Human Connectome Project to start mapping brain’s connections

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The National Institutes of Health recently awarded grants totaling $40 million to map the human brain's connections in high resolution. It's hoped that better understanding of such connectivity will result in improved diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders.

To do so, state-of-the-art scanners will be employed to reveal the brain's intricate circuitry in high resolution.

The grants are the first awarded under the Human Connectome Project and they will support two collaborating research consortia. The first will be led by researchers at Washington University, St. Louis, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, while the other will be led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard University, Boston, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

"We're planning a concerted attack on one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st Century," said Washington University's Dr. David Van Essen, Ph.D., who co-leads one of the groups with Minnesota's Kamil Ugurbil, Ph.D. "The Human Connectome Project will have transformative impact, paving the way toward a detailed understanding of how our brain circuitry changes as we age and how it differs in psychiatric and neurologic illness."

The Connectome projects are being funded by 16 components of NIH under its Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.


This highly coordinated effort will use state-of-the-art imaging instruments, analysis tools and informatics technologies — and all of the resulting data will be freely shared with the research community. Individual variability in brain connections underlies the diversity of human cognition, perception and motor skills, so understanding these networks promises advances in brain health.

One of the teams will map the connectomes in each of 1,200 healthy adults — twin pairs and their siblings from 300 families. The maps will show the anatomical and functional connections between parts of the brain for each individual, and will be related to behavioral test data. Comparing the connectomes and genetic data of genetically identical twins with fraternal twins will reveal the relative contributions of genes and environment in shaping brain circuitry and pinpoint relevant genetic variation. The maps will also shed light on how brain networks are organized.

In tooling up for the screening, the researchers will optimize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners to capture the brain’s anatomical wiring and its activity, both when participants are at rest and when challenged by tasks. All participants will undergo such structural and functional scans at Washington University. For these, researchers will use a customized MRI scanner with a magnetic field of 3 Tesla. This Connectome Scanner will incorporate new imaging approaches developed by consortium scientists at Minnesota and Advanced MRI Technologies and will provide ten-fold faster imaging times and better spatial resolution.

Creating these maps requires sophisticated statistical and visual informatics approaches; understanding the similarities and differences in these maps among sub-populations will improve our understanding of human brain in health and disease.

More.


One step closer to technologically assisted telepathy

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University of Utah scientists have successfully decoded words from brain signals, bringing us one step closer to realizing technologically assisted telepathy, or techlepathy.

In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain:

Using the experimental microelectrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralyzed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less.

Later, they tried figuring out which brain signals represented each of the 10 words. When they compared any two brain signals - such as those generated when the man said the words "yes" and "no" - they were able to distinguish brain signals for each word 76 percent to 90 percent of the time.

When they examined all 10 brain signal patterns at once, they were able to pick out the correct word any one signal represented only 28 percent to 48 percent of the time - better than chance (which would have been 10 percent) but not good enough for a device to translate a paralyzed person's thoughts into words spoken by a computer.

The researchers discovered that each spoken word produced varying brain signals, and thus the pattern of electrodes that most accurately identified each word varied from word to word. This finding supports the theory that closely spaced microelectrodes can capture signals from single, column-shaped processing units of neurons in the brain.

All this said, the process is far from perfect. The researchers were 85% accurate when distinguishing brain signals for one word from those for another when they used signals recorded from the facial motor cortex. They were 76% accurate when using signals from Wernicke's area (and combining data didn't help). The scientists were able to record 90% accuracy when they selected the five microelectrodes on each 16-electrode grid that were most accurate in decoding brain signals from the facial motor cortex. But in the more difficult test of distinguishing brain signals for one word from signals for the other nine words, the researchers initially were accurate only 28% of the time. However, when they focused on signals from the five most accurate electrodes, they identified the correct word 48% of the time.

So, there's lots of work to be done, but the proof of concept appears to be (mostly) there.

This research is being done to help those with locked-in syndrome, but once it gets developed there will be broader implications and applications. A more sophisticated and refined version of this technology, and in conjunction with other neural interfacing technologies, could result in the development of technologically assisted telepathy.


