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How a Famous ‘NYT’ Reporter Led the Media Cover-Up of Radiation Dangers | The Nation

8 Sep

But Laurence was keeping a lot to himself. Embedded with the Manhattan Project for months, he was the only reporter who knew about the fallout scare surrounding the Trinity test: scientists in jeeps chasing a radioactive cloud, Geiger counters clicking off the scale, a mule that became paralyzed. Here was the nation’s leading science reporter, severely compromised, not only unable but disinclined to reveal all he knew about the potential hazards of the most important scientific discovery of his time.

This happened half a century ago. But it surely does make you wonder: What’s The New York Times, the so-called paper of record, sitting on now?

via How a Famous ‘NYT’ Reporter Led the Media Cover-Up of Radiation Dangers | The Nation.

Shareable: Equal Energy For All: Can We Democratize the Grid?

5 Sep

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) recently published an e-book (PDF) advocating complete democratization of the electric grid by abandoning a system that is dominated by large, centralized utilities for a 21st century grid made of independently-owned and widely-dispersed renewable energy generators

A democratized system for creating and distributing electric power ensures that the economic benefits of electricity generation are as widely dispersed as the ownership.

via Shareable: Equal Energy For All: Can We Democratize the Grid?.

Green Energy Use in Germany Passes 20 Percent of Total Power Mix

2 Sep

During the first half of 2011, Germany for the first time generated more than 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, a new report says.

via : Green Energy Use in Germany Passes 20 Percent of Total Power Mix.

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New York Denies Indian Point Plant a Water Permit – NYTimes.com

31 Aug

The battle is joined. It’s New York State vs. the Federal Government.

… the strongly worded letter from the Department of Environmental Conservation, issued late Friday, said flatly that Indian Point’s cooling systems, even if modified in a less expensive way proposed by Entergy, “do not and will not comply” with New York’s water quality standards.

It said the power plant’s water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year, including the shortnose sturgeon, an endangered species. The letter also said that radioactive material had polluted the Hudson after leaking into the groundwater.

via New York Denies Indian Point Plant a Water Permit – NYTimes.com.

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How Resilient is the Internet?

28 Aug

I live in Jersey City, NJ, not too far from the waterfront (Hudson River / New York harbor). I’ve been glued to the internet getting up dated information about Irene.

Now, one of the power generating stations in JC has been flooded. They’re closing down for emergency repairs. But I’ve still got power. But if my power goes out . . .

No internet for me.

It’s clear to me that the internet needs to be entirely off the main power grid. I don’t know what that means, technically. If I had a small solar generator & bettery back-up sufficient for my lap-top, that would get my machine off the grid. But, is there wifi in my area? I don’t know, but probably should. If so, is it independent of the main power grid? Don’t know.

But what I do know is that the whole thing, ends-to-ends, needs to be OFF THE GRID.

I’d like to think that the Defense Department has made their communications independent of the main power grid. If anyone has the means and the motive, they do. But we ALL need to be independent of that grid.

Does America Need Manufacturing? – NYTimes.com

27 Aug

If America wants to stay competitive in the world of green energy technologies, it will have to invest in local facilities for manufacturing those technologies. They are not so easy to off-shore as software and services.

“Now I think we’re at a really different moment,” Berger says. “We’re seeing a wave of new technologies, in energy, biotechnology, batteries, where there has to be a closer integration between research, development, design, product definition and production.”

One challenge to moving in this direction may be that our banks, hedge funds and venture capitalists are geared toward investing in financial instruments and software companies. In such endeavors, even modest investments can yield extraordinarily quick and large returns. Financing brick-and-mortar factories, by contrast, is expensive and painstaking and offers far less potential for speedy returns. Berger maintains that for the economy to get “full value” from our laboratories’ ideas in energy or biotech — not just new company headquarters but industrial jobs too — we must aspire to a different business model than the one we have come to admire.

via Does America Need Manufacturing? – NYTimes.com.

U.S. Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate Of Shale Gas – NYTimes.com

25 Aug

Natural gas resource estimates like those produced by the federal Geological Survey and the Energy Information Administration have been criticized by market analysts and energy experts because they often give an overly optimistic and simplistic view of how useful natural gas will be as a source of fuel that can replace oil and coal. Resource estimates often include gas in pockets that are so small or so deep that it may never be drilled or produced at any price. The gas may also be in areas that are off limits or impractical to drill.

via U.S. Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate Of Shale Gas – NYTimes.com.

East Coast Earthquake Knocks Power Out At Virginia Nuke Plant, Others On Alert

23 Aug

Fukushima, it CAN happen here.

Now, multiple news outlets are reporting possible incidents at nuclear power plants across the east coast following the surprising earthquake this afternoon.

via East Coast Earthquake Knocks Power Out At Virginia Nuke Plant, Others On Alert | ThinkProgress.

Hydraulic Fracturing, Debated – Frack no!

23 Aug

The townspeople of Andes, New York, said “Frack, no!”

As different as they were, the message was the same and it was eloquently proclaimed: “What we have here is unique and beautiful.” “We have to take action to keep the town we love.” “We must take our destiny into our own hands.” “Andes could become the model for the country.” One of the speakers was a local and a folksinger. She made up a song on the spot and taught it to everyone. The refrain was “If we work together / Then we can make it better.”

via Hydraulic Fracturing, Debated – NYTimes.com.

Tar Sands and the Carbon Numbers – NYTimes Opposes Keystone Pipeline

22 Aug

This page opposes the building of a 1,700-mile pipeline called the Keystone XL, which would carry diluted bitumen — an acidic crude oil — from Canada’s Alberta tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast. We have two main concerns: the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does.

via Tar Sands and the Carbon Numbers – NYTimes.com.

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