Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
An Air of Fear About Mine Operations
Eighty-four-year-old Letha Webster’s voice briefly cracks when she talks about leaving the town she and her husband have called home for 56 years. But when a mining company offered twice its assessed value, she couldn’t say no.
Ban Fracking; Put Our Funds to Renewables
We need to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York. The recently released Revised Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement is inadequate.
Scientist Concerned by Water Demand for Fracking
A scientist who has just returned from the United States where he observed fracking operations said he is concerned about the huge amounts of water needed for such operations.
NJ Enviros to Christie: Sign Fracking Ban
New Jersey environmental groups are urging Gov. Chris Christie to sign a bill prohibiting the use of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to explore natural gas drilling in the state’s Utica Shale.
Gas Drilling Bringing Jobs to Pennsylvania, but How Many?
The Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, which gets funding from foundations and labor unions, says the use of “new hires” is misleading because it includes people who fill vacated jobs, and not just newly created ones. “The impact has definitely been overstated,” said Stephen Herzenberg, an economist at the center. “At least so far, the Marcellus isn’t the answer to Pennsylvania’s job shortage.”
BP OIL SPILL:
Tracking Oil Spills & Preventing Future Disasters
It was a little over a year ago that BP’s deepwater horizon oil rig exploded, sending millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in U.S history. From oil-covered birds to the spreading oil slick on the water, it was an environmental disaster like we’ve never seen before. Now, scientists and mathematicians have developed a new predictive tool that could track the spread of oil spills even before they happen.
Rough Seas Could Expose Tar Mats Along Ala. Shore
The storm season could uncover more tar mats and oil globs along the Alabama shoreline.
RADIATION:
Highest Radioactivity Level Detected at Nuke Plant
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected 10,000 millisieverts of radioactivity per hour at the plant. The level is the highest detected there since the nuclear accident in March.
Fukushima Radiation Reaches Lethal Levels
Pockets of lethal levels of radiation have been detected at Japan‘s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in a fresh reminder of the risks faced by workers battling to contain the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