Turchin: SETI at risk of downloading a trojan horse

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Russian physicist Alexey Turchin contends that passive SETI may be just as dangerous—if not more so—than active SETI:

I was fortune enough to be able to talk to Turchin at the Humanity+ Summit at Harvard earlier this year where he clarified his argument to me.

Turchin worries that humanity may be tricked by an out-of-control script that is propagating throughout the Galaxy. This script, which uses a pre-Singularity civilization as its vector, fools its hosts with a lure of some kind (e.g. immortality, access to the Galactic Internet, etc.) who in turn unwittingly build a device that produces a malign extraterrestrial artificial intelligence (ETAI). This ETAI then takes over all the resources of the planet so that it can re-broadcast itself into the cosmos in search of the next victim.

This concept is similar to Carl Sagan's interstellar transportation machine in Contact, except that it would work to destroy our civilization rather than see it move forward.

It's worth noting that this ETAI and its script may be a mutation of some sort, where no civilization was actually responsible for designing the damn thing. It's just a successful replicative schema that's following Darwinian principles.

It's also worth noting that I warned of this back in 2004.

Moving forward, Turchin suggests we raise awareness of the potential problem, change the guidelines for SETI research and consider the prohibition of SETI before we get our own AI.

Turchin's idea sounds ludicrous, but it's one of those crazy things that causes a nervous laugh. I think Turchin's idea needs to be discussed as there may be some merit to it. We need to be careful.


Andrew Revkin: Extreme weather in a warming world

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"The need for developing resilience in the face of worst-case weather is glaring and urgent. With or without shifts propelled by the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases, as populations continue rising in some of the world’s worst climatic “hot zones” — sub-Saharan Africa being the prime example — the exposure to risks from drought and heat will continue to climb, as well. In poor places, the risk is exacerbated by persistent poverty, dysfunctional government and a glaring lack of capacity to track climate conditions and design agricultural systems and water supplies around them." -- Andrew Revkin, "Extreme weather in a warming world"


Sunspots on the decline

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Scientists studying sunspots for the past two decades have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun's face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth.

The last solar minimum should have ended last year, but something unexpected has been happening. Although solar minimums normally last about 16 months, the current one has stretched over 26 months—the longest in a century. A reason, according to one source may be that the magnetic field strength of sunspots appears to be waning.

Tracking and predicting solar minimums and maximums is growing in importance given the potential for devastating solar flares.


Eco Study and Inspiration

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I’m planning to visit the rainforest and coral reefs of Central America this winter 2010 for an environmental and artistic study.  The plan is to investigate what is happening to one of Costa Rica’s biggest areas of coral reefs, forests,  and talk with indigenous people about their efforts to preserve the rainforest.

Read about a similar journey discussed here. Mine will be individually designed, since I am a self-employed artist and this trip is also for artistic reasons.  It’s more important now than ever that the rainforest itself and everything in it is preserved in photos and video and artwork, because even in Costa Rica, the rainforest is succumbing to logging operations.

My artwork will be exhibited for the purpose of educating the public about the importance of the rainforests of central and South America. You can donate to this trip (or all expenses are mine) and all donations over $50 will receive a rainforest-inspired t-shirt (to be designed after the trip).  Your donations will also help me purchase carbon credits to offset my travel. Please donate below!

The area I’m planning to visit has changed based on cost involved. I’ll be going to the Cahuita National Park area, which is less expensive to get to, is still more in its original natural state, and you can read about it here.

This Summer Mild Compared with What’s to Come

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Dimmer than a 30-watt bulb.

Climate change action still faces an uphill battle in the U.S. due to an uninformed public, just when efforts to step up mitigation need to happen!  Here’s a small example.

Levi Johnston, pop culture curiosity, was recently interviewed again by a real journalist.  He said he does not believe climate change is caused by human activity, according to this interview, which was on MSNBC.  This is unfortunate, because there is no reason to air his uninformed views, yet they’re out there. The interview illustrated that he doesn’t know much about anything else, either.  Even the evolution question stumped him.  Thankfully, he’s only running for mayor of Wasilla, not President, (like aborted governor Sarah Palin, who also thinks we’re victims of “natural solar cycles”).  Levi is typical of other people at his age and educational level, people who seem to be everywhere online.  Many of these people think that  “solar cycles” or “sunspots” are causing climate change.  These myths have been debunked over and over again, but the deniers don’t notice, don’t read, or don’t care.

