Eco-terror feared in pipeline blast

Eco-terrorism is feared as a possible motive after a bomb exploded on a natural gas pipeline owned by Calgary energy giant EnCana.

The explosion damaged, but did not rupture, the 30-cm diameter steel gas line 50 km east of Dawson Creek, B.C., but it left a two-metre crater in the ground sometime overnight on Oct. 11.

Considering the pipeline was carrying sour gas containing toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S), the result would have been far more severe had it blown open, said B.C. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields.

"There would've been a massive explosion and fireball," said Shields.

Liberal's muddled green message brings defeat

The environment was not a winning issue on this campaign trail

It may be some time before we again see a political leader in Canada brave enough to build a campaign platform around saving the environment.

The world economic crisis that may take a few years to fix has something to do with that. But so, too, does the outcome of last night's federal election, which saw the Conservatives returned to power, partly on the back of Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's muddled message on the environment.

[H/T to Marc]  Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.

"In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years."

Jose Manuel Barroso

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the credit crunch was no reason to go back on ambitious EU plans to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting energy consumption and promoting alternative energy sources.

"This is not a luxury we now have to forego. Saving the planet is not an after-dinner drink, a 'digestif' that you take or leave. Climate change does not disappear because of the financial crisis," Barroso told a news conference.

He was speaking on the eve of a two-day European Union summit whose agenda has been hijacked by measures to overcome the financial crisis, rescue banks and protect savers.

Read rest…

While one NASA scientist says man-made catastrophic climate change will cause an apocalypse, another says hysterical pronouncements about carbon dioxide emissions are unwarranted and overblown.

James Hansen [pictured], a political ally of former Vice President Al Gore, who has popularized the notion the planet is on the verge of calamitous changes as a result of higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, says: "We do have a planetary emergency, but it is difficult because you don't see that much happening. … If we don't bring this under control, we're going to destroy creation."

Hansen told a Kansas wind and renewable energy conference last month global warming inevitably will bring about droughts, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and mass extinctions.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore says he gathered more than 130 pastors and other religious figures in Nashville to enlist them in his global warming fight.

The outspoken environmentalist said in a statement that the faith-based volunteers who traveled to Nashville to hear him speak will be invaluable additions to his ongoing efforts to combat global warming and its impact on the planet, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Sunday.

"People of faith are vital to the effort to combat the climate crisis and represent all walks of life," Gore said regarding Thursday's gathering at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville.

Gore spoke to members of 18 religious denominations at the gathering, ranging from Presbyterian leaders to Roman Catholic officials.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, and both presidential candidates, continue to rank tackling global warming as a chief goal next year. But the focus on stabilizing the economy probably will make it more difficult to pass a law to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. At the very least, it will push back when the reductions would have to start.

As one Republican senator put it, the green bubble has burst.

"Clearly it is somewhere down the totem pole given the economic realities we are facing," said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy Corp., an electricity producer that has supported federal mandates on greenhouse gases. Duke is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an association of businesses and nonprofit groups that has lobbied Congress to act.

Just months ago, chances for legislation passing in the next Congress and becoming law looked promising. The presidential candidates support mandatory cuts and a Democratic majority is ready to act on the problem after years of the Bush administration's resisting federal controls.

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Why in an age of apocalyptic mass hysteria over global warming are the Greens polling so weakly?

They should have everything going for them, including benefiting from disgruntled Labour voters seeking an acceptable neutral home for their votes. Yet the polls have them wallowing around the demise-threatening 5 per cent mark.

One can but speculate on this thin support.

I attribute it to an image of screaming wetness. The memory of bearded goofy men and plain earnest women, folk- dancing at their conference a few years ago, lingers on.

Perhaps in the public's perception they have been rendered irrelevant by mainstream parties embracing their cause, which may explain their fading political support elsewhere in the world.

CCF Note: The AP provides a succinct snapshot of the two candidates' positions on energy, and consequently, the environment.

Republican John McCain: Favors increased offshore drilling and building 45 nuclear power reactors by 2030. Crystal Benton, speaking for McCain, said he proposes no federal spending to help in construction of the plants. McCain believes the goal can be achieved with loan guarantees in existing law, with resolution of the impasse over waste disposal and with financial advantages the industry would have as a zero-emissions power source under his cap and trade program, she said. McCain opposes drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Proposed suspending the 18-cent a gallon federal gasoline tax but idea got no traction. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.

Democrat Barack Obama: Now would consider limited increase in offshore drilling. Opposes drilling in Arctic reserve. Proposes windfall-profits tax on largest oil companies to pay for energy rebate of up to $1,000. Opposed suspension of the gas tax. Proposed releasing 70 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supplies. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.

Source

New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Doherty

New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Warren) says new scientific data justify repealing the state’s wide-ranging list of regulations aimed at reducing global warming.

Doherty on August 14 urged Gov. Jon Corzine (D) to hold off on proposing any new regulations associated with New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act, which the governor signed into law last year, as skepticism grows among scientists about the causes and severity of global warming.

Doherty specifically called for the legislature to repeal the law when it returns to business after Labor Day.

Move over Al Gore. Swankier carbon charlatanism has come to town in the form of the World Wildlife Fund’s luxury getaway called "Around the World: A Private Jet Expedition."

"Join us on a remarkable 25-day journey by luxury private jet," invites the WWF in a brochure for its voyage to "some of the most astonishing places on the planet to see top wildlife, including gorillas, orangutans, rhinos, lemurs and toucans."

For a price tag that starts at $64,950 per person, travelers will meet at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla. on April 6, 2009 and then fly to “remote corners” of the world on a “specially outfitted jet that carries just 88 passengers in business-class comfort.” “World class experts — including WWF’s director of species conservation — will provide lectures en route, and a professional staff will be devoted to making your global adventure seamless and memorable.” Travelers will visit the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil, Easter Island, Samoa, Borneo, Laos, Nepal, Madagascar, Namibia, Uganda or Rwanda, and finish up at the luxury Dorchester Hotel in London.