dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

The Coolist: Boxx Electric Bike.

I’ll pedal, all the same. Don’t think I want people to believe I’m driving a food-and-drink-cart scadged from an airline.

EnergyBoom: Boulder Electric Vehicle Sells First Electric Truck with Max Speed of 70 MPH.

Cool - looks sort of like a Euro-design steam iron on wheels.

SF New Mexican: After closing, Earth Works Institute leaves lessons, legacies.

A terrible shame. Yet it’s the story of so many nonprofits.

GigaOm: Hacking solutions to the world’s resource problem.

Wrestling big data in interesting ways.

Tom Dispatch: Ellen Cantarow, An Environmental Occupy Fracks Corporate America.

“I saw well drilling, huge trucks, muddy crisscrossing pipeline paths cutting through the woods, disposal pits, sites of diesel spills, dusty coatings on plants, noisy compressor stations—you name it. So I decided to put my legal background to work to prevent the same thing from happening where I lived. We’d been corporate lawyers before. We know the sort of resources the energy corporations have. The grassroots people have nothing. And they have this behemoth coming at them.” And more. Fight with might and main.

SciAm: Fracking Would Emit Large Quantities of Greenhouse Gases.

“When water with its chemical load is forced down a well to break the shale, it flows back up and is stored in large ponds or tanks. But volumes of methane also flow back up the well at the same time and are released into the atmosphere before they can be captured for use. This giant belch of ‘fugitive methane’ can be seen in infrared videos taken at well sites.” Waste not, want not.

SF New Mexican: Forecast gloomy for state ranchers.

“This is about as good as it has looked since February 2011. [snip] Let’s hope that it doesn’t go downhill from here.” Amen.

NASA Earth Observatory: Where the Trees Are.

The density of trees in the US.

Adbusters: Rural/City/Cyberspace.

“series of psychological studies over the past 20 years has revealed that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory, and generally improved cognition.”

Rodale: 30 years of testing organic vs. conventional farming.

I said I’d step back from commenting on GM foods. This is hitting enough front-line news organizations, that I need to link it. I will note, as no doubt my astute commenters will, that Rodale is potentially no more ‘objective’ than Monsanto is in their self-published reports. 

ProPublica: EPA Sees Risks to Water, Workers In New York Fracking Rules.

“New York’s emerging plan to regulate natural gas drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale needs to go further to safeguard drinking water, environmentally sensitive areas and gas industry workers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has informed state officials.” The title’s a bit misleading. There’s risk in that NY’s proposed rules are too lenient.

Design You Trust: Pollution in China the World’s Worst.

Good grief. Yet photos I’ve seen of the Alberta tar sands aren’t anything to brag about, either.

NY Times: A Mining Law Whose Time Has Passed.

“Under the law, mining companies — not the government — decide whether and where to file their claims on public land. (National parks, monuments and wilderness areas are excluded.) Federal agencies review the plans, but they are approved as a matter of course. Mining companies pledge to protect rivers threatened by their operations. But the industry’s track record hardly inspires confidence.” We live in the tailing-piles and runoff from this particular law, a law that’s far overstayed its welcome.

CNet: Smart For-us pickup concept juices your bikes.

Yes, but what’s the CAR’s range?

SF New Mexican: New Mexico judge halts pit rule appeals.

Damn. Our water should be protected. Unfortunately, oil and gas revenues pulled NM out of a state budget black hole. Noone’s going to mess with them at the present time. 

New Scientist: Fracking risk is exaggerated.

$$*%(%^$^. As per usual, this geologist is looking at a small subset of inputs, and generalizing them outwards to absolve fracking of most risk. There are multifarious ways fracking can harm the environment. The cement around the bore fails all too often (vibration+cement is a terrible idea in the first place). The layers of rock above the frack are not definitively known, so seepage and migration can and will often occur. We see this in Los Alamos, where the deep bores used for storing toxics are migrating to the surface way, way ahead of schedule (like, 550 years ahead of expectation). Perhaps the “impenetrable layer of rock” theory should be removed from its pedestal, and re-tested ... ? That would be the real scientific thing to do. Instead, some dig in their heels and refuse to be scientists.

Bloomberg: Fracking Moratorium Urged by U.S. Doctors.

“A moratorium on fracking pending more health research ‘would be reasonable,’ said Paulson, who heads the Mid- Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment in Washington, in an interview. His group is funded in part by the CDC and Environmental Protection Agency, he said, and helped sponsor the conference with Law’s organization, Physicians Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy.” Finally, someone is using their head for something besides a GOP/O&G hatrack.

USA Today: Interior bans mining near Grand Canyon.

“Republican members of Arizona’s congressional delegation have lambasted temporary bans imposed by Salazar in 2009 and again last year. They say a permanent ban on the filing of new mining claims would eliminate hundreds of jobs and unravel decades of responsible resource development.” Good, but still leaves 3,000 already-staked claims in place. And ‘responsible resource development’? Any east-coast journalists walked around the West lately?

BBC News: Stricken cargo ship Rena breaks up off New Zealand.

A tragedy for sure ... however, I’m curious if the release of milk powder will help the breakdown of oil. Bacteria should be in seventh heaven.

Earthworks: EPA - Metal Mining Industry is the Nation’s Top Toxic Polluter.

But only because the oil and gas industry don’t have to report the toxic materials they discharge. This is a big deal - and continue to let your Congresspeople and State legislatures know that it is flat-out dangerous.

SF New Mexican: State, LANL reach deal on waste cleanup.

“While it is not considered high-level radioactive material, it can be highly active and must be processed, handled and shipped carefully. Officials estimate it will take nearly 600 shipments to WIPP to clear the site. Last year, a record 171 shipments were made.” It’s about freaking time ... they knew they needed to move this stuff after the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000. You can easily see the canvas tents shielding the drums from various Sangre de Cristo hiking trails. Understand why forest fires freak us out just a little bit more?

Yahoo: “Zombie” Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees.

“That this parasite hasn’t previously been reported as a honeybee killer came as a surprise, given that ‘honeybees are among the best-studied insects of the world,’ Hafernik said. ‘We would expect that if this has been a long-term parasite of honeybees, we would have noticed.’” Once again, scientific assumptions destroy scientific progress. 

The Atlantic: How Did America Become a Net Fuel Exporter? Thank the EPA!

“The investment that made those exports possible didn’t happen by accident. Nor was it purely due to the forces of capitalism. In 2001, the EPA issued a new rule that reduced the amount of sulfur allowed in highway diesel fuel by 97%, from 500 parts per million to just 15. [snip] As a result, U.S. refiners now make a product that’s more ready for the global marketplace.”

Northwest Ohio: Oil-drilling wastewater causing earthquakes, expert says.

“The Youngstown well is near a fault that geologists did not know about, the report said, and the wastewater’s pressure caused the shift of the fault and, therefore, the earthquakes.”

SF New Mexican: Drought, insects killing trees in Southern N.M.

“Officials in New Mexico tried to put this year’s tree die-off into perspective by noting that heavily forested areas in Alaska and even Colorado have seen signs of tree mortality over millions of acres.” Yes, but I’ve never seen it happen with the rapidity it displayed in 2003. Three months is all it took - from live to dead. 90% of the pinons in northern NM gone. Luckily, I can drive a few minutes over to Pecos where the river flows and maintains the water table a little better, and see what our treed landscape *used* to look like.

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