If solar cycles or sunspots, etc.  were to blame, we’d be in very serious trouble, since we can’t control those things.  Luckily, we can still control our own destiny and survival, because we can control our own activities which are causing climate change. What’s needed is simple. We need to lower our carbon emissions and find ways to absorb the CO2 already in the air.

You won’t hear this news from the mainstream media, because they are funded by companies who depend on our current way of life continuing as is. This way of life is built on capitalism, growth, intense use and disposal of resources, expansion and accumulation of wealth, and heavy pollution; all of which are going to have to be replaced by a sustainable way of life very soon.  These facts are not even debatable, at this point. (Sorry, Levi).

The UNFCCC’s new executive secretary, Christiana Figueres, recently said that the hot and violent weather of this summer was only a taste of what’s to come if carbon emissions are not cut by governments world-wide. Here is a video of her recent statement.  Download the statement here.

Pakistan’s deadliest floods killed 1,800 people, ruined crops worth at least $3.3 billion and ripped out 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) of roads this year. In Russia, record temperatures and fires caused by drought destroyed grain crops this summer. . . . . “Such impacts on society and economies are but a mild taste of what science says will come if we do not continuously raise our ambitions for environmental protection as each year passes,” Figueres said.

Source of story: Bloomberg and the UNFCCC.  And similar news:

As Arctic Sea Ice Melt Season Ends, Sharp Downward Trend Continues

by Andrew Freedman, Climate Central

After a false alarm earlier this month, the 2010 Arctic sea ice melt season has come to a close, with sea ice extent reaching the third-lowest [...]

Another Eco Disaster Involving Toxic Sludge

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“A major ecological catastrophe — The reservoir of an alumina plant in western Hungary burst, flooding several towns with towering waves of red sludge. Hungary declares a state of emergency, one day after a torrent of toxic sludge tears through local villages, killing four people.” — ABC News.

From Russian news:

Hungary declared a state of emergency in three western counties on Tuesday due to spill of toxic alumina sludge which has killed three people and injured more than 100 others, the news agency MTI reported.

The counties of Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties were covered by the state of emergency [and by the sludge]. . . . the dam of a sludge reservoir burst at the huge Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt plant, owned by MAL Zrt., flooding parts of three villages.

The National Disaster Unit (NDU) denied a report that the sludge reservoir’s dam had broken at a second point, saying crews were pouring plaster into a nearby river to help neutralize the spill.

Apparently there is no proper word, yet, for this material; a wave of toxic fluid escaping from a holding pond or container. So “sludge” is what it’s called, although this looks rather thin to be true sludge, like  that from a coal ash holding pond for instance.  (In Tennessee it was called sludge and slurry.)  The point is that it’s toxic, it’s deadly, it contains lead, and it is burning the skin of all who are unfortunate enough to touch it.  It may also be toxic to breath the fumes from this material.  Time will tell if those who came in contact with it will die from exposure to it.  According to CNN International, the red color is from iron oxide, and yes, it contains heavy metals such as lead.  It’s caustic, and interestingly, slightly radioactive. Reportedly, inhaling it can cause lung cancer.  So, you want to avoid this sludge at all costs, which is difficult to do when it’s  thundering down your street like a tsunami.  In true form, the alumina plant owner said this stuff is “not hazardous waste.”    It’s just radioactive waste that contains lead and causes cancer. My condolences to the people of that area, who are in for an unclear and unhealthy future.

What is clear is that it’s already been deadly to plants, trees and animals. According to ABC and Russian News, four people have already died, presumably drowned or swept away. Many are hospitalized with toxic burns. As always, those who suffer the most from environmental disasters are usually the poor or middle class. They don’t put toxic sludge ponds or containers near wealthy neighborhoods or gated communities.  Do they.

EPA and Motivating Politicians to Act on Climate Change

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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is sticking to her guns on the Clean Air Act.  I hope she is as tough as she is portrayed to be.  So far, the Jackson EPA has disappointed me a bit, even granting a permit for mountaintop removal in one case.  West Virginia’s Governor is suing the EPA over denial of other MTR permits, and that’s an attitude shared by politicians in coal states, which brought Jackson to this point:

“. . . at an event last month celebrating the Clean Air Act’s 40th anniversary, Jackson swung hard at industry groups, offending some officials in the room and potentially adding fuel to claims the Obama administration is anti-business.

