Salon.com > Pollution

Pollution as ancient Chinese art

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Pollution and health have been on the Chinese mind as of late. From dead pigs in Shanghai to tips for avoiding bad air in Beijing, a clean environment can be difficult to find. Smog and water pollution have become a feature of China’s urban landscape, creating a hazard not just for Chinese citizens but people all over the world.

Traditional Chinese ink paintings are often known as shanshui, or mountain and water. Unfortunately, much of China’s water is no longer drinkable, and its mountains are difficult to find behind the smog. It’s a topic ripe for creative exploration.

Meet the “family values,” anti-environment hypocrites

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:11:00 +0000

My newspaper column on Friday highlighted an easy to understand fact: According to World Bank data, the livestock industry is responsible for between 18 percent and 51 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. My column also predicted that by simply mentioning that fact, I would receive all sorts of angry email and tweets from conservatives not refuting the data, but declaring that they will eat even more meat to prove some incoherent point about "freedom." And not surprisingly, over the weekend, the prediction came true, especially after Drudge posted a link to an outraged screed about the column (notice: The screed didn't bother to include one single data point or fact in refutation of the World Bank study).

Industrial hazards force communities to consider relocation

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:15:00 +0000

BELLE ROSE, La. – Tim Brown eases his john boat from his back yard dock into his daily therapy: The Bayou Corne that courses through this patch of southern Louisiana like a lifeline. Brown powers past the Tupelo Gum, Cypress Moss and Swamp Maple trees that drape the bayou in a frame, and steers to the spot where he reels catfish and collects thoughts.

“If I had to actually leave this place and go back to a house on dry land, I’d probably be dead in two years,” says Brown, 65 and retiring next year. “I guess you can say it’s a totally different life out here.”

But now that life, for Brown and 350 other residents in a neighborhood with “Crawfish Crossing” signs and roads named Gumbo, Jambalaya and Crawfish Stew Street, has been shattered by discovery of a 14-acre sinkhole that fractured the community’s calm and may bury its dreams.

EPA reverses water pollution decision after lobbyist steps in

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:51:00 +0000

When Uranium Energy Corp. sought permission to launch a large-scale mining project in Goliad County, Texas, it seemed as if the Environmental Protection Agency would stand in its way.

To get the ore out of the ground, the company needed a permit to pollute a pristine supply of underground drinking water in an area already parched by drought.

Further, EPA scientists feared that radioactive contaminants would flow from the mining site into water wells used by nearby homes. Uranium Energy said the pollution would remain contained, but resisted doing the advanced scientific testing and modeling the government asked for to prove it.

Five strange, frightening effects of fracking

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:56:00 +0000

What comes to mind when you think of fracking? Perhaps it’s images of tap water being lit on fire or stories of families suffering health problems after nearby wells are fracked. Indeed, the health and environmental impacts of fracking are being documented, but it’s important to know that fracking is a catalyst for widespread negative consequences. This list includes five effects of fracking you may not have heard about.

1. Methane Geysers

This past June, a methane geyser was found in Pennsylvania’s Tioga County. Yes, a geyser — shooting methane-infused water 30 feet up in the air.

Once the geyser was discovered, the county immediately turned to Shell, which was drilling in three nearby locations. Shell and the Department of Environmental Protection began investigating, and it was correctly suspected that an abandoned well from the 1930s contributed to the problem. Last week, a new report confirmed that Butters well, drilled in 1932, was part of the chain reaction that triggered the geyser. But the main problem was Shell’s fracking, as it displaced methane pockets underground, which then moved into Butters well and shot up to the surface.

The trillion-gallon wastewater loophole

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 14:00:00 +0000

On a cold, overcast afternoon in January 2003, two tanker trucks backed up to an injection well site in a pasture outside Rosharon, Texas. There, under a steel shed, they began to unload thousands of gallons of wastewater for burial deep beneath the earth.

The waste – the byproduct of oil and gas drilling – was described in regulatory documents as a benign mixture of salt and water. But as the liquid rushed from the trucks, it released a billowing vapor of far more volatile materials, including benzene and other flammable hydrocarbons.

The truck engines, left to idle by their drivers, sucked the fumes from the air, revving into a high-pitched whine. Before anyone could react, one of the trucks backfired, releasing a spark that ignited the invisible cloud.

Fifteen-foot-high flames enveloped the steel shed and tankers. Two workers died, and four were rushed to the hospital with burns over much of their bodies. A third worker died six weeks later.

Salon.com > Pollution

Pollution as ancient Chinese art

Meet the “family values,” anti-environment hypocrites

Industrial hazards force communities to consider relocation

Top 5 investigative videos of the week: Inside the smog capital of the world

EPA reverses water pollution decision after lobbyist steps in

Five strange, frightening effects of fracking

The trillion-gallon wastewater loophole