13 state AGs pen letter calling for end to climate change probe | Fuel Fix

Posted on June 17, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR.–These public employees have chosen to aid the oil companies in their efforts to deceive the public. This action demonstrates the power of money over truth. Dump ’em!

Texas Attorney General Kenneth Paxton, center, speaks to the media in Washington in April. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

James Osborne.–“A campaign by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to end the investigation into ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies over false statements on climate change is gaining support among other state law enforcement officials.

“Attorneys general from 13 states signed an open letter Wednesday, arguing that climate change is a public policy debate, not a criminal matter, and urging law enforcement officials in other states to “stop policing viewpoints.”

“We all understand the need for a healthy environment, but we represent a wide range of viewpoints regarding the extent to which man contributes to climate change and the costs and benefits of any proposed fix,” the letter reads. “Nevertheless, we agree on at least one thing—this is not a question for the courts.”

“Attorneys general from Alabama, Michigan, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and South Carolina signed the letter.” Continue reading: 13 state AGs pen letter calling for end to climate change probe | Fuel Fix

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Mark Ruffalo Urges President Obama to Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground in Gripping New Documentary | Alternet

Posted on June 16, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR.–Mark Ruffalo led the successful effort to ban fracking in New York, proving that celebrities can achieve change.

By Reynard Loki / AlterNet

June 16, 2016.–“I recently attended a film screening of “Dear President Obama, The Clean Energy Revolution Is Now,” a new documentary narrated by actor and activist Mark Ruffalo about the impact of hydraulic fracturing across the United States. Commonly referred to as “fracking,” it is a controversial drilling process to access oil and natural gas—primarily methane—trapped in underground shale deposits. While the fracking boom has created jobs and stimulated the economy, numerous studies have linked it to numerous environmental and health impacts.

“A direct appeal to the president to ban fracking, the film urges Obama (and all elected officials) to join the growing “anti-drilling” movement across the U.S. and accept the reality that the only reasonable energy policy is to leave the majority of fossil fuels in the ground, a position held by many leading scientists.” Continue reading: Mark Ruffalo Urges President Obama to Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground in Gripping New Documentary | Alternet

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Chile’s Salmon Industry Using Record Levels of Antibiotics to Combat Bacterial Outbreak

Posted on June 15, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR.–The first superbug resistant to all our antibiotics was reported last month. I haven’t heard if the thing has begun to spread. Just as pesticide resistant weeds and insects require steady increases in pesticide applications, so antibiotic resistance requires more and more investment in antibiotic research. Now, we are behind on antibiotic development.

The antibiotic issue is just one of the growing problems with the large factory farms needed to feed our growing population. As with the “leave it in the ground” call for fossil fuels, we need a “leave it in the pants” call for population control.

Lorraine Chow.–“The Chilean salmon industry’s rampant use of antibiotics is once again under the microscope after a new report revealed that salmon producers are using record levels of the drugs to treat stocks suffering from salmonid rickettsial septicemia (SRS).

“Following a Chile Appeals Court order, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) revealed that the country’s salmon producers used 557 tonnes of antibiotics in 2015, with consumption rate per tonne of salmon reaching its highest point in the last nine years at 660 grams per tonne. The previous high was 640 grams per tonne in 2007. Usage was as low as 310 grams per tonne in 2010, Undercurrent News noted. The newest figures were compiled from 46 companies that operate in both freshwater and sea water.

“SRS, or piscirickettsiosis, causes lesions, hemorrhaging and swollen kidneys and spleens in the salmon, and can ultimately lead to death. Chilean farmers have used ever-increasing amounts of antibiotics to try and keep their stocks healthy.

“However, concerns over drug-resistant superbugs are driving away American consumers and retailers who seek antibiotic-free products. Last year, Costco spurned the South American country’s farmed salmon, opting instead for farmed salmon from Norway, whose farmers use far less antibiotics.” Continue reading: Chile’s Salmon Industry Using Record Levels of Antibiotics to Combat Bacterial Outbreak

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U. S. Map | The Oil and Gas Threat Map

Posted on June 15, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: We already know that we must leave the oil and gas in the ground if our civilization is to survive global warming. Toxicity threats to humans and wildlife gives us another reason.

Interactive map shows the millions of homes, schools and hospitals threatened by oil & gas air pollution. Find out if you’re one. See why we need to cut methane pollution. Try the map: Map | The Oil & Gas Threat Map

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Climate Impacts From Farming Are Getting Worse | Climate Central

Posted on June 14, 2016 by GarryRogers

By John Upton.– “As signs emerge that the global energy sector is beginning to rein in what once had been unbridled levels of climate-changing pollution, new United Nations figures show pollution from farming is continuing to get worse.