In an interview this week with POLITICO, Jackson showed no indication of backing down.

“It’s definitely anti-lobbyist rhetoric,” Jackson said. “It’s definitely meant to reflect the fact that, when I go around the country, people want clean air. They are as passionate about clean air and clean water as any of a number of issues; they want protection for their families and their children.” . . . . Jackson said EPA is taking a “series of modest steps” in writing climate-themed rules under the Clean Air Act, despite bipartisan efforts in Congress to block them and about 90 different lawsuits in federal court.

Read more at Politico. Of course people want Clean Air and Clean Water though! They want clean air and water to magically exist,  despite the constant burning of huge amounts of fossil fuels. It’s absurd, but as you probably know, America has a culture where everything, even the environment itself, is politically-charged.  We get the message from politicians that values are important.  What more important value is there than to protect our environment so we can all survive?

And West Virginia

Also interesting, Jackson is traveling to China this month to talk about a variety of environmental issues.

“Jackson will travel to China from October 9 through October 14. This is the administrator’s first official visit to China, where she will highlight and build on a wide range of joint efforts aimed at addressing current and emerging environmental challenges, from sustainability to greenhouse gas pollution.

During the trip, Administrator Jackson will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with her counterpart from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, open the Regional Air Quality Meeting in Beijing; visit the world’s largest electronic waste site; and host a town hall meeting with students at Sun Yat-sen University.

For 30 years, the United States and China have engaged in a wide range of cooperative activities aimed at increasing energy efficiency; reducing emissions of pollutants, toxics, and greenhouse gases; limiting threats to public health caused by pollution; and creating a foundation for long-term environmental sustainability. EPA and MEP have been at the forefront of environmental collaboration and are looking to build on past successes to jointly address environmental challenges.

More information about EPA’s work with China.

More information about EPA’s International Priorities

“A window has slammed shut in Washington, [...]

BP = Bleeding Planet

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Chris Williams, activist and author of “Ecology And Socialism”, spoke to the recent BP ecological crisis at a public meeting presented by the ISO (International Socialist Organization) in New York City. He tackles the “how’s” and “why’s” of the policies that led to our current crisis and examines the role that a democratic socialist society could play in an ecological restructure.  From EcoSocialism Canada.

As he said, the bodies of the BP workers were never found, and all our government can do is reference an invisible hand of God. Our government’s real “gods” are oil and consumption and growth, which is ironic, because these things are going to end up killing us. Maybe those are the hands Obama was referring to.

It’s clear that capitalism is leading to a future that is even more dangerous to human life,  and unsustainable, but so far there is no move in the U.S. to replace it with anything that would be acceptable to the people on the “right”.  They favor growth and corporations over peoples’ lives.

BP OIL Still in the Gulf despite Government Claims

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Evidence Refutes BP’s and Fed’s “Deceptions”

Scientists think about half the oil from the BP leak is still in the water or sunk to the ocean floor.  A recent report found that the Obama administration probably downplayed or hid the amount of oil leaking from the well from the public, from the start of the leak.  Then shortly after the well was capped by BP, the government made the incredible claim that the most of the oil was “gone”, which defied all logic and common sense.  It was also factually untrue, and it’s still not really clear why the government was attempting to lie to people about this.

by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report

Photo: Erika Blumenfeld

“In August, Truthout conducted soil and water sampling in Pass Christian Harbor, Mississippi; on Grand Isle, Louisiana; and around barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, in order to test for the presence of oil from BP’s Macondo Well.

Laboratory test results from the samples taken in these areas show extremely high concentrations of oil in both the soil and water.

These results contradict consistent claims made by the federal government and BP since early August that much of the Gulf of Mexico is now free of oil and safe for fishing and recreational use.

The samples taken were tested in a private laboratory via gas chromatography.

The environmental analyst who worked with this writer did so on condition of anonymity and performed a micro extraction that tests for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). The lower reporting limit the analyst is able to detect from a solid sample is 50 parts per million (ppm).

