to me.

Boom from the BP oil spill is getting a new charge from the maker of the Chevrolet Volt electric car.

 

General Motors says that instead of going to landfills, roughly 100 miles of plastic boom material will be converted into vehicle parts.

 

The parts deflect air around the vehicle's radiator.

[Balta1701]

I have no idea if he's right...but this has to be shared just for the way this analyist phrased it.

I’m flabbergasted by the number of national television ads designed explicitly to coax consumers to purchase a car, or perhaps a truck, for that special someone this Christmas. My parents couldn’t afford the purchase of a new car when my siblings and I reached driving age. Even if an on-the-rebound Scarlett Johansson decided to stalk me in my middle age, she would have to supply the transportation.

 

Nevertheless, the gift of a gasoline driven vehicle seems to be in vogue this holiday season, so I’ll offer this advice. Stay away from those gas-guzzling SUVs. My view of 2011 suggests that we are looking at the second fuel price apocalypse of the 21st century, commencing during a time line that will begin with spring training and end when the Cubs are written off as a baseball non-contender.

[Rex Kickass]

I have no idea if he's right...but this has to be shared just for the way this analyist phrased it.

So two weeks?

[bigklita]

Obama to Restore Wilderness Rules to Public Lands

[StrangeSox]

Obama and Co. decided "oh wait maybe we shouldn't crap all over our base that got us elected in 2008" in the last couple of weeks, apparently.

[NorthSideSox72]

Obama to Restore Wilderness Rules to Public Lands

 

 

Obama and Co. decided "oh wait maybe we shouldn't crap all over our base that got us elected in 2008" in the last couple of weeks, apparently.

 

f*** yeah - millions of acres of land that have already been presented to have no mineral or gas/oil value have been sitting waiting for designation for no reason other than politics. Good to see ObamaCo remember their promise to better protect wilderness.

 

This issue is one that matters a lot to me, its one my hot button topics. This is the right move. These WSA's and other proposed wild lands were already vetted for this purpose, and they need to move forward.

 

[Balta1701]

God, I don't even work directly on climate science, but just as a person teaching a class this semester, this intimidates the Hell out of me. Congrats, Congressman, your threats are already working.

With the House GOP full of climate-change skeptics, Hall's committee is likely to investigate the scientific studies that say man-made activities are to blame for global warming. Environmental groups say that debate is settled. Nonetheless, Hall said he plans to appoint an aggressive legislator, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, to chair the subcommittee that investigates scientific activities.

 

Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., can be expected to hold hearings that question "uncertainties" in climate-change science that impact public policy, said John Mimikakis, a former deputy chief of staff for the science committee. Sensenbrenner recently referred to the scientific consensus on global warming as a "massive international scientific fraud."

 

"I'm interested in the truth on that," Hall said. "There are a lot of people who believe that a lot of decisions were made on the false statements of others.

 

"I'll try to find out who those others are, and ask them to come before the committee," he said. "And if they don't come before the committee, well, we might subpoena them."

[mr_genius]

God, I don't even work directly on climate science, but just as a person teaching a class this semester, this intimidates the Hell out of me. Congrats, Congressman, your threats are already working.

 

ur data is gettin audited brah

[Balta1701]

ur data is gettin audited brah

In all seriousness, if someone wanted to audit my actual data, I'd say "Bring em on" because even if I've made a mistake or two, I know those sheets like the back of my hand.

 

But the idea that I might teach something and then get in long-term trouble because a Congressman disagrees with it and I'm not Tenured, that's kinda scary.

[kapkomet]

In all seriousness, if someone wanted to audit my actual data, I'd say "Bring em on" because even if I've made a mistake or two, I know those sheets like the back of my hand.

 

But the idea that I might teach something and then get in long-term trouble because a Congressman disagrees with it and I'm not Tenured, that's kinda scary.

 

 

Wow, welcome to the real world. Happens all the time on your side, but that's okay, right?

[Balta1701]

Wow, welcome to the real world. Happens all the time on your side, but that's okay, right?

Not quite sure what you're taking a shot at here.

[Balta1701]

A New Orleans law firm is challenging government assurances that Gulf Coast seafood is safe to eat in the wake of the BP oil spill, saying it poses “a significant danger to public health.”

 

It’s a high-stakes tug-of-war that will almost certainly end up in the courts, with two armies of scientists arguing over technical findings that could have real-world impact for seafood consumers and producers.

 

Citing what the law firm calls a state-of-the-art laboratory analysis, toxicologists, chemists and marine biologists retained by the firm of environmental attorney Stuart Smith contend that the government seafood testing program, which has focused on ensuring the seafood was free of the cancer-causing components of crude oil, has overlooked other harmful elements. And they say that their own testing — examining fewer samples but more comprehensively — shows high levels of hydrocarbons from the BP spill that are associated with liver damage.

 

“What we have found is that FDA simply overlooked an important aspect of safety in their protocol,” contends William Sawyer, a Florida-based toxicologist on Smith’s team. “We now have a sufficient number of samples to provide FDA with probable cause to include such testing, really. They need to go back and test some of their archived samples as well.”

Link

[iamshack]

Link

My guess is they could probably find scientific evidence that almost anything in our food supply could be unsafe to eat. Not that this isn't a legitimate concern, but I just sort of don't even want to know the laundry list of things they will come up with.

[BigSqwert]

I got my first issue of The Atlantic that I recently subscribed to. This piece on coal was an excellent read.

[Balta1701]

An area the size of Texas is under water in Australia.

[NorthSideSox72]

An area the size of Texas is under water in Australia.

Those pics at the bottom of that river in New Zealand are amazing.

 

[BigSqwert]

Does anyone know if shower scrunchies contain BPA?

 

I tried googling to no avail.

[NorthSideSox72]

Does anyone know if shower scrunchies contain BPA?

 

I tried googling to no avail.

What the hell is a shower scrunchie?

 

[BigSqwert]

[Balta1701]

One of the other "Car of the year" awards, the North American Car of the year, was named today at the Detroit Auto show. Need I even bother identifying the car?

[Balta1701]

There has been another shutdown of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline due to a reasonably large leak.

If you recall previous leaks from this pipeline, you may also recall which company is primarily responsible for the maintenance.

 

This leak has temporarily shut down production in the area, removing several hundred thousand barrels of daily production and causing an oil price spike on trading markets.

[BigSqwert]

Not too much on this one yet, but take it as an example of one of the no-longer theoretical problems of carbon capture and storage: Canada's CTV News is reporting that a CCS project in Saskatchewan is leaking, killing animals and "sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop."

 

Tests commissioned by farmers Cameron and Jane Kerr, whose land sits atop the project, have found high concentrations of CO2 in the soil that "matches the carbon dioxide Cenovus has been injecting." The energy company has been injecting 8,000 metric tons of CO2 a day into underground storage.

 

via

[NorthSideSox72]

via

Carbon capture isn't a real solution. Its another way for people to avoid taking responsibility for their consumption, and living in denial. The only real solutions involve using less (energy and everything else), protecting wild lands, and providing energy from renewable sources.

 

[Balta1701]

Carbon capture isn't a real solution. Its another way for people to avoid taking responsibility for their consumption, and living in denial. The only real solutions involve using less (energy and everything else), protecting wild lands, and providing energy from renewable sources.

Actually, it could very well be a real solution, even within a decade...the chemistry and physics actually work to make it practical, but we're not there yet, and we have to be quite careful about how it's done (for reasons like those BS outlined).

 

In most cases though, it's basically used as greenwashing; an effort to say that the politicians are doing something when they're really not.