It was just yesterday that I was sharing with you the new scientific data that even exposure to what has been considered low doses of radiation can be harmful. In particular, I mentioned the long-standing — but not always well-understood — issue of so-called Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, or NORM. This is a radioactive by-product of the oil-production process; for years it...
If you care about the environment, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the award-winning anti-fracking documentary, Gasland. And if you did, you surely remember the alarming result of natural gas drilling in rural Pennsylvania: People were able to light their tap water with a match! That’s because of dangerous levels of the highly flammable gas methane polluting their wells. In...
The people of Bayou Corne have been through a lot. It started this summer when residents of the small bayou community about 70 miles west of New Orleans began feeling tremors and reporting foul odors. Then in August, a large sinkhole — near the site of a cavern that has long been mined by the Texas Brine Co. — threatened the town and forced evacuations. And the news keeps getting...
The best thing you can say about the state of environmental affairs in Louisiana in 2012 is that there’s been nothing of the horribly catastrophic nature of the Deepwater Horizon fiasco two years ago, which spoiled the Gulf of Mexico for years to come. (Although it is worth noting that there’s still nearly three months left until 2012.) The bad news is that the air that we breathe in...
