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Climate Progress: Energy and Global Warming News for May 12: Australian region loses 95% of rice harvest to drought, floods
TreeHugger: Removing Mountaintops to Get Coal is Bad, But Dumping Fill in the Valleys Is Even Worse
Worldchanging: Bright Green: U.S. Vows Tighter Controls Over Mountaintop Mining In Appalachia
Energy and Global Warming News for May 12: Australian region loses 95% of rice harvest to drought, floods
Climate Progress —
... energy sector by 2020, an official with the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.
The administration is drafting a stimulus plan for the industry that will noticeably raise the development targets for wind and solar power, Liang Zhipeng, an official with the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department under the administration, told an industry conference.
The Razing of Appalachia: Mountaintop Removal Revisited
Over ...
Removing Mountaintops to Get Coal is Bad, But Dumping Fill in the Valleys Is Even Worse
TreeHugger —
Each spring, the rain that falls on Appalachian mountainsides gathers into thin rivulets, mixing with spring water and groundwater. These streams, often no more than a foot wide, teem with microscopic, insect and animal life that is the foundation of the forest and river food chains and biodiversity. Plug up those intermittent and ephemeral streams with mining debris, and the ecological fallout extends far beyond the edge of the valley fill, into the surrounding forest and the larger perennial streams and rivers down the mountain. A valley fill, for instance, profoundly alters forest hydrology. When the rainwater hits a valley fill instead ...
U.S. Vows Tighter Controls Over Mountaintop Mining In Appalachia
Worldchanging: Bright Green —
... the coal below. Administration officials vowed to take several steps to limit environmental damage from mountaintop removal, including ending fast-track permitting of projects, closing loopholes that allow coal companies to dump waste rock into streams, and reasserting federal oversight over lax state reviews. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study estimated that by 2012, mountaintop removal projects will have destroyed or seriously damaged an area larger than Delaware and buried more than 1,000 miles of mountain streams in mining debris. The White House said that the ...
A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining
Yale Environment 360 —
22 Jun 2009: Opinion A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining Tighter restrictions on mountaintop removal mining are simply not enough. Instead, a leading climate scientist argues, the Obama administration must prohibit this destructive practice, which is devastating vast stretches of Appalachia. by james hansen President Obama speaks of “a planet in peril.” The president and the brilliant people he appointed in energy and science know that we must move rapidly to carbon-free energy to avoid handing our children a planet that has passed climate tipping points. The science is clear. Burning all fossil fuels will destroy the ...
Hansen: End Mountaintop Coal Mining
FUTURISM NOW —
On Tuesday there were some famous arrests during a protest and civil disobedience action at Coal River Valley, West Virginia. There is a great account of it here complete with several videos. People arrested included the well-known climate scientist James Hansen himself. (on the left).
“I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen,” said Dr. James Hansen. “Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically ...
A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining by James Hansen
Worldchanging: Bright Green —
by James Hansen Tighter restrictions on mountaintop removal mining are simply not enough. Instead, a leading climate scientist argues, the Obama administration must prohibit this destructive practice, which is devastating vast stretches of Appalachia. President Obama speaks of “a planet in peril.” The president and the brilliant people he appointed in energy and science know that we must move rapidly to carbon-free energy to avoid handing our children a planet that has passed climate tipping points. The science is clear. Burning all fossil fuels will destroy the future of young people and the unborn. And the fossil fuel that we must stop ...
