Showing posts with label environmental disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environmental disaster. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

If U.S. Fracks Gas For Europe, How Much Sooner Will We Poison Our Water Supply ?

The foolish drive to export liquefied natural gas to Europe overlooks the environmental hazards to the United States

Congressional pressure is building on the Obama administration to "quicken gas exports to Europe," The New York Times is reporting, in order to reduce the continent's dependence on dirty fossil fuels from Russia. Instead, U.S. oil companies want Europe to increase their dependence on dirty fossil fuels from the U.S.

For the U.S. to ship its gas to Europe won't solve the fossil fuel dependency problem in any permanent sense, but it will hasten the day when the U.S. poisons its groundwater supply as a result of fracking and may foreseeably force the U.S. to, as a consequence, import clean drinking water from Europe, if European nations are willing to sell it that precious commodity to us in the future.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The New York Times was unclear which galaxy contains billions of potentially habitable planets

Galaxy contains billions of potentially habitable planets, say Berkeley, Hawaii astronomers

"Astronomers reported that there could be as many as 40 billion habitable Earth-size planets in the galaxy, based on a new analysis of data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft," The New York Times is reporting, adding, "One out of every five sunlike stars in the galaxy has a planet the size of Earth circling it in the Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold — where surface temperatures should be compatible with liquid water, according to a herculean three-year calculation based on data from the Kepler spacecraft by Erik Petigura, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley."

Three other weird things about The New York Times article is that it kept referring to "galaxy," when I think that they really mean "universe." Each time they refer to "galaxy," I could not figure out which "galaxy" within the "universe" they meant. Did anybody figure out which "galaxy" the reporter meant ?

Also, it is not explained why the scientific study cited in the article required that the habitable planets being search had to be approximately the size of our planet, earth ? Wouldn't it not matter what size a planet was, so long as the planet had water, breathable air, sufficient atmospheric pressure, and gravity to make life possible ?

What kind of "life" were astronomers thinking that they would find : life that would identically resemble human life ?

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Protest Last Night Against Cuomo's Plan To Frack In New York State

From New York Newsday :

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 07: Anti-Fracking protesters demonstrate in front of the Waldorf-Astoria as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo visits the hotel for a function on January 7, 2013 in New York City. Fracking, a process that injects millions of gallons of chemical mixed water into a well in order to release gas, has become a contentious issue in New York as critics of the process believe it contaminates drinking water among other hazards. New York City gets much of its drinking water from upstate reservoirs. If the regulations are approved by Governor Cuomo, drilling in the upstate New York Marcellus Shale could later this year.