Earth News

August/September 2011
Vol. 4, No. 6, Issue 38: To press 7/11/11 theorderoftheearth.com Please Subscribe
Susquehanna River
Most in Danger
Page 2
Torbert Marcellus
Task Force
Page 3
Return of the
Wasteland
Page 4
Gas Drilling
Case Study
Page 7
Momentum Grows
to Ban Fracking
Page 9
Climate: Ocean
Acidification
Page 10
Iona Conner met with Melinda Hughes-Wert of Nature Abounds on July 9
th
. Melinda will work on getting funding for
developing a statewide network of Pennsylvanians who want to see changes made in the way drilling is done here. She will
also arrange conference calls and start planning an event like the New York EPIC event below while creating a centralized
clearinghouse with Web pages to help everyone work together. Melinda is creating a database of interested organizations
while Iona will continue creating a database of groups or individuals who want to see total bans on fracking and drilling.
Contact Melinda at Melinda@NatureAbounds.org and Iona at IonaConner@pa.net if you want to work with them.
Earth News
21431 Marlin Circle
Shade Gap, PA 17255
www.iloveearthnews.com
BlueGreen Alliance and
Apollo Alliance Merge,
Strengthen Green Economy
By Andrea Peacock
AlterNet: May 5, 2011
BROWNING, Montana Nowhere
in the West does the rolling sea of the
high plains meet the mountains with such
dramatic efect as in northwestern Mon-
tana. State Highway 2 stretches through
the northern Hi-Line for miles of coulees
and intermittent creeks, antelope, bufalo
and Plains Indian country, crossing the
seemingly endless, expansive prairie that
gives the Big Sky Country its name, before
crashing abruptly into the Rocky Mountain
Front. A patchwork of national park and
national forest, reservation and rangeland,
the sparsely-populated Front provides one
of the last best refuges in the lower 48 states
for grizzly bears and shelters the nation's
largest bighorn sheep herd. A great span of
wilderness totaling fve million acres that
extends from the state's capital in Helena
to the Canadian border, the Front hosts ev-
ery single species of animal that lived here
when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
arrived 200 years ago, with the exception of
free-ranging bison.
Oil and gas companies have coveted
the Rocky Mountain Front known to ge-
ologists as the Montana Trust Belt for
decades. Te kind of violent tectonics re-
sponsible for this dramatic scenery tends
to open channels for mineralization and
leave pockets for oil and gas reservoirs. Te
U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 2002
that the Belt might harbor some 8.6 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas, 109 million bar-
rels of oil and 240 million barrels of natural
gas liquids (heavier hydrocarbons like pro-
pane, butane and ethane). Environmen-
talists argue these amounts are miniscule
compared to our national needs; industry
folks counter that every bit helps. But no
one really knows what lies underground
because in 2006 Congress banned leasing
along the Front.
Te ban capped of a 30-year campaign
to Save the Front (the rallying cry of the co-
alition of ranchers, outftters and environ-
mentalists who oppose drilling there) but
probably had less to do with their political
power and nearly everything to do with the
Blackfeet Nation.
Te Blackfeet reservation sits at the
north end of the Front, straddling the foot-
hills abutting Glacier National Park to the
west. Te Blackfeet are large people im-
posing in stature and big-hearted, a physi-
cal and spiritual match to the landscape.
One of only six tribes in the United States
whose reservation occupies their ancestral
homeland, their 19
th
-century reputation
as ferce and fearsome warriors survives
to this day. Te Blackfoot Confederacy
includes three groups in Canada, with the
Blackfeet (or South Piegan, or Pikuni) the
sole tribe settling south of the border. Te
Photo by Andrea Peacock
Chief Mountain is sacred to the Blackfeet and the tribal council has banned devel-
opment including oil and gas within fve miles of the place.
How a Gas- and Oil-Rich Area
of Montana Wilderness
Was Saved From Drilling
See Montana page 6
A Truly EPIC No-Frack Event
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
May 26, 2011 (ENS) Two
coalitions focused on creat-
ing good green jobs each
having labor unions and
environmental organiza-
tions as members today
joined forces to build a
stronger movement to create
good jobs and produce clean
energy in the 21
st
-century
economy, the two groups
said in a joint statement.
While the formal merger
was to take place on July 1,
the BlueGreen Alliance and
the Apollo Alliance said,
Starting right now, we
speak with one voice. We
will merge to become the
BlueGreen Alliance, which
will be home to the Apollo
Alliance project.
Together, the BlueGreen
Alliance and the Apollo
Alliance project will engage
with labor, environmental,
business and community
leaders across the country
to advance a bold vision of
how to transform our ener-
gy future and, at the same
time, create good jobs and
rebuild our economy, the
organizations proclaimed.
The BlueGreen Alliance
is a national partnership of
labor unions and environ-
mental organizations work-
ing to expand the number
and quality of jobs in the
green economy.
Launched in 2006 by the
United Steelworkers and
the Sierra Club, the Blue-
Green Alliance now unites
10 U.S. labor unions and
four of the largest U.S. envi-
ronmental organizations
and their 14 million mem-
bers and supporters in
pursuit of good jobs, a clean
environment and a 21
st
-
century economy.
The four environmental
organizations in the Blue-
Green Alliance are: the Nat-
ural Resources Defense
Council, National Wildlife
Federation, Sierra Club and
the Union of Concerned
Scientists.
The Apollo Alliance, a
Photo courtesy Abound Solar
Production of cadmium-telluride solar cells at the Abound Solar manufacturing fa-
cility in Longmont, Colorado, June 2010.
See BlueGreen page 13
Join a Pennsylvania Gas-Drilling Activist Network
By Mathew McDermot
Treehugger via AlterNet: June 30, 2011
We knew this might be coming
for the last three months: New Jersey
has become the frst state in the U.S.
to enact a statewide ban on hydraulic
fracturing for natural gas, popularly
known as fracking. Te vote in the
state senate was 31-1 and in the as-
sembly, 56-11. All that is required for
the bill to become law is the signature
of governor Chris Christie.
State senator Bob Gordon (D-Ber-
gen) said New Jersey has now "sent a
strong message to surrounding states
and to the nation that a ban on frack-
ing is necessary to protect public
health." Gordon added: "Any benefts
of gas production simply do not justify
the many potential dangers associated
with fracking such as pollution to our
lakes, streams and drinking water sup-
plies and the release of airborne pol-
lutants. We should not wait until our
natural resources are destroyed to act."
(Food & Water Watch)
NJ First State to Ban Fracking
By Sue Smith-Heavenrich
Candor, New York
On June 25
th
a couple thou-
sand people headed to Ithaca
College for the EPIC No Frack
Event a day-long teach in that
featured 45 speakers, 10 musical
groups and six movies. Scientists,
activists, lawyers, farmers, econ-
omists and frack-activists shared
their news and views about
everything from community
organizing to how the EPA mod-
els risk management.
The event was the brainchild
of Jeff and Jodi Andrysick who
premiered their new film, 'Water
isnt Water Anymore.' The
Pulteney farmers never intended
to be environmental activist
filmmakers. But when Chesa-
peake Energy applied for a per-
mit to dispose of drilling waste in
an old gas well near their farm,
they realized they had to do
something to protect their future.
Over the past year the couple has
managed to squeeze filming
between farm chores, barely
completing final edits in time for
their EPIC No-Frack premier.
Simona Perry, who studies
community sociology, talked
about how shale gas drilling is
fracturing communities along
the Susquehanna River in Penn-
sylvania. The first people who
suffer the impacts of drilling are
those who live in rural commu-
nities, she said. Thats because
they live right where the gas is
being extracted.
In the past four years, Penn-
sylvania has experienced an
exponential rise in the number
of shale gas permits from 99
drilling permits in 2007 to 3,445
permits in 2010. In Bradford
County, about a half-hours drive
from Ithaca, the increasing num-
ber of well pads has removed
land that was used to grow crops
and timber or provided habitat
for wildlife. In addition to the
nearly 16,000 acres converted to
well pads another 7,500 acres has
been cleared for pipelines, access
roads and pipe yards, with close
to 200 acres converted to gravel
quarries.
By the end of 2011 some
37,000 acres will have been con-
verted to gas use from other land
use, Perry said. Manufacturers,
especially those dependent on
timber products, are having a
hard time finding local lumber.
Thats because trees are being
ground to sawdust for use in dis-
posal of drilling wastes and
because often trees cut for well
pads and right of ways are pushed
into unsorted piles or mixed with
stones and other debris, making
them unusable.
Gas developments have
brought many changes to the
rural towns in Bradford County,
forcing long-time residents to
reevaluate what they knew about
their local government and their
neighbors. When you cant
drink water from your faucet, it
affects your sense of security and
trust, Perry said.
Over the past two years Perry
asked dairy and small farmers to
document how their lives are
changing, through photography
and writing. Many people wrote
about the quality of life that
brought them there: clean water,
fresh air, fertile soil and the desire
to pass their farms and land on
to their children.
Winona Hauter, executive
director of Food and Water
Watch, echoed similar senti-
ments when she declared, We
cant afford to have America be
fracked! She debunked a num-
ber of industry arguments sup-
porting shale gas extraction and
the use of hydraulic fracturing to
release the methane. We need
government to stop being silent
on the fracking issue, she said.
As a result of all the drilling in
rural Wyoming, the air no longer
meets the clean air standards,
Hauter said. Then theres the
water Its time to talk about
the real damage of fracking, she
said. We cant afford to use mil-
lions of gallons of fresh water to
frack with.
Dr. Stephen Penningroth
explained that EPA measures risk
See EPIC page 12
Photo by Sue Heavenrich
The June 25
th
EPIC No Frack event brought together speakers, flmmakers and musicians from
across the nation to speak out against hydro-fracking in New York .
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 2
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Susquehanna River Most Endangered Due to Fracking
WASHINGTON, D.C., May
17, 2011 (ENS) The most
endangered river in the United
States is at risk from natural gas
development and the hazards
associated with hydraulic frac-
turing, or fracking, for the sec-
ond year running, according the
American Rivers annual list of
the countrys 10 most endan-
gered rivers, released today.
The clean rivers advocacy
group placed the Susquehanna
River at the top of this years list,
citing the rush to develop natural
gas reserves in the region with-
out considering the risk to clean
water and public health. Last
years most endangered river was
the Upper Delaware, also threat-
ened by natural gas extraction.
Andrew Fahlund, senior vice
president of conservation at
American Rivers, said, This
years list of Americas Most
Endangered Rivers is a clear
reminder that, if we dont protect
and restore our rivers, public
safety, the economy and the envi-
ronment will suffer grave conse-
quences.
On the Susquehanna River,
which runs through New York,
Pennsylvania and Maryland, the
fracking process requires taking
large amounts of water from riv-
ers and streams, which is then
mixed with sand and toxic chem-
icals and pumped underground
to extract the natural gas.
The Susquehanna provides
drinking water for more than six
million people. Current facilities
cannot adequately treat the high-
ly toxic wastewater that is gener-
ated and there are insufficient
government regulations to ensure
the wastewater doesnt contami-
nate drinking water supplies.
Fracking poses one of the
greatest risks our nations rivers
have faced in decades, said Fahl-
und. We are taking a major
gamble on the clean drinking
water for millions of Ameri-
cans.
American Rivers today called
on the Susquehanna River Basin
Commission and the states of
New York and Pennsylvania to
issue a moratorium on natural
gas drilling-related permits until
companies can prove they can
operate without damage to the
river and clean water supplies.
American Rivers also called
on Congress to remove the loop-
holes that have allowed the natu-
ral gas industry to avoid basic
standards for public and envi-
ronmental health.
This year American Rivers
added a special mention on the
2011 list for the Mississippi River,
given the current record flood-
ing.
The group pointed to out-
dated flood management strate-
gies and over-reliance on levees
that have contributed to the
record flood damage.
We need to give the river
more room to move, said Fahl-
und. Unless we restore our nat-
ural defenses, we will burden
future generations with increas-
ingly disastrous floods.
While levees and floodwalls
will continue to make sense in
some heavily-populated areas,
their overuse actually causes
flood levels to rise as the river
channel is narrowed and water
has nowhere to go but up mak-
ing flooding worse for commu-
nities downstream. Levees
should be our last line of defense,
not our only line of defense, he
said.
American Rivers recommends
instead a strategy that combines
structural flood protection solu-
tions like levees with natural
defenses like healthy wetlands
and floodplains that absorb
floodwaters.
Healthy rivers are great assets
and give communities so many
benefits, including clean water
and natural flood protection,
said Fahlund.
The daily discharge of 1.2 bil-
lion gallons of undisinfected
sewage effluent into the Chicago
River system threatens public
health and has earned the river
fourth place on the annual list of
Americas Most Endangered Riv-
ers.
The sewage effluent, released
by the Metropolitan Water Rec-
lamation District (MWRD),
threatens public health and the
citys environmental reputation.
The effluent makes up 70 per-
cent of the water in the Chicago
River system.
Supporting over six million
residents regionally, the Chicago
River flows through the nations
third largest city. Tens of millions
of dollars have been invested in
river access and improvement
including $100 million by Chi-
cago and the Chicago Park Dis-
trict in the last 10 years.
American Rivers called on the
Illinois Pollution Control Board
to approve the proposed water
quality standards for the Chicago
River that have not been reviewed
in more than two decades. These
standards would require the
MWRD to disinfect sewage efflu-
ent.
Its unacceptable that the
people of Chicago are being
denied basic, modern disinfec-
tion techniques used by nearly
every other city in the country,
said Gary Belan of American
Rivers. This as an opportunity
not only to protect public health
but to make a clean and healthy
Chicago River the centerpiece of
a revitalized waterfront and
world-class city.
Frankly, there isnt really a
choice, said Ann Alexander,
senior attorney with the Natural
Resources Defense Council. A
century ago it might have been
OK to dump in the Chicago
River but the Clean Water Act
simply doesnt allow the water-
way to be used as a sewer or toi-
let. Its time for the regulators
tasked with keeping the river
clean to live up to the task.
Americas Most
Endangered Rivers 2011
SPECIAL MENTION: Mis-
sissippi River. Threat: Outdated
flood-management
OSusquehanna River (NY,
PA, MD) Threat: Natural gas
extraction
OBristol Bay (AK) Threat:
Massive copper and gold mine
ORoanoke River (VA, NC)
Threat: Uranium mining
OChicago River (IL) Threat:
Sewage pollution
OYuba River (CA) Threat:
Hydropower dams
OGreen River (WA) Threat:
Exploratory drilling and mine
development
OHoback River (WY)
Threat: Natural gas extraction
OBlack Warrior River (AL)
Threat: Coal mining
OSt. Croix River (MN, WI)
Threat: Rollback of long-stand-
ing protections
GOzark National Scenic
Riverways (MO) Threat: Over-
use and poor management
For 26 years, American Rivers
has sounded the alarm on 360
rivers through their America's
Most Endangered Rivers report.
The report is not a list of the
worst or most polluted rivers but
is a call to action for rivers at a
crossroads.
American Rivers staff and
scientific advisors review nomi-
nations for a major decision that
the public can help influence in
the coming year, the significance
of the river to people and wildlife
and the magnitude of the threat,
especially in view of climate
change.
American Rivers takes credit
for successes such as removal of
outdated dams, protection of riv-
ers with Wild and Scenic desig-
nations and prevention of harm-
ful development and pollution.
Photo by Robin Bagot
Susquehanna River at Berwick, Pennsylvania.
By Jeff (and Jodi) Andrysick
Hammondsport, New York

(#1) Jodi and I have devoted the
last one-and-a-half years to fight-
ing frack everyday, day-in-day-
out, with long hours. We have
taken the funds we would have
put into finishing our multi-ven-
dor organic farm market and
sunk them into our first movie
('All Fracked Up') as well as tak-
ing out credit card debt. By the
time we open the doors at EPIC
(see page 1) we'll be $15,000 in
credit card debt.
EPIC is looking to be one of
the largest anti-frack gatherings
thus far in the USA. So were
sure well get our money back, of
course not including lost wages.
Please do not take it that Im mak-
ing a pitch for money, just hop-
ing youll spread the word about
EPIC. Thank you! We are also
introducing at EPIC our latest
movie, 'Water Isnt Water Any-
more' along with 'Twilight
Frack,' a spin-off of The Twilight
Zone. We are trying our absolute
hardest to have New York be the
first liberated state against frack-
ing. If we succeed it will roll into
Pennsylvania.
Thanks for your great idea for
a newspaper and for fighting
frack. Yes please put us on email
lists 1 and 3. Our Web site is get-
ting a face lift, so hopefully by
the end of next week we'll have a
poster of EPIC. Thank you!
(#2) Dear Iona,
Thats really sad, I used to
inner tube down the Susquehan-
na. In our latest movie, 'Water
Isnt Water Anymore,' we show
footage of a canoe trip I took
with my Dad when my brother
and I came of age. We canoed
down the Susquehanna. It breaks
our heart! Thank you for telling
us so we can put a sub-caption in
the movie about it being the
most endangered.
Yes we agree we want to work
harder! The frackers must be
stopped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Till a COMPLETE BAN!
(#3) Back in the day when I
had a full head of hair and a ultra
slim waistline, my Dad said,
"Boys, when you're strong
enough to paddle canoes from
Elmira, New York to Wilkes
Barre, Pennsylvania, we'll shoot
the rapids and GO FOR IT!"
Well, I turned 14 and my
brother 15 and Dad took us to
Unclaimed Freight. He bought
two cheap fiberglass canoes with
holes in them and we took them
home and patched them up that
day.
Dad said, "Let's go back into
town and get provisions for the
trip."
I said, "Pop, when are we
going?"
Dad said, "Well, of course
tomorrow!"
Well, we didn't know the front
from the back of the canoes and
ran through 180 miles of two
absolutely stunningly beautiful
rivers, at first running the
Chemung River then the Susque-
hanna River.
It broke my heart to have to
tell my Dad yesterday that the
Susquehanna River is now classi-
fied as THE MOST ENDAN-
GERED RIVER in the USA by
American Rivers. I explained
that, "Gas corporations in Penn-
sylvania claim to be treating the
flowback fluids which the Earth
spits back up when fracking a
well. Dad, the bums are running
millions and millions of gallons
of this highly toxic, radioactive,
salty flowback through munici-
pal sewage treatment plants
designed to just treat sewage.
These plants don't have the
equipment to treat the cancer-
causing chemicals, toxic heavy
metals, radioactive minerals and
the salty brine.
"So, Dad, what happens next
is the whole toxic lethal brew is
then discharged into the river! If
that isn't nuts enough, the sew-
age treatment plant's raw sewage
isn't properly treated since all the
toxic crap kills the bacteria
designed to treat the raw sewage.
Partially treated RAW SEWAGE
ENDS UP DUMPED ALONG
WITH A VERY LETHAL TOXIC
BREW RIGHT INTO THE
RIVER!"
Dad barks out, "They call that
safe, responsible gas! It's a total
scam, a hoax!!!"
I piped back, "Pop, almost all
of the flowback generated last
year from Pennsylvania fracking
ended up being dumped in Penn-
sylvania rivers!"
Dad fired back, "How many
people get their drinking water
from these rivers?"
I sadly said, "The Susquehan-
na River serves OVER 6 MIL-
LION CITIZENS!"
Dad thoughtfully added,
"They told me Saddam Hussein
was evil and poisoned his own
people. Now our own govern-
ment is allowing gas corpora-
tions to poison Americans and
NO ONE IS STOPPING
THEM!! When is America going
to wake up and smell the coffee?!
The DEP is a farce!! We need to
take this country back!!!"
Jodi and I are farmers turned
filmmakers and produced 'All
Fracked Up,' 'Water Isn't Water
Anymore' and 'Twilight Frack.'
Iona, have a great day.
Let's keep FIGHTING THE
FRACK!
'All Fracked Up' Filmmakers React to News About Susquehanna River
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 3
Gas Drilling News
Report from the Field: Torbert Marcellus Shale Task Force
Multiple Negative Impacts of Marcellus Shale Gas Industry
By David Ira Kagan
NorthCentralpa.com
April 13, 2011
On April 8
th
, at the Wat-
son Township Zoning Board
Hearing, a standing-room-
only crowd witnessed a pre-
sentation by Attorney Wil-
liam Carlucci promoting
Pennsylvania General Energy
Companys (PGE) request for
special zoning exceptions or
variances. If approved, this
would allow PGE to purchase
and use (for Marcellus Shale
gas development) what had
been for years the Trading
Post at the intersection of
Routes 44 and 973 in Lycom-
ing County, up Pine Creek
Valley about six miles north
of Jersey Shore.
More specifically, PGE
wants to use the property as a
site to off-load water from
tanker trucks into the three
6,000-gallon tanks previously
used for what had been the
stores gasoline supplies. Two
pumps would then be
installed to send the water
through pipes to a transfer
station up in the adjacent
mountain.
The mostly hostile, yet
civil, audience at the meeting
peppered Attorney Carlucci
and his five witnesses with
questions addressing numer-
ous environmental and safety
issue concerns: for example:
that there is a trailer park just
behind the Trading Post,
which parks entrance is
essentially shared with the
Trading Post; that Routes 973
and 44 intersect at the site;
that the property is less than
an acre in size; that there are
residential homes (one direct-
ly across Route 44) nearby;
that there are curves on Route
44 both south and north of
the site; that there is a school
bus stop there; that there is
no safe area for any potential
backup of trucks to wait while
others are being unloaded.
If the project were allowed,
a steady stream of tanker
trucks (just for this endeavor)
would be going up Route 44
to the site, 24 hours a day,
adding to the already intoler-
able flow of gas-industry-
related trucking (my estimate
is 500-1,000 a day right
now).
This proposal of PGE
would result in yet one more
degradation of Pine Creek
Valley, of what has been tout-
ed as well-nigh a paradise for
fishermen, hunters, hikers,
boaters, bicyclists, sightseers
and campers.
I cant fathom how anyone
who is a moral, caring,
humane being someone
who believes even just the
least bit that the good life
consists of more than money
and greed someone who
professes to love this very
special valley (as I have for
over 40 years) could possi-
bly consider supporting and
voting in favor of PGEs pro-
posal.
Its time to say NO! for
once enough! It would be
nice to salvage a bit of the
Pennsylvania Wilds, not
allow it to be totally trans-
formed into the Pennsylvania
Wells!
Hopefully, when the Wat-
son Township Zoning Hear-
ing Board reconvenes to con-
clude this issue, an even larger
standing-room-only crowd
will appear to show their
opposition.
Gas Company
Wants To Buy
Route 44 Site:
Citizens Swing
into Action
By David Ira Kagan: May 20, 2011
During the high water from recent
heavy rains, the coffer dam for Penn-
sylvania General Energy (PGE) Com-
panys water extraction site on Pine
Creek at Pousts (about six miles above
Jersey Shore) was destroyed. The swift-
ly flowing water began to breach the
dams upstream wall on May 19
th
, with
the eventual collapse of the entire
structure by the next morning.
The contractor was attempting to
salvage some of the tons of stone used in
the project, as shown in the accompany-
ing photograph taken the morning of
May 20
th
. Much of the stone and other
debris, however, must have been washed
downstream to settle on the creek bot-
tom, with unknown environmental con-
sequences.
The Department of Environmental
Protection has been alerted, with their
deliberations unknown to this writer at
this time. Most likely, the PA Fish and
Boat Commission and the Susquehanna
River Basin Commission will be
involved in the ultimate response to this
disaster.
Interesting questions to arise out of
this situation include: (1) Will PGE be
allowed to try again with another cof-
fer dam at the site? (2) Will any fine be
levied? (3) Will this affect any plans for
other possible coffer dams on Pine
Creek? (4) What will be the environ-
mental impact of this?
*A coffer dam is an enclosure within a
water environment constructed to allow
water to be pumped out to create a dry
work environment. Commonly used for
oil rig construction and repair, bridge
and dam work, the coffer dam is usually
a welded steel structure that is tempo-
rary and is typically dismantled after
work is completed. Its components con-
sist of sheet piles, wales, and cross braces.
(Wikipedia)
Photo by Dave Kagan
High water from recent rains washed away the coffer dam on Pine Creek! Lord knows
how DEP, EPA, SRBC and PA Fish and Boat Commission will respond.
PGEs Pine Creek Coffer Dam Wiped Out By High Water
By David Ira Kagan
NorthCentralPA.com: May 20, 2011
As a resident of Pine Creek
Valley in western Lycoming
County, I have witnessed daily
the negative effects of the Mar-
cellus Shale gas industry boom
that has blighted my home envi-
ronment for about a year-and-a-
half now.
What I have seen has been an
ever-growing list of insults to
the land, the creek and a lifestyle
that had been nearly idyllic
before the invasion, before the
worship of Mammon that has
gathered into its fold gas indus-
try employees, politicians, area
businessmen and, yes, sadly,
many of my fellow residents of
north central Pennsylvania.
I think that it is very impor-
tant to make sure that as many
people as possible are made
aware of the shocking number
of varied and specific negative
impacts that have occurred.
These blights range from minor
ones affecting only a few to
major ones affecting many.
Perhaps the major lifestyle
change, one that has plagued
valley residents constantly since
the gas incursion began (24
hours a day, seven days a week,
for all but a few, brief inter-
ludes) has been the over-
whelming gas industry-related
truck traffic up and down Route
44 through the valley. At times
(including as I write this piece
on May 19, 2011), the volume
has been up to about 1,000 vehi-
cles in a 24-hour period. This
army of tri-axles, 18-wheelers
and pickup trucks assaults the
environment, residents and
tourists with the noise, the die-
sel and gasoline pollution, and
the traffic congestion and dan-
ger.
What are the other negative
impacts? The list goes on and on
and on an increase of dead
animals on and alongside the
road; the destruction of road
surface and bridge decks; an
increase in litter alongside the
road (including high-energy,
high-caffeine drink bottles
most empty but some filled with
urine, as told to me by a resident
who has about 100 yards of
frontage along Route 44 below
Waterville).
Throughout the woods, along
the roadsides and even right
along the Pine Creek Rail Trail
thousands and thousands of pink
and red ribbons tied to trees and
shrubbery, related to seismic
testing; thousands and thousands
of feet of electronic cable related
to seismic testing; thousands and
thousands of seismic meters; lay-
ing of underground water pipe
(note that the gas-industry-hired
contractor did not clean up the
dirt and stones off the rail trail
afterwards).
In the air now for over two
months during daylight hours,
the annoying noise coming from
helicopter rotor blades, as chop-
pers check on seismic testing,
hovering for extended periods
of time over sites that are often
near residential areas, such as
my own Torbert Village, and
pick up and drop off equipment
and supplies to sites all over.
