Category Archives: Pollution

Tackling mine wastes

Posted on September 1, 2017 by

Hudson-Edwards, K. April 15, 2016. Tackling mine wastes. Science (352):288-290   Excerpts: Mine wastes are unwanted and uneconomic materials (including rock, sediment, tailings, metallurgical wastes, dusts, ash, and processing chemicals) that are found at or near mine sites in virtually every … Continue reading →

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Book review of “1493 Uncovering the new world Columbus Created”

Posted on August 29, 2017 by

[ This book will be included in the “must read” category of my giant booklist when I get around to updating it. This book isn’t just about the past, the implications reverberate into the postcarbon future.  Will slavery return without … Continue reading →

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Nitrogen fertilizer poses significant threats to humans and the environment

Posted on August 11, 2017 by

NRC. 2015. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System. National Research Council, National Academies Press. 19 pages.   Nitrogen (N) is essential for agricultural productivity, but in its more reactive forms, it can pose significant threats to humans … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Fisheries, Groundwater, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Soil | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Nitrogen fertilizer poses significant threats to humans and the environment

Because we’ve stuffed staggering numbers of cows on factory farms we live in a cow toilet

Posted on April 11, 2017 by

[ Book review of “Cowed: The hidden impactof 93 million cows” by Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Hayes, Denis and Gail. 2015. Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Biodiversity Loss, CO2 and Methane, Pollution, Soil | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

Posted on March 16, 2017 by

Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides destroy soil, ecosystems, and a third of the crop is still lost to pests, just as in the many millennia of farming before chemicals. [ This is a book review of Dyer’s “Chasing the Red Queen”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Chemicals, Overshoot, Pesticides, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

The Devil’s Scenario – near miss at Fukushima is a warning for U.S.

Posted on March 9, 2017 by

[ The most likely event to trigger a loss of power long enough to cause a spent fuel pool zirconium fire meltdown and release of radioactive particles into the atmosphere is a nuclear or natural geomagnetic storm electromagnetic pulse (see … Continue reading →

Posted in EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Nuclear, Nuclear Power, Nuclear spent fuel fire, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book review of “Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste”

Posted on January 2, 2017 by

A book review by Alice Friedemann of “Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste” by William M. Alley & Rosemarie Alley. 2013. Cambridge University Press. [ It is outrageous that on top of climate change and using … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, Nuclear, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste | Tagged , | 6 Comments

550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean up the worst of them

Posted on December 9, 2016 by

[ Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and rivers. The EPA estimates it would cost $50 billion to reclaim abandoned and inactive mine … Continue reading →

Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Mercury, Pollution, Water | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

There are over 300,000 contaminated soil and water sites in the U.S.

Posted on December 6, 2016 by

[ There are too many problems requiring too much energy to solve after oil decline that we should have spent our energy on while it was still bountiful for the sake of future generations.  Along with climate change and nuclear … Continue reading →

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Why human waste should be used for fertilizer

Posted on September 16, 2016 by

[ At John Jeavons Biointensive workshop back in 2003, I learned that phosphorous is limited and mostly being lost to oceans and other waterways after exiting sewage treatment plants.  He said that it’s dangerous if done incorrectly and wasn’t going … Continue reading →

Posted in Soil, Waste, Water | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments