- Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), on House Republicans moving “to block a planned Department of Labor regulation that aims to protect coal miners from the dust that causes black lung disease.” (via campaignmoney)
Republicans.
The video shows the oddly chosen yet strategically significant Svalbard, Norway, which is located in the Arctic circle. Many strange things continue to happen here.
It’s one of the world’s major climate research sites, where scientists measure the impacts from climate changes. The bizarre Svalbard Global Seed vault is also located here.
Oddly, from about 1944 to the mid-60s, millions and millions of tons of pollutive coal continuously burned in open pits - the military left the island during the end of WW-II and forgot to put the fires out. Even stranger is that a handful of German troops were the last soldiers to surrender WW-II, four months after the war had ended.
Svalbard has a truly strange history. The ice has been melting across the islands as well as across the North Pole. This opened up new and fabled shipping routes and has governments scrambling to chop up the newly exposed lands for natural resources, such as coal, gold, and diamonds.
After Russia planted a flag on the sea floor to claim land in the North Pole for mining natural resources, America, Russia, Canada, and Denmark increased their military presence in the north.
Watch the above video to see and hear why this place is so special to humanity.
Breaking: About an hour ago, police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters in Madrid, Spain. They are protesting cuts to coal subsidies and increases to energy taxes.
Twitter #marchaminera is blowing up. Pictures of bloody protesters, here. From RT:
Protesters disagree with a 63 per cent cut in subsidies to coal mining companies, major contributors to the Spanish energy market. Unions say the plan threatens 30,000 jobs and could destroy their livelihoods.
Miners, who were hiking from the north of the country for the past two weeks, have been joined by tens of thousands of Spaniards also protesting against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s tax hike.”
July 11, 2012
As had been reported by those on the scene, Madrid police issued no warning before attacking protesters.
Mitt Romney threatening to close a coal plant in Massachusetts. Claimed it was “killing people.”
Mitt Romney attacking the Salem coal plant in
2004.(2003). This is kind of an amazing video. In my econ classes, the Salem coal plant (still going, btw.) was the persistent example of the type of out-dated, and inefficient technology that would be the first to go under a cap & trade policy to limit greenhouse gas emissions. New rules making their way through the EPA process will (probably) finally shut-down that plant (though, interestingly, not the greenhouse gas rules, since those will only apply to new power plants).(hat tip: climate progress)
An Afghan miner unloads coal from his donkeys outside a coal mine in Samangan province, north of Kabul on April 3, 2012.
[Credit : Qais Usyan / AFP / Getty Images]
“On Craigslist, Coal Lobby Offers $50 To Wear Pro-Coal T-Shirts At Regulatory Meeting.”
Update: This is starting to sound fake to me. Anyone have evidence that the craigslist ad is legit?
Oil magnate T. Boone Pickens: “Biggest deterrent to U.S. energy plan is Koch Industries. They do not want America to have an energy plan.”
What an excellent find. I recently switched from Wells Fargo to ING.
Above the Clouds by Michi.
It’s steam.
“Scientists are exploring dripping passages by the light of headlamps, mapping out an ecosystem from 307 million years ago, just before the world’s first great forests were wiped out by global warming. This vast prehistoric landscape may shed new light on climate change today.
Dating from the Pennsylvanian period of the Carboniferous era, the forest lies entombed in a series of eight active mines. They burrow through the rich seams of the Springfield Coal, a nationally important energy resource that underlies much of Illinois and two neighboring states and has been heavily mined for decades.”
By Christina Zander and Alexis Flynn, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- The Arctic region is likely to attract investment of $100 billion or more over the coming decade, according to a report by independent policy institute Chatham House and the Lloyd’s of London insurance market.
Interest in the Arctic region has intensified in recent years as a boom in commodities has seen companies scramble for precious resources to satisfy growing demand from China, among others.
A melting ice cap hasn’t only opened up new shipping routes that significantly cut transport times and distances between Europe and Asia, it has also made the region’s estimated rich deposits of oil, gas and minerals more accessible.
The report, published Thursday, notes that oil and gas, mining and the shipping industries will be the biggest drivers and beneficiaries of Arctic economic development in the coming years, but it says the Arctic’s economic future depends principally on local investment conditions and global commodity prices.
I want to punch climate change in the face.
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
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An Afghan miner unloads coal from his donkeys outside a coal mine in Samangan province, north of Kabul on April 3, 2012.
[Credit : Qais Usyan / AFP / Getty Images]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m22fvsLaJ61r44q44o1_500.jpg)
