China plans Asia's biggest coal-fired power plant China's Shenhua Group will build the largest coal-fired power station in Asia over the next five years, the official Xinhua news agency said Tuesday, as the country struggles to meet its energy needs. China's biggest coal company and officials in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region signed a deal for the 8-gigawatt thermal plant on Monday, according to Xinhua and the local government's website. The plant would be built in the southern port city of Beihai to help ease power shortages caused by drought, which has strained power supplies. China relies on coal for nearly 70 percent of its energy needs, which have soared in recent years as the country's economy grew at a blistering pace. Power outages and rationing have been imposed in 17 provinces this year and shortages could worsen if coal supplies are not increased or if the country's north sees particularly harsh winter weather. China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter with many of its cities cloaked in a polluted haze.
Rumeurs sur la planète X ou Nibiru Rumeurs sur la planète X ou Nibiru LA 12ème PLANÈTE SELON VELIKOVSKY Immanuel Velikovsky était un génie du niveau d'Einstein, et c’est un fait dont font rarement mention ses détracteurs. Lui et Einstein étaient des Enfants des Étoiles, et ils étaient amis, des amis qui se confrontaient amicalement dans ces sortes de débats dans lesquels seuls deux génies peuvent se mesurer. La mission de Velikovsky était de pousser l'humanité à réfléchir aux cataclysmes périodiques qui ont si tragiquement laissés leurs marques sur Terre et dans l'histoire de l'Homme. Des montagnes qui de toute évidence s’élevèrent dans les cieux sous l’effet d’une pression extrême, les ruines de grandes civilisations qui n'avaient aucune raison de disparaître, des carcasses de dinosaures apparemment sains et qui furent rapidement congelés sans cause de mort apparente - autant de preuves indubitables dont on n’a su que faire. SITCHIN & LA 12ème PLANÈTE Cependant, on voit encore de nos jour cette variété de comportement.
Time to get corporate cash out of Congress | Bill McKibben I'm aware that the usual recipe for political effectiveness is just the opposite: to be cynical, calculating, an insider. But if you think, as I do, that we need deep change in this country, then cynicism is a sucker's bet. Try as hard as you can, you're never going to be as cynical as the corporations and the harem of politicians they pay for. It's like trying to out-chant a Buddhist monastery. Here's my case in point, one of a thousand stories people working for social change could tell: all last fall, most of the environmental movement, including 350.org, the group I helped found, waged a fight against the planned Keystone XL pipeline that would bring some of the dirtiest energy on the planet from Canada through the US to the Gulf Coast. And what do you know? A few weeks later, however, Congress decided it wanted to take up the question. That was an obvious pre-election year attempt to put the president on the spot. Buying Congress And that's for a pair of socks. Whose Money?
L'épopée de Gilgamesh Pipeline fight spurs lobby frenzy WASHINGTON — This year's fight over the Keystone XL pipeline has produced a lobbying gusher in the nation's capital. At least two dozen companies and organizations have officially reported lobbying the federal government for or against approval of the pipeline. The list includes oil companies, labor unions, environmental groups — even John Deere, a company best known for making tractors. The number of organizations lobbying on the pipeline reflects how the Keystone project has become a battle royal involving a wide array of groups. It also shows the high stakes involved with the $7 billion project that would ship tar-sand oil from western Canada to oil refineries on the U.S. The intense lobbying over the pipeline is the inevitable result of environmental groups elevating it into a national fight, said Rep. "The frenzy of lobbying increases as there's more national attention," he said. TransCanada spent $790,000 on federal lobbying just through the first half of 2011. Contact the writer:
Nuclear miscalculation: Why regulators miss power plant threats from quakes and storms How well are nuclear plants near you prepared for disaster? Look it up here The earthquake that shut down a Virginia nuclear power plant on Aug. 23, cracking floor tiles, a containment building, and shifting highly radioactive spent fuel storage casks, was more than twice as strong as the reactors were designed to withstand. Hurricane Irene also struck with unexpected intensity, threatening nuclear plants along the East Coast and shutting down a Maryland reactor after metal siding blew into high-power lines on a transformer. Earlier this year, other events considered improbable shook supposedly unshakeable nuclear plants: Japan’s quake and tsunami, unleashing disaster at Fukushima, historic floods along the Missouri River, unusually destructive tornadoes spinning through the South. Repeatedly, unanticipated events have tested nuclear power plants in new ways — and challenged the assumptions of those who operate them and oversee them for safety. Nobody knows for sure. The problem?