In Pine Creek itself, near
Tombs Run about six miles above
Jersey Shore, a coffer dam has
been constructed by Pennsylva-
nia General Energy (PGE) in that
companys effort to effect a water
extraction site. And across the
rail trail, the cornfield and Pine
Creek just above Torbert Village,
the addition of more electric
poles and lines needed by the gas
industry for another planned
water-extraction site.
In the mountains just to the
west of Pine Creek between Jer-
sey Shore and Waterville, Ana-
darko has been erecting gas well
pads, laying gas and water pipes
and razing timberland through-
out what used to be the remote,
completely wooded and beautiful
Bull Run Vista mountaintop area.
It is for certain, Im afraid,
that the list of negative impacts
of the Marcellus Shale gas
industry on north central Penn-
sylvania will continue to grow.
And Ill be here to sorrow and
despair over them. And to write
about them and share the terri-
ble knowledge with as many
others as I can, in the hope that
enough people will come to
their senses, realize that money
is not the most important thing
in life, and do what we all can to
limit, if not halt, this madness.
Photos by Dave Kagan
The pile of logs and mountain of wood chips left from Anadarko gas company's clear-cutting along Bull Run Road.
Andarco's gas and water lines being laid on top of the mountain
with the original dirt road being widened to accommodate them.
Submitted by Dave Kagan
with this note: The attached is
DEP's Notice of Violation by
Pennsylvania General Energy,
related to their coffer dam on
Pine Creek, two miles above my
home in Torbert Village. They
didn't abide by their permit! But
is that really that shocking given
the track record of the gas indus-
try companies? Here's an excerpt.
NOTICE OF VIOLATION
May 20, 2011
PGE Company, LLC
c/o Mark Mummert, Environ-
mental Manager
120 Market Street
Warren, Pennsylvania 16365
Re: Water Obstruction
On May 9, 2011, the Depart-
ment performed an inspection of
your company's Pine Creek
Intake Project, located in Watson
Township, Lycoming County, in
response to complaints regard-
ing the discharge of sediment
into Pine Creek due to construc-
tion of a coffer dam. Our inspec-
tion found that the type of coffer
dam being constructed was not
the type approved by your per-
mit number E41-611. Addition-
ally, dewatering of the excavation
pit for the pump station was dis-
charging sediment to Pine Creek,
a High Quality stream. Further
investigation found that earth
disturbances for this intake proj-
ect ran up to the limit of distur-
bance for the Honniasont pipel-
ing project; however, activities
were not appropriately permit-
ted.
Our inspection revealed the
following violations of the Dam
Safety and Encroachments Act,
32 P.S. 693.1 et seq., The Clean
Streams Law, 35 P.S. 691.1 et
seq. and the rules and regula-
tions promulgated thereunder:
1. Failure to implement a
waterway encroachment
according to specifications. . . .
2. Pollution of "Waters of the
Commonwealth . . . ."
3. Conducting activities con-
trary to permit conditions and
Department rules and regula-
tions . . . .
4. Failure to appropriately
permit all project earth distur-
bance activities . . . .
A violation of The Clean
Streams Law or the rules or regu-
lations promulgated under the
law ... could institute administra-
tive, civil and/or criminal pro-
ceedings. The Act provides for
up to $10,000 per day in civil
penalties, up to $10,000 in sum-
mary criminal penalties and up
to $25,000 in misdemeanor
criminal penalties for each viola-
tion. Each day of continued vio-
lation constitutes a separate
offense . . . ."
A violation of the Dam Safety
and Encroachments Acts ... pro-
vides for up to $10,000 per day in
civil penalties plus $500 in mis-
demeanor criminal penalties for
each violation. Each day of con-
tinued violation constitutes a
separate offense.
Please notify me in writing,
within 10 days of receipt of this
letter, as to when the above listed
violations were or will be cor-
rected and what steps are being
taken to prevent their recurrence.
The Department also requests
that your response outline your
intent to utilize the former Pine
Creek Trading Post for water
storage and transportation oper-
ations and whether or not those
operations will also utilize the
Honniasont Trunk Line Pipeline
Project facilities . . . .
Robert W. Everett III
Water Quality Specialist
Bureau of Oil and Gas Manage-
ment
PGE Receives Notice of Violations for Not Following Cofer Dam Permit
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 4
Report on Speech
by Bob Myers
in Mercersburg, PA

By Iona Conner, Publisher
May 13, 2011
Robert Myers is Chair of the
English Department and Direc-
tor of Environmental Studies at
Lock Haven University in Lock
Haven, Pennsylvania. He started
his talk by explaining that he is
not a scientist or expert on gas
drilling or hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) but being an English
professor has taught him to be a
good researcher and a critical
thinker who can sort through
conflicting claims. His docu-
mentation can be found at http://
www.lhup.edu/rmyers3/Marcel-
lus.htm.
This event was organized by
Karen Ramsburg, a co-founder
of Fracking Foes Unite! who is
going to run against Congress-
man Shuster in 2012 for Penn-
sylvanias 9
th
Congressional dis-
trict. She announced Myers talk
at a standing-room-only Marcel-
lus Shale meeting in Gettysburg
about a month prior to the talk.
It is clear to me that hydro-
fracking represents the biggest
environmental threat to Penn-
sylvania of my lifetime, Myers
said, launching his program. He
talked about corruption of the
legislature, forest fragmentation
created by hundreds of well pads
and pipelines, air pollution from
compressor stations with diesel
engines running 24/7, road deg-
radation caused by an endless
cycle of trucks carrying water to
and from drilling sites plus all
the equipment necessary to clear
the land and bring in workers
and supplies. But that all pales
compared to the effects on our
water supply, he added.
One would think state offi-
cials and residents would have
learned to respect the beauty of
Penns Woods after lumber com-
panies cut down nearly every
tree to enrich a few individuals.
Coal mining presented another
form of destruction with result-
ing acid mine drainage. But the
trees grew back, only to be sub-
ject to a new assault gas drill-
ing.
The Susquehanna River was
clear a while back because noth-
ing lived in it, Myers explained,
but five years ago people started
catching fish in the West Branch
so progress in restoring the eco-
system was happening thanks to
groups like Trout Unlimited
until about three years ago when
the natural gas invasion began.
More than 2,000 wells were
drilled in the past two years
alone. Local hotels are filling up
with drillers and associated
workers from Oklahoma, Texas
and even overseas companies. At
the time of Myers talk, 692,000
acres of state forest had been
leased for drilling with every
well requiring four to seven mil-
lion gallons of water. Where is it
going to come from?
Twenty tons of chemicals are
used per million gallons of water,
many of them toxic, causing
health problems when peoples
drinking water gets contaminat-
ed, not to mention the effects on
wildlife. The gas industry tries to
minimize this by saying that
99.5% of fracking fluid is water
and sand but that still means 20
to 60 TONS of chemicals per
frack job.
Back in February 2009, Cabot
Oil & Gas poisoned 14 wells in
Dimock, Pennsylvania because
of defective casing and cement-
ing according to the state DEP,
which reached an agreement
with Cabot that the company
would pay $4.1 million to resi-
dents and $500,000 to the state
to offset the costs of their inves-
tigation. There are ongoing law-
suits by the federal government
and the residents of Dimock.
Josh Fox documented these
and other problems in his well-
known documentary Gasland.
Its amazing to watch peoples tap
water catch on fire because of
the methane gas in it. There have
been explosions and many peo-
ple must ventilate their homes so
they dont explode.
One of several incidents
Myers discussed occurred on
June 2, 2010. A gas well that
was being fracked by EOG
Resources in Clearfield County
experienced a blowout that raged
out of control for 16 hours,
shooting fracking fluid and gas
75 feet into the air. EOG, whose
spokesperson insisted that pro-
tecting the environment is of
utmost importance to the com-
pany, waited five hours before
contacting the DEP [Ed.: The
law requires companies to report
discharges immediately.] DEP
determined that the accident
was caused by untrained per-
sonnel and the failure to use
proper well-control procedures
and they fined EOG $400,000.
On July 1, 2010, 28 cows in
Tioga County were quarantined
after they came into contact with
drilling wastewater from a leak-
ing containment pond at a drill-
ing site operated by East Resourc-
es.
More recently, on April 19,
2011 seven families were evacu-
ated from their Bradford County
homes after a well being fracked
by Chesapeake Energy blew out
and spilled thousands of gallons
of contaminated water into a
tributary of Towanda Creek. (See
the Notice of Violation in last
months Earth News.) The DEP
confirmed that amphibians in a
farm pond died as a result of the
spill.
Responsible drilling is a
myth, Myers said. The
most rigorous enforcement
cant prevent accidents.
Pennsylvania consistently
pulls the licenses of chroni-
cally-bad automobile driv-
ers but they have not pulled
the permits of a single gas
company.
The drillers have had three
years of unrestrained play (a
euphemism they use for this
attack) because, They have
taken advantage of the economic
need of individual Pennsylva-
nians and of the state as a whole,
he explained.
Regarding the political cli-
mate in Pennsylvania, Myers
told his audience that Governor
Tom Corbett received $835,000
from the gas industry and his
30-member Marcellus Shale
Commission is stacked with
industry representatives, out-
numbering environmentalists
three to one. These industry rep-
resentatives have contributed
$1.4 million to Corbetts various
campaigns.
As if that werent bad enough,
at the federal level Obama is try-
ing to increase natural gas drill-
ing in the country as a form of
compromise with Republicans
and even the EPAs current study
on hydraulic fracturing may
have already been compromised
by political pressure, as was the
last one they did.
In summary, Myers shared a
quote straight from the industry
which had been submitted to the
Securities Exchange Commis-
sion in May 2006 by Range
Resources Corporation: Our
business is subject to operating
hazards and environmental reg-
ulations that could result in sub-
stantial losses or liabilities. Oil
and natural gas operations are
subject to many risks, including
well blowouts, craterings, explo-
sions, uncontrollable flows of oil,
natural gas or well fluids, fires,
formations with abnormal pres-
sures, pipeline ruptures or spills,
pollution, releases of toxic natu-
ral gas and other environmental
hazards and risks. If any of these
hazards occur, we could sustain
substantial losses as a result of:
Injury or loss of life;
Severe damage to or destruc-
tion of property, natural
resources and equipment;
Pollution or other environ-
mental damage;
Clean-up responsibilities;
Regulatory investigations
and penalties; or
Suspension of operations.
In leaving the audience with
something to think about, eco-
tourism was Myers smug idea.
Not the kind of eco-tourism
where celebrities go to rainfor-
ests to see rare wilderness but
instead we can invite people to
Pennsylvania to show them the
destructive effects of bad envi-
ronmental decisions. The tour
could start at the Palmerton zinc
Superfund site and then travel to
Centralia to see the fire that has
been burning underground for
decades. A swing up to coal
country will reveal lots of acid-
mine-drainage damaged streams
and, finally, we can end up at the
gas fields that used to be the
Pennsylvania state forest sys-
tem," he explained.
Even if we cant learn from
our own history, at least we can
help other states avoid our mis-
takes, Myers hopes.
Gas Drilling News
Photo from WTAE.com
Explosion at Chesapeake Energy site near Pittsburgh injures three on February 23, 2011.
Photo from Wellsboro Gazette
Tioga County, Pennsylvania truck accident, March 25, 2010.
Photo by Keith Hodan, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
A crew from Texas-based Chief Oil and Natural Gas were drilling a natural gas well through an abandoned coal mine in Moundsville,
West Virginia when they hit a pocket of methane gas that ignited, triggering an explosion that burned seven workers on June 8, 2010.
Return of the Wasteland:
Consequences of Hydro-Fracturing
AlbertaSurfaceRights.com
May 12, 2011

MPs have voted to ban the
shale gas mining process of hy-
draulic fracturing in France.
Te proposition was passed by
287 votes to 186, with the Social-
ist Party and Green MPs voting
against it because it did not con-
stitute an outright ban of shale
gas mining in France.
Te latest proposition bans
the technique of hydraulic frac-
turing, also known as fracking,
which uses a high-pressure blast
of water, sand and chemicals to
create a shockwave to break open
cracks deep in the Earth and shif
the gas into collection areas.
Fracking, currently the only
technique used to collect shale
gas, has come into the spotlight
for causing damage to drinking
water supplies.
Tousands of protesters have
marched against shale gas ex-
ploration, voicing fears of the
damage that, beyond the danger
to the water table, the transport
of materials and drilling could
cause to local communities.
All frms which currently hold
shale gas exploration permits in
France will need to produce a re-
port ensuring that their mining
technique is not fracking.
If hydraulic fracturing is
used, or no report is produced,
the drilling permits will be re-
scinded. Te list of companies
and their techniques will be
made public.
Te proposition leaves the
door open for drilling experi-
ments used to hone other meth-
ods of obtaining shale gas, held
under public supervision.
Senators were to debate the
proposal on June 1.
Ecology Minister Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet, told inter-
viewers that the original granting
of shale gas exploration permits
by her predessor Jean-Louis Bor-
loo was "a mistake."
France Outlaws Shale
Hydro Fracking
DEC Gets Big Tool to
Control Gas Drilling
By Jim Willis
Marcellus Drilling News: June 20, 2011
Its looking quite likely that
legislation requiring a permit
from the Department of Envi-
ronmental Conservation (DEC)
for any water withdrawals from a
lake, river or stream in New York
State exceeding 100,000 gallons
will soon become law. Te New
York Assembly passed a bill in
May governing water withdraw-
als from state waterways. Te
New York Senate has joined
them in unanimously passing
the same bill. It now goes to Gov-
ernor Andrew Cuomos desk for
signature.
Marcellus drilling operations,
which have not yet begun in New
York State due to a moratorium,
require large amounts of water
per well drilled some three to
four million gallons per well.
Tis new law requiring permits
for water withdrawals is one of
the important tools that the DEC
will use to control drilling in the
state when drilling fnally begins.
No water no drilling. Or, Take
your time approving that per-
mit, to slow things down. Its a
powerful tool that the DEC can
(and assuredly will) use to keep
tight control over gas drilling in
the state.
According to the Elmira Star-
Gazette on June 19
th
,
*
"Te state
Senate has unanimously passed
a bill that gives the state permis-
sion to build a permitting system
for large withdrawals from many
of the states lakes, rivers and
streams.
"Te legislation will require
anyone with the capacity to with-
draw at least 100,000 gallons
from the states waterways to get
a permit from the Department
of Environmental Conservation
frst.
"Te bill was passed by the
Assembly last month and now
heads to Governor Andrew Cuo-
mos desk for approval. It was
proposed by the DEC, which is
led by a Cuomo appointee.
"Passage of this monumen-
tal legislation will protect our
environment by regulating the
amount of water that can be ex-
tracted," said Senator Mark Gri-
santi, R-Bufalo, who sponsored
the bill.
"Currently, the state operates
under a "riparian rights" sys-
tem, meaning anyone who owns
property adjacent to most bodies
of water can withdraw from it.
Te DEC has said the permit-
ting system is necessary in order
to monitor the states water re-
sources and it would enhance the
riparian rights by still allowing
small-scale users fair use of the
water.*"
*
"Water-withdrawal bill passes
Senate, heads to Cuomos desk."
Water Withdrawal Legislation
Will Soon Become Law in NY
Community Environmental Legal
Defense Fund: June 22, 2011
BALDWIN, Pennsylvania
Tuesday, June 21
st
, the Baldwin
Borough Council voted 5-1 to
adopt a Community Rights Or-
dinance that bans the corporate
extraction of natural gas. Te
Ordinance establishes a Bill of
Rights for the Baldwin commu-
nity and imposes the prohibition
as a protection of those rights.
Te Ordinance was drafed by
the Community Environmental
Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
and taken up as a rallying point
by members of the community,
who took it to Council.
Te Ordinance prohibits any
individual or corporation to en-
gage in the extraction of natural
gas with the exception of gas wells
installed and operating at the time
of enactment of the Ordinance.
Te Ordinance also includes a
local Bill of Rights that asserts
legal protections for the right to
water, the rights of natural com-
munities, the right to local self-
government, the right to a sus-
tainable energy future and the
right of the people to enforce and
protect these rights through their
municipal government.
Te law was modeled afer
the CELDF Ordinance adopted
on November 16
th
of last year
by the City of Pittsburgh. Simi-
lar ordinances have been enacted
by Mountain Lake Park, Mary-
land; West Homestead and Lick-
ing Township in Pennsylvania;
Wales, New York and have been
introduced as bills by communi-
ties in Pennsylvania, New York,
Ohio and West Virginia.
Council members Michael
Stelmasczyk, John Conley and
John Ferris brought the Ordi-
nance to the foor for a vote at
the urging of concerned commu-
nity residents. At their April 19
th
Council meeting the question of
zoning or banning the gas extrac-
tion process known as fracking
was discussed. Borough Solicitor
Stanley Lederman noted that any
action taken by council would
most probably be challenged in
the courts and suggested that a
ban would be more protective of
the community. Council mem-
ber Stelmasczyk commented that
the state has dropped the ball
on this issue.
Te gas extraction technique
known as fracking has been
cited as a threat to surface and
ground water throughout the re-
gion and has been blamed for fa-
tal explosions, the contamination
of drinking water, local streams,
the air and soil. Collateral dam-
age includes lost property value,
ingestion of toxins by livestock,
drying up of mortgage loans for
prospective home buyers and
threatened loss of organic certif-
cation for farmers in the afected
communities.
Afer the vote, community
resident Aaron Booz comment-
ed, We are proud that another
community in Allegheny County
has taken a stand for Constitu-
tional Rights and we think this
can only help in getting other
communities on board.
Tat sentiment was echoed
by Mel Packer, an organizer with
Marcellus Protest, who said, Sure
is wonderful to fnd some elected
ofcials who can see through all
the propaganda and threats of
the energy companies.
Baldwin, PA Adopts
Ordinance Banning
Gas Extraction
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 5
By Robert Jereski
Synthesis/Regeneration: Spring 2011
In late 2009, environmental
justice activists in New York
State began to build a very large
grassroots movement and an
impressive coalition of over 70
groups calling for a ban on a par-
ticularly destructive method of
methane mining called horizon-
tal hydrofracking or fracking.
Upstate groups like the
Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas
Drilling Opposition Group
made up of farmers, shopkeep-
ers, lawyers and small land-
owners began the arduous task
of mapping out lands in their
members three upstate counties
that were being leased for gas
drilling, organizing pancake
breakfasts for people in small
rural communities to hear about
the threat that was looming and
organizing and participating in
rallies to attract media attention.
The Shaleshock Citizens
Action Alliance began a Listen-
ing Project to learn from farm-
ers and small landowners in
upstate counties how their exist-
ing concerns with taxes and the
economy in general might be
answered in ways other than a
quick signing bonus and sacri-
ficing of their way of life and
connection to the land.
In New York City, the ecolog-
ical education organization,
Friends of Brook Park (FoBP),
organized and participated in
colorful demonstrations and
panel presentations exposing
political intrigues that would
sacrifice upstate communities to
industrialization and pollution.
FoBP advocated forcefully for
the basic principles of environ-
mental justice that protection of
ones water must not depend on
access to concentrated political
power but is a fundamental
right for which environmental-
ists must stand firmly.
All of these participants in
the statewide ban movement
were grassroots organizations
representing their communities
and members. They and other
key signatories to the petition
(like the Sierra Clubs local
Chapter which bucked the
National Sierra Club in taking a
principled position informed by
the grassroots) are the bulwarks
of the statewide ban movement
against horizontal hydrofracking
in New York State.
Fracking is a water- and ener-
gy-intensive form of drilling for
natural gas (an industry euphe-
mism for methane which has also
tried to sell the public on clean-
burning natural gas) and is used
to force nearly impermeable geo-
logical formations like tight sands
and shales to yield methane gas
trapped in tiny pores.
Developed by Halliburton
and used extensively throughout
the country west of the Appala-
chian Trail, fracking was
unknown to all except for the
most ardent environmentalists in
the Northeast. The movement
for a ban on horizontal hydrof-
racking in New York State is one
of the largest campaigns in that
state responding to the threat of
this relatively new fossil fuel
extraction method. Yet, in his
film Gasland, Josh Fox chroni-
cles his cross-country odyssey
searching for answers about the
impacts of gas drilling, while
failing to support or even refer to
the existence of this or any other
campaign to ban gas drilling.
Which brings us to a provoca-
tive question this review of the
film will touch on: Why are Josh
Fox and his film becoming
famous? To address this ques-
tion, we need to explore how
people came to learn about the
threat of horizontal hydrofrack-
ing to their way of life, the envi-
ronment and public health and
to recognize the various respons-
es to that threat by communities
directly threatened, as well as by
professional environmentalists,
politicians and, finally, artists.
In 2008, a shale formation
stretching from New York State
through Pennsylvania, part of
Ohio, all the way to Tennessee
began to be mentioned outside
of circles of gas industry specu-
lators. New Yorkers began to
hear more about natural gas in
general as the mainstream
media began promoting the
importance of gas and as multi-
billionaire energy investor, T.
Boone Pickens, began promot-
ing the use of methane.
As the new Congress began
secretly shaping legislation
ostensibly to address the threat
of catastrophic climate change,
the media became a vehicle for
various hydrocarbon industries
(coal, gas, oil) to posture,
schmooze and tout their partic-
ular form of fossil fuel to the
public and hopefully receive a
fat piece of what were to become
the pork-laden climate bills of
Representatives Waxman and
Markey and Senators Kerry, Lie-
berman, Graham and Boxer.
The Marcellus Shale, where
exploratory wells had been
drilled in 2004, saw a rapid
expansion of new drilling opera-
tions as the media described the
deposit of gas locked in shale
rocks as an exciting new play.
But horizontal hydraulic frac-
turing had already been under-
way for a few years across the
country in the Barnett shale in
Texas, the Fayetteville and
Haynesville shales in Louisiana
and tight sands and shale in
Wyoming, Illinois, Colorado and
elsewhere. Stories in local papers,
published on the Internet and
word-of-mouth revealed how
communities in those states had
faced massive water withdrawals,
contaminated waterways and
wells, toxic spills, ozone levels
requiring people to stay indoors,
destroyed roadways, large-scale
wilderness destruction and the
emergence of illnesses, including
rare brain cancers.
As more New Yorkers began
to learn about the experiences of
Americans in the South, the
Great Plains and the Rockies,
many came to realize that the
mining process Halliburton had
developed (which was being pre-
sented as a means of obtaining
clean energy, economic revital-
ization and addressing climate
change) was in fact completely
unsustainable and had to be
stopped.
Those New Yorkers, from the
Big Apple to towns like Ithaca
and Albany, from tiny hamlets to
small communities like Delhi
and Marguaretville, and from
farmland being tilled by families
for generations, reaching up to
the Finger Lakes these New
Yorkers came together and
became activists fighting a
media-savvy, well-connected
fossil fuel industry for their lives,
their homes and the well-being
of their communities.

On Environmental
Organizations and
Legislators
A primary obstacle to con-
solidating nationwide move-
ments to ban fracking is the
promotion of methane as a
transitional or bridge fuel by
major environmental organiza-
tions like the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) and
the National Sierra Club. They
claim that natural gas is a step-
ping-stone on the way to a zero,
or suitably low, carbon economy,
based on the fact that methane
burns cleaner than other hydro-
carbons. Associated with these
pro-gas drilling groups are high-
profile figures like Riverkeeper
and NRDC attorney Robert
Kennedy, Jr., the Sierra Clubs
Chairman Carl Pope and its new
Executive Director Michael
Brune, some of whom have
toured the United States with
gas industry reps. These envi-
ronmental leaders lend their
names to the gas industry.
The industrys front groups
like the Clean Sky Initiative pro-
mote natural gas and give it a
non-profit face, thereby deceiv-
ing those receiving information
from them into believing that the
information is being shared by a
disinterested party as opposed to
an industry-funded public rela-
tions outfit. Nevertheless, these
environmental groups promot-
ing methane gas are unable to
point to a single comparative
life-cycle analysis showing that
the greenhouse gas (GHG) foot-
print of shale gas is less than that
of coal or oil. Such a study, nec-
essary for any argument for gas
as a bridge fuel, has been initiat-
ed by Professor Robert Howarth
at Cornell, who put together a
preliminary assessment (http://
www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/
Howarth_Energy and Environ-
ment.html) of the comparative
GHG emissions of coal and
unconventional gas. Howarths
assessment suggests that gas is
more GHG intensive than coal,
when including conservative
estimates of methane leakage
from the drill pads and transpor-
tation systems. As the public
becomes more aware of such
measures, the industry devises
more deceptions to prevent its
lies from being uncovered.
In New York State, various
distractions have undermined
the movement for a statewide
ban on unconventional gas drill-
ing. One such distraction was
the (failed) campaign to have the
NYS Department of Environ-
mental Conservation (DEC)
restart its environmental review
of the potential dangers of hori-
zontal hydrofracking in the Mar-
cellus and similar geological for-
mations. The campaign urged
that the draft Supplemental
Generic Environmental Impact
Statement (dSGEIS), which the
DEC had issued, be withdrawn
on the dubious premise that a
de-facto moratorium on such
hydrofracking instituted by New
York Governor Paterson would
stay in place and that the
dSGEIS was not the appropriate
vehicle for reviewing flaws in
any proposed regulatory scheme.
Another distraction from the
statewide ban movement has
been the promotion of carve-outs
or special protected areas that
are deemed more deserving of
protection such as efforts to
protect the New York City water-
shed. Such efforts have been
advanced by New York City poli-
ticians like Councilmember
Gennaro and Borough President
Scott Stringer who have hidden
behind excuses of (non-existent)
jurisdictional restrictions to justi-
fy their promotion of carve-outs.
They have been supported by the
pro-gas drilling NRDC and
Riverkeeper, for whom sacrificing
upstate watersheds and foodsheds
(where much regional food sup-
ply is sourced) to the contamina-
tion of drilling operations seems
less important than cashing in on
a hollow victory with funders and
new (nave) members.
Finally, there was a push at
the State government level for a
one-year moratorium on gas
drilling, which recently passed
the State Senate but failed to pass
the New York State Assembly.
But many including many
landowners' groups with leases
believe that no hydrofracking is
threatened in New York State
before 2014. The entire exercise
of rallying people for a moratori-
um bill will have taken energy
and resources away from activ-
ists pursuing what they actually
want: to ban horizontal hydrof-
racking in New York State and
the country.
