writeaboutwarming

August 26, 2013 – Time was when I thought of the EPA as the good guys.   Industry – the bad guys – would once again imperil the water we drink, or the air that we breathe, and the EPA would ride to the rescue.   Something happened ( I believe it’s described as the Bush II administration), and the EPA began to excel at twiddling their thumbs, and little else.   Though twiddling may have lost its luster, I’m still not sure their hearts are really into protecting the environment. Case in point: the new regulations issued by the EPA last week that will reduce air pollution created by “fracked” wells.   But, you say, isn’t it the EPA’s job to issue those very regulations?   Indeed it is, I reply.   Everyone knows that’s their job, except – apparently – the EPA.   Otherwise, why did the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia have to order them to take action?   Yup.   You see, the Environmental Protection Agency is tasked by law wi...

July 8, 2013 – China is reaping what it has sown, and that means they must clean up a mess that has penetrated to the far corners of their fairly large country.   Farmers must now pollinate by hand in one region, because all the bees are dead.   Air quality ranges from poor to barely breathable in many Chinese cities.   Now, the government has announced a “work plan” for cleaning up the groundwater in the North China Plains region. Is there a lesson for the United States in this sad state of affairs?   Many of the chemicals polluting the groundwater in this area are extremely persistent, remaining in the environment far longer than just the days and weeks immediately following their release.   Just as in the U.S., where suspicion runs high regarding the oh-so-secret chemical cocktail employed by frackers to release tight oil, suspicions must finally have boiled over in the North China Plains, because a massive government investigation of the groundwater was...