Tom Philpott - Are Pesticides Behind Massive Bee Die-Offs?

For the German chemical giant Bayer, neonicotinoid pesticides—synthetic derivatives of nicotine that attack insects' nervous systems—are big business. In 2010, the company reeled in 789 million euros (more than $1 billion) in revenue from its flagship neonic products imidacloprid and clothianidin. The company's latest quarterly report shows that its "seed treatment" segment—the one that includes neonics—is booming. In the quarter that ended on September 30, sales for the company's seed treatments jumped 28 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Such results no doubt bring cheer to Bayer's shareholders. But for honeybees—whose population has come under severe pressure from a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder—the news is decidedly less welcome. A year ago on Grist, I told the story of how this class of pesticides had gained approval from the EPA in a twisted process based on deeply flawed (by the EPA's own account) Bayer-funded science. A little later, I reported that research by the USDA's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis, suggests that even tiny exposure to neonics can seriously harm honeybees.

Now a study from Purdue University researchers casts further suspicion on Bayer's money-minting concoctions. To understand the new paper—published in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One—it's important to know how seed treatments work, which is like this: The pesticides are applied directly to seeds before planting, and then get absorbed by the plant's vascular system. They are "expressed" in the pollen and nectar, where they attack the nervous systems of insects. Bayer targeted its treatments at the most prolific US crop—corn—and since 2003, corn farmers have been blanketing millions of acres of farmland with neonic-treated seeds.

Read More:

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/purdue-study-implicates-bayer-pesticide-bee-die-offs?

Michael Wertz & Laura Conley - Climate Change, Migration And Conflict: Addressing Complex Crisis Scenarios In The 21st Century

The costs and consequences of climate change on our world will define the 21st century. Even if nations across our planet were to take immediate steps to rein in carbon emissions—an unlikely prospect—a warmer climate is inevitable. As the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, noted in 2007, human-created “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.”

As these ill effects progress they will have serious implications for U.S. national security interests as well as global stability—extending from the sustainability of coastal military installations to the stability of nations that lack the resources, good governance, and resiliency needed to respond to the many adverse consequences of climate change. And as these effects accelerate, the stress will impact human migration and conflict around the world.

It is difficult to fully understand the detailed causes of migration and economic and political instability, but the growing evidence of links between climate change, migration, and conflict raise plenty of reasons for concern. This is why it’s time to start thinking about new and comprehensive answers to multifaceted crisis scenarios brought on or worsened by global climate change. As Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, argues, “The question we must continuously ask ourselves in the face of scientific complexity and uncertainty, but also growing evidence of climate change, is at what point precaution, common sense or prudent risk management demands action.”

Read More:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/01/climate_migration.html

Karl Grossman - Russia's Radioactive Phobos-Grunt Space Probe Fell to Earth Sunday

Russia’s Phobos-Grunt space probe, with 22 pounds of radioactive Cobalt-57 on board, fell to Earth Sunday. The probe was launched in November to go to Phobos, a moon of Mars, but its rocket system failed to fire it onward from low Earth orbit.

There is some confusion as to where pieces of the 14.9-ton probe fell. The Associated Press reported Sunday that “pieces…landed in water 2,350 kilometers west of Wellington Island in Chile’s south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said in a statement.” The AP dispatch, datelined Moscow, quoted a spokesman, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, as saying that this “deserted ocean area is where Russia guides its discarded space cargo ships serving the International Space Station.”

But, the article went on: “RIA Novosti news agency, however, cited Russian ballistic experts who said the fragments fell over a broader patch of Earth’s surface, spreading from the Atlantic and including the territory of Brazil. It said the midpoint of the crash zone was located in the Brazilian state of Goias.”

“The $170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft’s structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the Earth anyway,” said the article by Vladimir Isachenkov.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/15-7

John LaForge - Fukushima's Owner Adds Insult to Injury - Claims Radioactive Fallout Isn't Theirs

In the amoral milieu of the corporate bottom line, you can't blame Tokyo Electric Power Co. for trying.

Tepco owns the six-reactor Fukushima complex that was wrecked by Japan's March 11 earthquake and smashed by the resulting tsunami. It faces more than $350 billion in compensation and clean-up costs, as well as likely prosecution for withholding crucial information that may have prevented some radiation exposures and for operating the giant station after being warned about the inadequacy of its protections against disasters.