Just two examples of many from the article:

“A water sample from inside Pass Christian Harbor, Mississippi, taken on August 13, contained 611 ppm of TPH. Seawater that is free of oil would test at zero ppm of TPH.

A soil sample containing tar balls from the beach on Grand Isle, Louisiana, taken on August 16, contained 39,364 ppm of TPH.”

The oil is not gone. It’s still where BP put it — in the water and on the shore.  More on the “cover up” from The Hill:

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reaching out to the presidential oil spill commission to clarify what the White House calls misleading claims about the federal response to the disaster.

“NOAA Administrator Dr. [Jane] Lubchenco will send a letter today to the commission ensuring that they have an adequate understanding of what was happening in that process at that time,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

The letter to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling follows Wednesday’s release of draft findings by the commission staff about the White House spill response.

The staff report suggests that the White House may have blocked public disclosure of worst-case discharge scenarios from BP’s [...]

H2Oil: An Explanation of the Tar Sands in Alberta

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The tar sands in Alberta are so big they can be seen from space, and this filthy project is already killing people and wildlife.

H2Oil is a documentary, now on DVD.

“In the vast, pristine forests of Western Canada, the ‘war for water’ has already begun…

Thanks to Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands, Canada is now the biggest oil supplier to the United States. A controversial billion-dollar industry is heavily invested in extracting crude from the tarry sands through a process so toxic it has become an international cause for concern. Four barrels of glacier-fed spring water are used to process each barrel of oil, then are dumped, laden with carcinogens, into leaky tailings ponds so huge they can be seen from space. Downstream, the people of Fort Chipewyan are already paying the price for what will be one of the largest industrial projects in history. When a local doctor raises the alarm about clusters of rare cancers, evidence mounts for industry and government cover-ups. In a time when wars are fought over oil and a crisis looms over access to clean fresh water, which resource is more precious? And what price are we willing to pay? — Gisèle Gordon.”

And now they want to do this in Utah, though on a smaller scale:

A plan to strip-mine oil sands crude on U.S. land for the first time in northeastern Utah is facing legal challenge.

Through a legal appeal, a pair of local environmental groups are working to overturn a decision earlier this month by John Baza, director of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (UDOGM). He upheld a permit approval for a 62-acre mine in the remote Uinta Basin of the Colorado Plateau.

Should the legal option fail, the groups said they are determined to block the project – by whatever “peaceful” means.

Why is this being allowed?  The state department in the United States, headed by Hillary Clinton, has approved pipelines coming into the United States from these devastating “oil” fields, calling it a matter of national security. Yet a project as devasting and destructive to the environment as the Alberta tar sands would not be allowed in the U.S.

UN Urges Governments to Build a Climate Change Foundation

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Press Conference: Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC, 23 September 2010, Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the United Nations Framework on the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Last December the international climate change conference in Copenhagen convened with major world expectations. This year’s conference, called COP16, has less expectations surrounding it.  This year, officials are stressing building a foundation for climate change mitigation instead of coming up with big goals, like in the agreement ending COP15.

Proponents of a deal “seem to have accepted” that no treaty will be written during two weeks of talks in the Mexican resort, and that bodes well for the prospects of taking smaller steps, said Halldor Thorgeirsson, a director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.

“The obstacles to a significant outcome in Cancun remain formidable, and the likelihood of a continued deadlock remains significant,” Thorgeirsson said today in a speech at the political analyst Chatham House in London. Still, “a new treaty is by no means the only measure of success,” he said.  (Business Week)

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said some governments are trying to “rebuild the sense of trust in the process and rekindle the commitment to deliver” some agreements and funding.  “Governments have realized this year that you don’t build tall buildings without laying the foundations, unlike last year when they tried to build a very tall building without laying the foundations,” she said.  (AP)

According to UN News:

“We are barely two months away from the UN climate change conference in Cancun, the place where Governments need to take the next firm step on humanity’s journey to meet the full-scale challenge of climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Ahead of the next conference of parties to the Convention, to be held in November in Cancun, governments will hold a negotiating session in Tianjin, China, next week.

