Independent Cornell environmental scientist Prof Robert Howarth’s research team says shale gas is “probably as dirty as coal — could be marginally better or substantially worse.” Their peer-reviewed report due out in next two months. Video clip from Howarth’s news conference 9-15-10 gives a heads up on their preliminary findings.

Dan Froomkin from Huffpo lays out info from group of scientists we need to hear from, and who can help GOM Disaster. And this will help with the next disaster, and one will occur, no doubt.

Less than 72 hours after the BP oil spill began, Firedoglake had discerned, and blogged about, the likely cause of the catastrophe, that heat from the curing concrete had thawed methane trapped in the ocean floor beneath deep waters, and that methane had exploded.
Today, mainstream media thinks this is a front page story; so did we, a week ago.

Canada went beyond erecting a memorial to commemorate 26 workers killed in a coal dust and methane explosion at the Westray mine 18 years ago. Canada criminalized corporate disregard for worker safety. It’s called the Westray Law. America needs its own such statute – an Upper Big Branch Law – holding corporate managers and directors criminally accountable for ditching safety for dollars.

Coal consumption has costs — this week’s explosion at a West Virginia mine, which killed 25, made that clear. Those costs aren’t limited to human lives, either. Massey Energy Co., the owner of the West Virginia mine, has racked up not just safety violations but also consistently has disregarded the environmental effects of its work.

I’m delighted to report that Wednesday was a very good day for environmentalists concerned about extracting nonrenewable carbon-emitting fossil fuels, with not one but two victories over those who would suck the marrow out of the bones of our planet to leave it dry for the next species to inhabit the earth.

Late April Fool’s prank? No. A roadmap.

Fossil portrait of a Permian global-warming denier

The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that rises in sea temperatures (and/or falls in sea level) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and permafrost which, because the methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas, leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization – in effect initiating a runaway process, as irreversible once started as the firing of a gun.

yesterday scientists published the outline of their measurements showing massive releases of the 30 x worse than co2 gas methane from the subsea floor. Microbes may yet dominate the planet.

I don’t see anything even remotely controversial about this:

“Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Or this:

He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”