So, when the company was hauled into Tokyo District Court October 31 by the Sunfield Golf Club, which was demanding decontamination of the golf course, Tepco lawyers tried something novel. They claimed the company isn't liable because it no longer "owned" the radioactive poisons that were spewed from its destroyed reactors.

Read More:

http://www.truth-out.org/fukushimas-owner-adds-insult-injury/1325868945

Well Blowout, Toxic Water: Fracking Disasters on the Rise

The process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, has recently been linked to earthquakes in Ohio, and fracking chemicals were confirmed in Wyoming groundwater just a month ago.

On Friday afternoon, The Calgary Herald reports, fracking at one oil well in Alberta caused a blowout at another oil well a kilometer away.

Fluids blasted deep into the earth under high pressure appear to have intersected underground with the second well, forcing oil up through the well bore at explosive rates.

A witness saw what appeared to be oil and chemicals spewing into the air.

"We're still not quite sure what happened," said Scott Ratushny, Midway Energy's chief executive. "We're still investigating it, but something allowed the frack to carry into the same zone, 130 to 140 metres away (underground),"

The company, through Canyon Technical Services, was finishing a 16-stage hydraulic fracture at about 1,400 metres when the rupture occurred. Approximately 50 cubic metres of oil, fracturing fluid, nitrogen and sand were spilled on the surface and have been recovered from the site, Ratushny said.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/17-3

Amitabh Pal - Renewables Now Surpass Nuclear Power in the US

This is a good way to get 2012 rolling: A recent report reveals that for the first time renewable sources have outdone nuclear power in the United States.

“Renewable energy sources—wind, water, solar and others—passed nuclear generation as a share of U.S. power in September, according to the Energy Information Administration,” reports the San Francisco Business Times. “The EIA report showed 6.944 quadrillion Btus, or ‘quads,’ of energy generated from renewable sources in the first nine months of 2011, compared with 6.173 quads from nuclear power.”

Now, the “renewable” category here is a bit of a catch-all, since it includes sources that are somewhat dubious from a clean energy standpoint, such as biofuels. But, still, the fact that nuclear power is now contributing a smaller amount to the national grid than renewables is of major significance. We are on our way to a green energy future faster than many of us had imagined

Read More:

http://www.progressive.org/renewables.html

Goodbye, Fish: Rising CO2 Direct Threat to Sea Life

New research shows the disastrous consequences the world's rising carbon dioxide levels are having on ocean life.

The Australian Associated Press reports that the new research point to ocean problems beyond acidification.  From Professor Phillip Munday, one of the researchers:

''We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption, as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons. But the CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' central nervous systems.''

Agence France-Presse reports:

The team began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water.

They found that while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water, meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish," said Munday.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/16-6

P K Sundaram - A Fresh Indo-US Deal, To Subvert The Nuclear Liability Act

The United States and India have formed a Joint Working Group tasked to find ways for the US corporates to avoid nuclear liability in case of an accident. It is deeply disturbing to see the two countries, that are never tired of boasting their democratic credentials, blatantly undermining the constitutionally mandated suppliers liability provision for the nuclear companies.This is the third such attempt to get away with the liability clause. The first such attempt was made during legislating the Nuclear Liability Act in 2010. The government’s attempts to omit the supplier’s liability were exposed and resisted by sustained public pressure in and outside the parliament. Again in November 2011, while formulating the Rules to supplement this Act of the parliament, the government limited supplier’s liability to a “product liability period” of mere 5 years ! India’s eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee has called this move ultra vires and constitutionally invalid.

Not only the US, even Russia has refused to abide by any liability mechanism. In fact, the contention on nuclear liability was a key reason why the agreement for Koodankulam 3 & 4 reactors could not be inked during the Indian PM’s recent Russia visit. While the US keeps reminding of engineering the 2008 NSG exemption for India and, Russia has even tacitly offered to ease the impasse over the supplies of Enrichment and Reprocessing (ENR) technologies for India. France is also reported to have expressed strong reservations over the suppliers’ liability provisions.

Read More:

http://www.dianuke.org/now-a-fresh-indo-us-deal-to-subvert-the-nuclear-liability-act/

Richard Heinberg - Geopolitical Implications Of “Peak Everything”

From competition among hunter-gatherers for wild game to imperialist wars over precious minerals, resource wars have been fought throughout history; today, however, the competition appears set to enter a new—and perhaps unprecedented—phase. As natural resources deplete, and as the Earth’s climate becomes less stable, the world’s nations will likely compete ever more desperately for access to fossil fuels, minerals, agricultural land, and water.

