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August site visit - Green Beacon Brewery Co

Fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry and people thirsty

Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.

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The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office does not currently anticipate trading allocations or entitlements (excluding zero dollar transfers) in the first half of 2013-14.

Up to 300 gigalitres of Commonwealth environmental water is being provided to help improve water quality and flush salt and nutrients from the Murray River, improving conditions for native plants, fish and water birds particularly in the Lower Lakes and the Coorong.

CCTV footage shows the 15-tonne mountain of congealed fat and sanitary products in a sewer in Kingston, south-west London. The massive lard lump was first noticed after the residents of a block of flats nearby were unable to flush their toilets. The 'fatberg' was blasted by high-powered hoses and took three weeks to clear. Thames Water says it's the biggest ever recorded in Britain, and was the size of a bus. They hope people will think twice about what they dump down the drain Continue reading...

Team of sewerage workers took three weeks to clear bus-sized toxic ball of fat that threatened to flood streets with sewage

A sewage worker has become an unlikely hero after taking three weeks to defeat a toxic 15-tonne ball of congealed fat the size of a bus that came close to turning parts of the London borough of Kingston upon Thames into a cesspit.

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Climate change has reduced ice in the Arctic to record lows in the past year, forcing animals to range further in search of food

A starved polar bear found found dead in Svalbard as "little more than skin and bones" perished due to a lack of sea ice on which to hunt seals, according to a renowned polar bear expert.

Climate change has reduced sea ice in the Arctic to record lows in the last year and Dr Ian Stirling, who has studied the bears for almost 40 years and examined the animal, said the lack of ice forced the bear into ranging far and wide in an ultimately unsuccessful search for food.

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A lack of sea ice, caused by global warming, meant the bear was unable to hunt seals and starved, according to an expert who had been monitoring the animal in Svalbard, Norway

• Starved polar bear perished due to record sea-ice melt, says expert Continue reading...

Two Pennsylvanian children will live their lives under a gag order imposed under a $750,000 settlement

• The anti-fracking activist barred from 312.5 sq miles of Pennsylvania

Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.

The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.

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SENG National Newsletter - Issue 3 July 2013

Dismissals of catastrophic methane danger ignore robust science in favour of outdated mythology of climate safety

Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy.

Scientists of different persuasions remain fundamentally divided over whether such a scenario is even plausible. Carolyn Rupple of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gas Hydrates Project told NBC News the scenario is "nearly impossible." Ed Dlugokencky, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) said there has been "no detectable change in Arctic methane emissions over the past two decades." NASA's Gavin Schmidt said that ice core records from previously warm Arctic periods show no indication of such a scenario having ever occurred. Methane hydrate expert Prof David Archer reiterated that "the mechanisms for release operate on time scales of centuries and longer." These arguments were finally distilled in a lengthy, seemingly compelling essay posted on Skeptical Science last Thursday, concluding with utter finality:

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Utilities face 'pitiful' fines despite huge profits, with sewage spills cited as causing particular distress

The most persistent and frequent polluters of England's rivers and beaches are the nation's 10 biggest water companies, an Observer investigation has revealed.

The companies, which are responsible for treating waste water and delivering clean supplies, have been punished for more than 1,000 incidents in the past nine years, but fined a total of only £3.5m.

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Study shows that 1,700 places in the United States are at greater risk of rising sea levels than previously thought

More than 1,700 American cities and towns – including Boston, New York, and Miami – are at greater risk from rising sea levels than previously feared, a new study has found.

By 2100, the future of at least part of these 1,700 locations will be "locked in" by greenhouse gas emissions built up in the atmosphere, the analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday found.

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The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office has released a tender for the Long Term Intervention Monitoring Project.

Environmental water is being provided to the Loddon and Campaspe Rivers and lower Broken Creek for the overarching purpose of improving and maintaining the ecological health and resilience of these systems.

The UK Ladybird Survey has found 26 species that are readily recognisable as ladybirds. Here are some of the common ones, the colourful ones – and alien invaders Continue reading...

Andrew Neil made several errors in discussing our 97% climate consensus paper and global warming on his show

On last week's BBC show Sunday Politics, Andrew Neil hosted UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey for a discussion about climate science and policy. Neil subsequently requested that people provide him with examples of the factual errors in this interview. Given that he began the show with several errors about the paper I co-authored finding a 97 percent consensus in the peer-reviewed literature that humans are causing global warming (the inspiration for the name of our blog), I would be happy to oblige.

Claims #1–4

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SEng Victoria Newsletter - July 2013

Eight out of 10 people in Britain are unable to identify an ash leaf when shown an image of one, according to a survey commissioned by the Woodland Trust. Can you do better?

What tree is this?

Ash

Beech

Elder

What tree is this?

Ash

Sycamore

Maidenhair

What tree is this?

Oak

Elder

Beech

What tree is this?

Ash

Sycamore

Maidenhair

What tree is this?

Silver birch

Horse chestnut

Oak

What tree is this?

Elder

Ash

Maidenhair

What tree is this?

Silver birch

Beech

Oak

What tree is this?

Silver birch

Oak

Elder

2 and above.

Oh dear. Older people are more likely to have better knowledge of trees. 23% of those aged 55 and over can recognise an ash leaf, compared with 10% of 18-24s, and 68% of people older than 55 can recognise an oak leaf, compared with 39% of 18-24s, according to the Wildlife Trust

5 and above.

Not bad, but not great. Older people are more likely to have better knowledge of trees. 23% of those aged 55 and over can recognise an ash leaf, compared with 10% of 18-24s, and 68% of people older than 55 can recognise an oak leaf, compared with 39% of 18-24s, according to the Wildlife Trust

7 and above.

Well done. Older people are more likely to have better knowledge of trees. 23% of those aged 55 and over can recognise an ash leaf, compared with 10% of 18-24s, and 68% of people older than 55 can recognise an oak leaf, compared with 39% of 18-24s, according to the Wildlife Trust

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Metaldehyde in slug poison and fertilisers is showing up in drinking water, while natural garden predators are dying out

Last month, it was revealed that levels of a toxic pesticide more than 100 times the EU limit were present in a source of English drinking water. The discovery of record levels of metaldehyde – a chemical used in slug pesticides – was reported by Natural England and the Environment Agency at the River Stour, which supplies water to homes in Essex and Suffolk. There's currently no treatment method available to extract this chemical from drinking water – once it's there, we're drinking it.

This isn't a sudden unexpected situation. The same problem occurred in many areas across Britain last autumn – when slug numbers exploded after the wet spring and summer, conditions that we're seeing emerge again. The problem was identified in autumn 2007, when new analytical techniques allowed testing for metaldehyde, and since then a voluntary stewardship programme with guidelines for the use of the chemical has been instituted. Yet this clearly isn't working.

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