The campaigns around bills
proposing either a one-year
moratorium or a moratorium
until the EPA completes its study
on the impacts of drilling (about
two years) distracted from the
growing momentum towards a
gas drilling ban. A moratorium
bill has been promoted by some
activists as a means of buying
time to organize for a ban; others
claim it is a realistic intermedi-
ary step. But many advocates for
the ban believe that the timing of
a moratorium plays into the
hands of the gas industry while
pointing out that declaring what
activists want is unrealistic
becomes a self-fulfilling prophe-
cy because it stifles those
demanding urgently-needed
transitions away from polluting
energy sources while insulating
politicians from the true
demands of their constituents. A
moratorium not only delays the
ban effort but also serves the gas
drilling industry. Because of the
moratorium, some shale 'plays'
may become more attractive
according to the industry itself.
Because of the recession/
depression and the glut of gas on
the market, gas prices are very
low. During the moratorium
period and, in part because of
the moratorium, leases can be
scooped up by major players at
bargain-basement prices, thereby
adding to the gas industrys eco-
nomic and political muscle.
Statewide ban advocates have
tried unsuccessfully to determine
how the sponsoring legislators for
the moratorium efforts decided to
introduce moratorium bills as
opposed to a ban bill, in light of
the already strong movement for
a ban and the absence of any
moratorium movement prior to
the introduction of the legisla-
tion. They have also asked how
these two bills were drafted, given
NRDCs role in drafting and
pushing for the inadequate Feder-
al legislation known as the Frac-
turing Responsibility and Aware-
ness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act.
Robert Jereski can be contacted
at mutualaid10@gmail.com.
Gas Drilling News
Note from the author: Friends of Brook Park is a leading environmental organization based in the
South Bronx. Please support their work promoting a New York statewide ban on fracking! They're
the real deal. They are one of the groups in New York City fghting honestly and passionately for a
statewide ban on hydrofracking and have done great work educating and mobilizing people. Phone
646-648-4362; email information@friendsofbrookpark.org; www.FriendsOfBrookPark.org. You can
send a check or money order to Friends of Brook Park , PO Box 801, Bronx, NY 10454. Thank you.
Banning Methane Mining in New York, the U.S. and the World
Damascus Citizens
for Sustainability
Launches
New Iniatives
By Liz Bucar
Callicoon, New York
In the spring of 2008 when
Damascus Citizens for Sustain-
ability (DCS) launched its cam-
paign to educate the Delaware
River Basin about natural gas
extraction and hydraulic fractur-
ing, fracking was not a house-
hold word.
There were people like Laura
and Larry Amos (Garfield Coun-
ty, Colorado), who could have
told us in 2001 about life in the
shadow of natural gas drilling.
They could have shown us their
poisoned drinking water and
shared the medical reports con-
firming Lauras adrenal tumor.
Unfortunately, the Amos story
of exploding wells, flammable
water, cancer and an endangered
child wasnt found on the nightly
news
We and the Amos family were
kept in the dark.
Seven years later, in the Dela-
ware River Basin, as natural gas
rights were being quietly leased
and the Delaware River Basin
Commission (DRBC) was being
subjected to nearly uncontested
pressure to permit fracking of
the Marcellus Shale, very few
residents of the River Basin
understood that their hydrologic
system the one relied upon by
over 15 million people ... for
drinking, agricultural and indus-
trial use" was in danger,
according to the Delaware River
Basin Commission.
Among the few who had iden-
tified the threat and stood ready
to spread the word and defend
the Basin was a not-for-profit
educational group, Damascus
Citizens for Sustainability. In the
Spring of 2008, DCS began hand-
delivering its message up and
down the Delaware River corri-
dor, re-telling the stories of the
Amos family, Cathy Behr and the
wasting of Garfield County, Col-
orado, among other places. DCS
was instrumental in building a
network of community groups
and actions that spread 330 miles
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
to Hancock, New York and from
Texas to Delaware.
Even though Cabot Oil's
methane wouldn't be found in
Dimock, Pennsylvania's drink-
ing water until 2009, Josh Fox
was already listening intently to
Damascus Citizens and, in May
2008, embarked on a personal
journey through many of the 34
U.S. States where shale drilling
was occurring. He chronicled
what he found in his scientifical-
ly-backed and critically-
acclaimed film Gasland, which
not only catapulted natural gas
extraction into the mainstream
media but was also dedicated to
Damascus Citizens for Sustain-
ability.
Since 2008, DCS has grown in
scope and impact. Its working
relationships with Theo Col-
burns Endocrine Disruptoin
Exchange and grassroots com-
munity groups across the nation
have given rise to three new
community-building initiatives:
DamascusCitizensHelpStreet.
org, GasDrillingTechNotes.org
(a gas extraction research library)
and, still in its early days, a regis-
try for people who believe they've
been exposed to gas extraction
toxins. (According to the Gas
Drilling Tech Notes Web site,
DCS "will work with medical
advice to create a national peti-
tion campaign that notifies
ATSDR [Agency for Toxic Sub-
stances and Disease Registry] of
the need for Gas Drilling Health
Surveillance, a Gas Drilling
Health Registry and a compre-
hensive health impacts study.)
Damascus Citizens Help
Street.org, the first of the three
initiatives to get its own Web site,
was a long time in the making.
DCS Director and Science Offi-
cer, Barbara Arrindell, explains,
Help Street is built on a very old
idea. If you give a man a fish,
hell eat for a day. If you teach
him to fish, hell eat for a life-
time. Ever since we opened our
doors in 2008, people have been
asking how they can keep their
communities safe from the deg-
radations of hydraulic fracturing
and gas extraction. All of us, each
and every one of us, gains some-
thing when a community can
share what has been learned to
protect itself. So, we designed
Help Street.
HelpStreet pairs new commu-
nity groups with battle-tested
volunteers who share their orga-
nizing and Internet know-how
for free. Whether youre a volun-
teer looking to help or a group
desperately seeking assistance,
DamascusCitizensHelpStreet.
org is a great place to start and
their request and volunteer forms
couldnt be simpler to complete.
Sometimes, people want a
speaker or help getting free pub-
licity for their events. Sometimes
they need to know how to sub-
mit a Freedom of Information
request for documents or how to
write zoning laws to protect their
resources and communitys char-
acter, Arrindell said.
Or sometimes, they want to
create an international conversa-
tion.
Recently, Tanyette C. contact-
ed HelpStreet. She was planning
a trip to Norway, where onshore
gas drilling is prohibited. She
wanted to talk with Norways
Statoil ASA (Driven by Norwe-
gian Gas"), which purchased 32%
of Chesapeake Oil's assets in the
Marcellus Shale. She wanted to
tell Norwegians what she feared,
what Statoils ventures in the
Delaware River Valley would do
to her river and its environs. She
believed that Norwegians, who
had the good sense to prohibit
gas extraction on their home soil,
wouldnt want her valley in the
United States sacrificed to the
industry.
Soon after contacting Help-
Street, Tanyette wrote, Our con-
versation was inspiring and I
started compiling a list of Nor-
wegian environmental groups...
one said he would help me orga-
nize a screening of Gasland for
their people. I took your advice
on how I should approach them
via email and those contacts have
been key to building the relation-
ship. My conversation with you
was very helpful in preparing for
the trip .... One gentleman even
asked if I could bring a jar of the
contaminated water to Norway
with me.
And thats just one example.
Since its Spring 2011 beginnings,
HelpStreet volunteers have sat on
panels in community fora, helped
build Web sites, provided scien-
tific and technical insights, con-
nected an attorney in Oregon
with groups needing zoning
advice, helped create an art auc-
tion fundraiser and much more.
DCS' second initiative, Gas-
DrillingTechNotes.org, is a gas
drilling research library created
by Damascus Citizens for the
sole purpose of assisting indi-
viduals and community organi-
zations to discover the truth
about gas extraction and hydrau-
lic fracturing.
The sheer volume of informa-
tion at the Web site is staggering.
Between an article about the
potential danger of fossil fuel air
pollutants on the IQs of develop-
ing fetuses and a home-made
video on the effects of chemical
exposure on cats, cows and peo-
ple, community researchers will
find toxicological profiles, the
industry in their own words,
geologic reports and videos, gov-
ernment advocacy agencies and
legal papers detailing ways to
protect your neighborhood with
better zoning regulations.
In 2008, the idea of commu-
nities sharing resources to Stop
The Drill was not much more
than a dream held in common by
a handful of people from Califor-
nia to Maine. Today, Damascus
Citizens for Sustainability is
helping build a nationwide net-
work of educated and deter-
mined organizations that work
computer-to-computer to spot-
light the truth of hydraulic frac-
turing: one person at a time; one
community at a time.
Liz Bucar is the Coordinator of
Volunteers for Damascus Citi-
zens' HelpStreet.org; DCSHelp-
Street@gmail.com.
Established Anti-Fracking Group Offers Help to Others
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 6
By Jess Leber
Change.org: June 14, 2011
Americas early fracking fren-
zy has subsided into a rolling boil
of controversy in states where
the controversial natural gas
drilling technique now threatens
to expand its reach.
Seeing the disaster that frack-
ing has become in places like
Texas and Pennsylvania, citizens
and environmentalists are push-
ing state legislatures and the U.S.
Congress to stop it now. This
doesnt mean wait-and-see. This
doesnt mean letting drillers
frack-up more rivers and aqui-
fers and then regulate later.
This means, Ban Fracking
Now.
Food & Water Watch has
launched a campaign on Change.
org asking Congress to do just
that. They are already gaining
momentum around the country
and released a report today mak-
ing their case.
The group estimates that at
least 55 localities across the U.S.
have, over the past year, passed
measures to stop fracking in their
jurisdictions. Highland Park, a
community in New Jersey,
became the first town in the
country to call for a state and
national ban. Today, a number of
state legislators in New Jersey
joined this call.
Jess Leber is a Change.org edi-
tor. She recently covered climate
and energy issues in Washing-
ton, D.C.
From www.NJToday.net
TRENTON, New Jersey
State legislators joined with Food
& Water Watch, NJ Sierra Club
and Delaware Riverkeeper Net-
work to call for immediate pas-
sage of legislation to ban natural
gas hydraulic fracturing in New
Jersey.
The report released by Food
& Water Watch underlines the
serious health and safety con-
cerns surrounding the practice
of hydraulic fracturing or frack-
ing, said state Senator Bob Gor-
don (D-Bergen), who was joined
by state Senator Linda Green-
stein (D-Mercer) and Assembly-
woman Connie Wagner (D-Ber-
gen). Whether its the toxic mix
of known and unknown chemi-
cals used in the fracking process,
the loss of billions of gallons of
fresh drinking water or the toxic
waste water produced through-
out the fracking process, any one
of these potential dangers out-
weighs any benefits of increased
gas production.
From Food & Water
Watch
The latest locality to join to
ban fracking is Morgantown,
West Virginia, where a gas com-
pany had already placed a frack
well near the communitys water
treatment plant and right near
the Monongahela River.
Gasland director Josh Fox
has, as always, added fire to this
push with an editorial in USA
Today calling for a full ban.
The facts make the case on
their own. More than 1,000 cases
of water contamination have
already been reported near frack-
ing sites and, in the past 18
months, at least 10 studies by
scientists, Congress, investigative
journalists and public interest
groups have documented envi-
ronmental problems with frack-
ing, according to Food & Water
Watch.
Some findings include:
Toxic chemicals present in
fracking fluid could cause
cancer and other health prob-
lems.
Fracking wastewater contains
high levels of radioactivity
and other contaminants that
wastewater treatment
plants have had difficulty
removing; this potentially
contaminated wastewater can
then be discharged into local
rivers.
In Pennsylvania, more than
3,000 gas fracking wells and
permitted well sites are locat-
ed within two miles of 320
day care centers, 67 schools
and nine hospitals.
One by one, communities will
continue to deal with barely-reg-
ulated gas companies that are
threatening water supplies, rivers
and air quality. But Congress
could end this in one fell swoop
by heeding Food & Water Watch-
es call to ban fracking now.
Gas Drilling News
Confederacy's territory once
stretched from the Great Slave
Lake of the Northwest Territories
to the north end of present-day
Yellowstone National Park.
Historians date the Blackfeet's
tenure in the Northern Rockies
at a mere 300 years (which, as it
turns out, is when the frst Euro-
peans encountered the Blackfoot
Confederacy in Canada). But
as one archeologist told me, the
combination of linguistics, oral
tradition, mythology and arche-
ology makes possible an 8,500-
year time span or more. Tribal
Historic Preservation Ofcer
John Murray cites 10,000-year-
old archeological sites in the
nearby mountains tied to his
people. Te Nation's Web site
proclaims: "We come from right
here."
At the heart of "here" is a
smallish piece of land 130,000
acres southwest of the reserva-
tion. Technically, the Badger-Two
Medicine is national forest land
and to the naked eye is not dis-
tinguishable from the rest of the
Lewis and Clark National Forest.
But the Badger is the key to what
happened here and why.
Te Badger-Two Medicine is
part of the Backbone of the World.
It's full of mountains named for
the supernatural beings who live
there, "other-than-human per-
sons," as one writer calls them:
Morningstar, Poia, the colorful
Tunder bird, Wind Maker and
Medicine Grizzly. "It is precisely
this mythic understanding of
kinship and reciprocity with the
land all rocks, plants and ani-
mals which empowers the Bad-
ger-Two Medicine as a sacred
landscape," writes Jay Vest in his
1988 article, "Traditional Black-
feet Religion and the Sacred Bad-
ger-Two Medicine Wildlands."
When oil companies Chevron
and Fina were poised in 1993 to
send in their drilling rigs, Floyd
"Tiny Man" Heavy Runner told
reporters, "What you're doing is
putting us on the road to extinc-
tion. We are here to notify you
that we have no alternatives. We
are not going to stand back."
Heavy Runner, leader of the
warrior Brave Dog society, ex-
plained that the nature of the
Blackfeet's relationship to the
Badger-Two Medicine is not
something that can be taken into
account by the oil companies'
talk of "improved technology,"
"small footprints" and "seasonal
occupancy." If one drop were
spilled, he said, the place would
be ruined.
Te gist of Heavy Runner's
argument speaks to a profound
connection between a given
landscape and the humans who
occupy it; a bond of such inti-
macy that a seemingly innocu-
ous wound to the former is felt
by the latter. For the Blackfeet,
the integrity of the Badger gives
strength to the inseparable
threads of spirituality, language
and culture, from which is woven
the tapestry of their lives.
Blackfeet Community College
instructor and journalist Woody
Kipp explains: "[T]hose places are
sacred places and there's usually
a story that goes with it. So our
stories, legends and mythology
go with the landscape. And try-
ing to convey that to mainstream
people is just ... just almost im-
possible because the concepts
are not there. Our language says
something diferent about the
landscape than English. English
is a great language for commerce,
for recreation, for sex, whatever.
But it is not a sacred language, as
our language is."
Kipp was a founding member
of the Pikuni Traditionalist Asso-
ciation ("not your grandmother's
PTA," he jokes), a group formed
to fend of drilling. He elabo-
rates: "What environmentalists
call ecosystems we say is a part
of the fabric of life. "Mitakuye
oyasin" it's Lakota and it means
we're all related. And when I say
we are all related, it doesn't mean
just you and I as humans: we're
related to the rocks and the trees
and the air and the whole thing
... that the physicists call a unifed
system.
"So when these environmen-
talists came to us and wanted to
know if we were aware of the oil
and gas wells that had been leased
in the Badger-Two Medicine, we
told them "No." Our tribal coun-
cil didn't even know about it ...
But we joined with these white
environmentalists in an efort to
stop the drilling because we un-
derstood what they were saying."
If there's an Anglo name syn-
onymous with the campaign to
save the Badger-Two Medicine,
it's Lou Bruno. A biology teach-
er by training, Bruno moved to
the reservation in 1974 to teach
remedial reading. As a gay man
in 1970s Montana, he felt like an
outcast pretty much everywhere
he went. But he needed the job
the Blackfeet needed a warm
body. "I hated this place when I
got here, I have to tell you," he
says. "I felt like I was being ex-
iled to Siberia. Te winters set in
really early. You go over [to the
Flathead Valley] shopping and
you feel like a Martian you're
wearing winter coats and they're
still in shorts."
Te job itself was great: he got
to spend hours a day with small
classes and felt like he was doing
some good. And he began to ap-
preciate the landscape. "I love the
diversity here and the fact that,
you know, unlike Yellowstone,
you have all of these forest types
and you have all of these plant
species that are not down there
... At certain times of the year,
there's no place else I'd rather
be."
In 1982, the Forest Service
sold nearly four dozen leases in
the Badger and soon afer two
companies Chevron and Fina
applied for permits to drill. Te
agency held an informational
meeting in the reservation resort
town of East Glacier and Bruno
attended. "Tey were giving us a
lot of bullshit. Tey were telling
us a lot of lies. And basically it
made me so angry that it got me
activated," he recalls.
He and others started the
Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance
and began fghting the plan on
two fronts. With the help of a
pro bono lawyer and the Mon-
tana Wilderness Association, the
group stalled with appeals and
lawsuits. Meanwhile, they orga-
nized the locals. Bruno led hikes
into the mountains, he talked
with his colleagues. "I just got
possessed about it. I went around
to all the people at school and the
Native American people and the
white people. Tere were lots of
aides and janitors and things like
that. And I knew that they did not
support the drilling, you know,
did not want any development up
there. And so I told them, 'If you
don't feel comfortable writing a
letter, I'll ghost write one for you
and I'll run it by you then.' And
I would interview them and fnd
out what they wanted to say."
Lea Whitford, director of the
Blackfeet Studies program at the
community college, invited Bru-
no among others to come and
speak with her students. "He was
real passionate about keeping the
area pristine and he talked about
the animals and the relationship
that people have with not only
landscape but with the habitat in
the area.
"It does something for you as
a Blackfoot person to know the
relationship to the land. It makes
you more conscious. It makes
you a better steward. But in that
growth of learning your relation-
ship to landscape, you also have
these inner battles of well, eco-
nomically, how do we ft in the
whole scheme of it? So we have
those ... things we have to weigh
real heavily when we're making
decisions about land."
Te Blackfeet lost title to the
Badger in 1896, at the end of a
century marked by deadly cy-
cles of measles, scarlet fever and
smallpox, the near eradication
of bufalo leading to the Starva-
tion Winter of 1883-84 and the
"scorched Earth" policies of the
United States Army, culminating
most famously in the 1870 mas-
sacre of Heavy Runner's peaceful
camp by Major Eugene Baker. In
less than 50 years, a series of rati-
fed and unofcial treaties whit-
tled the Blackfeet territory down
to the corner of Montana they
now occupy. Te Blackfeet, who
agreed in 1896 to cede their claim
to the Badger and to the strip of
land that now comprises the east-
ern portion of Glacier National
Park, were sick, starving and
desperate. Tribal oral tradition
has it that the 1896 agreement
was meant as a 99-year lease; the
United States government took it
for a sale and, while that view has
prevailed, the Blackfeet's insis-
tence of legal claim to the Badger
has lef all in the region in an un-
easy stalemate.
Te Blackfeet are not opposed
to drilling in general in fact, in
the last few years the tribe has
signed three major agreements
to explore the central and east-
ern portions of the rez. Te most
recent included a signing bonus
of more than $15 million, a very
big deal in a community with 70
percent unemployment. So white
conservationists fear that if a pro-
development faction were to take
control of the tribal government,
economics would trump spiritu-
ality. Environmentalists like Bru-
no would rather see the Badger
declared a Wilderness Area.
"Tey feel like it's their land,
they should be able to do with it
what they want to do," he says.
"And I feel, no, that's not true.
Nobody should be able to trash
their lands, no matter what color
they are or what nationality they
are or whatever. It's wrong. It's in
nobody's best interests."
Afer 150 years of getting
pushed around, it's not hard to
understand why the tribe might
feel proprietary, even defen-
sive especially when it comes
to energy policy. Te Blackfeet
reservation was Ground Zero
for the Cobell v. Babbitt class
action lawsuit, in which Brown-
ing banker Eloise Cobell sued
the federal government for gross
mismanagement of resource roy-
alties due to some half a million
American Indians. It wasn't until
the 1982 Indian Minerals Devel-
opment Act that tribes were even
allowed to negotiate the terms of
their own leases.
Tribal Historic Preservation
Ofcer John Murray says, how-
ever, that the Blackfeet are capa-
ble of making fne distinctions.
"Tey say, 'You guys are drilling
on the reservation, what about
that?' We say, 'Well, that's our
land, we can do any damn thing
we want with it.'
"But [the Badger] is land that
we want to eventually manage
and use for a variety of things,
including traditional hunting,
traditional gathering. But we
don't intend to desecrate it, build
roads. If we get to manage it we
don't intend to drill."
Te Badger's uncertain title
may work to everyone's advan-
tage excepting the oil and gas
companies. Te Blackfeet can use
their claim as leverage to get the
kind of management they want
from the Forest Service in fact,
in the spring of 2010 the Forest
Service banned all motorized use
of the area. Te Forest Service
can wash its hands of controver-
sial decisions, essentially abdicat-
ing authority without any kind of
showdown over ownership. And
environmentalists grudgingly
compromise on wilderness sta-
tus for the Badger, knowing that
they won't have any infuence on
management issues if they alien-
ate the tribe.
"I think that's what has saved
that place," says Joe Jessepe, a
Blackfeet historian and member
of the Glacier-Two Medicine Al-
liance. "Because of the unclear
status. And I think maybe for
everybody involved there is too
much at stake."
Over the years, the stalling
tactics worked. Each time envi-
ronmentalists won a bureaucratic
battle, the government would re-
do some aspect of their plans and
forge ahead. In 1993, Clinton's
Secretary of Interior Bruce Bab-
bitt temporarily called a halt to
exploration in the region, pend-
ing completion of a cultural sur-
vey; in 1997, Forest Supervisor
Gloria Flora became a folk hero
when she issued a moratorium
banning new leasing on Lewis
and Clark forest lands for ten
years. It proved the beginning of
the end of her government career
and a marked departure from the
ways public lands agencies had
been making land use decisions
in the West.
"What I did try to do was go
around and talk to people and
try to understand where they
were coming from," she told me
in a 2003 interview. "I'm not do-
ing what the [Bureau of Land
Management] does, which is,
'You may give us your input but
we don't want any emotion. Just
give us the facts.' I fnd that pa-
tently ofensive because one of
the most important things about
being human is our relationship
to landscapes, our relationship to
nature, our interdependency."
During Flora's moratorium,
the Blackfeet and Forest Service
cooperated to produce a cultural
inventory of the Badger, resulting
in two-thirds of the region classi-
fed as a Traditional Cultural Dis-
trict, making it eligible for place-
ment on the National Register of
Historic Places.
Of the original 47 leases in the
Badger, most now have been re-
tired in some fashion through
trades or private buy-outs. Of
those remaining, only two com-
panies are holding onto permits
to drill: Chevron's leases now are
held by Devon Energy and Fina's
lease was taken over by Louisiana
businessman Sidney Longwell.
Tese were thrown into limbo
pending a proposal to include all
of the Badger in the Traditional
Cultural District and remain
there to this day.
"Somewhere there has to be a
benchmark," Flora says. "Some-
where, some piece of landscape
has to be so spectacular that a
few days worth of gas for the
nation really isn't worth the de-
struction that would be involved.
What other place?
"I tell people now, I hope peo-
ple look at that decision and say
it was a no-brainer."
Tis work produced with support
of Alicia Patterson Foundation
(Washington, D.C.), founded in
1965 to promote independent jour-
nalism. Andrea Peacock is a 2010
Alicia Patterson Foundation Fel-
low and author of Wasting Libby,
(CounterPunch/AK Press). Contact
her at: apeacock@wispwest.net.
Montana continued from page 1
DEPs Claim is No
Confidence-Builder;
First-Hand Account
of Gas Industry Spill
By Barb Jarmoska
Responsible Drilling Alliance
The skies clouded over and a
gentle rain began. The change in
the weather on Saturday caused
Steve Marquardt, out riding his
new motorcycle, to head for his
home on Wallis Run Road. Sud-
denly, the bikes front end lost
stability and traction and, in an
instant, the motorcycle and Steve
went in opposite directions. The
bike spun into a stone wall and
Steve slammed onto the pave-
ment.
The cause of the accident was a
slick, gel-like, foamy substance
that was spilled on the south-
bound lane of Wallis Run Road for
10 miles. Both DEP and PennDoT
assumed the unknown chemical
was leaked by a gas industry truck
but the truck had not been found
nor the substance positively iden-
tified when I walked the road that
night at 6 p.m. What strange irony
that two nights earlier, six friends
and I had walked every step of the
two-and-a-half-mile stretch of
Wallis Run Road from Route 973
to Butternut Grove as we picked
up litter on my familys adopted
highway.
On Saturday night, the road
was closed but there were no
clean-up crews on the scene.
PennDoT workers I spoke with
guessed the slippery stuff was
frack fluid but admitted they
didnt know for sure. There was
no evidence of DEP or gas indus-
try presence during the two
hours I spent along Wallis Run
Road that night.
The front page of Sundays
Sun Gazette reported that DEP
had not yet determined what had
spilled onto the 10 miles of road-
way that runs along the Loyal-
sock Creek and her beautiful
tributary, Wallis Run. But the
agency claimed the unknown
substance presented no envi-
ronmental concern at this time.
What does that mean exactly?
That the two wild turkeys I saw
walk through the fluid and head
into the woods will not be affect-
ed? That the hundreds of tadpoles
I had seen on Thursday night
swimming in a roadside rain pool
have nothing to fear? That there
was no problem posed by the vol-
ume of this chemical that was
splashed into the soil on the shoul-
der and carried far and wide by
the tires of many southbound cars
that were on the road both before
and after the closing? That the
eventual migration of chemical
residue into nearby waterways is
nothing to be concerned about?
Come on DEP do you really
think were that stupid? Dont we
deserve better? Could you at least
start with the truth? Heres a
hypothetical statement I could
have believed:
We have not pinpointed the
source of the spill nor been able
to get a positive identification of
the chemical along 10 miles of
roadway. Until we have a con-
firmed lab analysis and are able
to check the MSDS data, we can-
not make a statement as to the
potential harm or lack thereof
that this substance may pose to
the environment, to nearby
waterways or to human health.
Such a statement would have
instilled confidence that maybe
DEP is doing their under-staffed
best to provide some measure of
environmental protection.
Back in September, DEP
issued a Notice of Violation to
Cabot for two spills in Susque-
hanna County that polluted wet-
lands and killed fish in Stevens
Creek. The spills involved LGC-
35, a lubricant used in the frack-
ing process. Was DEP certain
that this same chemical wasnt
spilled on Wallis Run Road?