Cargill likes salmonella-tainted turkey so much, they produced it twice in two months Is Cargill switching production to all tainted turkey all the time? We'd think the market for that wasn't big, but only a month after issuing a massive recall for salmonella-tainted turkey (associated with at least one death), the food giant is … issuing a massive recall for salmonella-tainted turkey. You guys, I think … I think it's a glitch in the Matrix! Cargill implemented safety "improvements" after the last debacle, including the appetizing-sounding "antibacterial washes" (not clear if they're "washing" the equipment or the turkey and it's probably best not to ask). Turns out, though, the antibiotic-resistant salmonella strain that caused the outbreak managed to resist Cargill's safety upgrades. Apparently it only took a week for the plant to start pumping out tainted turkey.
Grizzly bear killed after breaking into Whitefish chicken coop, eating pet food WHITEFISH - State wildlife biologists captured and killed a 4-year-old male grizzly bear here Wednesday night after the bear ate pet food, raided a chicken coop and damaged property. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear management specialist Tim Manley said the 370-pound bear had a history of causing problems in the area and was previously trapped and removed. Wildlife officials first captured the bear in early August at Trumbull Creek and fit it with a radio collar before relocating it in the Frozen Lake area near the Canadian border. Residents stopped complaining about the bear until about four days ago, when callers reported seeing the bear in the yards of residences in Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Using radio tracking equipment, Manley realized the grizzly had returned. It was trapped Wednesday near Haskill Basin north of Whitefish, where it found its way into cat and dog food, and broke into a chicken coop and killed chickens.
Obama waives sanctions on Iceland whaling By Agence France-PresseThursday, September 15, 2011 20:36 EDT WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama decided Thursday not to impose trade sanctions against Iceland, despite saying that its whale hunts were undermining international efforts to preserve the ocean giants. Obama chose to order the State Department and Commerce Department to keep Iceland’s whaling activities under review and to urge the government in Reykjavik to halt the practice. “Iceland’s actions threaten the conservation status of an endangered species and undermine multilateral efforts to ensure greater worldwide protection for whales,” said Obama in a message to Congress. “Iceland’s increased commercial whaling and recent trade in whale products diminish the effectiveness of the (International Whaling Commission) conservation program.” The International Whaling Commission imposed a global moratorium on whaling in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals. Agence France-Presse
Green Businesses and Cut-Throat Economies A report at the Atlantic Wire on the growing scandal surrounding Solyndra begins, “On Wednesday, the bankruptcy of a solar power company in California with political ties to the Obama Administration appeared to be a story about the difficulties of nurturing green businesses in a cutthroat economy.” Can someone show me where the Constitution authorizes the federal government to “nurture green businesses in a cutthroat economy?” When is the free market not cut-throat? That’s a feature, not a bug. Of course, the point of all this is to use compulsive force to make American taxpayers “invest” in politically favored projects, which by definition can’t succeed in that “cutthroat” free market, because nobody wants their products enough to buy them at a profit. Political pressure was used to shovel tax money into a patently absurd “business model” at Solyndra, explained by solar industry analyst Peter Lynch as follows: “It costs them $6 to make a unit. Precisely!
24 Hours of Reality: Al Gore's Global Warming Broadcast to 'Convert' Skeptics 24 Hours of Reality will broadcast a presentation by Gore every hour for 24 hours across 24 time zones from Wednesday to Thursday, Reuters reported. 24 Hours of Reality will focus the world's attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis. To remove the doubt. Reveal the deniers. Gore also aims to spread his message through social media and has asked people to hand over control of their social networking accounts on Facebook and Twitter for the campaign for 24 hours to deliver the message. There will be 200 new slides arguing the connection between more extreme weather and climate change, Trewin Restorick, chief executive of the event's UK partner Global Action Plan, told Reuters on Monday. Gore's earlier attempt to garner support was through the 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, which earned $49 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the U.S.