Nations need increasing amounts of energy and raw materials to produce economic growth, but the costs of supplying new increments of energy and materials are burgeoning. In many cases, lower-quality resources with high extraction costs are all that remain. Securing access to these resources often requires military expenditures as well. Meanwhile the struggle for the control of resources is re-aligning political power balances throughout the world.

This game of resource “musical chairs” could well bring about conflict and privation on a scale never seen before in world history. Only a decisive policy shift toward resource conservation, climate change mitigation, and economic cooperation seems likely to produce a different outcome.

Read More:

http://www.postcarbon.org/article/660520-geopolitical-implications-of-peak-everything

David Atkins - More proof the system is broken, bee colony collapse edition

That the panicked news stories about it have died down doesn\'t mean that the honeybee die-offs due to "colony collapse disorder" have gone away. It\'s still happening with a vengeance, and it\'s almost certain that pesticides are to blame:

Although news about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has died down, commercial beekeepers have seen average population losses of about 30 percent each year since 2006, said Paul Towers, of the Pesticide Action Network. Towers was one of the organizers of a conference that brought together beekeepers and environmental groups this week to tackle the challenges facing the beekeeping industry and the agricultural economy by proxy.

"We are inching our way toward a critical tipping point," said Steve Ellis, secretary of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board (NHBAB) and a beekeeper for 35 years. Last year he had so many abnormal bee die-offs that he\'ll qualify for disaster relief from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In addition to continued reports of CCD -- a still somewhat mysterious phenomenon in which entire bee colonies literally disappear, alien-abduction style, leaving not even their dead bodies behind -- bee populations are suffering poor health in general, and experiencing shorter life spans and diminished vitality. And while parasites, pathogens, and habitat loss can deal blows to bee health, research increasingly points to pesticides as the primary culprit.

Read More:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-proof-system-is-broken-bee-colony.html

Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline

“Every man in my family has been locked up. Most days I feel like it doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try—that’s my fate, too.” —11th-grade African American student, Berkeley, Calif.

This young man isn’t being cynical or melodramatic; he’s articulating a terrifying reality for many of the children and youth sitting in our classrooms—a reality that is often invisible or misunderstood. Some have seen the growing numbers of security guards and police in our schools as unfortunate but necessary responses to the behavior of children from poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods. But what if something more ominous is happening? What if many of our students—particularly our African American, Latina/o, Native American, and Southeast Asian children—are being channeled toward prison and a lifetime of second-class status?

Read More:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_02/edit262.shtml

How the Spike in Solar Flares May Affect Earth in 2012

According to NASA, A solar flare is defined as a “sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness”, which occurs when “magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.”

For centuries, solar flares have caused various calamities on Earth, such as disrupted communications, blackouts and unusual lights appearing in the sky.

In 1859, the most powerful solar flare in recorded history hit Earth and was observed by the English amateur astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington. It became known as the “Carrington Event”, or as the “Carrington Super Flare”.

The event occurred during solar cycle 10, the tenth solar cycle since 1755.

The powerful solar storm not only created auroras across the world, but also interrupted telegraphs for weeks. That was back in the mid-nineteenth century.

Can you imagine, with the modern reliance on satellites, how devastating such a major solar storm could be today?

Read More:

http://crisisboom.com/2012/01/05/how-the-spike-in-solar-flares-may-affect-earth-in-2012/#more-9632

Joseph J. Mangano and Janette D. Sherman - An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Follows Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There A Correlation

The multiple nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima plants beginning on

March 11, 2011, are releasing large amounts of airborne radioactivity that has

spread throughout Japan and to other nations; thus, studies of contamination

and health hazards are merited. In the United States, Fukushima fallout

arrived just six days after the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns. Some

samples of radioactivity in precipitation, air, water, and milk, taken by the

U.S. government, showed levels hundreds of times above normal; however,

the small number of samples prohibits any credible analysis of temporal

trends and spatial comparisons. U.S. health officials report weekly deaths by

age in 122 cities, about 25 to 35 percent of the national total. Deaths rose

4.46 percent from 2010 to 2011 in the 14 weeks after the arrival of Japanese

fallout, compared with a 2.34 percent increase in the prior 14 weeks. The

number of infant deaths after Fukushima rose 1.80 percent, compared

with a previous 8.37 percent decrease. Projecting these figures for the entire

United States yields 13,983 total deaths and 822 infant deaths in excess of

the expected. These preliminary data need to be followed up, especially in the

light of similar preliminary U.S. mortality findings for the four months after

Chernobyl fallout arrived in 1986, which approximated final figures.

