Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Living with Fracking’s Fallout
My wife and I spend the summertime at a small farm in Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania, where our modest 18 acres (once many more) have been in her family since 1954. We in Hallstead, Pa., are smack-dab in the middle of hydraulic fracturing country, so the emerging fracking controversy in North Carolina is more than hypothetical to us.
NJ Senate Committee Approves Bill To Ban Fracking Wastewater
Today the state Senate Environment and Energy Committee unanimously approved a bill to protect New Jersey residents from fracking waste.
Speak Out On Fracking in Southern California
Angelenos, do you have concerns about fracking? If you don’t, you should.
Fracking Debate Moves Ahead Despite New Study Showing Smaller Gas Reserves
The N.C. General Assembly is well on its way to legalizing a controversial form of natural gas exploration in the state, despite new evidence that reserves might not be as plentiful as first thought.
BP OIL SPILL:
BP’s Subpoena of Emails Casts ‘Chill,’ Scientists Say
Two U.S. scientists who helped BP assess the scale of the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say the company’s subpoenaing of their private emails has the potential to cast a chill on the scientific process.
Photographing the Gulf of Mexico: Before and After the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
One way to cope with a catastrophe involving nature is to try to make sense of it. That’s what photographer Michel Varisco did. She lives and works in New Orleans, in my old neighborhood, and after Hurricane Katrina, she started looking at the engineered landscape, and the Mississippi River, “to learn about this river that I loved, that’s in my backyard practically, that’s this incredible epic thing,” she says. The result is an exhibit called “Shifting,” on view now at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and coming soon in book form.
More Poor Grades For America’s Ocean Policy
It’s no secret the world’s oceans are in peril. Oceans are warming and becoming increasingly acidic. Overfishing threatens global fish populations. Sea-level rise is poised to swamp major population centers. And pollution – from oil spills and nutrient runoff to plastic water bottles to tsunami debris – continues to plague even the most remote locations.
Study: Job Growth If BP Fines Used for Coast
A new study says thousands of jobs would be created along the Gulf Coast if money from BP oil spill penalties and other sources is dedicated to coastal restoration.
RADIATION:
Japan PM Says 2 Nuke Reactors Must be Restarted
Japan’s leader appealed to the nation Friday to accept that two nuclear reactors that remained shuttered after the Fukushima disaster must be restarted to protect the economy and people’s livelihoods.
