GreenWatch

B. McPherson We can keep on truckin until the whole world falls apart. Another dirty little secret about the Alberta Tar Sands is the production of Petcoke or Petroleum Coke as a waste product of refining the bitumen. It is estimated that emissions from the use of the Tar Sands will be about 23% greater than from refining and using conventional oil. Not so fast the organization called Oil Change International says. In their report Petroleum Coke: the Coal Hiding in the TarSands they claim that this waste product which is as much as a third of a barrel for every barrel of bitumen is sold and burned, adding to the carbon dioxide burden of the atmosphere. The refineries dealing with the bitumen sell the petcoke at a discount to coal because it is a waste product and it needs to move out. Oil Change International maintains that burning petcoke is dirtier than burning coal by about 53.6% ton for ton. “ From January 2011 to September 2012, the United States exported over 8...

B. McPherson NOAA's Explanation of Our Changing Oceans Most of us are by now aware of the increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. We have been told of the Greenhouse Effect on the air we breathe. A less well known effect of the increasing carbon dioxide in the air is an increase in acidity in the world’s oceans. For most of the geological history of the Earth, slow change occurs with punctuations of extensive extinctions of life both on land and sea. Many natural phenomena can trigger a mass extinction.  Some scientists are concerned that humans may be about to inadvertently cause a collapse of systems in the oceans which will in turn, hit humanity like a tsunami. Since the Industrial Revolution there has been increasing dependence on the burning of fossil fuels – oil, coal, gas – to power the machines that have transformed our lives. One of the bad side effects of this is the release of carbon dioxide gas. This is a normal cog in the Carbon Cycle. The oc...

B. McPherson In spite of assurances of safety, nuclear power stations in Japan remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes and tsunamis. The Tomari Nuclear Power Station shut down their reactors for routine maintenance. There is speculation that all the nuclear power stations may remain shut down. Japan is moving into the summer months when demand for electricity for air conditioning soars. Nuclear power provided about 30% of that nation’s power supply before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster last year. Before the Fukushima disaster, the nuclear power industry was expected to expand its production to provide 50% of the power needs over the next 20 years. Imports of liquefied natural gas(LNG), coal and oil have been ramped up to feed the thermal plants. Even so, there are   predictions of electrical shortages throughout the country. "I have to say we are facing the risk of a very severe electricity shortage," said the economy, trade and industry minister, Yu...