Read More:

http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf

Jill Richardson - We've Lost Nearly All of Our Wild Foods -- What Happened? And What Are We Missing?

A few days from now, a single bluefin tuna will make international headlines when it sells for an ungodly amount of money -- perhaps more than $100,000 -- at Tokyo's Tsukiji market. And while the high price of the first bluefin of the year will be extraordinary, the rarity, and thus the prestige and high pricetag of bluefin in general, provides a clue to humans' dietary history. Once upon a time, wild foods were a regular and beloved part of the American diet. Today, the American epicure might dine on foraged mushrooms and ramps, but for many of us, fish are the last wild food we eat. What happened? And what are we missing?

Georgia Pellegrini, a chef who has worked in elite restaurants in New York and France, decided to answer this question for herself when she set out to hunt her own food. As her new book's title implies -- Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time -- she entered into a masculine realm in which she was often the only woman. Pellegrini traveled across the United States and even England, hunting everything from squirrel to elk. As much as she stands out as a woman, she also stands out among the local and sustainable food movement. (An anthropologist recently pointed out that the local food movement "has been reticent to embrace hunting as an integral part of sustainable eating.")

As a chef, Pellegrini focuses on her meal's flavor more than many other sustainable food writers. At one point, while contemplating pulling the trigger to shoot a javelina, Pellegrini says, "I wonder if I had to work hard enough for this. I wonder if I had to exert myself enough... Then I wonder how javelina taste."

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153568/we%27ve_lost_nearly_all_of_our_wild_foods_--_what_happened_and_what_are_we_missing

Christine Shearer - Will Fossil Fuel Companies Face Liability for Climate Change?

In a recent article in National Journal, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) President Tim Phillips said there is no question that AFP and others like it have been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science: “We’ve made great headway. What it means for candidates on the Republican side is, if you … buy into green energy or you play footsie on this issue, you do so at your political peril.”

AFP is a section 501(c)(4) organization, meaning it does not have to disclose its donors, but has been tied to significant funding from the Koch Family Foundations - founded by the billionaire Koch brothers of Koch Industries – as well as smaller donations from companies like ExxonMobil. Koch Industries and ExxonMobil are among the largest funders of studies questioning climate change science, often drawn upon by conservative politicians to legitimize their view that regulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is not needed because the science is still under debate.

Read More:

http://cchronicle.com/2011/12/will-fossil-fuel-companies-face-liability-for-climate-change/

Harvey Wasserman - 2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/2012-is-the-year-to-final_b_1180444.html

The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima's radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published in the International Journal of Health Services.

Germany and Japan, the world's third and fourth largest economies, along with numerous others countries, have definitively turned away from the "Peaceful Atom."

But it hasn't yet been buried. That's up to us. And 2012 is the year to do it.

We are already very close. The mythical "Nuclear Renaissance" has been gutted by Fukushima, low gas prices and the escalating Solartopian revolution in green energy. Solar panels, wind turbines, sustainable bio-fuels, geo-thermal, ocean thermal, increased efficiency and much more have simply priced atomic energy out of the market.

There is virtually no private money to build new reactors -- except where there are huge government subsidies and guarantees. In 2012 we must make those all go away.

Likewise, there are increasingly powerful grassroots movements focused on shutting reactors that still operate. Germany has shut 7, and the rest will be gone by 2022, if not earlier. In Japan, just 11 of more than 50 reactors now operate. Because local governments can prevent nukes from re-opening once they go down for refueling, Japan could emerge from 2012 without a single nuke on line.

The biggest US battle is at Vermont Yankee. March 21 is D-Day for forcing a nuclear corporation to honor a solemn contract it signed with a sovereign state, agreeing to shut down if the state doesn't approve continued operations. The legislature wants the reactor shut, which Entergy now refuses to do.

Click to read more ...

Brian Moench - Utah Doctors Join "Occupy" Movement

Published on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/27-3

by Brian Moench

Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke--strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.

Utah's Bingham Canyon mineMost of Utah’s cities are in violation of many of the EPA's national air quality standards, and for several days during a typical winter Utah is plagued by the worst air pollution in the country. The American Lung Association routinely gives Utah’s largest cities an “F” for our air quality. Last February, Forbes magazine, hardly a cheerleader for excessive environmental protection, rated Salt Lake City as the nineth most toxic city in the country, and the biggest contributor to that ranking was the mining and smelting operations at the Bingham Canyon mine, run by London-based mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/Kennecott (RTK).

Click to read more ...

Space Daily - First ever direct measurement of the Earth's rotation

by Staff Writers, Space Daily
Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 28, 2011

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_ever_direct_measurement_of_the_Earths_rotation_999.html

The Earth wobbles. Like a spinning top touched in mid-spin, its rotational axis fluctuates in relation to space. This is partly caused by gravitation from the sun and the moon. At the same time, the Earth's rotational axis constantly changes relative to the Earth's surface. On the one hand, this is caused by variation in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and wind.

These elements combine in an effect known as the Chandler wobble to create polar motion. Named after the scientist who discovered it, this phenomenon has a period of around 435 days. On the other hand, an event known as the "annual wobble" causes the rotational axis to move over a period of a year.

This is due to the Earth's elliptical orbit around the sun. These two effects cause the Earth's axis to migrate irregularly along a circular path with a radius of up to six meters.

Capturing these movements is crucial to create a reliable coordinate system that can feed navigation systems or project trajectory paths in space travel.

Click to read more ...

John C.K. Daly - Revolution in Solar Energy Technology? Cheap Quantum Dot Solar Paint

By John C.K. Daly

 

Global Research, December 28, 2011

Oilprice.com

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28383

Researchers have reduced the preparation time of quantum dot solar cells to less than an hour by changing the form to a one-coat quantum dot solar paint.

How?

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are coated with cadmium sulfide (CdS) or cadmium selenide (CdSe.) The composite nanoparticles, when mixed with a solvent, form a paste that can be applied as one-step paint to a transparent conducting material, which creates electricity when exposed to light.

Although the paint form is currently about five times less efficient than the highest recorded efficiency for the multifilm form, the researchers predict that its efficiency can be improved, which could lead to a simple and economically viable way to prepare solar cells.

The scientists responsible for the research breakthrough, Mathew P. Genovese of the University of Waterloo in Canada, with Ian V. Lightcap and Prashant V. Kamat of the Radiation Laboratory and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, will be publishing their study in an upcoming issue of the American Chemical Society's publication Nano.

During an interview with PhysOrg.com Professor Kamat, John A. Zahm Professor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry and an investigator in Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) and who led the research, explained, "Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals which exhibit size-dependent optical and electronic properties. In a quantum dot sensitized solar cell, the excitation of semiconductor quantum dot or semiconductor nanocrystal is followed by electron injection into TiO2 nanoparticles. These electrons are then transferred to the collecting electrode surface to generate photocurrent.

Click to read more ...

Nicholas Kusnetz - Oh, Canada’s Become a Home for Record Fracking

December 28, 2011 by ProPublica

http://www.propublica.org/article/oh-canadas-become-a-home-for-record-fracking

 

by Nicholas Kusnetz

Early last year, deep in the forests of northern British Columbia, workers for Apache Corp. performed what the company proclaimed was the biggest hydraulic fracturing operation ever.

The project used 259 million gallons of water and 50,000 tons of sand to frack 16 gas wells side by side. It was "nearly four times larger than any project of its nature in North America," Apache boasted.

The record didn't stand for long. By the end of the year, Apache and its partner, Encana, topped it by half at a neighboring site.

As furious debate over fracking continues in the United States, it is instructive to look at how a similar gas boom is unfolding for our neighbor to the north.

To a large extent, the same themes have emerged as Canada struggles to balance the economic benefits drilling has brought with the reports of water contamination and air pollution that have accompanied them.

The Canadian boom has differed in one regard: The western provinces' exuberant embrace of large-scale fracking offers a vision of what could happen elsewhere if governments clear away at least some of the regulatory hurdles to growth.

Even as some officials have questioned the wisdom of doing so, Alberta and British Columbia have dueled to draw investment by offering financial incentives and loosening rules. The result has been some of the most intensive drilling anywhere.

"There definitely is concern on the part of people living in northeast B.C. on the scale of developments, which are quite significant already and are only in their infancy,"said Ben Parfitt, an analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a research institute that promotes environmental sustainability. "We are seeing some of the largest fracking operations anywhere on earth."

Canada's eastern regions have proceeded more cautiously. In March, Quebec placed a moratorium on shale development pending further study. Protesters have taken to the streets in New Brunswick demanding the same.

Click to read more ...