It is in Tianjin, said Ms. Figueres, that they will need to “cut down the number of options they have on the table, identify what is achievable in Cancun and muster the political compromises that will deliver those outcomes.”

She told a news conference at UN Headquarters that governments are converging on the need to mandate a full set of ways and means to launch a new wave of global climate action.

“On the whole, governments have been cognizant this year that there is an urgent need to move forward and they have been collaborating in moving beyond their national positions to begin to identify common ground so that they can reach several agreements in Cancun.”

The UN climate change chief said that negotiations are on track towards reaching agreements on the sharing of technology, jump-starting activities in developing countries dealing with reducing deforestation and degradation, setting out a framework for adaptation, and establishing a fund that would help developing countries with their mitigation and [...]

Fighting Big Coal With Some Success

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Karen Warren/Chronicle -- David Ryman secures a sign opposing the coal plant on the property of Michael Ledwig, who is in the forklift.

Planned Coal Plant Generates Controversy in Texas.   Houston Chronicle, September 25, 2010. “The idea had undeniable power at first: the cleanest coal-fired plant in Texas. But now, with the White Stallion Energy Center about to receive an air pollution permit from the state, many local officials and residents are having second thoughts — even in the face of 12% unemployment… In and around Bay City, the county’s hub, opponents are planting roadside signs showing a menacing monster billowing from smokestacks, with the rallying cry: ‘Stop White Stallion Coal Plant’…

Others see promise instead of peril. Supporters of the $3 billion proposal include officials at the Matagorda County Economic Development Corp., the Bay City Chamber of Commerce and the superintendent of the Bay City Independent School District. They say the plant would mean hundreds of jobs, higher incomes and better lives for some of the 38,000 people in the county… Coal is the dirtiest fuel for making electricity, but jobs are a big motivating factor in towns that are struggling. And that’s why some folks think Randy Bird picked Bay City. ‘We’re simply too small, with no political clout, and hungry for economic development,’ said Robert Malina, a retired professor who has led a local group called the No Coal Coalition.”

Climate Activists in Australia Close Down World’s Largest Coal Port. Reuters, September 26, 2010.   “Australian climate change activists today [9/26/10] closed down operations at the world’s largest coal port after entering its three terminals and attaching themselves to loaders, the terminal operator and the protesters said. The action by climate change group Rising Tide Australia [see photo below] stopped operations at all three terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services, which normally run continuously, a company spokesman said. Asked if all operations at the facility had been halted due to the action, a company spokesman told Reuters: ‘Yes, that is correct. All operations have temporarily stopped.’

Rising Tide said about 50 people in total were involved in the protest, some entering before dawn Sunday morning, abseiling down machinery and attaching themselves to loaders. Others demonstrated with banners. Spokeswoman Annika Dean said nine protesters attached themselves to infrastructure, calling it an ‘emergency’ action to highlight climate change, which she blamed for recent fires in Russia and floods in Pakistan.”

Here is a photo of their demonstration:

Two climbers hanging from the NCIG coal terminal in Newcastle: Photo by Conor Ashleigh http://www.conorashleigh.com

More Downsides to Natural Gas

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Flammable water is just one negative side effect of natural gas drilling. Photo from "Gasland" --click on photo for more info.

Natural gas extraction is a serious environmental threat, yet natural gas  remains a widely-used fuel.

Thanks in large part to to T. Boone Pickens, we may not get competitively priced renewable energy for 10 years or more.  His push for natural gas to make himself even richer, and his “army” of gas supporters are proving to be a major obstacle to pricing renewable energy more affordably than fossil fuels.  Many people believe that pricing fossil fuels as more expensive than renewable energy is the only way that a capitalist country like the U.S. will ever get off fossil fuels and on to renewable energy.  Thanks to the proponents of natural gas, a fossil fuel, this now may not happen for a decade.  Our main hope to stopping the devastating pollution caused by natural gas fracking is EPA regulations.  (Predictably, the Republicans want to fill Congress this fall with anti-science, anti-renewable energy advocates who have protected the fossil fuel industries for decades.)

