“I still don’t understand why industry should be allowed to hide problems when public safety is at stake,” said Carla Greathouse, the author of the E.P.A. report that documents a case of drinking water contamination from fracking. “If it’s so safe, let the public review all the cases.”
via Tainted Water Well Challenges Claim of Fracking’s Safety – NYTimes.com.
It’s not going to look pretty when millions upn millions of gallons or crude start spilling out over the ice and snow. And it will happen, you know it will.
Opponents say the harsh conditions there heighten the dangers of drilling and make cleaning up any potential spill vastly more complicated than in the comparatively benign waters of the gulf.
Administration officials cautioned that the company must win a number of additional permits before it can begin punching holes in the seabed. The plan approved on Thursday contains detailed information on how the company would respond to any blowout and spill.
“We base our decisions regarding energy exploration and development in the Arctic on the best scientific information available,” said Michael R. Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which oversees offshore drilling. “We will closely review and monitor Shell’s proposed activities to ensure that any activities that take place under this plan will be conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.”
via Shell Gets Tentative Approval to Drill in Arctic – NYTimes.com.
Your book makes a very provocative argument about mental illness. How would you summarize it?
The essential argument of the book is that our greatest leaders often have mental illnesses, and often many of our worst leaders were mentally healthy. Certain leadership qualities are enhanced by mental illness — realism, creativity, resilience and empathy — and that’s why these leaders were great.
via Why we need more mentally ill leaders – History – Salon.com.
Let’s not forget, the Fukuskima reactors are still leaking radiation into the environment.
TOKYO — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said Monday that it measured the highest radiation levels within the plant since it was crippled by a devastating earthquake. …
The operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said that workers on Monday afternoon had found an area near Reactors No. 1 and 2, where radiation levels exceeded their measuring device’s maximum reading of 10 sieverts per hour — a fatal dose for humans.
Next year, maybe, they’ll be able to shut it down:
The plant has continued to spew radiation since the disaster, though levels have been dropping. The operator is working to install a new makeshift cooling system by early next year that will allow it to finally shut down the plant’s three damaged reactors.
That effort includes removing thousands of tons of highly contaminated water from the reactor buildings. On Monday, Tokyo Electric also said it will begin constructing a new wall that will extend some 60 feet underground to prevent radioactive groundwater from seeping into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
via Fatal Radiation Level Found at Fukushima Daiichi Plant – NYTimes.com.
RESOLVED: The Toyota Prius IS NOT a resilient car
The Toyota Prius, and electric cars in general, are NOT resilient.
Some major reasons why:
1. Global manufacture. Exotic materials.
2. Replacement and repair. Cost is high and it requires complex methods/parts.
3. Conditional: If electricity isn’t produced locally, there is a dependence on a remote power source.
via RESOLVED: The Toyota Prius IS NOT a resilient car – Global Guerrillas.
Now Japanese agricultural officials say meat from more than 500 cattle that were likely to have been contaminated with radioactive cesium has made its way to supermarkets and restaurants across Japan in recent weeks. Officials say the cattle ate hay that had been stored outside and exposed to radiation.
via Radiation-Tainted Beef Spreads Through Japan’s Markets – NYTimes.com.
Renewable energy production has surpassed nuclear energy production in the U.S. according to the latest issue of Monthly Energy Review published by the Energy Information Administration. Production of alternative energy is also beginning to close in on domestic oil production.
During the first three months of 2011, energy produced from renewable energy sources (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, hydro, wind) generated 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy equating to 11.73 percent of U.S. energy production. During this same time period, renewable energy production surpassed nuclear energy power by 5.65 percent. In total, energy produced from renewables is 77.15 percent of that from domestic crude oil production.
via Renewable Energy Production Surpasses Nuclear – Domestic Fuel.
German lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved plans to shut nuclear plants by 2022. The lower house of Parliament voted 513-79 for the plan drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.
WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers called Tuesday on several agencies, including the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the Energy Information Administration and the Government Accountability Office, to investigate whether the natural gas industry has provided an accurate picture to investors of the long-term profitability of their wells and the amount of gas these wells can produce.
via Lawmakers Seek Inquiry of Natural Gas Industry – NYTimes.com.
Think of us today as embarking on a new Thirty Years’ War. It may not result in as much bloodshed as that of the 1600s, though bloodshed there will be, but it will prove no less momentous for the future of the planet. Over the coming decades, we will be embroiled at a global level in a succeed-or-perish contest among the major forms of energy, the corporations which supply them and the countries that run on them. The question will be: Which will dominate the world’s energy supply in the second half of the twenty-first century?
How will things shake out? We don’t know. But:
Were I to wager a guess, I might place my bet on energy systems that were decentralized, easy to make and install and required relatively modest levels of up-front investment. For an analogy, think of the laptop computer of 2011 versus the giant mainframes of the 1960s and 1970s. The closer that an energy supplier gets to the laptop model (or so I suspect), the more success will follow.
via Winners and Losers in the Great Global Energy Struggle to Come | The Nation.
Truth and Traditions 