Fracked Earth News: Boston’s Hot Ocean Blizzard

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Every week, Kate Lanier assembles the most important global energy and climate news, including:

New England: Off the coast of New England, sea surface temperatures “are flashing red, showing an extreme warm anomaly.” That’s a direct, immediate link to the recent record snowfall in Boston. Expect more.

California: Stunning state-wide fracking waste water test results: “concentrations of the human carcinogen benzene … [at] levels thousands of times greater than state and federal agencies consider safe.” ‘Significant’ benzene levels were in 98% of the water samples. Not only that, but CA “inadvertently” allowed frackers to inject their “flowback water into protected aquifers containing drinking water.” LA Times says “halt new operations.”

Peru: Oil contamination by Argentina’s Pluspetrol in the Peruvian Amazon so upset indigenous people that they “stormed a military base being used by Pluspetrol as a storage area.” Pluspetrol is packing up and leaving Peru—and the government “is investigating the illegal use of firearms by police during the demonstrations.”

Mining The Earth & Fracking The World: The Warming Oceans

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Every week, Kate Lanier assembles the most important global energy and climate news. This week includes:

Worldwide: They’ve got things so bollixed up that, even though it appears global warming has slowed a bit, that’s on Earth’s surface. Deep down in the oceans, the warming trend continues, most markedly in the southern Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Gulf of Mexico: Plans afoot “to enlarge the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary from 56 square miles to 280. Yes!

Israel: Illegal sand mining is “a major source of income for organized crime figures, especially … in Israel’s south.” It also erodes coastal areas, thus threatening local wildlife. Five arrests so far this year; 20 last year.

Taking A Stand: Copper Tubing Factory Employees Join United Steelworkers

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As most everyone is aware, Alabama is a “right to work” state, which basically means that the priorities of large companies and business owners are more important than the plight of workers. Conservatives are often the one’s who stand in opposition of the unionization of workers. Such was the case when Gov. Robert Bentley set about bringing the Golden Dragon Copper Tubing plant to Wilcox County.

Bentley and his administration paid a company about $165 million, and built them a road and a bridge, just to get them to move to Alabama.

Of course, Bentley touted Alabama’s “right to work” status as an obvious coup for the company. However, much to the king’s chagrin, employees at that company decided to join the United Steelworkers Union.

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