“Greenhouse gases released from the growing of crops and livestock directly increased by a little more than 1 percent in 2014, compared with a year prior, the newly updated data shows.

“Burning fossil fuels for energy grew by about half that amount during the same period, research published in December showed, with further reductions anticipated for 2015. That’s seen as a key first step toward achieving the vast pollution reductions needed to start to stabilize the climate.

“Historically, it’s been the opposite — fossil fuel emissions have grown exponentially and agricultural emissions have grown linearly,” said Francesco Tubiello, a team leader in the statistics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which compiles the data.

“The new U.N. figures do not include greenhouse gas impacts from deforestation or other clearing of land to make space for farms, which are slowly being reduced overall.” Continue reading: Climate Impacts From Farming Are Getting Worse | Climate Central

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Record Drop in Coal Burning Raises Question — Is Peak Fossil Fuel Use Happening Now? RobertScribbler

Posted on June 9, 2016 by GarryRogers

Peak oil, gas, and coal.

It’s a possibility that many who believe the fossil fuel industry’s false dependency mantra look at with fear and trembling. Because, for years, that industry, through various public relations efforts, has perpetuated a myth that a loss of access to fossil fuels would ruin the modern global economy. That fossil fuels were so high-quality no other energy source could effectively replace them.

It’s a myth that, in many ways, competes with the threat of human-caused climate change for space in the public’s collective imagination. One that is not without a few valid supports. For the shifting of energy use away from one set of sources and on toward another set is a massive, disruptive undertaking even in the case where the new energy sources are superior to the old.

.. (This is what a real existential threat to global civilization looks like. From the 1880s to the six month cold season of 2015-2016, global temperatures warmed by 1.38 degrees Celsius. At the end of the last ice age, it took about 3,000 years for as much warming to occur as human fossil fuel burning has achieved over just the last 136 years. Dealing with what is a problem of geological scale ramping up with lightning speed will require a necessarily rapid reduction to zero fossil fuel burning over the coming decades. Recent swift curtailments of coal use provide some hope that such a reduction may be possible. But rates of fossil fuel use will have to peak soon and be cut even more swiftly to prevent a very rapidly intensifying global emergency. Image source: NASA GISS.)

Source: robertscribbler | Scribbling for environmental, social and economic justice

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How Austrailia’s Great Barrier Reef got polluted – from farms and fossil fuels to filthy propaganda | Graham Readfearn | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 8, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: This is the best discussion of the cause of coral death in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef I’ve seen–it’s people.

Coral bleaching at Loomis Reef, off Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Photograph: Essential Median

Graham Readfearn: In late November 2015, as corals across the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef started to bleach white, the game was finally up.

For years, Australians had been told the country’s jewel in the ocean’s crown was on the mend. Only months earlier the Coalition government had won a two-year fight to keep the reef off a United Nations list of world heritage sites in danger.

The stakes were high. International reputations and tourist dollars were at stake. The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and the trade minister, Andrew Robb, had even attacked Barack Obama, who feared for the reef’s future.

The reef was not in danger, Bishop insisted. The president was misinformed, claimed Robb.

Conservative commentators hanging around News Corp media have said the dangers to the reef were overblown.

The mining industry cast the views of environmentalists as green propaganda, ignoring how for the most part, conservationists were echoing the findings of the government’s own scientists.

Now, about half the corals bleached in the once pristine northern section are dead or dying. More– How the Great Barrier Reef got polluted – from farms and fossil fuels to filthy propaganda | Graham Readfearn | Environment | The Guardian

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Green Conservatives call for earlier UK coal power phase-out | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

Damian Carrington: The UK should close all its coal-fired power stations two years earlier than the government’s pledge of 2025, according to green Conservatives including former energy minister Lord Greg Barker.

The move would not cause the lights to go out, would cut both carbon emissions and air pollution and would boost cleaner energy projects, according to a report from Bright Blue, a thinktank of Tory modernisers.

The report also concludes that if the troubled Hinkley C nuclear plant is cancelled it could be replaced by renewable energy. Source: Green Conservatives call for earlier UK coal power phase-out | Environment | The Guardian

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Help Stop the Wildlife-Killer Bill in Congress 060616 – Defenders of Wildlife

Posted on June 6, 2016 by GarryRogers

It’s supposedly an energy bill, but the “North American Energy Infrastructure Act of 2016” contains a lethal dose of anti-wildlife amendments that will lead to dead wolves, dead bears and the destruction of many important wildlife protections.