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Showing posts with label damage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label damage. Show all posts

Video - Fossil Fuels Must be Eliminated by 2100 (IPCC Synthesis Report)

Video - Fossil Fuels Must be Eliminated by 2100 (IPCC Synthesis Report)
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Infographic - Stranded Fossil Fuel Assets

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Fossil Fuels are a Clear and Present Danger

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Fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. This is not some distant concern it is with us today and destined to get worse -- far worse-- if we do not address our addiction to petrochemicals. The scientific evidence is clear and overwhelming, unless we stop burning fossil fuels soon climate change will radically undermine life on Earth.

The impacts of global warming are the most studied phenomena in the history of the world. A recent White House report written by hundreds of scientists confirms and the work of the thousands of scientists that contributed to the UN's IPCC AR5 report. Both studies come to the same conclusions as reams of previous research.

Thousands of scientists from diverse disciplines are virtually unanimous in their shared conviction that climate change is a clear and present danger. We need to appreciate that by burning fossil fuels we are jeopardizing the basic things we require for our survival, namely our air, water and food.

In addition to the dangers posed by the burning of fossil fuels we have to deal with alarming rates of contamination from spills. As revealed by the nightly news spills of gas, conventional oil, tar sands bitumen and coal effluents are a regular phenomenon. Hydrocarbons in all their forms and at all stages of their life cycle (from extraction to transport and use) are fundamentally irreconcilable with efforts to manage climate change.

We simply cannot allow misinformation from the fossil fuel industry or their political minions to prevent us from acting. The false dichotomy between economic well being and planetary health is an utterly absurd choice. We do have viable economic alternatives, however we must resist powerful interests engage in radical efficiency and move away from fossil fuels towards cleaner forms of energy.

There is no avoiding the fact that any conception of a future for life on the Earth precludes fossil fuels.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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CERES calls for an Oil and Gas Climate Stress Test Today

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Today, January 15, 2014, CERES will ask 48 of the world's leading fossil fuel companies to run a ‘climate stress test.’ The purpose of the exercise is to show that the core activities of the major oil, gas and coal companies are incompatible with mitigating global warming. The test also makes the point that these companies need to diversify beyond fossil fuels. Fund managers and investors are in New York for an annual summit hosted by Ceres at UN headquarters. US based global sustainability leader CERES heads a $12 trillion network of investors. CERES has organized a low carbon investor’s conference at the UN for the past six years. According to CERES data, shareholders in the US continue to show interest in disclosures regarding companies exposure to climate change risks.

One of the chief issues is a so called carbon bubble. This reflects worries about the $674 billion of fossil fuel investments that cannot be extracted if the world is to avoid dangerous levels of warming. Each year about a half a trillion dollars is being spent to locate new petrochemical sources. This is at odds with the low carbon economy. It is also incomprehensible in light of the fact that preparations are well underway that will arrest the growth of the carbon based economy.

National delegations are set to start the final set of negotiations on an international climate agreement in march with binding global treaty expected by 2015. This year's UN climate meetings are scheduled to take place in Lima, Peru in December.

The chief of CERES Mindy Lubber squarely addresses the financial risks associated with the carbon ‘bubble’ of nonburnable fossil fuel reserves. In response to the issue she is calling for more transparency from the fossil fuel industry. Lubber and others share the concern that the oil, coal and gas industries will strand significant assets.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Infographic - One Day in the Life of Big Oil

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Shell's Game with the Future of the Arctic

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Questions are being raised about Shell's ability to manage its oil and gas drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean. The company is reneging on its emissions commitments and is already having trouble with the ships tasked to locate fossil fuels.

Right before it begins its drilling operations in August, Shell is trying to change the terms under which it was granted permission to drill. In an application to the agency, dated June 28, Shell said they cannot meet the requirements for emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia of an air permit granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in January. Shell has asked the EPA to loosen air pollution requirements for its Discoverer drill rig and to a lesser extent its Kulluk drill ship. “This is a classic bait-and-switch.”

“Shell promises the E.P.A. — and by extension, the American people — anything that will allow it to get permits to drill the Arctic, and then at the last minute, Shell says it won’t abide by its agreement and wants the E.P.A. to issue watered-down permits with no process whatsoever," Greenpeace’s executive director, Phil Radford said.

“This is just one more in a litany of broken promises from Shell when it comes to drilling in the Arctic,” Radford said.

Shell has run into problems even before drilling begins. The Discoverer, one of the ships shell is using to explore the Arctic Ocean, slipped its mooring and drifted close to one of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Questions have also been raised in June about the durability of one of Shell's underwater oil spill containment vessels in severe weather.

These events are leading many to question Shell's ability to protect the Arctic from its oil and gas drilling operations. As one Shell official stated, "even a near miss is unacceptable."

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.


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Lawsuit Protecting the Arctic from Oil and Gas Drilling

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A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit on July 16th to protect the Arctic Ocean from Shell's exploratory drilling scheduled to get under way in August. The legal papers filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage challenges the oil spill cleanup plans for Shell Alaska's upcoming operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Shell claims it has already spend $4 billion on the drilling operation. The suit invokes the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a tough law passed in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. This act imposes strict standards on companies in the Arctic Ocean involved with oil and gas drilling and transport.

 By Shell's own admission Arctic drilling is the "most complex, most difficult wells we've drilled in company history." An oil spill in the Arctic Ocean would be almost impossible to clean up and because of the remote setting and extreme cold, it could take years to control. Oil would probably become trapped under the ice, making it impossible to remove. An oil spill in the Arctic ocean could prove devastating to whales, polar bear, seals, and fish. Such a spill would also be devastating to the local people, as 79-year-old Abagail Nashupuq of Point Hope told CNN recently, "our subsistence for the winter, it all comes from the ocean, the fish and whale. It's going to ruin our ocean." 

The suit names the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which earlier this year approved separate Oil Spill Response Plans, or OSRPs, for the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. "This lawsuit is not just about this summer. It's about the future of the Arctic Ocean," said Michael LeVine, Pacific senior counsel for Oceana, one of 10 plaintiffs. Others include the Alaska Wilderness League, the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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