As crews worked their way
past the turn-off to my house on
Sunday afternoon, a PennDoT
flagman told me, We put a dry-
ing agent on the spill, swept the
residue into garbage bags and
hosed down the road with a
chlorine bleach solution. Turns
out it was frack oil. Its all bagged
up and the bleach will take care
of anything that remained.
Twenty four hours after the
incident, PennDoTs black gar-
bage bags lined Wallis Run Road,
awaiting pick-up. Also waiting to
be picked up was our little pile of
identical PennDot black garbage
bags filled with roadside refuse:
broken beer bottles, dirty dia-
pers, a tire, candy wrappers,
empty packs of cigarettes. Im
glad we had the litter pick-up on
Thursday, before the spill.
In truth, these incidents have
only just begun. As the gas indus-
try continues its invasion of rural
Pennsylvania, such accidents
already numbering in the thou-
sands will continue to increase.
Along with the accidents, our
total toxic exposure and the bio-
accumulation of these chemicals
in the air we breathe, the water
we drink, the creeks we swim in,
the wild game we eat and the
grass our children play ball on,
will also continue to increase.
According to a recent Nature
Conservancy report, gas drilling
and development is poised to
destroy up to 1.3 million acres of
Pennsylvania forest land. Will
our great grandchildren ever
know the vast beauty of the
Pennsylvania Wilds, the majesty
of the Endless Mountains, the
cold clear springs where animals,
hikers and hunters quench their
thirst, the mountain streams
where native trout hide in shady
pools, the croak of frogs in
marshy ponds and chorus of
birdsong in the deep core forest?
What will happen to agriculture
and tourism, now Pennsylvania's
top two sources of income?
The economic burdens and
environmental challenges that
will rest on the shoulders of future
generations remain the true
unknowns of the Marcellus Shale.
Motorcycle Accident Caused by Unknown
but Not Hazardous Substance, Says DEP
Calls Escalate for National Fracking Ban
Photo courtesy Progress Ohio via Flickr
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 7
By Iona Conner, Publisher
Shade Gap, Pennsylvania
Editors Note: I have been
communicating with Angel Smith
for a couple of years now about
fracking issues. Bit by bit, she sent
me information about what was
going on in her area people hav-
ing meetings, making YouTubes,
hiring lawyers, etc. but it wasnt
until May 18
th
that I had a chance
to talk with her on the phone and
hear her story. Half an hour after
we hung up and I started writing
this article, my heart was still
beating hard from hearing all the
grief she and her family and her
animals have gone through
because of incompetent gas drill-
ing operators and public employ-
ees. It is hard to believe that these
things can happen in this country,
in this state, to ordinary people
just going about their business, in
her case farming.
Angel and William (Wayne)
Smith of Clearville, Pennsylvania
thought it was all right to sign a
lease for a natural gas company
to drill on their land so they
could earn extra money. So in
2007, PGE (Pennsylvania Gen-
eral Energy Company, LLC)
started drilling vertical wells (the
less harmful kind, not fracked).
They were just going to look for
gas and, if they hit gas, they said
the wells could last for 10 to 15
years.
But two-and-a-half years later
those wells were ordered shut off
by Steckman Ridge so they could
convert the system to gas storage.
A compressor station is now a
half mile from the Smiths farm.
Everybodys property was stor-
age, Angel explained.
The Smiths first royalty
checks from PGE were based on
106 acres but, with Steckman
Ridge now involved, the Smiths
are getting royalty on only 90
acres. Steckman Ridge is now
storing 12 billion cubic feet of
natural gas under Clearvilles
properties for $5.00 an acre.
An artesian well was the
source of the Smiths water but,
after the drilling started, polluted
water was running over the cas-
ing. In January 2007, our horse
went down, Angel said. Then in
April 2007 a cow went down
and died. Another cow started
stumbling around so the Smiths
called a vet who tried treating
her with pills and other things he
thought would help but, on April
29
th
, the cow crashed through
the fence and died. All of these
animals acted in the same way
before they died: they were lying
on their sides with their feet
moving back and forth in a walk-
ing motion.
Angel, 41, was upset and
started going around to her
neighbors asking if they were
having trouble with their ani-
mals. No other animals were
dying. In September 2007, the
DEP came out and tested the
water, finding that manganese
and iron were off the charts. Yet
the DEP person told Angel he
needed a smoking gun. Did he
expect people from Steckman to
admit they were having prob-
lems? Werent the dead animals
enough of a smoking gun, Angel
wondered.
We lost calves, all the chick-
ens died, one little dog was wast-
ing away, Angel said. The dog
would scream at night and Angel
couldnt sleep for months, during
which time she would go down-
stairs and hold her pet so it could
finally sleep.
Then Wayne got sick so they
drove to the hospital for blood
tests, which showed high iron,
not an alarming rate, but still
iron. At that point, the Smiths
switched their water source to
springs, which had no arsenic.
We had high iron and manga-
nese in our water, Lord knows
what else, explained Angel.
But that wasnt the solution.
The Dalmatian got kidney dis-
ease and the Rottweiler started
breathing like a freight train
one night like the cows had
been doing and then died the
next morning before they could
go to a vet.
There were no autopsies done
at the time and the vet suggested
waiting till the next one.
Jesus, we hope there isnt a
next one, Angel told him.
But there was. In 2010 anoth-
er cow died.
This is just too much death,
Angel declared. In 2009, we had
to make a choice. We had found
out by then we also had arsenic
and methane in our water so we
bought an $11,000 water system
and prayed that it would work.
Now, coming back to the pres-
ent, on May 25
th
(2011), Wayne
smelled gas. The Smiths have a
gas stove, so that was the first
thing they thought of. Wayne ran
soap along all the joints and there
were no bubbles. He went out to
the field and the odor was strong
there so they called the National
Response Center, a federal
hotline which theoretically
emails local agencies like the
DEP, DOT (which permits the
compressor) and EPA when
theres trouble. That is such a
joke, Angel said, They send it
to all those agencies and nobody
responds.
She finally had to make the
calls to DEP herself. When she
notified DEP in Altoona, the
man told her he was download-
ing his computer and couldnt
come. When she called the non-
emergency line in Bedford
County she was told, Every time
you smell gas Im not going to
come running but Ill come down
now.
The non-emergency person
and fire chief brought a meter to
the field and found propane, car-
bon monoxide and mercapton
(the substance used to make gas
smell so people will know when
there is a leak). With those read-
ings in a house, the home would
have been evacuated.
Not long after that, one more
cow died and another cow had
twins and she did not want them,
so now we are bottle-feeding two
babies called Fric and Frac,
Angel said.
It seems to Angel that the
DEP in Harrisburg is working to
protect the gas companies and
that leaves people like us to try
to protect the environment. Like
I have also said, farming and gas
drilling do not mix you cant
have both at all.
Heres one tiny example of the
kinds of exchanges the Smiths
have had with public officials.
May 10
Summary of the Incident
the Smiths Sent to DEP
I called Mr. Ruddick, air qual-
ity in Altoona this morning but he
was out today. There has been
something going on here that we
need some answers to. On April
25, 2011, we reported we smelled
gas. I called air quality, he was
updating his computer and
COULD NOT come down. So, we
called Bedford non-emergency
line. They came and got a reading
in our pasture of carbon monox-
ide, propane and another chemi-
cal at 11:00 a.m. It was the vol-
ume of what was smelled that was
the real problem. Steckman Ridge
responded about 5:00 p.m. His
reply was, We are not sure it was
our gas. But, the key point (was) it
was gas. Then on May 5
th
, 2011
we lost a 600-pound steer and
another cow was trying to mis-
carry. May 9
th
that cow had her
babies but no milk to feed them
and she doesnt claim them at all.
On May 9
th
around 12:00 [mid-
night], we were awaked by the
compressor station roaring over
top of the refrigerator running
and our doors and windows were
closed. Then there was also a
siren. Now, 12:00 p.m. this after-
noon, we saw a big oil truck go up
the road. Did they lose oil again?
Did the compressor station do its
normal malfunction?
These are questions that we
feel need to be and should be
answered. We all should not have
to wonder what went on, we
should be left known! At least Bin
Laden blew something up and he
said he did it! We are tired of lies.
Wayne and Angel Smith
Clearville, Pennsylvania
May 12
Reply from Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission
I contacted Spectra (the parent
company of Steckman Ridge which
bought Texas Eastern Transmis-
sion) to inquire whether there was
an ESD [Emergency Shut Down)]
Monday night or if what you
heard was the typical unit vent-
ing of the station. I also asked if
there was any oil misting as
occurred with the very first ESD
they ever had.
I received a call back today.
The response I received was that
there had been no unusual opera-
tions at the facility within this
month (no ESDs included) and no
oil was released.
I was also told as a follow-up
that, although Steckman had gone
out during your initial report of
smelling gas at the end of the day
and found that they did not believe
the gas was coming from their
pipeline. Steckman is continuing
to work with the DOT [Depart-
ment of Transportation] to per-
form some follow-up testing to
ensure that they do not have any
leaks in their pipelines that could
be contributing to the gas smell
you reported.
Magdalene Suter
Environmental Engineer
Office of Energy Projects
Federal Energy Regulatory Com-
mission
May 16
Letter to Congressman Shuster
Hi, (its) Wayne and Angela
Smith in Clearville, Pa. We have
had some really trou-
bling events happen
here and we are ask-
ing for your help in
this matter.
We were supposed
to have Alex Dank-
anich from DOT/
PHMSA [Pipeline
and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Admi ni s t r at i on]
come to our home
today, May 16
th
,
2011. A few hours
before he was sup-
posed to be here, he
emailed and said he
was not coming. He
was coming here to
look for a gas leak.
This is really upset-
ting to us. We know
there was gas on
April 25
th
, 2011.
Carbon monoxide,
mercaptan, propane.
With the Marcel-
lus in this area and the storing of
gas, the compressor station and
well drilling, a leak or what may
have happened should be taken as
top priority.
We are hoping for a response
in this matter as soon as you can.
Thank You,
William and Angela Smith
May 17
From Angel to Me
I have dealt with a lot of PA
DEP members and every one of
them has lied to me, called me
names and tried very hard to
belittle me . . . . We also are get-
ting ready to talk with USDA
about the cattle. We raise them
and put them in the food chain. I
am so upset about this because the
last thing I want to do is poison
someone else.
May 19
From Angel to Me
The compressor station is not
on our property its a half-mile
away and this morning around
10:18 it blew off, shook windows!
Now, back to the phone inter-
view. Angel told me that when a
man from Steckman showed up
with a sniffer and went up and
down the pipeline, he said, Were
not sure its our gas.
Whose gas is it? asked
Angel.
He told her that the com-
pounds that had been identified
were coming from the dead cow.
I want Spectra here with
their sniffer held over the dead
cow and lets see if all three
chemicals show up.
So, the Smiths ask themselves,
Do we just stay here? Where
would we go? Well just stay here
and keep fighting. One way they
are fighting is through a lawsuit.
The Smiths are also working
with their neighbors. When
Angel first went to some of them
a while ago to warn them about
arsenic and suggest that they get
their water tested, they treated
her like she had leprosy.
Then one day Wayne helped
one of them do a job with his
tractor. When the man went to
pay him, Wayne refused the
money and asked the man to put
the money into a water test. The
[level of] arsenic was off the
charts. Finally, others got their
water tested.
Last year the Smiths pond
turned red and the creeks have
foam on them or they go dry. A
call to her state representative,
John Eichelburger, ended with
him reassuring her that, The
DEP knows what theyre doing.
Angel says that some DEP
employees end up working for
the gas companies.
At this point, Wayne (54) has
such a high level of iron in his
liver that his doctor pulled him
aside and quietly said, Wayne,
youre going to have to stop
drinking. But Wayne is not a
drinker. And Angels blood pres-
sure was so high that her doctor
asked her, Girl, what are you
doing?
In the meantime, the Smiths
have seen a nitro truck and a
truck with radioactive placards
running a scope to see if the cas-
ing is all right. When they drilled
under their property, a spring
popped up in their barn. The
state told THEM to fix it. Anoth-
er side effect of the drilling activ-
ities around their farm was a
blowout that sprayed lubricating
oils over 500 blueberry bushes,
ruining their harvest. That hap-
pened on a Sunday and they
were told to simply wash the oil
off.
No, said Angel. The gar-
dens gone. She wasnt about to
risk poisoning anyone else. This
emergency shutdown had
released 967,000 standard cubic
feet of natural gas. This proved
to me that little towns are not
prepared for these problems and
the sad part is that theres an ele-
mentary school less than two
miles up the road, she added.
Did the company get penal-
ized? For two incidents in August
2009 and again in October 2009,
they received a fine of $22,000.
Steckman Ridge did not believe
the release posed an imminent
danger to public health and safe-
ty.
How can they say this? After
the blow off we had a reading of
toluene in our water. Lord only
knows what we were breathing,
exclaimed Angel. Then Steck-
man went to the neighbors and
gave them each $100 gift certifi-
cates to a restaurant. They
bought (their) health for $100,
she said.
But Angel keeps going. She
planned to go to a River Valley
Stream Keepers testers training
in July. According to her, Steck-
man Ridge has messed up two
watersheds: Shaffer Creek (a
warm water fishery) and Siding
Hill (an exceptional-value
stream).
For a while, the Smiths
received royalty checks for about
a million dollars all together but
today Angel says, If I could give
back every check we ever got for
a royalty for them to go away, Id
do it in a minute get back my
animals oh, yeah.
At the end of the interview,
Angel told me that the couple
had lovingly named their farm
Four Beat Beaver Creek Farm for
their horses. Now they sit on
their porch and see turkey vul-
tures lining up on their fence
post. With black humor, they tell
each other, This place is now
called Death Valley. They are just
waiting for us to die.
But to end here wouldnt be
doing Angels spirit justice. She
closed the interview by explain-
ing how hard she and others
must work to be able to counter-
act the effects of the gas industry.
She talked of how they must edu-
cate themselves and pull off the
wind direction and speed from
the closest weather channel.
Weve got to do the right thing
to get the right thing done. Its
almost as if the Smiths have
become their own DEP. Angel
said that they must be like pri-
vate eyes and figure out which
agency to call when there are
problems and hope that they will
respond rapidly and effectively.
I guess its really not about
win or lose for me, I am to the
point that, they [the gas compa-
ny] did wrong and they need to
stop hurting people. I look at it
that we the people are innocent
but the gas companies say, No,
youre guilty and they take no
blame! I could never be in their
job because I feel that life is so
very fragile. God gave us one life
and we feel that we owe it to live
the best that we can and not have
to worry about turning on our
water and being poisoned!
I have not felt myself the last
couple of days and I think I am
just so depressed. I used to think:
Okay, the gas companies just
poisoned me and my husband
and my animals, I can live with
that but I cannot and will not let
them hurt the children. So many
other people are living a night-
mare and my heart goes out to
them; I cannot imagine having
small children going through
this.
"This is just our story and, if
you sit down and really think
about, how many others are in
the same place we are selling
beef to the food chain, selling
vegetables and fruit? Do you
know what the product youre
buying really starts at? Is it near
gas wells or compressor stations
and are they being watered by
contaminated water? What goes
up in the air will come back
down and that can get into soil,
water, animals and the list is end-
less, explains Angel in conclu-
sion.
Think about it.
Then do something.
Gas Drilling Case Study
This is Just Too Much Death . . . We Have to
Educate Ourselves, Do the Right Thing
Photo by Angel Smith
Angel and Wayne Smith's grandchildren feed one of two baby calves after the mother cow mysteriously had no milk and would not
accept her twins. Angel wonders if this peculiar behavior is somehow related to drilling near her farm. Angel also hopes the children
have not suffered from all the hand-washing they did when visiting their grandparents whose water was contaminated by gas com-
panies in the area.
Photo by Angel Smith
Now the Smiths sit on their porch and see turkey vultures lining up on their fence post. With black humor,
they tell each other, This place is now called Death Valley. They are just waiting for us to die.
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 8
Gas-Drilling Resources
Food & Water Watch: Ban-Fracking Toolkit
A nationwide efort to ban fracking has been launched by Food & Water Watch (see page 6). You
can download a free toolkit for grassroots activism at www.foodandwaterwatch.org. Te kit includes
Ban Fracking petitions to help reach out to your community and directions on how to use it; half-
sheet, colored Ban Fracking fyers with persuasive facts; two booklets called "How to Get Your Resolu-
tion Passed to Ban Fracking" (a guide to passing a local resolution to help pass bans at the local level
until a national ban can be accomplished along with suggestions for implementing it) and "Not So
Fast, Natural Gas: Why Accelerating Risky Drilling Treatens America's Water."
Contact: Katy Kiefer, Outreach Organizer
Phone: 202-683-4939
Email: kkiefer@fwwatch.org
Address: 1616 P Street NW, #300, Washington D.C. 20036.
Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA)
RDA is a grassroots, all-volunteer group of dedicated citizens who have formed an alliance and wel-
come members with the widest possible concerns, interests and ideologies. RDA membership includes
parents and grandparents, students, business people, hunters, fshermen, farmers, hikers, teachers,
truckers, those who have leased their land to a gas company and those who refused.
Email: info@responsibledrilingalliance.org Web site: http://www.responsibledrillingalliance.org
Address: Responsible Drilling Alliance, Box 502, Williamsport, Pennsylvania 17703
Protecting Our Waters (POW)
Protecting Our Waters is a Philadelphia-based grassroots alliance committed to protecting the
Delaware River Basin, the state of Pennsylvania and our region from unconventional gas drilling and
other threats to our drinking water, environment and public health. A fund has been created enabling
landowners to perform baseline testing of private water wells.
We call for a MORATORIUM on shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania at least until:
New Pennsylvania wastewater treatment requirements for shale-gas-drilling waste are in place
and enforced;
An Environmental Impact Statement has been completed for Pennsylvania;
All federal exemptions for hydraulic fracturing are lifed: Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water
Act and Clean Air Act; and
Te Environmental Protection Agency study is complete.
Email: protectingourwaters@gmail.com Web site: protectingourwaters.wordpress.com
Address: 4808 Windsor Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143 Phone: 215-840-6489
EARTHWORKS
EARTHWORKS is a non-proft organization dedicated to protecting communities and the envi-
ronment from the destructive impacts of mineral development in the U.S. and worldwide. We work
with communities and grassroots groups to reform government policies, improve corporate practices,
infuence investment decisions and encourage responsible materials sourcing and consumption.
Email: info@earthworksaction.org Web site: earthworksaction.org
Address: 1612 K St., NW, Suite 808, Washington, D.C. 20006 Phone: 202-887-1872
Te Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX)
(I'formation about fracking chemicals and free DVD cal'ed
"What You Need to Know About Natural Gas Drilling")
Te TEDX List of Potential Endocrine Disruptors is on our Web site (www.endocrinedisruption.
org). Every chemical on the TEDX List has one or more verifed citations to published, accessible, pri-
mary scientifc research demonstrating efects on the endocrine system. To download the TEDX List
go to http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/endocrine.TEDXList.overview.php
Web site: www.endocrinedisruption.com Address: P.O. Box 1407, Paonia, Colorado 81428
Phone: 970-527-4082
Fracking Chemicals Disclosure Registry
FracFocus.org is the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry Web site, a joint project of the Ground
Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. On this site you can
search for information about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. You
will also fnd educational materials designed to help you put this information in perspective.
Marcellus Drilling News
Jim Willis creates this news wire. He is not opposed to drilling but he has very good reports: marcel-
lusdrilling.com.
Fractracker-Post Gazette Collaboration
An exciting collaboration between FracTracker and a project run by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(PG) called 'Pipeline' helps inform the PG's expansive readership about the diverse issues surrounding
natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. For this project, FracTracker's DataTool will provide
a platform for data collection and map creation. You will fnd blog articles, raw data and thematic
maps related to the Marcellus Shale gas extraction industry in Pennsylvania organized into the follow-
ing categories:
Industry Violations Farming and Agriculture
Vulnerable Populations Wastewater Management
Te Pittsburgh Post Gazette (PG) and fractracker blog and data tools are linked. Te PG site http://
shale.sites.post-gazette.com/ is up and running and the Center for Healthy Environments and Com-
munities of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Graduate School of Public
Health, University of Pittsburgh is running a mirror end on their blog-data site at http://www.frac-
tracker.org/p/pg-pipeline.html. You will see permits and violations, too.
MarcellusProtest.org
Excellent Web site with lots of resources. Especially good to see are the Pipeline Explosions vid-
eos. Also the Fraccidents Map prepared by EarthJustice. Go to Resources and scroll down to Frac
Accidents Map. Te country is in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom brought on by a
controversial technology called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Along with this fracking-fueled gas
rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths,
industrial disasters and explosions. We call them "Fraccidents."
Water Resources at Stake: Delaware, Monongahela and Susquehanna Rivers
Governor Tom Corbett (Pennsylvania) accepted nearly $1 million from oil and gas companies dur-
ing his political campaigns and, since assuming ofce in 2011, promptly began repaying his benefac-
tors by cutting down on environmental enforcement and oversight of gas drilling activities. As of July
6, 2011, the map had 70 locations with details about fracking accidents across the country. Click on
"View Fraccidents Map" and a sidebar will pop up on your lef listing many communities in Penn-
sylvania and elsewhere. Click on the town/accident you want to learn about and a description of the
accident will be visible, along with a skull and cross-bones to give the viewer a graphic reminder that
fracking is a deadly, industrial process.
Money Infuencing Fracking Policy
Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets: Lobbying Expenditures
Common Cause/NY released its report on lobbying expenditures of the natural gas indus-
try to shed some light on the amount of money the natural gas industry is spending to infu-
ence public policy in New York State. Read the report at: http://www.commoncause.org/site/
pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=6721533.
Contact: Deanna Bitetti, Associate Director
Address: Common Cause/New York, 74 Trinity Place, #901, New York, New York 10006
Phone: 212-691-6421 Ext. 203 Blackberry: 917-751-2342 Fax: 212-807-1809
www.PAForestCoalition.org
Excellent email updates and analyses of current drilling issues. Also has link to Republicans for
Environmental Protection at http://www.repamerica.org.
Gas Drilling News
By Iona Conner, Publisher
Shade Gap, Pennsylvania
Nearly 100 municipal of-
fcials from dozens of commu-
nities in the northwest part of
Pennsylvania spent June 11
th
at
Robert Morris University near
Pittsburgh learning how to enact
ordinances to keep gas-drilling
companies out of their communi-
ties, thereby protecting the com-
munities and public health from
corporate assaults while simulta-
neously upholding their oaths of
ofce. Te meeting, sponsored
by the City of Pittsburgh and
the Community Environmental
Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in
Mercersburg was billed as "Stop-
ping Fracking Within Our Com-
munities by Restoring Municipal
Self-Government."
"We're within our rights to
protect our rights," announced
Ben Price, projects director for
CELDF, during his opening re-
marks. CELDF is working with
people in Pennsylvania, New
York, Ohio, Maryland (and even
Ecuador) to develop ordinances
banning such corporate attacks
as gas-drilling, hog farms and
landflls as they help draf lan-
guage for local Bills of Rights.
Lately CELDF has been pio-
neering the Rights of Nature to
exist and fourish. Now, thanks to
their work, citizens have the legal
right to stand for Nature. Since
we currently are not allowed to
govern ourselves, we must take
on this challenge to our basic
democracy and "take it on fron-
tally: NOT HERE, NOT NOW,"
Price said.
First, CELDF is coordinating
local grassroots eforts in order
to gather enough momentum to
do state-level work and change
the Pennsylvania Constitution so
that people will govern corpora-
tions and corporations will no
longer govern people. Currently
Pennsylvania's Oil and Gas Act
states: "all local ordinances and
enactments purporting to regu-
late oil and gas well operations by
this act are hereby superseded."
WHOA! We can't make laws
in our own communities to pro-
tect us from the horrible conse-
quences of fracking?? Nope. Not
according to this Act.
But the Pennsylvania Con-
stitution states: "People are the
source of all governmental pow-
erand to ensure that this is so,
the "community" has "an indubi-
table, unalienable and indefeasi-
ble right to reform, alter or abol-
ish government." Pennsylvania's
Constitution is "one of the most
radical, democratic constitutions
in the United States," said Tom
Linzey, Esq., CELDF co-founder.
Dr. Tom Jiunta, MD, a foot
and ankle specialist who is now
part of the Gas Drilling Aware-
ness Coalition, gave an overview
of the problems communities are
facing as a direct result of the
Marcellus Shale drilling being
done in Pennsylvania. Tere are
over 3,000 wells so far with over
7,000 already permitted and ex-
pectations of up to 300,000 in the
future. Each well that is fracked
requires fve to nine million gal-
lons of water from our streams,
lakes and rivers. Furthermore,
the explosions that occur under-
ground in the fracking process
use explosives with 1,500 pounds
per square inch (psi) of pres-
sure, compared with air bombs
in Afghanistan, which use 500
psi. Now, if THAT weren't bad
enough, horizontal hydraulic
fracturing can go up to three
miles underground so your land
or community could be fracked
from as far away as three miles
without your permission.
People end up with methane
in their wells and many faucets
can now be lit on fre. "I don't
care how it got there," Jiunta said.
"You're poking a hole through
people's drinking water aquifers."
But that's not all. As many as 18
wells can be constructed on a well
pad; a noisy compressor station
is required for every 100 wells; at
least 1,000 truck trips are neces-
sary for each well and three out
of four of these trucks have had
safety violations. Ninety-three
percent of the wells drilled thus
far have received Notices of Vio-
lation, 52 percent cited with the
potential for health impacts.
"What's more important, nat-
ural gas or water?" Jiunta asks his
audience. "It's all about water."
What's to be Done?
"Te state structure gives us
no remedy to stop fracking," Lin-
zey explained from a legal point
of view. "Ten we have only one
option: go renegade, look for
structural change." It's not just
oil and gas, it's factory farms,
sewage sludge (two children died
as a result of this being spread on
land). "Tis has to be banned; it
can't be regulated We have a
right to make the rules for gov-
ernment where we live."
Pittsburgh leads the way. Tey
passed an ordinance in Novem-
ber 2010 banning fracking and
protecting their community
from other forms of corporate as-
sault while protecting the rights
of Nature. Linzey summarized
their work:
O Community Bill of Rights
(the community itself and com-
munity members have rights);
O Ban activities that violate
that Bill of Rights; and
O Take a direct and frontal
attack at the corporate rights
provisions in legal documents.
