Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, June 15, 2014

By illconsidered on June 16, 2014.

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

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Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

June 15, 2014

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The things people consider funny nowadays:

This week in snark:

 

The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

There is wrangling over the NEB trying to restrict the Kinder Morgan expansion hearings:

TransCanada is proposing the Merrick Mainline Pipeline Project to feed a Kitimat LNG plant:

What's the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?

Meanwhile in BC:

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

Also in Alberta:

In Ontario, Liberal leader, Kathleen Wynne, was re-elected:

In the Maritimes:

    • 2014/06/10: CBC: Provincial government, Statoil to spend $3.9 million on Arctic
      Statoil Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador will spend $3.9 million to help advance contentious oil and gas development in harsh environments, including the Arctic. Statoil said Tuesday it will spend $2.4 million on three new research projects, while Crown corporation Research and Development Corp. will spend $1.5 million.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

And on the American political front:

The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:

About that Mayflower, Arkansas dilbit spill from the Exxon Pegasus line:

The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

Unwitting self parody in Congress...

The Cantor upset:

Looking ahead to the 2014 & 2016 elections:

The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

As for what is going on in Congress:

The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:

IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:

Apocalypso anyone?

How do the corporate media measure up?

While activists search for effective communication techniques:

 

  • 2014/06/12: UKISS: global warming, climate change or something else? [eff comm]

    Here is something for your library:

    And for your film & video enjoyment:

    As for podcasts:

    Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

    It looks like these BP trials over the Gulf oil spill are going to take a long while:

      • 2014/06/13: BBerg: BP Investors' Trial Over Spill Losses Set for May 2015
        BP Plc investors claiming as much as $2.5 billion in market losses caused by company misrepresentations about the severity of the 2010 oil spill will make their case to a jury next May 18, a judge ruled today. The investors, led by the pension funds of New York and Ohio, claim the company inflated share prices by downplaying the size of the spill in the weeks after the blowout of BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. Only investors who held ADR shares in the U.S. are part of the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston first set the trial for October. He changed the date to avoid a conflict with a separate trial over as much as $18 billion in U.S. pollution fines BP faces in New Orleans federal court. That trial, set to begin Jan. 20, is the third phase of a multiyear trial to determine BP's liability for public and private damages from the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.
      • 2014/06/13: BBerg: Ex-BP Engineer Wins New Trial in Oil Spill Evidence Case
        A former BP Plc senior engineer found guilty last year of destroying evidence related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was granted a new trial based on his claim of juror misconduct. Kurt Mix was convicted by a federal jury in December of one of two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said Mix deleted from his mobile phone text messages and voice mails related to BP's effort to estimate the size of what turned out to be largest U.S. offshore oil spill.
      • 2014/06/09: BBC: BP loses bid to freeze Gulf of Mexico spill payouts
        The US Supreme Court has refused to allow BP to stop paying compensation claims while it awaits a review of its settlement with businesses over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

    Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

    What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

    What's changing in energy investments?

    Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!

    On the coal front:

    On the gas and oil front:

    Ships and boats and trains -- How to tranport the stuff?

    The answer my friend...

    Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

    The nuclear energy controversy continues:

    Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

    Nuclear fusion has been 'Just 20 years away' for the past 50 years:

    Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:

    More people are talking about the electrical grid:

    How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

    And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

    Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

    As for Energy Storage:

    What do we have in (weekly) lists?

    Anything in pithy (or piffling) quotes this week?

    The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

    Note: You may notice my denialist coverage flagging. I am finding it increasingly difficult to give any attention to these people.

    So why is nothing getting done?

    • 2014/06/08: NYT: Interests, Ideology And Climate
      There are three things we know about man-made global warming. First, the consequences will be terrible if we don't take quick action to limit carbon emissions. Second, in pure economic terms the required action shouldn't be hard to take: emission controls, done right, would probably slow economic growth, but not by much. Third, the politics of action are nonetheless very difficult. But why is it so hard to act? Is it the power of vested interests? I've been looking into that issue and have come to the somewhat surprising conclusion that it's not mainly about the vested interests. They do, of course, exist and play an important role; funding from fossil-fuel interests has played a crucial role in sustaining the illusion that climate science is less settled than it is. But the monetary stakes aren't nearly as big as you might think. What makes rational action on climate so hard is something else -- a toxic mix of ideology and anti-intellectualism.
    • 2014/06/08: EconView: Paul Krugman: Interests, Ideology And Climate

    As for climate miscellanea:

    And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

    Low Key Plug

     

    My first novel _Water_ was published in May 2007. An Introduction is available.
    My most recent novel _The Bottleneck Years_ is being serialized online atmy siteand on AFTIC at Table of Contents
    If you want further information, see A Gentle Introduction. If you want a copy, see The Deal.
    An overview of my writing is available here.

    A Simple Plea

    Webmasters, web coders and content providers have mercy on your low bandwidth brethren. Because I am on dial-up, I am a text surfer -- no images, no javascript and no flash. When you post a graphic, will you please use the alt text field ... and when you embed a youtube/vimeo/flash video, please add some minimal description. Thank you.

    <regards>

    -het

    P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

    I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.

    "It's the feedbacks, stupid." -Gwynne Dyer

    Last modified June 15, 2014

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