Replies to post #236898 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/08/asia/china-bans-smog-doc/

[shtsqsh]

Clean coal is still a pipe dream. But with coal industry money in her purse, Carly is all too willing to proliferate that illusion as well as putting herself in the same republican sandbox of playing loose with the facts about climate science.


Btw, your quote confirms she was either lying or wildly exaggerating truth about bird kill from wind turbines.

Wind turbines kill far fewer birds in North America than do cats or collisions with cell towers.
...
Wind turbines kill between 214,000 and 368,000 birds annually — a small fraction compared with the estimated 6.8 million fatalities from collisions with cell and radio towers and the 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion deaths from cats.

It has been estimated that from 100 million to well over 1 billion birds are killed annually in the U.S. due to collisions with human-made obstacles, including vehicles, aircraft, buildings and windows, powerlines, communication towers, smokestacks, and other structures.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/15/wind-turbines-kill-fewer-birds-than-cell-towers-cats/15683843/

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/academics/biology/faculty/klem/ACO/Field%20Journal%20-Mortality%201990.pdf

https://www.fws.gov/midwest/wind/references/ManvilleBirdMortality.pdf

[arizona1]

Obama's war on Coal

There should be a war on coal. It's killing us and the planet!

But why aren't you bitching about this??????

The New Mass Extinction: There’s A Pipeline Ready To Burst Under The Great Lakes

Beneath the Great Lakes, there is a ticking time bomb that threatens one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. That time bomb comes in the form of a pipeline owned by the Canadian company Enbridge.

The pipeline known as “Line 5” is the subject of a new documentary produced by Motherboard/Vice. The documentary uncovers what led to the creation of what could turn out to be one of the world’s worst man-made environmental disasters.

Motherboard reports:

Motherboard correspondent Spencer Chumbley went to Michigan to investigate the situation, and the research is alarming. If just one of the pipelines ruptured, it would result in a spill of 1.5 million gallons of oil—and that’s if Enbridge, the company that owns them, is able to fix the pipeline immediately. UMich research scientist Dave Schwab says, “I can’t imagine another place in the Great Lakes where it’d be more devastating to have an oil spill.”

Enbridge, the company that runs the pipelines, insists they are safe. But Enbridge does not have a particularly inspiring record, with more than 800 spills between 1999 and 2010, totalling 6.8 million gallons of spilled oil. In 2010, its pipeline 6B ruptured in the Kalamazoo River. The nation’s focus was pulled by Deepwater Horizon at the time, but the Kalamazoo River spill became the nation’s biggest inland oil spill.

It is important to note that the pipeline that spilled into the Kalamazoo was not only rebuilt, but also expanded, doubling the amount of tar sands that flow through the line. Line 5 has come under the scrutiny of environmentalists and concerned citizens, which led to the creation of a pipeline review board, headed by Michigan’s Republican Attorney General, Bill Schuette. In 2015, the committee gave out recommendations based on what they thought was the best way to deal with the dangers of the pipeline. To the ire of environmental activists, the committee did not recommend that the pipeline be removed completely.

As glorious as the defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline was to environmentalists and their allies, Line 5 serves as a reminder of the danger that has been interwoven into the land and water throughout the United States. There are around 185,000 miles of pipelines that have been embedded into the United States, each one carrying traditional crude oil, or Canadian tar sands. Many of those pipelines have been neglected and can fail at any moment. Even if all goes according to plan, that oil is destined to be burned, and sent into the atmosphere where it will further the disruption of the Earth’s climate, continuing Earth’s new mass extinction.

You can watch the documentary below:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/08/17/tnme-line-five/

[arizona1]

YAY!! WAR ON COAL!!!!!

Electric Vehicle Users In The U.K. Could Soon Be Able To Charge Their Cars While They Drive

One of the electric car’s biggest criticisms is its lack of range and the need to frequently recharge the battery at designated supercharge stations. But the British government has a possible solution that could make electric cars mainstream — adding charge lanes to highways so electric and hybrid cars can “refuel” as they drive.

Britain’s Highways England recently announced an 18-month trial using wireless magnetic induction technology, which is installed in the cars and underneath the asphalt surface. The test, which will start this year, won’t be immediately carried out on public roads, but the facility will simulate common highway conditions. The British government has committed £500 million(about $783 million) to fund the project over five years.

“Vehicle technologies are advancing at an ever increasing pace and we’re committed to supporting the growth of ultra-low emissions vehicles,” said Mike Wilson, Highways England’s chief engineer, in a news release. “The off road trials of wireless power technology will help to create a more sustainable road network for England and open up new opportunities for businesses that transport goods across the country.”

Britain has been aggressively taking on emissions-free transportation projects. Last year, London launched two trials, one for hybrid buses that recharge at each stop, and another that tested new battery-powered subway cars. Britain also approved the world’s largest offshore wind farm in 2014, which would produce 1,200 megawatts off England’s Suffolk Coast.

And Europe as a whole has been a leader in finding new ways to use roads — the Netherlands is home to the world’s first solar road, and could also soon be the first to use recycled plastic as road-building material.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/18/3692564/smart-roads/

[arizona1]

Wind turbines kill more than 573,000 birds each year in the United States, according to The Associated Press, including federally protected species like bald eagles and golden eagles.

Not anymore! Try to keep up!

The Future of Wind Turbines? No Blades


http://www.wired.com/2015/05/future-wind-turbines-no-blades/

And are you suggesting we do away with cats, cars and windows?

Cats kill up to 3.7B birds annually
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/29/cats-wild-birds-mammals-study/1873871/

Causes of Bird Mortality

http://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/