"Any permit that violates the
Bill of Rights is void," Linzey ex-
plained. Tese ordinances drive
the larger process to ultimately
change the Constitution, frst
in Pennsylvania and then in the
nation. "We have a diferent vi-
sion communities governing
themselves," he added. "It doesn't
matter who you elect. Tey are
stuck in the same legal system
to keep you powerless over your
own community We need to
change the very structure under
which we live."
"Everybody's watching you,"
Linzey told the audience of Penn-
sylvanians. Te state is even on a
Web site in South Africa. Idaho
just got its frst frack job. Frack-
ing is spreading around the world
now. "Tese folks are watching
you; this will determine the future
of the country; we must lead a dif-
ferent kind of revolt rather than
living in a straightjacket," he said.
Doug Shields, a Pittsburgh
Councilman for 20 years, told
the gathered ofcials exactly how
he helped get the ban in Pitts-
burgh. "I became their [citizens']
vehicle; I was the elected ofcial
and I had a responsibility to re-
spond to the concerns of my citi-
zens. Tere's a hunger and thirst
in them to have someone to work
in their interest. I had the temeri-
ty to take the aspirations of those
people at their direction."
"Te behaviors of the corpo-
rations in this community are
abominable," Shields said. Every
time he deals with companies
like Lamar Billboard, Verizon or
JP Morgan, there is subterfuge.
But it wasn't just corporations
that Shields criticized. "Who the
hell gave Governor Rendell the
authority to lease out 500,000
acres of state forest and game-
land (to drillers)?" he asked.
"I still remember what I
learned in Civics: Government
by the people, for the people and
of the people," Shields conclud-
ed. And that's what he's working
so hard to achieve.
Municipal Ofcials Learn
How to Say "NO" to Fracking
Photos by Bill Belitskus, Northwest Pennsylvania Community Rights Network
Mari Magill and Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, role play a les-
son on replying to 10 outlandish claims by the gas industry which are used to convince people that
their work is safe, such as, "Corporations will do good by us; we need them and they need us" or
"The state will protect us."
CELDF Press Release: June 15, 2011
Tis local law embodies the
will of our residents to protect
our natural resources from
destruction so our children and
grandchildren can have the
quality of life we enjoy.
- Councilman Mike Simon -
On June 14
th
, the Town of
Wales, New York, adopted a
community rights ordinance ti-
tled "Town of Wales Community
Protection of Natural Resources.
Te Ordinance (No.3-2011) was
enacted as a local law under
NYS Municipal Home Rule Act,
which recognizes broad police
powers under the statute. Te
Ordinance establishes a Bill of
Rights for Wales residents and
recognizes and secures certain
civil and political rights of the
residents of the Town of Wales
to govern themselves and protect
themselves from harm to their
persons, property and environ-
ment.
Te Ordinance was drafed in
consultation with the Communi-
ty Environmental Legal Defense
Fund (CELDF) and advocated
for by the community group
Protecting Our Water Rights
(POWR).
Two key prohibitions are en-
acted to protect the rights enu-
merated. Te Ordinance bans
any individual or corporation to
engage in the extraction of natu-
ral gas or oil utilizing in whole
or in part the process commonly
known as and herein defned as
hydraulic fracturing and also
prohibits any individual or cor-
poration to engage in the extrac-
tion of natural gas or oil utilizing
in whole or in part the process
commonly known as horizontal
gas well drilling, with the excep-
tion, in each case, of gas wells in-
stalled and operating at the time
of enactment of the Ordinance.
Te bill also recognizes the
right of the people to a form
of government where they live
which recognizes that all power
is inherent in the people, that all
free governments are founded on
the peoples authority and con-
sent and that neither individuals
nor corporate entities and their
directors and managers shall
enjoy special privileges or pow-
ers under the color of state law
which purports to make com-
munity majorities subordinate to
them.
CONTACT: Ben Price, 717-
254-3233; benprice@celdf.org.
Wales, New York Adopts Community
Rights Ordinance Tat Bans Fracking
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 9
Compiled by Joe Hoff
Chairman, Keuka Citizens
Against Hydrofracking
as of July 1, 2011
New York, Pennsylvania
and a Sampling of Eastern
Municipalities and Key
Organizations Opposed to
Hydrofrack Drilling
New York State:
Two legislative bills on
hydrofrack drilling were
considered by the
legislature. The Assembly
passed an extension of the
current moratorium
through June of 2012. The
Senate did not act on a
parallel bill and the issue is
closed for the present.
NYS Executive Order
calling for a drilling
moratorium by former
Governor Paterson has
been affirmed by Governor
Cuomo.
Yates County resolution
unanimously passed calls
for similar protection
treatment of their
watershed as that in NYC
and Syracuse watersheds.
The Town of Jerusalem
(Yates) enacted a
moratorium ordinance for
their entire township. The
one-year moratorium
begins when the
Supplemental Generic
Environmental Impact
Statement (SGEIS) relating
to the extraction of natural
gas by the process of high-
volume hydraulic
fracturing now under
review by the New York
State Department of
Environmental
Conservation is finalized.
The Town of Milo is
drawing up a moratorium
statement for board action.
Dewitt, Tully, Marcellus
and Skaneateles have
enacted moratoria laws.
Highland , (Sullivan Co) is
developing a moratorium
statement.
Buffalo has banned
hydrofrack drilling and
wastewater disposal in
their city.
Sullivan County is the first
county in New York State
to enact a moratorium.
Lumberland (Sullivan Co.)
is considering a
moratorium statement.
Town of Ulysses is
establishing industrial
zones attempting to
restrict the negative impact
of drilling in their water
supply.
Tompkins County has
enacted a ban on fracking
on county land.
Broome County : Ban on
hydrofracking on county
lands. Waste restrictions
for fracking cuttings and
flow back water estab-
lished.
Ontario, Sullivan and
Onondaga Counties have
enacted bans on fracking
on county owned land.
Ulster County has banned
hydrofrack drilling on
county owned lands.
Gorham in Ontario County
enacted a moratorium ordi-
nance.
The towns that ring
Cooperstowns reservoir,
Otsego Lake Middlefield,
Otsego, Butternuts, and
Cherry Valley are
moving to ban or restrict
natural gas drilling and
high-volume hydraulic
fracturing.
Springfield has adopted
local laws prohibiting
heavy industry, including
gas drilling.
The Medical Society of the
State of New York has
gone on record supporting
a moratorium on gas
drilling using high volume
hydraulic fracturing.
Cooperstowns Chamber
of Commerce has issued a
position statement support-
ing a total ban on fracking
due to the impact it will
make on their watershed,
farming and tourism.
A group of residents have
launched a petition drive
designed to ban the use of
high-volume, slick water
hydraulic fracturing in the
Town of Caroline, Tomp-
kins County.
The Village of Penn Yan
will not accept any hydrof-
racking wastewater for pro-
cessing at the village waste-
water treatment plant.
New York City has called
on the U.S. Congress to
remove hydrofrack drill-
ings exemption from the
Safe Water Drinking Act.
The Skaneateles Town
Board has initiated plans
for a ban in their township.
The Otsego County Plan-
ning Board approved
changes to Middlefields
master plan and zoning law
that would specifically pro-
hibit heavy industry,
including gas and oil drill-
ing.
The Board of Trustees of
Bassett Medical Center,
based in Cooperstown,
New York, views the issue
of hydrofracking as a
public health issue of the
highest priority and
resolves that the
hydrofracking method of
gas drilling constitutes an
unacceptable threat to the
health of patients, and
should be prohibited until
such time as it is proven to
be safe.
A consortium of interested
citizens is planning for a
unified moratorium and
eventual ban of hydrofrack
drilling in the entire Keuka
Lake watershed region.
Lebanon town board
members adopted a
memorializing resolution that
calls on the New York State
Legislature and Governor
Andrew Cuomo to repeal and
reform compulsory integration
laws in the State of New
York that currently govern
natural gas development.
A petition drive has
resulted in the Dryden
Town Board unanimously
passing a resolution to
move forward with an
ordinance to ban fracking.
The Croton Watershed
Clean Water Coalition, Inc.
has sued the Department of
Environmental
Conservation (DEC) in
New York State Supreme
Court to declare High
Volume Horizontal
Hydraulic Fracturing in
New York State Forests
contrary to the New York
State Constitution and
applicable environmental
laws.
The Otsego Town Board
clarified a long-standing
prohibition against heavy
industry, including fracking
for natural gas, in the
towns land use law. By
this vote the town, which
includes most of the Village
of Cooperstown, reaffirmed
its home rule right to
prohibit drilling through
local ordinance. They also
approved revisions to its
land-use law that
strengthen a ban on gas
drilling and hydrofracking
within the town. The law
now specifies that while the
removal of gravel, rock,
stone, sand, fill, topsoil or
unconsolidated minerals
has been allowed,
extraction of natural gas
and petroleum is not
permitted.
The Common Council of
Oneonta voted to ban all
forms of natural gas
drilling in city limits.
The Town of Wales
adopted a community
rights ordinance that bans
fracking. The ordinance
establishes a Bill of Rights
for Wales residents and
recognizes and secures
certain civil and political
rights of the residents to
govern themselves and
protect themselves from
harm to their persons,
property and
environment.
The exploration of land for
natural gas by horizontal
drilling and hydraulic
fracturing is prohibited in
the Town of Camillus.
Brighton became the first
municipality in Monroe
County to take a position
on hydrofrack drilling
calling for a state-wide
moratorium.
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh adopts the first-
in-the-nation community
rights ordinance which ele-
vates the right of the com-
munity to decide, and the
rights of nature over the
rights associated with
corporate personhood. The
City Council unanimously
adopted this ordinance
banning corporations from
conducting natural gas
drilling in the city.
Luzerne County Lehman
Township, ordinance call-
ing for home rule and a
ban on drilling within their
surrounding township area.
The Board of Supervisors
for Licking Township,
Clarion County voted
unanimously on Wednes-
day to adopt an ordinance
banning corporations from
dumping fracking waste-
water in the township. The
Licking Township Commu-
nity Water Rights and Self-
Government Ordinance is
the first ordinance of its
kind adopted in Pennsylva-
nia to confront the threat of
Marcellus Shale drilling.
Cresson has enacted legis-
lation banning fracking.
Washington Township has
banned fracking.
Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
City Council unanimously
passed the pro-moratorium
Resolution on Marcellus
Shale Drilling Environmen-
tal and Economic Impacts.
The Borough Council of
West Homestead, Pennsyl-
vania, unanimously adopt-
ed an ordinance that enacts
a Local Bill of Rights, along
with a prohibition on natu-
ral gas extraction to protect
those rights. The bill, titled
West Homestead Bor-
oughs Community Protec-
tion from Natural Gas
Extraction Ordinance;
establishes specific rights of
West Homestead residents,
including the Right to
Water, the Rights of Natu-
ral Communities, the Right
to a Sustainable Energy
Future, and the Right to
Community Self-Govern-
ment.
Philadelphia refuses to
purchase Marcellus Shale
gas as the dumping of flow
back waters is polluting
their water supply.
Collier Township upgrad-
ed its natural gas drilling
ordinance to enhance their
Marcellus Shale ordinance
that would push drillers
farther away from schools
and provide baseline mea-
surements for noise levels
at drilling sites.
United Methodists repre-
senting 950 churches across
central and Northeast
Pennsylvania passed a res-
olution calling for a tempo-
rary halt in gas well drilling
in the Marcellus Shale as
well as an impact tax on
those places where drilling
already has taken hold.
Religious groups such as
the Sisters of Saint Francis
of Philadelphia have advo-
cated against fracking and
in April, 2011, America, the
national magazine of the
Jesuits editorialized very
critically about the process.
Baldwin Borough Council
adopted a community
rights ordinance that bans
the corporate extraction of
natural gas.
Arkansas
A class-action lawsuit has
been filed against compa-
nies that drill for natural
gas in central Arkansas.
The suit is asking for mil-
lions of dollars in relation
to the earthquakes associat-
ed with the fracking pro-
cess the companies use. The
damages enumerated in the
suit are property damage,
loss of fair market value in
real estate, emotional dis-
tress, and damages related
to the purchase of earth-
quake insurance.
Maryland
The first community in
Maryland, Mountain Lake
Park, adopted an
ordinance banning
corporations from natural
gas drilling.
Attorney General Douglas
F. Gansler has sent a letter
to Chesapeake Energy
Corporation and its
affiliates, notifying the
companies of the State of
Marylands intent to sue
for violating the federal
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA)
and the Clean Water Act
(CWA).
Governor Martin OMalley
has signed an executive
order for a three year
moratorium on drilling in
Maryland while studies
continue.
New Jersey
The New Jersey Assembly
voted to ban hydraulic
fracturing in New Jersey
in a bipartisan overwhelm-
ing vote (58 to 11, 8
abstained), following the
landslide vote 32-1 earlier
in the day by the NJ Senate.
New Jersey is the first state
legislature to ban fracking.
Ohio
Wellsburg City Council
approved an ordinance
prohibiting natural gas
drilling in or within one
mile of the city as concerns
mounted about the citys
water being contaminated
by procedures in
hydrofrack drilling. A
reservoir serving the city is
beside property that
Chesapeake Energy is
leasing for drilling.
Virginia
George Washington
National Forest has
disallowed horizontal
drilling for natural gas
within its 1.1 million acres
of territory while opening
up segments of the forest to
the potential for wind
energy construction.
Texas
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has
signed a bill requiring
drillers to publicly disclose
the chemicals they use
when extracting oil and gas
from dense rock
formations, the first state to
pass such a law.
West Virginia
Wellsville has banned
fracking.
Lewisburg has banned
fracking within their city
limits.
Morgantown banned
fracking in the city and
within one mile of the city
limits as well.
British Columbia,
Canada
First Nations people in
NW British Columbia
enacted a four year
moratorium against drilling
for natural gas by Royal
Dutch Shell in the Sacred
Headwaters. Members of
the Tahltan First Nation are
blockading Shells coalbed
methane project in the
Sacred Headwaters, the
birthplace of the Skeena,
Nass and Stikine Rivers.
Nova Scotia,
Canada
Nova Scotia citizens call
for ban on Nova Scotia
fracking. Graham
Hutchinson says the
province should impose a
moratorium on the
controversial practice. The
group recently presented a
petition to Energy Minister
Charlie Parker calling for a
ban.
Quebec, Canada
The Quebec government is
putting the brakes on
shale-gas drilling and
exploration in the province,
following the release of a
special committee report
saying such work should be
delayed until the
government can do a
strategic environmental
evaluation. There will be
no compromises on health
and the environment, the
minister said. Premier
Jean Charest has said the
development of a shale-gas
industry must be done
correctly or it will not be
done at all.
England
London, England - A min-
ing company has halted
drilling for shale gas in
England after scientists said
two small earthquakes
might be linked to the con-
troversial process, known
as fracking.
France
The French Parliament and
Senate have voted to ban
hydraulic fracturing or
fracking. France is the first
country in Europe to ban
the controversial practice
that involves using slick
water a combination of
water, chemicals and mud,
to fracture the rock with
hairline cracks and prop
open underground fissures.
South Africa
A countrywide
moratorium against
hydrofracking has been
implemented.
International News
Momentum Grows for Fracking
Bans, Resolutions and Moratoria
Prank signs in a rest area of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's drink-
ing fountains target gas drilling. The professionally-printed sign in
the Midway Service Plaza looked offcial at frst glance but some-
thing didn't look quite right to Tonya Markiewicz, who stopped in
for a drink June 8
th
. The message, which bore what purported to
be a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection logo,
has since been discovered in several other Turnpike service plazas.
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by Don Hopey on June 27, 2011.
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Photo by Iona
Bikes parked outside the University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Bike v. Car on a Hot Planet
By Stephen Leahy, excerpt
BERLIN, June 6, 2011 (IPS)
As global carbon emissions hit re-
cord-high levels last year, ofcials
from leading Asian nations told
the 2011 International Transport
Forum in nearby Leipzig that their
citizens want more cars.
At the same meeting, some
Europeans urged a 21
st
-century
renaissance in bicycle transport,
with electric and electric-assist
bikes for personal health and the
health of the climate.
"We in India need to provide
more roads and rail," said B.K.
Chaturvedi, a member of India's
Planning Commission.
"Cycling is a miniscule thing.
Tat's not the future," Chaturvedi
told the nearly 800 attendees.
"Te bike is better to get around
in Beijing but bicycle use is drop-
ping fast due to poor air quality
and the danger from car trafc,"
said Pan Haixiao, a professor at
Tongji University in China.
Te number of cars and light
trucks globally is projected to
triple from the current 850 mil-
lion to 2.5 billion by 2050, accord-
ing to the International Transport
Forum's (ITF) Transport Outlook
2011. Tat growth is projected to
be almost entirely in the develop-
ing world.
Richer countries are actually
reducing the personal vehicle use
in the last few years.
Te Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development's
ITF is an intergovernmental or-
ganization for the transport sector
involving 52 diferent nations.
Transport is the second lead-
ing source of carbon dioxide
emissions, contributing about 7.5
gigatons to the 30.6 gigatons (Gt)
emitted in total in 2010. Te In-
ternational Energy Agency (IEA)
reported last week that humanity
cannot exceed annual emissions of
32.0 Gt or it will be impossible to
achieve the internationally-agreed
target of below two degrees C of
global warming to avoid very dan-
gerous levels of global warming.
IEA acknowledges that 32.0 Gt
could be reached by the end of this
year.
Even with signifcant improve-
ments in fuel efciency and wider
use of electric vehicles, the ITF
report projects that carbon emis-
sions from the transport sector will
likely grow 250 percent by 2050.
Tat would amount to roughly 19
Gt annually from transport alone.
Scientists warn that to have
a 50-50 chance of staying below
two degrees C, carbon emission
growth must fatline by 2015 at the
latest and start to decline by three
percent per year. Carbon dioxide
stays in the atmosphere for a long
time emissions from the 19
th

century are still contributing their
small share to current and future
warming.
Scientists also caution that
there are feedbacks in the climate
system, such as the potential for
large releases of carbon from melt-
ing permafrost, that have not been
included in their estimations.
Bicycles, and particularly elec-
tric-assist bikes, ofer an impor-
tant, practical solution for mobility
and signifcant carbon emissions
reductions, Manfred Neun, presi-
dent of European Cyclists' Federa-
tion, told the conference.
Te advent of lithium batteries
with improved capacity-to-weight
ratios now means electric bikes
or e-bikes are ideal for trips up
to 15 km (9.3 miles) at speeds of
25 km/hour (15 mph), Neun said.
Te Dutch Cyclists' Federation re-
ported that if all car journeys up to
7.5 km (roughly 5 miles) would be
replaced by cycling trips, carbon
emissions would decrease by 2.4
million tons per year in the Neth-
erlands.
Even in Europe, with its very
good public transit system, about
half of all car trips are six km (3.7
miles) or shorter . . . .
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 10
Clownfish may lose
hearing, become
vulnerable to
predators as
C0
2
levels rise.
By Bob Berwyn
Summit Voice: June 2, 2011
SUMMIT COUNTY
Increasing acidification of the
oceans is affecting sensory
organs in fish and could make
some marine species more vul-
nerable to predators.
Existing research shows that
the CO
2
in the oceans is causing
some fish to lose their sense of
smell. Now, a new experiment
by University of Bristol scien-
tists suggests clownfish could
lose their sense of hearing as
CO
2
levels climb ever higher.
Since the Industrial Revolu-
tion, over half of all the CO
2

produced by burning fossil fuels
has been absorbed by the ocean,
making pH drop faster than any
time in the last 650,000 years and
resulting in ocean acidification.
Working with Professor Phil-
ip Munday at James Cook Uni-
versity, lead author Dr. Steve
Simpson of the School of Bio-
logical Sciences at the University
of Bristol reared larvae straight
from hatching in different CO
2

environments.
We kept some of the baby
clownfish in todays conditions,
bubbling in air, and then had
three other treatments where we
added extra CO
2
based on the
predictions from the Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate
Change for 2050 and 2100,
Simpson said.
After 17-20 days rearing,
Simpson monitored the response
of his juvenile clownfish to the
sounds of a predator-rich coral
reef, consisting of noises pro-
duced by crustaceans and fish.
We designed a totally new
kind of experimental choice
chamber that allowed us to play
reef noise through an underwa-
ter speaker to fish in the lab and
watch how they responded,
Simpson continued. Fish reared
in todays conditions swam away
from the predator noise but
those reared in the CO
2
condi-
tions of 2050 and 2100 showed
no response.
This study demonstrates that
ocean acidification not only
affects external sensory systems
but also those inside the body of
the fish. The ears of fish are bur-
ied deep in the back of their
heads, suggesting lowered pH
conditions may have a profound
impact on the entire functioning
of the sensory system.
The ability of fish to adapt to
rapidly changing conditions is
not known. What we have done
here is to put todays fish in
tomorrows environment and the
effects are potentially devastat-
ing, Simpson said. What we
dont know is whether, in the
next few generations, fish can
adapt and tolerate ocean acidifi-
cation. This is a one-way experi-
ment on a global scale and pre-
dicting the outcomes and inter-
actions is a major challenge for
the scientific community.
The study was published this
week in Biology Letters.
Summit County Citizens Voice,
www.summitvoice.org, is an
independent source for environ-
mental news in Colorado and
the Rocky Mountains.
Climate
By Bob Berwyn, excerpt
Summit Voice: May 16, 2011
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colora-
do The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
which has been a whipping boy
for the global-warming deniers
on the fringe of the climate
debate, last week adopted strin-
gent new standards that will give
the panel even more credibility
as it tries to provide an interna-
tional framework for dealing
with the spiraling climate change
crisis.
I feel gratified that the process
that the UN Secretary-General
and I initiated a little over a year
ago requesting InterAcademy
Council to review the IPCCs pro-
cesses and procedures has culmi-
nated in such a successful out-
come, said IPCC chair Rajendra
Pachauri. The 194 governments
which constitute the IPCC have
put in enormous efforts to analyze
the challenges facing the panel,
study the recommendations care-
fully and come up with decisions
that strengthen its work.
One key focus was on better
defining any potential conflict of
interest issues that could taint
IPCC findings. The new Conflict
of Interest Policy applies to any-
one directly associated with the
preparation of IPCC reports. The
new policy covers:
Both financial and non-
financial interests;
The distinction between a
strongly-held view and a conflict
of interest;
The need to execute the pol-
icy to reflect the various roles,
responsibilities and levels of
authority held by individuals
within the IPCC process; and
To mandate a task group of
governments to continue to com-
plete a plan for implementing
this policy (including a form for
disclosure) for approval at the
IPCCs 34
th
Session.
Todd Krieble (New Zealand)
and Munjural Khan (Bangla-
desh), co-chairs of the Conflict
of Interest Policy Task Group,
said, Here in Abu Dhabi we
have established a clear policy
on conflict of interest that draws
on best practice globally. It will
allow authors to get on with their
crucial work so it is their scien-
tific integrity and the integrity of
their assessments that is the focus
of the wider world. What we
have is a milestone: The next step
is to embed the policy into IPCC
processes as part of the wider
IAC recommendations on man-
agement and procedures.
The IPCC also wants to mod-
ernize its communications policy.
Modern, responsive and
accurate communication is
essential in a world with multiple
channels of communication from
newspapers, radio and TV to
online journals and social net-
working to news delivered via
Ipods and mobile phones, said
Darren Goetze and Antonina
Ivanova Boncheva, co-chairs of
the communications panel.
Communications are vital in
terms of effectively communicat-
ing the IPCCs scientific findings
to a wide audience and in han-
dling controversies and crises in a
factual and timely fashion. What
has been agreed here in Abu Dhabi
should better equip the IPCC and
its Secretariat to deal with the
communication challenges of mit-
igation and adaptation in a rapidly
evolving and information-hungry
world, they said.
The IPCC will also strengthen
procedures on how all literature
is reviewed and considered; doc-
ument a wide range of scientific
views; establish a procedure for
dealing with errors that may arise
and improve the handling of sci-
entific uncertainties. That
includes more standardization
for dealing with uncertainty in
reports and more accountability
for how lead authors arrive at
their ratings for the level of scien-
tific understanding of an issue.
The new standards will be
applied in developing the IPCCs
next assessment, due out 2013
and 2014 . . . .
Summit County Citizens Voice, www.
summitvoice.org, is an independent
source for environmental news in
Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.
UN Climate Panel
Adopts Strict
Reporting Standards
Climate scientists take on
denier crowd with Beastie
Boy-style rap. Really!
DailyClimate.org: May 12, 2011
The media landscape is dotted by cli-
mate believers and deniers but why are
those who do much of the speaking about
climate science so rarely climate scientists?
Thats the question raised by a handful
of Australian scientists who, teamed with
producers from the Australia Broadcast-
ing Corp. show Hungry Beast, recently
offered their riposte: A Beastie Boys-style
video attacking those who deny the sci-
ence showing human activity is altering
the climate.
The two-minute video runs through a
fair share of cliches icebergs, big-hatted
oil tycoons, scientists in white lab coats
and cheap shades.
But it is blunt in its critique of the
United Nations climate talks (indeed,
language on the video is not exactly work-
or kid-safe). And several of the scientists
are identified by name and affiliation.
Not surprisingly, most of the scientists
identified are early in their careers Ph.D
students and post-docs. But a few senior
folk struck the pose: Roger Jones from the
Center for Strategic Economic Studies and
Leanne Armand of Macquarie University.
The YouTube clip is showing some
sign of a viral lift-off at least for videos
that dont include cats kissing kids or
miraculous lacrosse shots. Posted to the
Web on Monday, it had 45,000 views by
Thursday afternoon and almost 63,000 by
Friday morning.
Not too shabby for a bunch of scientists
that rap. Still, those Australians have a
ways to go before they can match the pull
of mass-market entertainers like, say, the
Blue Man Group. Their 2006 global warm-
ing video, Earth to America, to date has
been seen by almost four million.
For the YouTube, go to http://wwwp.
dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2011/05/
climate-rap and then take a few more min-
utes to click on the blue Earth to America
link. If that doesn't work, go to DailyCli-
mate.org and search Climate Rap, Yo!
Climate Rap, Yo!
By Paul Rogat Loeb
Seattle, Washington
Following the weather is
beginning to feel like revisiting
the Biblical plagues. Tornadoes
rip through Missouri, Alabama,
Mississippi, Oklahoma even
Massachusetts. A million acres
burn in Texas wildfires. The
Army Corps of Engineers floods
135,000 acres of farmland and
three million acres of bayou
country to save Memphis and
New Orleans. Earlier in the past
year, a 2,000-mile storm dumped
near-record snow from Texas to
Maine, a fifth of Pakistan is
flooded, fires made Moscows air
nearly unbreathable and drought
devastated Chinas wheat crop.
