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Recent Posts
- Self-driving cars in San Francisco cause accidents, congestion, and more
- “Star Wars” missile defense won’t stop incoming nukes
- Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
- The Biblical Revelations, critical thinking, and how this affects us today
- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
Category Archives: Pollution
Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014
Preface. At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations. … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution
Tagged agriculture, cover crop, erosion, no-till, peak soil, soil health, U.S. House of representatives
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Chemicals banned in cosmetics
The environmental working group has this to say about cosmetics: “American families assume personal care products on the market today have been tested by the federal government. Unfortunately, the personal care products industry remains largely unregulated. The FDA does not … Continue reading
Posted in Chemicals
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We’ll all be Flint Michigan someday: U.S. water infrastructure is falling apart
NRC. 2006. Drinking Water Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks Committee on Public Water Supply Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks. National Research Council, National Academies Press. [ According to this Free National Research Council report, most water systems and … Continue reading
Posted in Water Infrastructure, Water Pollution
Tagged contamination, disease, failure, infrastructure, water
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External costs of coal: probably over $500 billion per year in USA
Paul R. Epstein, et al. 2011. Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal in “Ecological Economics Reviews.” Robert Costanza, Karin Limburg & Ida Kubiszewski, Eds. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1219: 73–98. This paper tabulates a wide range of … Continue reading
Posted in Chemicals, CO2 and Methane, Coal, Hazardous Waste, Water Pollution
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Biomass Electricity More Polluting Than Coal and Waste Incinerators
Trees, Trash, and Toxics: How Biomass Energy Has Become the New Coal Mary S. Booth, PhD Partnership for Policy Integrity April 2 , 2014 Executive Summary Highlights Because of a perfect storm of lax regulation and regulatory rollbacks , biomass … Continue reading
Posted in Air, Biomass, Hazardous Waste
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Mercury pollution
August 9, 2014. Missing mercury pollution is enough for mass poisoning. NewScientist. New data suggests that we still don’t know where our emissions of toxic mercury end up. Somewhere out there are tens of thousands of tons of missing mercury. … Continue reading
Posted in Gold & Silver, Hazardous Waste
Tagged hazardous waste, mercury, pollution
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Nuclear Winter in China: Chinese Smog will lower food supplies
Scientists liken Chinese smog to ‘nuclear winter’ February 27, 2014. by Kim Kyung-Hoon. Reuters. Air pollution in parts of China is now so extreme it could lead to conditions similar to a “nuclear winter,” scientists say. The smog that covers … Continue reading
Posted in Air
Tagged china, crop failure, nuclear winter
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Pesticides & Parkinson’s in California’s Central Valley
Horowitz, J. 2012. Parkinson’s Alley. Recent studies have found statistical links between pesticide use and an outbreak of Parkinson’s disease in California farm towns. Researchers even know which chemicals are the likely culprits. What’s the government doing about it? Not … Continue reading
Posted in Pesticides
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Algal blooms more toxic due to climate change and crop fertilizer runoff
Paerl, H.W. et al. October 25, 2013. Blooms Bite the Hand That Feeds Them. Science Vol. 342 no. 6157 pp. 433-434 Eutrophication from climate change, dams, higher carbon dioxide concentrations, drought, and nutrients from farm and urban runoff is increasing … Continue reading
Posted in Disease, Water Pollution
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Hazardous Waste Overview
To give you an idea of how much waste is generated, here are some 10+ year old stats from the Department of energy Table AF-2. WASTE FUN FACTS 1 ounce = NOx emissions generated from 3.6 gallons of gasoline 3 … Continue reading
Posted in Hazardous Waste
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