Meet the Top Five Worst Polluters

Stephan:  This is what carbon energy corporations are contributing to climate change.

A new study from Climate Accountability Institute has ‘named and shamed’ at least 90 corporations which it says are responsible for almost two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, The Guardian reported.

The companies range from investor-owned firms to state-owned and government-run firms with data collected from public records and the US Department of Energy.

Analyses of the findings confirm that the majority of those responsible are in the business of producing either oil, gas, or coal, with half of the emissions released in the past 25 years.

Climate change experts said the research was the most ambitious so far to hold individual carbon producers responsible, Grist reported. Former Vice President Al Gore welcomed the report and said it was a ‘crucial step forward.’

So, who are the top 5 corporate offenders?

1. ChevronTexaco

Unsurprisingly, Chervon Texaco is the top emitter of man-made carbon emissions among investor-owned companies. The multinational energy corporation is active in more than 180 countries and is one of the world’s largest corporations.

2. ExxonMobil

Oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil comes in close second among investor-owned companies. In the past, ExxonMobil has been accused of downplaying the global warming threat as well as funding […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments

Archaeologists Discover Largest, Oldest Wine Cellar in Near East

Stephan:  Not a trend, just something I found interesting, and thought my readers might do so as well.

Would you drink wine flavored with mint, honey and a dash of psychotropic resins? Ancient Canaanites did more than 3,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have unearthed what may be the oldest - and largest - ancient wine cellar in the Near East, containing forty jars, each of which would have held fifty liters of strong, sweet wine. The cellar was discovered in the ruined palace of a sprawling Canaanite city in northern Israel, called Tel Kabri. The site dates to about 1,700 B.C. and isn’t far from many of Israel’s modern-day wineries.

‘This is a hugely significant discovery - it’s a wine cellar that, to our knowledge, is largely unmatched in age and size,’ says Eric Cline chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of at The George Washington University. Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau, chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, co-directed the excavation. Andrew Koh, assistant professor of classical studies at Brandeis University, was an associate director.

The team’s findings will be presented this Friday in Baltimore at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Koh, an archaeological scientist, analyzed the jar fragments using organic residue analysis. He found molecular traces […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments

Wind Energy In Iowa Cuts 8.4 Million Tons Of Carbon Pollution Per Year

Stephan:  Here is some excellent news. It is so obvious the direction we should be going.

Iowa’s hugely successful wind industry isn’t just an economic driver, it’s having a major impact on cutting pollution and saving water. Wind energy generation in Iowa avoids more than 8.4 million metric tons of climate-altering carbon pollution - the equivalent of taking 1.7 million cars off the road, according to a new report released by Environment Iowa.

Additionally, the report found that wind energy saves Iowans nearly 3.8 billion gallons of water per year, enough to meet the needs of over 158,000 people. The U.S. National Drought Monitor shows a significant portion of the state is in moderate to severe drought conditions and has been for several months.

The rapid growth of wind energy in Iowa is remarkable; it now provides 13.9 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, equal to 24.5 percent of the state’s total electricity and the highest percentage nationwide. Further, Environment Iowa predicts that ‘Iowa could be on track to nearly double its wind production in the next five years so that wind could generate as much as 50 percent of all electricity in the state by 2018.

Read the Full Article

No Comments

Imminent Peak Oil Could Burst Global Economic Bubble: Study

Stephan:  Here is a study from the University of Maryland that holds considerable implications for each of our lives.

A new multi-disciplinary study led by the University of Maryland calls for immediate action by government, private and commercial sectors to reduce vulnerability to the imminent threat of global peak oil, which could put the entire US economy and other major industrial economies at risk.

The peer-reviewed study contradicts the recent claims within the oil industry that peak oil has been indefinitely offset by shale gas and other unconventional oil and gas resources. A report by the World Energy Council (WEC) last month, for instance, stated that peak oil was unlikely to be realised within the next forty years at least. This is due to global reserves being 25 per cent higher than in 1993. According to the WEC report, 80% of global energy is currently produced by either oil, gas or coal, a situation which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

The new University of Maryland study, in contrast, conducts a review of the scientific literature on global oil production and argues that the bulk of independent, credible studies indicate that a ‘production peak for conventional oil [is] likely before 2030

Read the Full Article

No Comments

GOP Finds Cure for Bad Public Schools in Pennsylvania: God!

Stephan:  Yet another story illustrating why the Theocratic Right is the most dangerous toxic social movement in America today. It's hard to believe that people think this way.

There’s no money for public schools in Pennsylvania, but, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, students are being told to accept it all bravely, cause God’s on their side.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone plans to introduce a bill this session that would require every public school building in the state to display a plaque that reads ‘In God We Trust.

Read the Full Article

No Comments