Youd think wed suspect some-
things grievously wrong.
But media coverage rarely
connects the unfolding cata-
clysms with the global climate
change that fuels them. We cant
guarantee that any specific
disaster is caused by our warm-
ing atmosphere. The links are
delayed and diffuse but, consid-
ered together, the escalating
floods, droughts, tornadoes and
hurricanes fit all the predicted
models. So do the extreme
snowfalls and ice storms, as our
heated atmosphere carries more
water vapor. So why deem them
isolated acts of God instead of
urgent warnings to change our
course?
Scientists are more certain
than ever, from the National
Academy of Science and its
counterparts in every other
country to such radical
groups as the American Chem-
ical Society and American Sta-
tistical Society. But the media
has buried their voices, giving
near-equal point/counterpoint
credence to a handful of deniers
promoted by Exxon, the coal
companies and the Koch broth-
ers. Fox Newss managing editor
even prohibited any reporting
on global climate change that
didnt immediately then ques-
tion the overwhelming scientif-
ic consensus. The escalating
disasters dominate the news but
stripped of context. Were given
no perspective to reflect on
their likely root causes.
Meanwhile, leading Republi-
cans who once acknowledged
the need to act, like Tim
Pawlenty, disavow their previ-
ous stands like sinners begging
forgiveness. A Tea Party Con-
gress insists that they know bet-
ter than do all the worlds scien-
tists, dismissing decades of
meticulous research as Ivory
Tower elitism. Even Obama has
fallen largely silent, as if he cant
afford an honest discussion.
As a result, too many Amer-
icans still dont know what to
believe. We cant see, smell or
taste the core emissions that
create climate change. The
industrial processes that create
the crisis are so familiar we
dont even question them, no
more than the air that we
breathe. And if were not get-
ting hammered by the weather,
the world still seems normal,
particularly on a lovely summer
day. Plus were told that in the
current economic crisis we cant
afford even to think about cli-
mate change or any other
urgent environmental issue,
even though the technologies
that provide the necessary
alternatives are precisely those
our country will need to com-
pete economically. Add in a
culture of overload and distrac-
tion and its easy to retreat into
denial or self-defeating resigna-
tion. Its as if half our popula-
tion was diagnosed with life-
threatening but treatable cancer
visited the worlds leading
medical centers to confirm it
and then decided instead to
heed forwarded emails that
assure them that they can freely
ignore the counsel of the doc-
tors and simply do nothing.
The antidote to denial and
the forces that promote it is
courage. And as Egypt and
Tunisia remind us, courage is
contagious. We need to act and
speak out in every conceivable
way and demand that our lead-
ers do the same. We need to
engage new allies, like religious
evangelicals whove recently
spoken out to defend Gods
Creation, from best-selling
minister Rick Warren to highly
conservative organizations like
the Christian Coalition. We
need to work with labor activ-
ists who link this ultimate issue
with the renewal of American
jobs. A recent BlueGreen Alli-
ance (see page 1) conference,
for instance, brought together
leaders of major unions like the
United Steel Workers, SEIU,
Communications Workers of
America, United Auto Workers,
Laborers International and
American Federation of Teach-
ers, with environmental groups
like the Sierra Club, National
Resource Defense Council,
National Wildlife Federation
and Union of Concerned Scien-
tists, all speaking about the
need to invest in an economy
where both ordinary workers
and the planet are respected.
We need to join with these
allies and others to voice our
outrage at those risking our
common future for greed. We
need to find creative ways to do
this until Americas political cli-
mate comes to grips with the
changing climate of the Earth.
Heres hoping the mounting
disasters will finally teach us to
turn off The Weather Channel
and begin taking action.
Paul Loeb is author of Soul of a
Citizen: Living With Convic-
tion in Challenging Times with
130,000 copies in print includ-
ing a newly-updated second
edition and The Impossible Will
Take a Little While: A Citizens
Guide to Hope in a Time of
Fear. See www.paulloeb.org or
www.soulofacitizen.org.
Glued to Weather Channel While World Burns
Photo by Nick Hobgood
Clownfish in waters off East Timor.
Ocean Acidification: One-Way Experiment
International Business Times: July 4, 2011
Global warming and the melt-
ing of the polar caps is worse
than previously thought, accord-
ing to a new study from the Uni-
versity of Arizona that appeared
in Nature Geoscience.
The study asserted that the
culprit is warming ocean waters.
Water has a much larger heat
capacity than air. If you put an
ice cube in a warm room, it will
melt in several hours. But if you
put an ice cube in a cup of warm
water, it will disappear in just
minutes, said Jianjun Yin, who
worked on the study.
Water has the second highest
specific heat capacity of all
known substances. It, rather
than air, holds most of the earths
global warming heat, so it makes
sense that its impact on global
warming is significant.
The study estimates that sub-
surface ocean temperature along
the coast of Greenland could rise
by 3 degrees Fahrenheit and
those along the coast of Antarc-
tica could rise by 0.9 degrees
Fahrenheit by 2100.
While the study estimates that
the subsurface temperatures for
both poles will rise more than
what the scientific community
previously expected, the danger
is greater for the North Pole
(coast of Greenland).
LiveScience explains that the
Gulf Stream sends warmer waters
towards the North Pole while the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current
blocks some of the warm waters
from reaching the South Pole,
hence the temperature discrep-
ancy.
As a result of the warming
ocean, the sea level could rise by
three feet by 2100 and much
more in subsequent centuries,
estimated the study.
The melting of ice sitting on
water will not raise the sea level
because water is actually denser
than ice (thats why ice floats and
takes up more space than
water).
However, the problem is that
global warming is melting ice
thats sitting on the land of
Greenland and Antarctica; the
releasing of the grounded ice
adds additional water to the
oceans, thus raising the sea level.
Global Warming Worse Than
Thought: Warm Water Culprit
By Alan Bailey, excerpt
Petroleum News/Anchorage Daily
News: June 17, 2011
Surface temperatures in the
Arctic since 2005 have been
higher than for any five-year
period since record keeping
began in 1880, according to a
new report from the Arctic Mon-
itoring and Assessment Program,
an international group within
the Arctic Council that monitors
the Arctic environment and pro-
vides advice on Arctic environ-
mental protection.
The rate of sea-ice decline has
accelerated and the decline rate
in the past 10 years has been
higher than the Intergovernmen-
tal Panel on Climate Change pre-
dicted in 2007, the report says.
Evidence from lake sedi-
ments, tree rings and ice cores
indicates that Arctic summer
temperatures have been higher
in the past few decades than at
any time in the past 2000 years,
the report says. Previously
unseen weather patterns and
ocean currents have been
observed, including higher
inflows of warm water entering the
Arctic Ocean from the Pacific.
Temperatures in the Arctic
permafrost have risen by up to
3.5 degrees in the past two to
three decades and the southern
limit of the permafrost has been
moving north, with the limit hav-
ing retreated by 80 miles in the
past 50 years in the Canadian
province of Quebec, scientists
say . . . .
Arctic Warming Faster Than
Predicted, Scientists Say
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 11
Compassion
People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfsh, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends
and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may decieve you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.
If you fnd serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In the fnal analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.
Submitted by Sunny War Eagle, Earthbridge Community, Marianna, Florida
Compassion Day by Day
Photo by Caroline Ross
Alexis Ross (standing, left in background) and her friend Taylor Lee (standing right in the back-
ground) raised money through the Alexis Ross Foundation, which helps brighten the lives of
children undergoing medical treatment (see EN May 2011). The two girls in the front right are
undergoing limb lengthening at Sinai Hospital. The Ross family (including Laura, left) visited
the Ronald McDonald house in Baltimore. Learn more at www.livelovelaugh.org.
By Jenney Coberly
Summit Voice: June 17, 2011
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colorado In the months
during and after the BP oil spill that began April
2010, more than 7,000 birds were collected dead, or
died soon after, according to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. An unknown number of addi-
tional birds were most likely exposed to oil and
never recovered, either because they died at sea or
in remote locations on the coast.
More than 1,200 birds were rehabilitated and
released in Georgia, Florida, Texas and upstate
Louisiana. Of those, 699 were brown pelicans, 140
of which were released in Georgia last June and
July. Some of those pelicans not only returned to
the state this spring, they are nesting and raising
young here.
So far, they look great, said Tim Keyes, a Geor-
gia Department of Natural Resources biologist. He
recently spotted eight of the pelicans nesting in a
large pelican colony on Little Egg Island Bar, a
state-managed natural area in Glynn County. At
least seven of the nests have chicks.
While the pelican sightings are a hopeful sign
for those particular birds, Hunter said there are still
many unanswered questions about the impacts of
the oil on the pelican population in general, as well
as specific questions about the pelicans spotted in
Georgia.
These birds, no matter how clean, likely still
have some oil in their internal systems and females
especially may pass this contaminant on to the
chicks, said Chuck Hunter, chief of the Division of
Planning and Resource Management for the Nation-
al Wildlife Refuge System in the Southeast for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But this does tell me
that its possible for some oiled birds to reproduce.
Whether or not these chicks will fledge and survive
to reproduce successfully themselves is also
unknown and would take many years to determine.
Summit County Citizens Voice (www.summitvoice.
org) is an independent source for environmental
news in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.
Pelicans Rescued from Gulf Spill Nesting in Georgia
Georgia pelican. Some signs of hope for the be-
leaguered birds but future still uncertain.
Connecticut First State to Pass Paid Sick Leave Law
By Lauren Kelley
AlterNet: June 4, 2011
It's hard to believe that the ability to take paid
time of work when you're ill is controversial. If you
can't aford to take time of, how will you ever get
well or fnd time to seek medical help? And what
favors are you doing for your employer, bringing
germs into the joint? Ten there are parents and
caretakers: without paid sick days, how are they
supposed to care for dependents who've fallen ill?
For these and many other reasons, it seems like
a bill requiring businesses to ofer employees a
certain number of paid sick days would be a no-
brainer. And yet, whenever and wherever they've
been introduced, paid sick leave bills have gener-
ated a lot of controversy. But there's good news: last
night Connecticut became the frst state to pass a
paid sick leave measure.
Te Times: "Te State Senate approved the bill
on May 25 in an 18-to-17 vote, with one Republican
voting in favor and fve Democrats opposed...."
Te bill would require only service companies
with 50 or more workers to provide paid sick days.
Te measure was signifcantly toned down from
earlier versions but opponents raised the same ob-
jections, that the bill was anti-business and coun-
terproductive at a time of high unemployment and
low job creation in a state that has consistently
lagged behind the nation in creating jobs. Propo-
nents said it ofered major and overdue protections
for workers and for the public health, particularly at
a time when workers rights were under attack.
It sucks that the bill had to be watered down to
make it through the legislature, especially with such
a stupid argument against it. (Who will think of the
businesses??) But considering that no other state-
wide paid sick leave bill has made it into the law
books, we should consider this a victory.
Tere's heartening news at the city level that
these laws actually work, by the way. Per a Con-
necticut Working Families Party statement:
San Francisco enacted the nation's frst paid sick
leave policy in 2007. According to a recent, in-depth
survey, two-thirds of employers in San Francisco now
support the city's policy. A recent study by the global
accounting frm PriceWaterhouseCoopers named
San Francisco the world's third best city for business
and innovation.
According to Te Times, "Liberal groups have
presented similar legislation in other states and cit-
ies." So with ground broken in Connecticut, other
successes could follow.
By Adam Liptack, excerpt
The New York Times: May 23, 2011
WASHINGTON Conditions in Californias
overcrowded prisons are so bad that they violate
the Eighth Amendments ban on cruel and unusual
punishment, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday,
ordering the state to reduce its prison population
by more than 30,000 inmates.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the
majority in a 5-to-4 decision that broke along ideo-
logical lines, described a prison system that failed
to deliver minimal care to prisoners with serious
medical and mental health problems and produced
needless suffering and death.
Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
filed vigorous dissents. Justice Scalia called the
order affirmed by the majority perhaps the most
radical injunction issued by a court in our nations
history. Justice Alito said, The majority is gam-
bling with the safety of the people of California.
The majority opinion included photographs of
inmates crowded into open gymnasium-style
rooms and what Justice Kennedy described as
telephone-booth-sized cages without toilets used
to house suicidal inmates. Suicide rates in the states
prisons, Justice Kennedy wrote, have been 80 per-
cent higher than the average for inmates nation-
wide. A lower court in the case said it was an
uncontested fact that an inmate in one of Califor-
nias prisons needlessly dies every six or seven days
due to constitutional deficiencies.
Mondays ruling in the case, Brown v. Plata, No.
09-1233, affirmed an order by a special three-judge
federal court requiring state officials to reduce the
prison population to 110,000, which is 137.5 per-
cent of the systems capacity. There have been more
than 160,000 inmates in the system in recent years
and there are now more than 140,000.
Prison release orders are rare and hard to obtain
and even advocates for prisoners rights said Mon-
days decision was unlikely to have a significant
impact around the nation . . . .
Justices Tell California to Cut Prisoner Population
OLYMPIA, Washington, May 15, 2011 (ENS)
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has
signed into law a bill that bans the sale, trade or
distribution of shark fins or derivative products
in the state. The measure outlaws the sale of
shark fin soup, often served as a status symbol in
Chinese restaurants. The soup, which can sell for
more than $50 a bowl, is a feature of banquets
and weddings.
Shark cartilage supplements will also disap-
pear from store shelves in Washington. Shark
cartilage is claimed to combat and/or prevent a
variety of illnesses, including cancer. The bene-
fits of this supplement have not been scientifi-
cally proven, nor has shark cartilage been
reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion.
State Senator Kevin Ranker, a San Juan Island
Democrat who chairs the Natural Resources and
Marine Waters Committee, was the bills primary
sponsor. The measure unanimously passed in the
Senate. The House voted 95 to 1 in favor.
Despite current efforts, shark populations
along the west coast continue to shrink, said
Ranker. This is a new way to combat the problem
and one which will work. Without this legisla-
tion, shark communities will only continue to
decline until they become endangered or extinct.
Conservationists say the law will help to relieve
the pressure on dwindling shark populations.
Unsustainable fishing methods have led some
shark populations to decline by as much as 99 per-
cent in recent decades.
More than 73 million sharks are killed every
year primarily for their fins, which are often har-
vested through finning, a practice that involves
slicing off the fins and discarding the animal at sea
to drown or bleed to death.
The signing of SB 5688 sends a strong message
that the Evergreen State will not tolerate the cruel
and wasteful practice of shark finning, said Dan
Paul, state director for The Humane Society of the
United States in Washington. We commend Wash-
ingtons lawmakers for standing up for the worlds
top oceanic predators.
By signing this legislation the governor took a
very large West Coast leadership role in initiating
action to address a global problem, said Whit
Sheard, senior advisor and Pacific counsel for
Oceana, an international advocacy group based in
Washington, D.C.
This bill will do two things help us move
closer to ending the wasteful and unnecessary
depletion of our oceans top predators and serve as
a model for Oregon and California as they have
similar pending legislation, said Sheard.
Similar laws have been passed in Hawaii, the
Northern Mariana Islands and Guam and are
before the legislatures in California and Oregon.
Washington State Outlaws Shark Finning
WASHINGTON, D.C., June
30, 2011 (ENS, excerpt) The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
today released the final recovery
plan for the threatened north-
ern spotted owl, which relies on
old-growth Pacific Northwest
forests to survive. The plans
goal of conserving spotted owl
sites and high-value spotted owl
habitat means some of the lands
previously slated for potential
timber harvest on federal lands,
and possibly non-federal lands,
will not be logged, federal offi-
cials said today.
The plans three main priori-
ties for achieving spotted owl
recovery are: protecting the best
of its remaining habitat, actively
managing forests to improve
forest health and reducing com-
petition from barred owls.
Barred owls, native to eastern
North America, have moved
into the spotted owls range in Washington, Oregon and northern California.
For more than 20 years, northern spotted owl recovery has been a focal point of broader forest
conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest, said Robyn Thorson, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
Pacific Northwest regional director. "This revised recovery plan is based on sound science and affirms
that the best things we can do to help the spotted owl turn the corner are conserving its habitat, manag-
ing the barred owl and restoring vitality to our forests," Thorson said. Because 20 million acres of U.S.
Forest Service lands and two million acres of Bureau of Land Management lands could be affected by
the recovery plan, these two agencies worked with the Fish and Wildlife Service on key forest manage-
ment recommendations and provided formal letters of support for the plans recovery goals . . . .
Spotted Owl Placed Above Timber Harvest
Photo courtesy USFWS Pacifc Region
Family of northern spotted owls.
Japan's Elders Help at Crippled Reactors
"Physical Strength and
Experience" Sought
From Japanese Over 60
By Ken Belson, excerpt
Te New York Times: June 28, 2011
TOKYO, Japan By any measure, the thou-
sands of people toiling to cool the crippled nuclear
reactors in Fukushima are engaged in jobs that the
Japanese consider kitanai, kitsui and kiken or
dirty, difficult and dangerous.
Seemingly against logic, Yasuteru Yamada, 72,
is eager for the chance to take part. After seeing
hundreds of younger men on television struggle to
control the damage at the Daiichi power plant,
Yamada struck on an idea: Recruit other older
engineers and other specialists to help tame the
rogue reactors.
Not only do they have some of the skills needed
but, because of their advanced age, they are at less
risk of getting cancer and other diseases that
develop slowly as a result of exposure to high lev-
els of radiation. Their volunteering would spare
younger Japanese from dangers that could leave
them childless, or worse.
"We have to contain this accident and, for that,
someone should do the work," said Yamada, a
retired plant engineer who had worked for Sumi-
tomo Metal Industries. "It would benefit society if
the older generation took the job because we will
get less damage from working there . . . ."
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 12
Creativity
By Terry Carnila
Bedford, Pennsylvania
Jean Shinoda Bolen
writes beautifully of the
Pearls of Nature which
include the wonderful
world of trees in her
newly-released book,
Like a Tree: How Trees,
Women and Tree People
Can Save the Planet.
Read the book! Love the
huggers! You will learn
how each of us can save
the Planet. Her resources
and index are commend-
able.
There is a theme
throughout this book
regarding woman being
considered less superior
to man and how we can
work to dispel this theo-
ry. If you read the Bible,
you know that, in the Old Testa-
ment, Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 27,
God created man and woman. It is
only in Chapter 2 Verse 22 that we
learn God created woman from
Adams rib and, with this in mind,
man is considered superior. As long
as Religion concentrates on Chapter
2 Verse 22, the notion of male supe-
riority cannot be challenged.
Striving for excellence in a mans
world is no easy target. Bolen has
been successful in her field and we
are grateful that she lends her exper-
tise to so many organizations that
are helping women.
I feel that you, as a woman, are as
good as any man. Just keep it to
yourself or it may backfire.
Book Review: Like a Tree: How Trees,
Women and Tree People Can Save the Planet
From the
Book's Flap
Like a Tree grew out
of Jean Bolens practice
of walking among tall
trees and her grief over
the loss of a Monterey
pine that was cut down
in her neighborhood. It
is a poetic and educa-
tional, inspirational,
mystical and down-to-
Earth exploration of the
interdependence be-
tween humans and
trees.
Like Bolens ten pre-
vious books, this book
draws from her back-
ground as a medical
doctor, psychiatrist and
Jungian analyst. Like a
Tree covers the subject
of trees from their anat-
omy and physiology to
their role as archetypal
and sacred symbols.
Like a Tree is avail-
able through Red
Wheel/Weiser for
$23.95 at 800-423-7087,
orders@redwheelweis-
er.com or www.red-
wheelweiser.com.
INVITATION TO WONDER
Mimosa Moment
By Elizabeth Ayres
California, Maryland
The blooms made me stop, the scent made me
linger, the buds made me wonder about almost
everything.
I know, I know, it isnt fair. Youre already asking,
Who, what, where? When, how, why?
Lets start over.
It was sometime in July. All the roads were lined
with effervescence of mimosa. Flowers like fans,
ballerinas, balloons, butterflies I couldnt help
myself, I had to get up close to one so I parked
my car on a grassy knoll, scrambled over a ditch, up
a hill, into a whorl of scent as delicate as pink cob-
webs, as fragile as blushing soap bubbles. I thought,
"How is it I have lived so long burdened by gravity
when all along a nirvana of weightlessness has been
waiting for me, disguised as a simple perfume?"
I plucked one gossamer blossom. Tickled my
cheek into a fuzzy giggle with it. Painted the flesh of
one arm incandescent with a fairy brush of it. I
couldnt fathom how something so small and gentle
could grip my heart like a strong fist. Could make
me want to pitch a tent. Spend the rest of my life
there, a devotee of mimosa.
I would sleep at night on green feathers, under a
blanket soft as sunrise. Every morning I would
wake, ready to go out and preach mimosa to our
harsh, our strident, our dog-eat-dog, survival-of-
the-fittest, looking-out-for-number-one world. Bil-
lions of people would convert to mimosa, coining
new phrases for old values like tenderness and com-
passion. We would abandon force as a path to
change and learn the power of cooperation but, as I
stepped up to the podium to accept my Nobel peace
prize, a bumblebee landed on an eye-level branch
and thats when I noticed the buds.
Tight green knobs, impenetrable verdigris knots,
solid, infrangible nodes from which nothing could
emerge and yet, from each hard pebble, an effusion
of soft threads had burst. A silky, extravagant testa-
ment to the unlikely. As astonishing a witness to
surprising potential as pink cobwebs of morning
spun from the black silk of night.
That was July, this is August. Just passing, the
season for mimosa, and just passing, a woman I
know, who would have become a dear friend except
the impenetrable knot of sickness claimed her first.
The last time I saw her, she lay in bed stroking her
cats white fur with fingers thin as twigs. The trees
beyond her bedroom window seemed to reach in
and stroke us both, a peaceful, consoling moment
and, although she is leaving behind the pebble of
her body, I know her soul will blossom into a sur-
prise of potential.
Religion wants to teach us there is life after
death. Wants to teach us tenderness and compas-
sion as well. Most of us seem not to have learned
those lessons, so maybe after all we should all con-
vert to mimosa, which proclaims what it also
proves: that just beyond the hard, tight bud of the
present, an extravagant and surprising future awaits.
Amen.
Elizabeth Ayres, author of Know the Way and Writ-
ing the Wave, is the founder of the Center for Cre-
ative Writing (CreativeWritingCenter.com). For a
free excerpt or MP3 download from her new book
Invitation to Wonder: A Journey through the Sea-
sons, visit InvitationToWonder.com.
Photo by Ron Erdody at Flickr/Yahoo!
Such beauty and delicacy in Mimosa fowers!
giving light in darkness
gold is murky in a stream, flashing out of mud
and never more lovely than the stream
buttercups take shelter in the grass of pastures
alive in the dark light of summer storms
By Sandy Chilcote
Newfoundland, Canada
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Call 800-641-1117 or
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OrderOfEarth ad6-10 6/9/10 4:25 PM Page 1
School District Turns Lawn Care Over to Sheep
AP via Daily News: June 13, 2011
CARLISLE, Pennsylvania A central Pennsyl-
vania school has a wooly plan to keep its gras neatly
trimmed.
The Carlisle Area School District says it can save
up to $15,000 a year by turning over some land-
scaping chores to sheep.
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports the dis-
trict is using the sheep to keep the grass near its
solar panels neatly trimmed. The sheep nibble grass
in the morning and take refuge in the shade of the
panels in the afternoon.
With the food already on hand, the district need
only supply the sheep with water.
A middle school assistant principal is providing
the sheep. Eric Sands says he's still trying to figure
out exactly how many sheep he needs to use to keep
the area clear.
in terms of both exposure and
toxicity. For even the most toxic
chemical, if it doesnt get into the
environment, there is no expo-
sure; there is no risk, he said.
The problem with risk assess-
ment related to fracking is that
many of the chemicals dont
show up on the toxicological
screening list the priority pol-
lutant list. Add to that the lack
of completed exposure assess-
ments and you end up with a
high level of uncertainty. And
that means that politics, not sci-
ence, dictates how environmen-
tal risks are managed.
The most obvious solution,
Penningroth said, is to require
that drilling companies inject
tracer chemicals into their frack-
ing mixes. He also suggested
that communities develop
stream-monitoring programs.
Sandra Steingraber, ecologist
and scholar-in-residence at
Ithaca College, spoke about the
links between environmental
pollutants and cancer as she
introduced her movie 'Living
Downstream.' Later in the day
she addressed the health threats
from hydro-fracking. As indus-
trialized drilling moves into
more residential areas rural
towns and even urban areas such
as Fort Worth, Texas more
people are exposed to the toxic
chemicals used to extract gas. In
addition, the types of chemicals
used include endocrine disrup-
tors, chemicals that mimic our
bodys natural hormones.
Hormones are designed to
have huge, dramatic impacts at
vanishingly small concentra-
tions, Steingraber emphasized.
In addition, the amount of
water needed to smash the rock
to extract the gas means using
lots of trucks to haul that water.
And that translates into air pol-
lution that contributes to
increased risk of pre-term births,
increased asthma rates, increased
numbers of cancers, chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease
and a host of other chronic
and expensive health prob-
lems.
For a lot of us, fracking
arrived in our lives and took us
on a path we hadnt intended to
take, Steingraber said. Citing a
story from her most recent book
Raising Elijah, she urged people
to become environmental heroes.
The question isnt about whether
it fits into your busy life, she
said. Rather, the question is,
How will I live with myself if
fracking comes to New York and
I didnt do everything I could to
stop it?
EPIC continued from page 1
A final "tune in June"
Going out to find berries, I found a rose
and the rose had petals of love, warmth, caring and truth
it was an old rose, antique rose, wild rose
Newfoundland red rose by the side of a ruined house
and its scent was true and its message of love was forever
By Sandy Chilcote, Newfoundland, Canada
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 13
Grassroots Action
PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts, June 17, 2011
(ENS, excerpt) It took five years and $2 million
to complete but today the effort to restore the head-
waters of Massachusetts Eel River and its wetlands
paid off with an award from the Coastal America
Partnership honoring the projects success in pro-
tecting an important coastal ecosystem.
In southeastern Massachusetts, the Eel River
once flowed uninterrupted to the Atlantic Ocean
through a wetland known as Finneys Meadow. In
the early 1800s, a series of mills and dams were
constructed. Cranberry farming began in the late
1800s and continued until 2002.
Agricultural activities resulted in land clearing,
modification of the stream channel, construction
of upland berms and water control structures. The
downstream dam was a barrier to fish migration
and the impoundment affected habitat, water qual-
ity and natural riverine processes.
