Shameful EPA slammed with yet another lawsuit

Mr Johnson, Americans Need Clean Air, Despite Your Misplaced Loyalties!

12 states, NY city and District of Columbia are suing Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, the federal environmental regulators, over greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries in the US.

The suit is led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who “charges that EPA violated the federal Clean Air Act by refusing to issue standards, known as new source performance standards, for controlling global warming pollution emissions from oil refineries.” Reuters reported.

Anacortes Refinery (Tesoro Corp), on the north end of March Point southeast of Anacortes, Washington. Image credit:Walter Siegmund. Via Wikimedia Commons.

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“The EPA’s refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush Administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming,” Cuomo said in a release. “Oil refineries contribute substantially to global warming, posing grave threats to New York’s environment, health, and economy.”

Stephen Johnson, the EPA head has insisted that it is the responsibility of Congress to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases that are heating the planet, despite the US Supreme Court ruling in 2007 that EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Additionally, other coalition of states have sued the EPA demanding that it should set standards for GHG pollution from power plants, and and to uphold the right of states to regulate pollution emissions from automobiles, as well as to require stronger reporting on toxic chemicals.

According to the latest suit, filed yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, “about 15 percent of U.S. industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, come from crude refineries, which burn some oil as they make products like gasoline and jet fuel.”

The other plaintiff states and cities in the suit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia and the City of New York, representing nearly one third (29%)of the entire US population.

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Stars-and-Stripes-Draped Carson Refinery (owned by the patriotic British Petroleum), Carson, California. Capacity: 260,000 bbl/d (41,000 m³/d). Image Credit: USATODAY. Image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar

• The things EPA capo won’t do!
• California Sues EPA on GHG Emissions
• Antienvironmental, Antisocial, Anti American!
• California Sues EPA

• Are You Allowed to Live Free of Toxic Pollution?
• CO2 Emissions Must Be Criminalized!
• EPA Plays Piggy In the Middle
• The White House of Horror!!

• NO More Coal-fired Power Plants Here!
• Disgrace, Disgrace, You’re Such an Ugly Disgrace …
• EPA official resigns citing Dow Chemical
• Protect Economy from Climate??!

• World CO2 Emissions
• Image of the Day: Blind scientists examining the elephant

Are the poor terrorists?

Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate-Changed World

According to the above-titled report written for Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), governments around the world have hugely underestimated the potential conflicts resulting from climate change. The highlights of the report are:

• If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, then it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states

• In the next decades, climate change will drive as significant a change in the strategic security environment as the end of the Cold War,” said Mabey.

• If uncontrolled, climate change will have security implications of similar magnitude to the World Wars, but which will last for centuries

• A failure to acknowledge and prepare for the worst case scenario is as dangerous in the case of climate change as it is for managing the risks of terrorism or nuclear weapons proliferation

• Unless achieving climate security is seen as a vital and existential national interest it will be too easy to delay action on the basis of avoiding immediate costs and perceived threats to economic competitiveness

Source

Would the world elite brand the poor and starving masses as “terrorists” in order to eliminate them?

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.” According to a report by New York Sun.

News Reports:

• U.N. Security Council must act preemptively – on climate change – this global threat requires a war-room mentality

• Security risk from climate said underestimated
• Sam’s Club, Costco limit bulk rice purchases
• Sam’s Club, Costco Ration Rice Amid Hoarding Worries
  

Special Links:

• Future in the Making
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Giga Trends
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix

The Floating Toxic Garbage Island

WILD FACTS SERIES: North Pacific Gyre

A patch of garbage dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in North Pacific Gyre. Depending on the source, the size estimate of the patch varies from the size of Texas to twice as large as the continental United States.

• About 46,000 pieces of plastic float on each square mile of sea (Source: telegraph.co.uk)
• Researcher Dr Marcus Eriksen believes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the Northern Pacific to near the coast of Japan.
• According to the Independent newspaper 100 million tons of plastic garbage float in the North Pacific Gyre.

The North Pacific Gyre (top, center)is one of five major oceanic gyres. (Image Credit: NOAA)

Following are links to a series of short videos by VBS.TV.

• Episode #1. Searching out the Pacific Ocean’s mythical floating trash heap.
• Episode #2. The ORV Alguita casts off for the middle of nowhere.
• Episode #3. The Captain nets a moon jellyfish, nature’s plastic bag.

Marine debris on the Hawaiian coast (Image Credit: NOAA)

Related Links:

• OH, THIS IS GREAT – PART 1- Humans Have Finally Ruined the Ocean
  

• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part III
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part II
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part I

An Interesting animation of how the garbage entering the ocean is caught by the gyre.

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Raging Wildfires: Mother Nature ensuring the cycle of life?

Mother Nature using her defense mechanisms to ensure the cycle of life? Or our lifestyles killing what’s left?

NASA satellites capture images of about 14 massive wildfires raging in Southern California, which have scorched about 1,500 square kilometers from Ventura to Mexico.

The devastating fires, enhanced by Santa Ana winds, have killed eight people and destroyed or damaged about 2,050 homes and 100 businesses. Two 500,000 volt lines and several 230,000 volt lines have gone out of service. More than 500,000 residents have been told to evacuate.

Total monetary cost: $2.2billion

Related Links:

• Dozens of injuries in California Wildfires (VIDEO)
• More than 500,000 people flee blazes across Southern California
• Southeast sees no end to historic drought
• Out-of-control wildfires polluted Southern California skies with acrid smoke and falling ash
• Four major fires ripping across San Diego County

New Links Added July 2008

• Nature’s Defense Mechanisms
• Thought for the Day
• Stop Nature! She Is Ruining Our Lifestyles
• Wildfires

• UPDATE #2 – California Fires
• UPDATE: California Fires
• 2008: Year of the Fire
• Climate-enhanced catastrophes in the US