Most energy experts agree that the way to get renewable energy used widely in the United States depends in large part on making fossil fuels more expensive.  Natural gas has been portrayed as a “bridge fuel,” but the cheap price of this fossil fuel is going to make the bridge period itself last much longer than it would otherwise.  This means it will take many extra years before renewable energy becomes widely demanded.  Do Pickens’ supporters realize their very support for natural gas is delaying renewable energy implementation and use?  Fans of Pickens include many Democrats in Congress, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, making this even more difficult to stomach.  (Some of these people have actually invested their own wealth into natural gas as a “bridge fuel”.)    Yet because of natural gas extraction, people in Wyoming can’t even drink their water.  A recent article explains why natural gas is threatening the use of renewable energy.

It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas

Unconventional natural gas is having profound effects on power prices, negatively affecting renewable energy’s competitiveness. The effect may last the rest of this decade.

Unconventional natural gas is often see as the bridge fuel that will further better integration of renewable energy resources, but now it is a power price depressant that will keep renewables at a cost disadvantage for the foreseeable future.

That view was part of a wide-ranging discussion on the current economic and policy landscape that affects renewable energy. The topic was one of several discussed in the recent American Bar Association-American Council on Renewable Energy webinar. The webinar is part of a series that assesses how renewable energy’s future will be affected by developments throughout the power sector, especially as they affect the wider acceptance of wind, solar, biomass and other resources.

One issue noted here previously is how the current low price of natural gas is making [...]

Activists Vow to End Mountaintop Removal

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“Mountaintop Removal is going to be ended. We will not back down on this issue.” In this fantastic video, done on September 27th, you can see a growing movement of people are demanding the end to coal mining and mountaintop removal mining and even better, the use of coal itself. Dr. James Hansen was among those arrested protesting in Washington against coal strip mining and mountaintop removal. “Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington DC on September 27, 2010 calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal and surface mining.” This message is as basic as the human right of everyone to have clean air and clean water, necessities of life.  Coal and other fossil fuels directly threaten our rights to these natural resources. Video by Appalachia Rising.  Read more about this event here.

Below  is more environmental news collected from Climate Crisis Coalition and Dot Earth.

Obama’s Chunky Energy-Climate Plan

In a new Rolling Stone interview, President Obama has offered a replacement for the now-defunct notion of comprehensive climate and energy legislation: a policy rolled out in “chunks.”

Given the inability of Congress, after seven years of struggling, to pass “comprehensive” climate legislation, it’s good to see a shift to the approach pushed by, among others,  Stephen H. Schneider, the veteran climate science and policy expert at Stanford University who long stressed the need for a sequence of steps to build public support before the heavier lifting comes. Of course the question is, what are Obama’s “chunks”?

‘One Nation’ March on Washington Set for Saturday. eWorldPost, 9/29/10. “‘One Nation working together’ is gaining momentum albeit slowly. The Tea Party, the unemployment, the budget deficits and the foreclosure is making [for difficult times]… Under these dim circumstances it is really good to see that almost 170 organizations have united together and formed One Nation Working Together. It is a coalition that is demanding for all the positive changes they voted for in the year 2008.  However, the question is how will this massive coalition work and will they achieve the objective. By the look of things the media is not very interested in covering this coalition. The immediate objective of One Nation Working Together is a mass mobilization on the 2nd of October. The event will be happening in Washington. It is believed that caravans and buses from all across the nation will arrive by noon and thousands of people will participate in the four hour rally. There will be affiliated events in other parts of the country as well.” Editor’s Note: The Climate Crisis Coalition is a sponsor of the One Nation march.

Big Oil and Other Industries Spend Over $500 Million Against Climate Legislation. ClimateProgress, 9/27/10. “The oil, gas, and coal industries have spent over $2 billion lobbying Congress since 1999. These three industries combined spent a whopping $543 million on lobbying in 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010. Meanwhile, alternative energy companies spent less than $32 [...]

Worst Climate Change Video Ever Made

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A new video called “No Pressure” is making the rounds online and if you haven’t seen it yet, a copy of it can be found at a link from the Guardian. The original has been removed from Youtube, but of course there are several copies of it still out there. The video’s message seemed to be one of action on climate change, but it’s really hard to say, because the message is lost in a Tarrantino-like sea of blood.