In 2005, the town of Plymouth purchased 39.5
acres of abandoned cranberry bogs that were part
of the Wetland Reserve Program through the
USDAs Natural Resource Conservation Service.
In 2006, the Community Preservation Commit-
tee of Plymouth, Massachusetts purchased sur-
rounding forest, upland and cranberry bogs from
the Phoenix Cranberry Corporation and converted
the entire area to public conservation land.
The restoration project included the naturaliza-
tion of the abandoned cranberry bogs and the
removal of Sawmill Pond Dam, located down-
stream of the bogs. The restoration site is inhabited
by six endangered or threatened species including
the Eastern box turtle, the bridle shiner, the barrens
buckmoth, the adders tongue fern, swamp oats and
the northern red bellied cooter.
The natural stream channel was restored, artifi-
cial side channels were filled, berms and water
control structures were removed and undersized
culverts were replaced to enhance fish passage.
More than 24,000 plants, including 17,000
Atlantic white cedar trees, were planted.
The project represents the first large-scale resto-
ration of this rare wetland type in Massachusetts.
Now known as the Eel River Preserve, the area is
managed by the town of Plymouth for public use
and benefit . . . .
Eel River Flows Free Again
Photo Interfuve
The Sawmill Pond Dam has been removed to enhance fish passage.
Photos courtesy Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game
The Eel River before restoration (left) with a concrete control structure, and flowing freely after restoration (middle).
project of the nonprofit Tides Center, is a
national coalition of environmental, labor,
business and community leaders commit-
ted to building a clean energy, good jobs
economy.
Launched in 2003, Apollos name refers
to President John F. Kennedys visionary
call to restore Americas technological lead-
ership by landing the first human on the
Moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo 11
was the spaceflight that landed the first
humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
The newly unified organization will
call on lawmakers and elected officials in
Washington to focus anew on creating
good jobs, securing Americas energy
future and preserving the environment for
future generations.
In their first official act together, leaders
from the newly-merged BlueGreen Alli-
ance and Apollo Alliance joined U.S. Sena-
tor Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, for
a teleconference to announce their support
for his new legislation.
Browns bill, the Strengthening Manu-
facturing and Rebuilding Transit (SMART)
Act, would invest in American-made trans-
portation infrastructure. Senator Browns
legislation is aimed at enhancing domestic
transportation supply chains while maxi-
mizing job creation in manufacturing.
With gas prices close to $4.00 a gallon
in many parts of Ohio and across the
country, reinvesting in transit is more
important than ever. And at the same
time, manufacturing is responsible for
creating hundreds of thousands of good-
paying, middle-class jobs, Brown said.
The buses, trolleys and trains that
take Americans to every corner of our
country should be Made in America as
well, said Brown. By strengthening the
domestic supply chain for public transit,
the SMART Act will strengthen our public
transit options and revitalize our manu-
facturing heritage.
Nearly three years after the bottom fell
out of our economy, we are still facing a
jobs crisis of historic proportions, said Leo
Gerard. Gerard serves as international
president of the United Steelworkers, he is
co-chair of the BlueGreen Alliance and also
an Apollo Alliance board member.
We cant afford to sit on the sidelines
while the U.S. misses the boat on the
industries of the 21
st
century the biggest
job-creating opportunity in a generation,
said Gerard. That is why the BlueGreen
Alliance and the Apollo Alliance are join-
ing together today to build a stronger
movement to create good jobs that protect
the environment for the next generation.
Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo
Alliance and a former California state
treasurer, said, Today, with this collabo-
ration and our support for Senator Browns
SMART Act, we are sending a powerful
message that our highest priority must be
to build an economy of good jobs and
broadly-shared prosperity in place of the
financial speculation and recklessness that
brought our economy to its knees...
Together, we are committed to building a
new green economy for Americas future
that will meet the convergent threats of
climate change, dependence on foreign oil
and unacceptable joblessness."
The new BlueGreen Alliance will con-
tinue its Jobs21! Initiative by going door-
to-door and community-to-community
in nine states calling for a national jobs
plan for the 21
st
century.
Here Comes the Sun!
This beautiful sight is around milemarker 280 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Photo panorama by Iona.
Photo courtesy SunPower
SunPower solar panels on a Macy's store in California.
BlueGreen continued from page 1
By Melanie Stetson Freeman
Christian Science Monitor
June 17, 2011, excerpt
The Department of Energy
(DoE), aiming to boost U.S.
competitiveness, gives a
$150m loan guarantee to a
Massachusetts firm that has
found a way to dramatically
reduce the cost of solar voltaic
cells. The pilot plant at 1366
Technologies creates efficient
and lower cost solar cells out
of silicon wafers. The DoE
gave the firm the loan with
the hope that the cost of solar
power can be reduced to com-
petitive levels ... Part of the
plan is also to produce at least
a three percentage point gain
in the solar cells output. Their
goal is to reduce the cost of
manufacturing a photovoltaic
cell to less than $1 per watt...
U.S. Boosts 'Game-
Changer' Solar
Technology in Bid
for Global Market
DRESDEN, Germany, June
30, 2011 (ENS) The United
Nations today added 18 new sites
to its global list of biosphere
reserves, bringing the total to
581 in 114 countries. Biosphere
reserves are places of outstand-
ing value recognized by UNES-
COs Man and the Biosphere
Programme where local commu-
nities are actively involved in
socio-economic development
and biodiversity conservation.
Meeting in Dresden, the
International Coordinating
Council of UNESCOs Man and
the Biosphere Programme added
sites in Lithuania, Maldives, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, and Togo for the
first time to the World Network
of Biosphere Reserves.
Biosphere reserves are sites
for experimenting with and
learning about sustainable devel-
opment, the council said.
The Man and the Biosphere
(MAB) Programme is an inter-
governmental scientific program
aiming to set a scientific basis to
improve relationships between
people and their environment
globally by combining natural
and social sciences, economics
and education.
Launched in the early 1970s,
the MAB Programme is con-
cerned with problems at the
interface of scientific, environ-
mental, societal and develop-
ment issues.
By focusing on sites interna-
tionally recognized in the World
Network of Biosphere Reserves,
the program strives to identify
and assess the changes in the
biosphere resulting from human
and natural activities and the
effects of these changes on
humans and the environment, in
particular in the context of cli-
mate change.
The new Man and the Bio-
sphere sites are:
Bras dOr Lake, in Nova Sco-
tia, Canada, which encompasses
a saltwater estuary watershed
inland sea with three passages to
the Atlantic Ocean. (See photo.)
Maoer Mountain in China,
which features a mountain land-
scape of exceptional scenery,
with peaks reaching more than
6,561 feet above sea level.
Corredor Biologico Nevados
de Chillan-Laguna del Laja in
Chile, which is located in the
northern part of the Patagonia
region and is a global biodiver-
sity hotspot.
Songor, Ghana, which is
characterized by a unique com-
bination of brackish estuarine,
freshwater and marine ecosys-
tems with mangroves, islands
and small patches of communi-
ty-protected forests.
Mujib, Jordan, which is part
of the Dead Sea basin and Jordan
Rift Valley landscape.
Zuvintas, Lithuania, which
includes lakes, wetlands, mires,
peat bogs, and pine tree stands.
Baa Atoll, Maldives, which
harbors globally significant bio-
diversity in its numerous reefs.
Berlangas archipelago, Por-
tugal, which includes the Berlan-
gas, a group of small islands and
rocks, and the city of Peniche on
the mainland.
Volga-Akhtuba floodplain in
the Russian Federation, which
represents high-yielding flood-
plain meadows, spawning
grounds, oak groves and interna-
tionally important wetlands.
St. Marys, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, which comprises cloud
forests, mangroves and coral
reefs.
Blekinge Archipelago in
Sweden, which includes most of
the coastal areas and archipela-
gos of Blekinge.
Nedre Dalalven River Land-
scape in Sweden, which covers
1,190 square miles with wetlands,
rivers, lakes, flood plains and
productive forests.
Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri in
Togo, which encompasses shru-
bland, savannas, forest galleries
and grasslands. The catchment
of the Oti-Mandouri River is rec-
ognized as a Wetland of Interna-
tional Importance under the
Ramsar Convention.
Roztochya, Ukraine, which
covers a total area of 288 square
miles with agriculture, stock-
breeding and fish farming as its
main economic activities.
Buraa, Yemen, which is a
rugged mountainous area inter-
sected by deep valleys rich in
rare, vulnerable and endemic
plant species.
Santana Madeira, Portugal,
which is the first biosphere
reserve in the Madeira Archipel-
ago. Despite an active tourist
industry, agriculture dominates
the economy.
Ramot Menashe in Israel,
which encompasses the Mediter-
ranean Basins version of the
global evergreen sclerophyllous
forests, woodlands and scrub
ecosystem types.
Trifinio Fraternidad Bio-
sphere Reserve, which stretches
over parts of El Salvador, Guate-
mala and Honduras. The tropical
humid forest is inhabited by
many endemic species.
Meanwhile in Vietnam, Cat
Tien is the new name of the for-
mer Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve,
which was designated in 2001.
Two new core zones have been
added to the site, bringing its
total area to over two million
square miles, UNESCO said.
Australia withdrew Macquarie
Island from the World Network
of Biosphere Reserves because it
is uninhabited by humans and
human presence is a criterion for
inclusion in the network.
18 New Biosphere Reserves Protected in Global Network
Photo by kdg2709
Bras dOr Lake, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 14
By Elizabeth Shogren
NPR.org via DailyClimate.org: July 4, 2011
Two Girl Scouts
want the organiza-
tion to stop using
palm oil in Girl
Scout Cookies.
Theyve started a
petition and gath-
ered 67,000 signa-
tures.
A lot of adult
environmentalists
have been trying
for years to focus
attention on tropi-
cal rain forests in
southeast Asia but
it took two teenag-
ers to get the issue on the front page of a national newspaper and on
the network news.
Four years ago, Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva started
studying orangutans for a Girl Scouts project. What they learned
inspired them to start a campaign to raise awareness of the damage
that palm plantations are causing the great apes.
I liked them at first because they are such a cute animal, says
Rhiannon, 15. But they are also helpless. Their rainforest, their
home, is being cleared for these palm oil plantations and they have no
say in it.
In two decades, companies have cut down millions of acres of
rainforest to plant palm trees and meet the skyrocketing demand for
oil and biofuel. This releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases and
shrinks habitat for rare animals like tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses
and orangutans.
The girls decided to stop eating food with palm oil in it. Thats
when they started looking at ingredient lists and learned that Girl
Scout cookies are part of the problem.
It was Girl Scout cookie season, says Madison, 16. And so we
checked the ingredients and palm oil was an ingredient in Girl
Scout cookies. I remember being so shocked and upset . . . ."
LIHUE, Kauai,
Hawaii, May 16,
2011 (ENS, excerpt)
It has taken two
lawsuits against the
Kauai Island Utility
C o o p e r a t i v e
(KIUC) and years
of advocacy work
but Hawaiian and
national conserva-
tion groups are
now optimistic that
their goal of pro-
tection for two spe-
cies of rare seabirds
is within reach.
On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit that
requires the utility on Hawaiis northwesternmost main island to
reduce the number of endangered and threatened seabirds it kills and
injures each year and to offset unavoidable harm.
When KIUC acquired Kauais utility in 2002, the nonprofit, mem-
ber-owned cooperative promised to seek the required permit [but]
has since refused to implement the measures needed to prevent the
deaths of two species of seabirds protected by the federal Endangered
Species Act the threatened Newells shearwater, also known by the
Hawaiian name ao and the endangered Hawaiian petrel, called ua.
From 1993 to 2008, the population of Newells shearwaters on
Kauai declined by 75 percent, as the birds flew into power lines and
became disoriented from the utilitys streetlights.
The Hawaiian petrel was formerly found on all the main Hawaiian
Islands except Niihau but it now has a very small breeding range, just
five locations in the main Hawaiian islands. Urbanization is one of
the main reasons for the species decline.
KIUCs delays prompted Earthjustice to file a federal lawsuit in
March 2010 on behalf of four groups Hui Hoomalu I Ka Aina, Con-
servation Council for Hawaii, Center for Biological Diversity and
American Bird Conservancy.
Two months later, the U.S. Justice Department indicted KIUC for
criminal violations of the Endangered Species Act for killing the pro-
tected seabirds...
Grassroots Action
Help Protect
Upper Delaware
River Tributaries
Treatened by
Natural Gas Drilling
Saturday August 6, 2011
9:30-1:30
(Hancock, New York area)
Priority Areas: Wayne County,
Pennsylvania and Sullivan,
Delaware and parts of Broome
County, New York
Tis hands-on training is de-
signed for local citizens living in
the Marcellus Shale areas (priori-
ty areas: Wayne County, Pennsyl-
vania and Sullivan, Delaware and
parts of Broome County (New
York) of the Delaware River wa-
tershed willing to become a part
of a corps of volunteers in the
Upper Delaware collecting feld
data for streams that are threat-
ened by natural gas drilling. Vol-
unteer monitors have performed
monthly testing for 45 stations in
Pennsylvania since March 2010.
Information collected is pro-
vided to Delaware Riverkeeper
Network (DRN) and has been
used to testify and provide im-
portant comment about the con-
ditions of Upper Delaware tribu-
taries and what may be lost if
drilling is permitted in the Basin.
To see the protocols used, visit
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.
org/pdf/Gas_Drilling_Stream_
Watchdog_Protocols.pdf.
Tese techniques are being
used across the state of Penn-
sylvania and were developed in
partnership with Alliance for
Aquatic Resource Monitoring
(ALLARM) and Pennsylvania
Council of Trout Unlimited.
Tere are still unmoni-
tored streams in New York and
Pennsyvlania where Delaware
Riverkeeper Network is seeking
reliable volunteer teams to col-
lect data.
Consider becoming a volun-
teer monitor to learn the tools
you will need to help accom-
plish this vital river protection.
Streams in need of coverage in-
clude: Faulkner Brook, Weston
Brook, Sherman Creek, Pea
Brook, Oquaga Creek, Hoolihan
Creek, Abe Lord Creek, Sands
Creek, Cadosia Creek and many
more on both the Pennsylvania
and New York sides of the Dela-
ware Watershed .
Volunteers need to live lo-
cally so they can monitor these
streams monthly before drilling
and more frequently if drilling is
allowed to begin in our Basin.
No prior experience is nec-
essary but monitors should live
within the Upper Delaware to
monitor regularly and year-
round. DRN has monitoring kits
available for loan.
Groups or individuals may
sponsor kits to help with this im-
portant efort. Pre-order kits in
advance to have additional equip-
ment available by the training
kits cost $150 (and include elec-
tronic Lamotte Meter, chloride
test kit and calibration solution).
Questions? Please contact Faith
Zerbe at 215-369-1188 x. 110.
Cost: Free equipment and
space limited; please register early.
To Register: stephanie@dela-
wareriverkeeper.org or 215-369-
1188. Please register by July 28.
Tese workshops are possible
thanks to a grant from the Wil-
liam Penn Foundation.
Kauai Utility Ordered to
Protect Rare Seabirds
Photo by Kayt-u-Eric
Power lines in Hanapepe, Kauai, which is a flyway mentioned in
the Habitat Conservation Plan.
Photo by Michael Walther
Newells shearwater.
Demands for Green Constitutions Rise
as Treats to Nature, Humans Increase
By Vonca Povraz Dogan, excerpt
Zaman, Istanbul: May 22, 2011
Two small countries of Latin
America have been taking Moth-
er Earth, or Pachamama, quite
seriously so they have passed a
series of laws to protect it and
their worries reached some con-
cerned citizens in Turkey where
there has been a vigorous debate
going on for making a new, citi-
zen-centered constitution.
We are just starting a cam-
paign calling for an ecologi-
cal constitution, said Turkeys
Green Party spokesperson mit
ahin, who is among 40 people
including politicians, academ-
ics and lawyers involved in the
Initiative for an Ecological Con-
stitution (IEC). As Turkey has
been talking about making a new
constitution, which is supposed
to value the individual, then we
should be talking about an eco-
logical approach to it, ahin said,
adding that their role models are
Bolivia and Ecuador, which un-
derstand the value and rights of
Mother Earth. Te IEC believes
in this approach of the Latin
American states, he said, because
neither the European states nor
the United States have been able
to fully address the issue even
though there are some examples
like France, which has a Green
Charter, and some states in the
U.S., which have been adopting
ecologically-sensitive laws.
He noted that Ecuadors is the
frst constitution in the world
to recognize legally enforceable
Rights of Nature. Although a
small country, Ecuador is home
to the Galapagos Islands, Andean
Mountains and Amazon rainforest
as it is a geologically, ecologically
and ethnically diverse country.
Ecuador took a bold step in
2008 to add Rights for Nature to
their new constitution provid-
ing a system of environmental
protection based on rights. ahin
noted like many countries, Turk-
ish laws treat ecosystems as ar-
ticles of property that give land
owners the right to destroy even
fragile ecosystems but that a lot
of governments have started to
enact environmental regulations
to limit harm to ecosystems and
impose fnes for damage.
Additionally, a group of coun-
tries led by Bolivia have recently
brought the issue to the agenda of
the UN General Assembly as they
ask for a UN treaty that would
grant the same rights found in
the Universal Declaration of Hu-
man Rights to Mother Nature
so there will be legal systems to
maintain balance between hu-
man rights and what they say are
the rights of other members of
the Earth, such as plants, animals
and terrain . . . .
Photo Credit Unknown
Volunteers cleaning up the bottom of the Marmara Sea found an incredibly diverse range of trash.
Delaware Riverkeeper Seeking River Monitors
Getting Started With Local
Fracking Activism: Research
Note from Editor: As I was
beginning to work in my county
(Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) while
publishing all these good stories
about other people fighting frack-
ing in their locations, a new friend
showed up after reading one of my
articles about trying to get an
ordinance banning fracking in
Cromwell Township, where I live.
I was so impressed with this per-
son's research that I wanted to
share it with you in hopes that
you will be inspired to dig in and
get going in your own community.
Here are the emails I received.
June 21, 2011: Spoke to Ste-
ven Volgstadt | Park Manager
PA Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources Canoe
Creek State Park Complex /
Trough Creek and Warriors
Path State Parks, 205 Canoe
Creek Road | Hollidaysburg, PA
16648; Phone: 14.695.6807| Fax:
814.696.6023; E-mail: svolg-
stadt@state.pa.us; www.dcnr.
state.pa.us.
Confirmed there is NO drill-
ing within Canoe Creek State
Park nor Trough Creek State
Park nor Warriors Path State
Park.
Confirms in Todd township,
Eagle Foundry Road, NW of
944 on a Shannon private prop-
erty. Two producing wells and
one being under construction.
These well locations are approx-
imately six to seven miles from
Trough Creek State Park which
is near Lake Raystown Lake!
These wells are considered drill-
ing in the Oriskany sandstone
area, which are deeper vertical
wells. The same fracturing pro-
cedure is being used with chem-
ical-laced water.
The only drilling Im aware
of in the vicinity of Trough
Creek State Park is east of the
park on Route 994.
Main page on DCNR web-
site for Pennsylvania Marcellus
information: http://www.dcnr.
state.pa.us/forestry/naturalgas-
exploration/index.htm.
Information on gas explora-
tion on State Forest lands:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/
topogeo/oilandgas/Marcellus_
wells_4_2011.pdf.
Map of Pennsylvania Mar-
cellus wells as of 4-22-11: Only
one well is shown in Hunting-
don County (Trough Creek State
Park is in Huntingdon County).
General Raystown area
information: http://raystown.
org:
Raystown Lake: Army Corps
of Engineers: http://raystown.
nab.usace.army.mil:
Map of Raystown Lake area:
http: //raystown.nab.usace.army.
mil/welcome/directions.htm.
Trough Creek State park
map: http://www.dcnr.state.
pa.us/stateparks/parks/trough-
creek/troughcreek_mini.pdf.
--------------------
According to the DCNR Web
site, in Pennsylvania, over 3,000
Marcellus Shale Drill sites exist
with over 6,000 more permitted
to drill.
--------------------
In talking with Richard Stahl
(814-643-5091), Huntingdon
County Planning office, he
states that there is only one per-
mit required through DEP to
drill and they are not required
to report that to the local Plan-
ning office.
Richard further states that
there is potential in Cooks, Jacks
Mountain and the Calvin area
for possible drilling drill con-
tractors are out there knocking
on doors in an attempt to get
drill leases generated.
--------------------
In talking to Mark Potter,
DCNR, U.S. forestry confirmed
there [is] no Marcellus drilling
in the Rothrock State Forest.
Cannot confirm or deny if
potential drill sites are on target
or leased in the state forests
states they are not privy to that
information???
June 27: We went to Lake
Raystown this weekend for din-
ner and I was shocked to see
how LARGE this drill site is.
The water area is the size of a
baseball field ... or larger. It is
my understanding that this
water is pulled from a well
(FRESH CLEAN WATER) and
then mixed with toxic chemicals
and shot back down the well for
fracturing purposes. This used
to be all beautiful, fertile farm
country ... pristine in nature.
Think about this, the elevation
here is ABOVE the watershed,
so all this water runs DOWN-
HILL ... and the location is dan-
gerously close to Raystown lake.
There are many surrounding
farms below this elevation as
well. I did not research the Oris-
kany drilling yet but it is my
understanding that the fractur-
ing procedure is the same ...
only DEEPER!
Did you see the article in the
newspaper tonight ... in Susque-
hanna county the drillers are
citing they hit the "mother-
lode." .... God Help Us .... they
will RUIN our water and fertile
farm country and then what will
we have left to hand to our
future generations???
June 28, 2011
Representative Mike Fleck
Irvis Office Building, Room 420
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Dear Representative Fleck,
I am outraged that the Gen-
eral Assembly is planning to
adjourn for the summer and will
turn its back on the people of
Pennsylvania. You must return
to Harrisburg to finish the job.
Pass a natural gas drilling tax
now! This money is needed to
balance the budget, pay for envi-
ronmental restoration programs
and provide compensation to
local communities impacted by
drilling. The General Assembly
has a responsibility to correct
the problems caused by Marcel-
lus.
I am strongly urging you to
support dedicated funding for
environmental programs and
local communities as it relates to
Marcellus Shale drilling and the
adverse impact it has on Penn-
sylvania water and air quality
and the drain on Pennsylvania
water ressources. There are
numerous proposals in both
chambers. You should consider
these proposals. Whatever legis-
lation is adopted must not pun-
ish municipalities that choose to
adopt legally-enforceable ordi-
nances to protect their commu-
nities from gas drilling.
Every county in the state of
Pennsylvania should have the
right to protect its citizens from
the adverse impact of Marcellus
Shale drilling techniques and
the utilization of fracturing with
chemical-laced water either in
vertical or horizontal drilling. It
is your responsibility to repre-
sent the Pennsylvania citizens
you serve. You cannot deny the
horrible adverse environmental
footprint left behind from frac-
turing procedures, They are well
documented throughout the
West and now even here in our
own state. I would urge you to
place a total BAN on these frac-
turing procedures and keep
Pennsylvanias water resources
from being further degraded.
I understand that there are
difficult issues to resolve but you
were elected to address difficult
issues. You have an urgent
responsibility to correct prob-
lems Pennsylvania is experienc-
ing from Marcellus drilling.
Before this summer is over,
Pennsylvania needs to enact
legislation to make drilling safe
and to fund environmental pro-
tection.
Legislating is your full time
job. It is time to act on this criti-
cal issue.
EU Unveils Plans to Pay
Fishermen to Catch Plastic
By Fiona Harvey, excerpt
guardian.co.uk: May 4, 2011
Fishermen will be paid to catch plastic, rather than fish, under
bold new plans from the EU's fisheries chief, aimed at providing
fleets with an alternative source of income to reduce pressure on
dwindling fish stocks.
Maria Damanaki, commissioner for fisheries, will unveil a trial
project in the Mediterranean this month, which will see fishermen
equipped with nets to round up the plastic detritus that is threaten-
ing marine life and send it for recycling . . . .
Photo courtesy of Girl Scouts of USA
Girl Scout mint cookies. Yum!
Two Girl Scouts Want Palm
Oil Out Of Famous Cookies
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 15
Comments on Content
Hi Iona,
Thanks so much for all the good
work you put into the Earth News.
It is invaluable ... Here is my little
contribution.
Miriam Therese MacGillis
Genesis Farm
Blairstown, New Jersey
Iona,
Great content in your paper.
[Subscription enclosed.] You do a
great job in finding and publishing
key information on the environ-
ment. Thanks.
Jack Flatley
Vice-Chair, Governor Pinchot
Group, PA Sierra Club
Dear Earth News,
I would like to tell you how
much I love your paper. I have re-
cently moved and wanted to update
my address.
Keep up the good work!
James Pitts
Lancaster, California
Hi Iona,
Yesterday at my pollster job in
NW D.C., someone had a copy of
Earth News that he picked up in the
West End library. I left a bunch of
them there last month and he said
this was the last one. He gave part
of it to one of the supervisors here
who is interested in politics and
likes to have something to read dur-
ing the long shifts.
Putting these in libraries is
a very good strategy. I may try
expanding on that. This would
be a great thing to do for anyone
else who wants to help get them
circulated.
Unfortunately, I think the
mainstream media is increasingly
populated with people who cannot
distinguish the difference between
what is true and what is false, what
is important to humanity and what
is trivial. There may still be those
who do but they do not make an ef-
fort or are afraid to "rock the boat."
Now, if you go outside the U.S.,
there is Al Jazeera and Russia Today
and they have no such problems.
I have heard the goal of jour-
nalism stated as: "To comfort the
afflicted and to afflict the comfort-
able." Today I would suspect that
such a comment would leave a
quizzical look on the face of a young
journalist maybe even a sneer.
Bill Boteler
Takoma Park, Maryland
Dear Iona,
Thanks for the paper and all that
you do to increase awareness of the
problems with the current system
and the need for a real change in the
way we think about our world and
conduct our business. Keep up the
good work!
For every problem, there is a cre-
ative solution, if we can only open
our minds to it (and hearts). Please
accept my contribution to the cause.
I hope all is well with you and
yours and your future is bright and
continuing!
David Thomas
Rocky Ridge, Maryland
Dear Iona,
I have the copies of Earth News
and am sending them around now.
It is very true that we cannot drink
money! And every human and
every animal has a right to clean
air and clean water. Have you ever
heard of "a sin against the Holy
Spirit"? I think it is when someone
sees the beauty of life but attempts
to destroy it anyway.
Very best always,
Sandy Chilcote
Newfoundland, Canada
Fracking
Iona,
I am surrounded by the fracking.
