Over half of Britain's landmass is now open to bids for drilling by fossil fuel companies seeking "unconventional hydrocarbons," UK government ministers announced. The new rules make it easier for fracking companies to drill in “protected places” such as national parks and world heritge sites by entrusting the Communities minister with the sole authority to determine if the request meets the criteria of being an "exceptional circumstance." Far worse is the status of wildlife sites which are to receive no specific protection at all.
In Australia the government has okayed the construction of the country’s largest coal mine. UNESCO is concerned with the environmental impact upon the Great Barrier Reef. Although they too produced a list of supposed safeguards the approval waters down precautions and fast tracks its development. The mine requires 12 billion liters of water each year from local rivers and underground aquifers. That’s enough drinking water for every Queenslander for three years. Even ten kilometers away, water tables are expected to drop by over one meter. The burning of coal from Carmichael mine would produce four times the fossil fuel emissions of New Zealand.
While the U.S. has cut its own coal consumption and promotes energy efficiency and cracks down on dirty power plants within its own borders, thereby reducing U.S. carbon pollution, it has increased its coal-export capacity — with coal producers and companies that sell coal seeking to expand that infrastructure even further. Fossil fuel trade has soared under Barack Obama, and threatens to undermine his strategy to reduce the gases blamed for global warming. It also reveals a little-discussed side effect of countries acting alone on a global issue. As the U.S. tries to set a global example by reducing demand for fossil fuels at home, American energy companies are sending more dirty fuels than ever to other parts of the world, exports worth billions of dollars every year. In some cases, these castoffs of America's clean energy push are ending up in places with more lax environmental standards, or where governments are resistant to tackling the emissions responsible for global warming. The U.S. appear to be making more progress on global warming than it actually is, because it shifts some of the pollution — and the burden for cleaning it up — onto another country's balance sheet. Low price coal exports encourage burning coal and discourage the investments in energy efficiency. A sizable portion of the coal exported is via federal coal leasing programs operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that allow private coal companies to mine and sell coal owned by the American Federal government. Using the federal government's method to calculate the social cost of carbon damages expected from publicly owned coal that has been leased during the Obama administration (2.2 billion tons so far), Greenpeace show that one ton of coal has sold for $1.03 on average, but will cause between $22 and $237 in damages to society. The carbon pollution from government owned coal leased during the Obama administration will cause damages estimated at between $52 billion and $530 billion. In contrast, the total amount of revenue generated from those coal lease sales was $2.3 billion.
The political system has been successful. The system succeeded in serving that class for whom the political system was DESIGNED to serve: the capitalist class. The "national interest" is just another code word for the interests of the 0.1%.
If we don't kill capitalism, it will kill us (and is killing us.)
Details from Common Dreams website
In Australia the government has okayed the construction of the country’s largest coal mine. UNESCO is concerned with the environmental impact upon the Great Barrier Reef. Although they too produced a list of supposed safeguards the approval waters down precautions and fast tracks its development. The mine requires 12 billion liters of water each year from local rivers and underground aquifers. That’s enough drinking water for every Queenslander for three years. Even ten kilometers away, water tables are expected to drop by over one meter. The burning of coal from Carmichael mine would produce four times the fossil fuel emissions of New Zealand.
While the U.S. has cut its own coal consumption and promotes energy efficiency and cracks down on dirty power plants within its own borders, thereby reducing U.S. carbon pollution, it has increased its coal-export capacity — with coal producers and companies that sell coal seeking to expand that infrastructure even further. Fossil fuel trade has soared under Barack Obama, and threatens to undermine his strategy to reduce the gases blamed for global warming. It also reveals a little-discussed side effect of countries acting alone on a global issue. As the U.S. tries to set a global example by reducing demand for fossil fuels at home, American energy companies are sending more dirty fuels than ever to other parts of the world, exports worth billions of dollars every year. In some cases, these castoffs of America's clean energy push are ending up in places with more lax environmental standards, or where governments are resistant to tackling the emissions responsible for global warming. The U.S. appear to be making more progress on global warming than it actually is, because it shifts some of the pollution — and the burden for cleaning it up — onto another country's balance sheet. Low price coal exports encourage burning coal and discourage the investments in energy efficiency. A sizable portion of the coal exported is via federal coal leasing programs operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that allow private coal companies to mine and sell coal owned by the American Federal government. Using the federal government's method to calculate the social cost of carbon damages expected from publicly owned coal that has been leased during the Obama administration (2.2 billion tons so far), Greenpeace show that one ton of coal has sold for $1.03 on average, but will cause between $22 and $237 in damages to society. The carbon pollution from government owned coal leased during the Obama administration will cause damages estimated at between $52 billion and $530 billion. In contrast, the total amount of revenue generated from those coal lease sales was $2.3 billion.
The political system has been successful. The system succeeded in serving that class for whom the political system was DESIGNED to serve: the capitalist class. The "national interest" is just another code word for the interests of the 0.1%.
If we don't kill capitalism, it will kill us (and is killing us.)
Details from Common Dreams website
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