The video takes a seriously wrong turn when it says that people who do not reduce their emissions 10% a year  (through a 10:10-approved activity) should be joyfully blown up. (The video is bloody, so be forewarned).  A few select idiots at the 10:10 campaign wrote this and actually decided it was a good enough idea to film. Unfortunately, it  sends the message that if you don’t cut your carbon emissions by 10% this year, some crazed “eco-terrorist” is  going to murder you, but first, they’ll tell you not to worry by saying “no pressure”.  At least, I think that’s the message. If there is another one, it’s lost somewhere in the gore.  What is funny about this?

This video is the exactly wrong approach to trying to get a message about climate change across. If you thought the documentary The Age of Stupid was a little bit heavy handed, (though it’s a must-see movie) this is 1000x worse.

The 10:10 website states: “Many people found the resulting film extremely funny.”  Really?  Who?   Maybe they are so isolated that they don’t understand a few simple facts: the climate change denier movement is big, it’s serious, and it’s very well funded.  It’s also very politically charged, as is national security.  And the media is involved too, and I can just picture this video being shown on TV here.  It would be a nightmare if that happened. This video only adds fuel to their arguments.

This will have a big backlash, especially in the U.S. Thanks a lot. The public needs to be educated on climate change — not insulted.  It took me less than a year to realize that, but even people at the 10:10 campaign site don’t get that yet.  Even though they apologized for the video, they seem still devoted to the video and all its many copies. Too bad.  This video is beyond condemnable and it’s message could be seen as terroristic and psychotic.

Bill McKibben didn’t like it either. He called it “crap” and I could not agree more.  This is an article of his that he wrote for Climate Progress.

Days that Suck (A response to the “No Pressure” Video)

October 1, 2010

by Bill McKibben

I just climbed off an airplane at Boston’s Logan Airport. The day began in Monterrey, Mexico–and though I was tired, I was also feeling pretty good. Our big day of action on October 10th has been building to a crescendo: we yesterday broke our [...]

Obama Talks about Renewable Energy

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Is this the beginning of the leadership push on climate change we have all been waiting for? This video is pleasant to hear (in the sense that Obama still has this on his mind, at least) but it has all the impact and taste of a low-cal snack.  If only he’d get on TV and say this to the general public, instead of the wonks that watch his Saturday addresses online.

This part sounds especially good:

It was essential – for our economy, our security, and our planet – that we finally tackle this challenge.  That is why, since we took office, my administration has made an historic commitment to promote clean energy technology.  This will mean hundreds of thousands of new American jobs by 2012.  Jobs for contractors to install energy-saving windows and insulation.  Jobs for factory workers to build high-tech vehicle batteries, electric cars, and hybrid trucks.  Jobs for engineers and construction crews to create wind farms and solar plants that are going to double the renewable energy we can generate in this country.  These are jobs building the future.

It’s hard to imagine why the Republicans would fight against progress like this, but they are.  Maybe they are just against the future.  (for all of us).  Meanwhile, we are still waiting for Obama to do something game-changing about climate change instead of mostly just talking about rebuilding our car-based infrastructure.  His approach to this serious issue so far seems to be incremental, moving with baby steps.  We don’t have time for a slow-mo solution to all these things — peak oil, coal pollution, CO2 emissions, global warming and increasingly violent weather patterns.   There are indications that Obama is beginning to take this more seriously though.  The White House is reportedly close to announcing new mileage standards of 62 mpg by 2025, according to Bloomberg.

Brightsource, the company he references can be found here. Obama is right about the Republican party though. They are still the party of no and they want to burn every last bit of coal in the earth.  Doing that will be the end of human life on this planet.  Maybe that’s why they’re looking so hard for other inhabitable planets. Why would Republicans want to scrap all renewable energy projects? Because they can’t see the future past the end of the day, and they don’t really care if people in the U.S. are employed or not. They also don’t want companies like BP, Exxon and Shell to suffer.

At this rate of two steps forward, 3 steps back, parts of the United States will be uninhabitable in a few decades.  This is from Climate Progress:

This graphic shows what Arizona will look like if the Tea-Party-led Republican Party has its way.  It’s from a terrific March presentation, Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe has a figure of what staying on the business as usual emissions path (A1F1 or 1000 ppm) would mean (derived from the NOAA-led report):

Close-up:

Arizona — not a place [...]