They were dumping it on our roads
and they want to put a well a stone's
throw from my vegetable garden
and my water was contaminated
from one they put in about a mile
from me. The traffic is horrible.
They are running Amish buggies off
the road. Like the story in Save the
Bay relates, the state forest is where
I'd go to get away and now it is one
huge gas field!!
Thanks so much for all you're
doing!!! I am buoyed knowing that
there are people like yourself that
care deeply.
Jenny Lisak
Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean
Water and Air
Iona,
Attached you will find two great
Letters to the Editors found in,
you guessed it, the Lock Haven
Express!!
One article supports Daves let-
ter condemning the coffer dam (see
page 3). The other points out the
power drillers have to receive per-
mission to do projects that you and
I would never be permitted to do.
Curt Bierly
Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
(I received the following email after
we had to cancel our first Fracking
Foes Unite! meeting.)
Thanks Iona! I think this is wise
since many of us are constantly on
the road networking and on confer-
ence calls and in coalitions already
for example POW (Protecting
Our Waters) has had two 16-hour
days with bus rides to fight the Exx-
on water grab last week and Har-
risburg this week, following trips
to Bradford County to investigate
and publicize impacted people and
trips to Allentown and Harrisburg
to build the statewide network right
before that tomorrow it's back to
Bradford County it's so strenuous
(and expensive) and, even as we are
recruiting and building in a "spec-
tacularly empowering" way as one
activist said yesterday, at the same
time, there is a core of people doing
constant overwork so I suspect that
explains the lack of response there
is no lack of interest; it's just already
being done as much as people can
do.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU
DO, we appreciate your talent, dedi-
cation, wisdom and creativity.
Iris Bloom
Protecting Our Waters
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hello, Iona.
Its important to hear what
environmentalist are concluding
about the environmental dangers
of hydro-fracking since they do not
have a vested interested in the oil
and gas industry.
Ive attended three talks on this
issue the first was sponsored by
Representative Dan Moul who host-
ed a pro-industry talk backed by a
Marcellus Shale panel. They did not
want to talk about the chemicals
or spills or any of their numerous
citations involving damage to our
waterways.
This prompted me to ask Dr.
Bob Myers, Professor of English
and Director of Environmental
Studies at Lock Haven University
to speak here in Mercersburg a few
weeks ago (see page 4).
This past Saturday I attended a
talk at the University of Pittsburgh
sponsored by the Sportsmen Al-
liance Marcellus Shale Task Force
and learned that the number of gas
wells has dramatically increased
along with the environmental dam-
age caused by gas wells since 2008,
catching everyone off guard includ-
ing the PA Game Commission who
attended the event.
The state of Maryland is suing
Pennsylvania for frack water in the
Chesapeake Bay. Some appraisals of
job creation are saying maybe this
will create 14,000 jobs not 88,000
as Governor Corbett stated.
One need only look at West
Virginia and what happened with
the coal industry to be wary of all
the talk of benefits for Franklin
County for natural gas. In a time
where corporate profits are more
important than people, our water,
environment and wildlife, we must
hold industry accountable. It is not
a matter of left v. right but right v.
wrong.
Hopefully, the environmentalists
will be able to work with the indus-
try people to save our most precious
pieces of land here in Pennsylvania.
I have collected several pieces of
information (hand-outs, brochures,
etc.) from these events if anyone is
interested in reading about statistics
let me know (Ramsburg4Con-
gress.com).
Karen Ramsburg
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
[The following was originally pub-
lished in the Roanoke Times.]
Virginia does not want for
natural beauty. The majesty of the
mountains, the cool shade of its
old forests, we have it all. And we
need to protect it, which is why
Virginians should embrace a draft
management plan for the George
Washington National Forest. The
U.S. Forest Service wants to ensure
a risky form of mining does not
damage the forest and surrounding
areas.
The plan has many sensible
provisions. It would close a few
miles of roads to better protect
pristine parts of the forest and limit
construction of wind farms and
direct drilling. It also would plan
sensible forest management policies
such as limited timber harvests and
controlled burns.
What stands out most, though,
is a ban on horizontal drilling for
natural gas that extensively uses
"fracking." That involves drilling
down, then across. Miners then
pump millions of gallons of water
into the shaft to break up compacted
shale and release the precious gas.
The Washington National Forest
sits atop a major gas deposit and
some of it will be extracted by other
means. Fracking, however, has the
potential to cause serious envi-
ronmental damage, especially to a
watershed. Allowing it there in large
volume would put the forest itself at
risk. It is not worth sacrificing one
precious natural resource to get at
another.
Mark E. Petersen, Virginia
Nuclear and News
Two weeks ago when Japan
announced that all three nuclear
reactors at Fukioshima had melted
down, it barely made a ripple in the
news, let alone sounded an alarm.
Had that announcement been made
shortly after the incident first oc-
curred, the whole world would be in
an uproar demanding the shutdown
of all nuclear plants,
We are so bombarded with all
kinds of serious and controversial
news these days, which is simultane-
ously interwoven with such mun-
dane "news" about the ridiculous
carrying-ons of politicians, film
stars and meaningless tripe that
has little or nothing to do with the
many real crises facing us, that it all
becomes one watered-down mean-
ingless jumble of information that
quickly fades into oblivion within a
matter of weeks, if not days or even
hours.
In the case regarding Fukioshi-
ma, I vividly remember watching
that famous Japanese astrophysicist
Michio Kaku reporting on the
nuclear disaster taking place there
and the effect it might have on the
entire planet, not just Japan. But to-
day it's like he never even gave that
report and the news goes on and on
and on about more mundane mat-
ters happening in Hollywood and in
our local neighborhood.
I can just imagine what the
news will be like when the so-called
"rapture" occurs, which it probably
will but not in the form that fundies
imagine: "BREAKING NEWS!!!!
Giant fireball falls to Earth and
wipes out the whole of Southeast
Asia! Stay tuned for further news on
the situation! Now back to today's
weather and the NFL match."
Chris Tennant, International
Writer/Consultant and former UN
Programme Officer
Community-Supported
Journalism
Hello from Berlin where
Germany just declared a total
phase-out of nuclear energy, fol-
lowed by Switzerland and possibly
Italy. Europeans are engaged in
serious debate about their energy
choices. What gets lost in the heated
debate is that nuclear is a source of
carbon emissions since mining and
processing nuclear fuel is carbon
intensive, resulting in more emis-
sions than wind but much less than
coal. Secondly the costs of nuclear
are high, although often hidden and
not reflected in cost-per-kilowatt
price. (And that is without the costs
of waste disposal.)
My first article reveals that
Europe may not be able to feed its
people or reach its goal of ending
biodiversity loss unless it is willing
to integrate eco-agriculture meth-
ods into its ag policies. Right now
those policies make it impossible
for farmers to respond to the chal-
lenges of climate change. They have
also left farmers on the sidelines
when it comes to setting policy and
research priorities.
My second story comes from
the International Transport Forum.
Cars and trucks are the leading
killer of children over the age of
five. Every day more than 16,000
people are killed or injured on the
world's roads. Some basic things
can be done to save millions of
people over the next decade.
In a couple of days I will be
travelling to Oslo to cover the first
major international meeting on
what to do about climate refugees:
Climate Change and Displacement.
Should be very interesting.
Stephen Leahy, Canada
Please consider $5 or 10 a week to
support Environmental Journalism
in the Public Interest. Donate at
http://stephenleahy.net/ or mail a
check to 50 Enzo Cres, Uxbridge,
ON, Canada L9P 1M1. Thank you.
Europe Sowing the Seeds of
Hunger
By Stephen Leahy
LEIPZIG, Germany, May 26,
2011 (IPS) Europe is facing a
hungry future unless it changes
agricultural policies and makes
farmers the main participants in
agriculture research, a new report
has found. And there is little hope
of meeting Europe's recently an-
nounced goal of reducing the loss
of biodiversity in ten years without
making those changes.
France is suffering a severe
drought but Europe's seed laws
prevent farmers from using a wider
variety of seeds that could help
them cope, says Michel Pimbert
of the International Institute for
Environment and Development, a
non-profit research institute based
in London.
"Our seed laws enforce uni-
formity. France can only plant ap-
proved seeds and those new variet-
ies need a lot of water," Pimbert, the
author of the report, told IPS.
Read more at http://ipsnews.net/
news.asp?idnews=55792.
Putting Road Safety on the
Development Agenda
By Stephen Leahy
LEIPZIG, Germany, May 31,
2011 (IPS) The leading killer
of children over the age of five is
not malaria or dysentery, but cars
and trucks. And ninety percent of
those children are killed on roads in
developing countries.
Each day, 3,500 people are killed
and 13,700 injured in road accidents
around the world. That death and
injury toll is expected to increase
by nearly 50 percent over the next
decade without serious efforts to
improve road safety, says Etienne
Krug, director of the Department
of Violence and Injury Prevention
and Disability at the World Health
Organization.
Read more: http://www.ipsnews.
net/news.asp?idnews=55862.
"forgotten"
Dear Extended Families and
Nations,
How long are we going to sit
back and ignore all the neglect and
abuse that surrounds our nation?
As a simple path of our own trial
and error? Or should I say...trial
by fire? How many of you can still
remember, an' how you felt, when
you witnessed [on public television]
the brutal attack of 9/11?
Let me take you back to the early
1970s, a commercial where a 'Native
American,' standing all alone, wet in
the rain with tears streaming down
his face, glancing around at all the
pollution surrounding our lands
pollution that's slowly killing us.
Can you recall? Or is this one of
those moments that you chose to
forget because it was the truth filled
with sadness an' sorrow?
I come to you today with a
troubled heart.
For those of you who do not
know me, I am the author of the
song "Running Black Tears/She
Cries." (August 2010 Earth News)
That very song was written upon the
impact of the tragic BP oil spill and
all the lives that were lost. Or have
you forgotten that as well?
Reflecting on that very commer-
cial, it had such an impact on me as
a little boy. Such an impact affects
our very lives, especially when we
are small; it seems to follow us like a
constant reminder.
I can still see how old an' ancient
the lines/wrinkles on his face were...
like a 'road map' written in stone.
The passion and the pleading that
flowed from his eyes. "A voice of
a thousand words" were said in
silence in just one moment.
That moment was over 41 years
past; it's like an image calling from
the grave. That "lone red man's"
message to me was like a (private,
intimate) from our Creator. Not
stating a command but a passionate
question of Why?? Why are you do-
ing this? Why are you hurting me?
In my eyes and in my heart,
it was a fatal question of our own
hearts, our existence and how we're
throwing it all away.
Now, maybe you chose to forget
because of the impact it played in
our lives that it was intense and
truthful? Or did you choose to black
it out like most everything else in
your life because it made you feel
uncomfortable, because of the real-
ity of it all it hurt?
Personally, for many years I've
run from myself as well as my life
because I don't like my personal
views of the world, as well as those
of most of the people in it so in-
sensitive, so heartless and cold and
in those moments of my childhood
learning, I closed my eyes an' slept.
For years I slept. Walking
through life like a zombie.
Dead.
Though, as I write this letter
[as strange as it seems], come to
share my childhood as well as my
innermost feelings with all of you
[strangers as we are] yet, we are the
same. You can't convince yourselves
that you don't feel some type of
loss an' hunger to correct an' help
change our world; our precious
Earth is fading away.
If you need to cry and let go (as
I do), then please do that. Let our
prayers for humanity comfort and
help heal the wounds of time.
My name is Michael and this is
my song.
Michael Gaskill, Nevada
Letters to the Editor
Reports on Agent Orange in Korea, Amazon
By Pyong Roh
Daegu, Korea
According to Donga Daily, a
major news paper in Korea, Steve
House (54 years old, who lives in
Phoenix, Arizona) revealed the buri-
al of Agent Orange to KPHO-TV, a
TV station in Phoenix.
Mr. House was a GI working at
camp Carrol near Daegu, as a sol-
dier involved in the burial operation
in 1978. Originally he said that the
soldiers buried 250 55-gallon drums
in the compound.
A reporter had an interview with
the former soldier over the phone.
House said that there were 250
drums of Agent Orange at camp
Carrol but an additional 250 drums
were brought to camp Carrol from
the Demilitarized Zone and air
bases and naval bases in Korea from
May 1978 through January 1979.
He said that the drivers who
brought the drums into the
camp were in U.S. Air Force uni-
forms. He also said that he had asked
U.S. military authorities to inform
Koreans of the burial of Agent
Orange but the U.S. military author-
ities ignored his suggestions. He also
asked the U.S. government to com-
pensate him because he has been
suffering from diabetes and liver
diseases but the U.S. government
refused.
Question: Who ordered you to
bury the Agent Orange?
Answer: A lieutenant of U.S.
army, the leader of the Unit. I just
followed his order.
Question: What did the lieuten-
ant order you?
Answer: He ordered us to dig a
hole.
Question: Didnt you know it was
Agent Orange?
Answer: I noticed the letters on
the drums such as Agent Orange
and province of Vietnam and serial
numbers and production dates such
as 1965 and 1966
Question: How long were you
involved in burial of Agent Orange?
Answer: In my memory, I was
involved in 15 to 20 times from early
April 1978 through January 1979.
Question: How many drums did
you bury?
Answer: We buried 250 drums
stocked at the camp Carrol and we
got 15 or 20 truck loads of the
chemicals from outside. The loads
were different and I cannot say
exactly how many drums but they
were at least 500 all together.
Question: Did the leader ask you
to be cautious because it is a poison-
ous chemical?
Answer: No! He did not. One of
my comrades from Illinois wore
sneakers and his feet were paralized.
Question: How do you prove they
were Agent Orange?
Answer: I took pictures and still I
keep them.
Question: How many soldiers
were working in the burial.
Answer: Two drivers and four
heavy equipment drivers. Altogether
six soldiers were involved.
Part II: According to the KBS, a
Korean television reported that the
Korean government and U.S. mili-
tary authorities agreed to investigate
the burial of Agent Orange at Camp
Carrol, a U.S. military base located
north of Daegu. The members of
environmental protection command
of the U.S. Army are arriving in
Korea next week. They will take soil
samples at Agent Orange burial sus-
pected areas around the helipad at
the camp. And the Korean provin-
cial government of the area where
Camp Carrol is located took action
and collected groundwater samples
which are used as drinking water for
the local people.
A former U.S. service man
revealed that the American soldiers
buried chemicals at Camp Mercer
near Inchon. The camp is now occu-
pied by Korean Army Units. The
government authorities took soil
samples at the suspected areas.
Korean environmental protection
activists protested in front of the
main gate of Camp Carrol and asked
U.S. military authorities to reveal all
documents and the civilians
involved in the investigation. The
local people living around the camp
are very nervous because they drank
groundwater for years. The Korean
government and U.S. military
authorities had meetings to discuss
the procedures for the investiga-
tion.
EN Email Campaign Helps
Ensure Polar Bear Protection
Center for Biological Diversity
Press Release: July 2, 2011
A federal judge just ruled that
polar bears must stay protected un-
der the Endangered Species Act.
Tis ruling is a huge win for
our long-running work to protect
these mighty Arctic bears who are
struggling to survive while fac-
ing rapidly melting sea ice and oil
companies that want to drill in the
heart of their habitat.
We wouldn't have won this
critical victory without the tens of
thousands of actions you've taken
and the support you've given us
over the years to keep fghting in
court for the majestic white bear
thank you.
Since 2005, when the Center
for Biological Diversity authored
the federal petition to list the polar
bear under the Endangered Species
Act, we've led the fght to keep the
bears from extinction.
When our eforts fnally paid of
in 2008 and the Center and allies
won a threatened listing for polar
bears, we knew it was going to be a
long fght to fully protect the bears
and their habitat.
And when the state of Alaska,
big-game hunters and others went
to court this year to try to strip En-
dangered Species Act protections
from polar bears, we knew we had
to put everything we had into the
fght. Our expert attorneys rose to
the polar bear's defense in court,
outlining the urgent protections
needed to save them from the ter-
rible efects of global warming.
On Tursday, U.S. District Judge
Emmet Sullivan rejected Alaska's
arguments and said the decision
to protect bears because of melting
Arctic sea ice was well supported.
He also noted the plight of the po-
lar bear was troubling.
Even as we take a moment with
you to celebrate the court deci-
sion, we know our work is far from
over. Scientists tell us that, lef un-
checked, warming could melt so
much sea ice that two-thirds of the
world's polar bears, including all
those in Alaska, will probably be
gone in 40 years.
A polar bear mother with her cubs on the shore of Alaska's
Beaufort Sea. Photo by Suzanne Miller courtesy USFWS
Dead areas of the Amazon Rainforest after spraying with
Agent Orange. Photo courtesy IBAMA
By Rhet Butler, excerpt
mongabay.com: July 6, 2011
One-hundred-eighty hectares
(450 acres) of rainforest in the
Brazilian Amazon were defoliated
using Agent Orange, reports
IBAMA, Brazil's environmental
law enforcement agency.
The affected area, which is
south of the city of Canutama and
near the Mapinguari Jacareba /
Katawixi indigenous reservation in
Rondnia, was first detected by
Brazil's deforestation monitoring
system. A subsequent helicopter
overflight last month by IBAMA
revealed thousands of trees largely
stripped of their vegetation.
Authorities later found nearly
four tons of chemicals 2,4-D
AMINE 72, U46BR, Garlon 480
and mineral oil along trans-
Amazon highway 174.
The herbicides would have
been enough to defoliate roughly
3,000 ha (7,500 acres) of forest,
which would then be cleared for
cattle ranching or agriculture.
IBAMA says use of chemical defo-
liants is a relatively new phenom-
enon in the region, but represents
a troubling development, accord-
ing to Cicero Furtado, coordina-
tor of the investigation. "The her-
bicide was stored in inappropriate
location, hidden in the woods and
would be sprayed in the forest with
the use of aircraft..," he said.
Ranchers Using Agent Orange
to Deforest Amazon
Earth News: August/September 2011, Page 16
Hope
Awakening
Booklet
Now
Available
Iona's Testimony: My life has become
so amazingly wonderful and peaceful
since I turned it over to The Trustwor-
thy And True Living Spirit, The Most
High God that I want to share as much as
I can about Him with everyone so I put
all 10 "Awakening" articles into a book-
let, which I'll be happy to mail to you.
My cost is about $6 (including postage)
but, if you can't afford that, I will send it
to you anyhow. Please send your check,
money order, cash or request for a free
booklet to:
Iona Conner
Earth News
21431 Marlin Circle
Shade Gap, Pennsylvania 17255
You may email
ionaconner@gmail.com
or phone 814-259-3680.
Thank you.
(First published March 2010)
This message is sent to you from the one
who is here offering you the Truth
that is the living springs of the water of life
that nourishes souls,
The Trustworthy And True Living Spirit,
The Most High God.
In response to comments received from
readers of "The Awakening" messages, I feel I
need to clarify a few things. I have written
these messages in what I thought was simple
enough for all levels of understanding, when in
fact I obviously have overestimated some of
you. This shows me that oneness in human
understanding begins at a very plain and sim-
ple level. We all need to back up or lower our
understanding so everyone has the opportuni-
ty to get on board with the rest of us in order to
truly achieve oneness.
For those of you who understand my mes-
sages clearly this will be a pleasant reminder
and not an inconvenience.
First of all I am not channeling the Living
Spirit of the Most High God, I am here now in
a human body. For those of you who are bibli-
cal, please feel free to read Revelation: Chapter
22, verse 4.
Anyone who wants to may come honorably
and humbly and meet me face-to-face and lis-
ten to my messages. I am not here to fight,
argue or debate with any of you. I am here
offering my messages to those of you who
chose by their own free will to listen. I am not
here to shove my messages down anyone's
throat. If you do not want my messages, do not
bother to read them and definitely do not
come to me.
My name and title is The Trustworthy And
True Living Spirit, The Most High God. People
have already come to me from many different
countries from around the world. Those who
already know me honorably, humbly and mod-
estly, bow to me and address me by my name,
which is plain and simply Most High.
Even some of those who already know me
are afraid to spread the news that it is truly me
and I am truly here due to the fact that some
people are very judgmental in the fact that if
they do not understand something, nobody
else should be able to understand it either,
because they are hard-hearted, closed-minded
and/or not open to new ideas because of what
the world has taught them.
I do not wish harm, pain, suffering or cru-
elty on anyone or anything. I am here to help
and comfort any who choose by their own
choice to receive my help and comfort.
I am the righteous God. I do not play favor-
ites. I am here offering all of you my Kingdom
(Heaven) on Earth Christians as well as athe-
ists, Muslims as well as agnostics, Jews as well
as Buddhists, Hindus as well as Quakers, and
so on. I also offer my Kingdom to those who
are educated as well as those who are illiterate.
I am offering all races, tribes and nations to be
a part of my Kingdom here on Earth no matter
what your beliefs have been. The gates are now
open to my Kingdom to all walks of life.
I am offering all of you change that you can
be a part of for you must be willing to change
to be a part of it. I am offering all of you new
hope and new faith; however, you must be will-
ing to walk away from the ways of the world.
You must be willing to follow instead of lead.
You must be willing to be servants instead of
slaves or masters. In my Kingdom everyone
and all things are servants to me and my Trust-
worthy And True Living Spirits, My Council
Of Elders, and you must be willing to serve
each other as well.
Every day and every night the governments,
corporations and political machines are plan-
ning who they will mold or shape to be the
next so-called leaders (misleaders really) so
they can continue to oppress and take advan-
tage of the people, nature and the environ-
ment, fooling themselves and some people into
thinking and believing that jobs, money, econ-
omy and control are more important than
anyone or anything.
The world now teaches that men and women
alike should be empowered. The Truth is all
things should empower my Trustworthy And
True Living Spirits, My Council of Elders, and
their names are:
Once again I ask you PLEASE DO NOT
ADD TO OR TAKE AWAY FROM THESE
"AWAKENING" MESSAGES IN ANY WAY. I
also ask you to feel free to translate these
"Awakening" messages as close as you can to
word-for-word to all languages and feel free to
share them anywhere and everywhere you
choose.
It is an honor and a pleasure to be your
humble servant and friend,
Most High
(The Trustworthy And True Living Spirit, The
Most High God)
For further information about Most High God,
contact Iona at 814-259-3680, ionaconner@
gmail.com; 21431 Marlin Circle, Shade Gap,
Pennsylvania 17255 or www.iLoveEarthNews.
com.
THE AWAKENING: Part VIII
LOVE
TRUTH
WISDOM
COUNSEL
UNDERSTANDING
KINDNESS
COMPASSION
PEACE
MODESTY
HUMILITY
INNOCENCE
FORGIVENESS
RIGHTEOUSNESS
PATIENCE
TOLERANCE
JUSTICE
FAIRNESS
JOY
CHARITY
GENEROSITY
HONOR
FRIENDSHIP
GIVING
RECEIVING
RESPONSIBILITY
SHARING
COMFORT
HONESTY
THANKS
TRUST
CONFIDENCE
HOPE
SECURITY
MERCY
CHIVALRY
RESPECT
GENTLENESS
GOODNESS
CHOICE...etc.
Call of the Sea. Artwork by Josephine Wall, www.josephinewall.co.uk.
Ancient Ocean Changes Are Warning Signs
By Bob Berwyn
Summit Voice: May 20, 2011
SUMMIT COUNTY After study-
ing prehistoric ocean sediments, a team
of researchers from Australia and the
UK concluded that increasing concen-
trations of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) in the
oceans will likely lead to massive die-
offs of marine life.
The fossil record pinpoints a mass
mortality in the oceans at a time when
the Earth was experiencing a green-
house effect. High levels of carbon diox-
ide in the atmosphere and rising tem-
peratures depleted oxygen in the oceans
and created large-scale changes in a very
short time span within just a few hun-
dred years.
That mass extinction of marine life in
the oceans during prehistoric times is a
warning that the same could happen again
due to high levels of greenhouse gases.
The study was conducted by profes-
sor Martin Kennedy from the University
of Adelaide (School of Earth & Environ-
mental Sciences) and professor Thomas
Wagner from Newcastle University, UK,
(Civil Engineering and Geosciences).
Professor Kennedy said that the dou-
bling of the amount of carbon dioxide in
our atmosphere over the past 50 years is
like hitting our ecosystem with a sledge-
hammer compared to the very small
changes in incoming solar energy (radi-
ation) that was capable of triggering
these events in the past.
Using core samples drilled from the
ocean bed off the coast of western Afri-
ca, the geologists studied layers of sedi-
ment from the Late Cretaceous Period
(85 million years ago) across a 400,000-
year timespan. They found a significant
amount of organic material marine life
buried within deoxygenated layers of
the sediment.
Wagner says the results of their
research, published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, has
relevance for our modern world.
We know that dead zones are rapidly
growing in size and number in seas and
oceans across the globe, he said. These
are areas of water that are lacking in oxy-
gen and are suffering from increases of
CO
2
, rising temperatures, nutrient run-
off from agriculture and other factors.
Whats alarming to us as scientists is
that there were only very slight natural
changes that resulted in the onset of
hypoxia in the deep ocean, said Profes-
sor Kennedy. This occurred relatively
rapidly in periods of hundreds of years
or possibly even less not gradually
over longer, geological time scales, sug-
gesting that the Earths oceans are in a
much more delicate balance during
greenhouse conditions than originally
thought and may respond in a more
abrupt fashion to even subtle changes in
temperature and CO
2
levels.
This could have a catastrophic, pro-
found impact on the sustainability of life
in our oceans, which in turn is likely to
impact on the sustainability of life for
many land-based species, including
humankind, he added.
However, the geological record offers
a glimmer of hope thanks to a naturally
occurring response to greenhouse con-
ditions. After a hypoxic phase, oxygen
concentration in the ocean seems to
improve and marine life returns.
This research has shown that natural
processes of carbon burial kick in and
the land comes to the rescue, with soil-
formed minerals collecting and burying
excess dissolved organic matter in sea-
water. Burial of the excess carbon ulti-
mately contributes to CO
2
removal from
the atmosphere, cooling the planet and
the ocean.
This is natures solution to the green-
house effect and it could offer a possible
solution for us, said Wagner. If we are
able to learn more about this effect and
its feedbacks, we may be able to manage
it and reduce the present rate of warm-
ing threatening our oceans.
Summit County Citizens Voice (www.
summitvoice.org is an independent
source for environmental news in Colo-
rado and the Rocky Mountains.
The geological record offers a glimmer of hope thanks to a naturally occurring response to greenhouse conditions.
After a hypoxic phase, oxygen concentration in the ocean seems to improve and marine life returns.