http://truth-out.org/news/item/23097-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-more-than-100-scientists-and-economists-called-on-the-obama-administration-to-reject-keystone-xl-and-more
[video in on-line article]
On the News With Thom Hartmann:
More Than 100 Scientists and Economists Called on the Obama
Administration to Reject Keystone XL, and More
Monday, 14 April 2014 15:10
By Thom Hartmann, The Thom Hartmann Program | Video Report
TRANSCRIPT:
Thom Hartmann here - on the best of the rest of....science & green news.....
You need to know this. The experts agree – President Obama and Secretary
of State John Kerry should say "No" to Keystone XL. Last week, more than
100 scientists and economists signed on to a letter calling on the
administration to reject the tar sands pipeline. Those experts include
the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
report, and Nobel Prize winners in physics and economics. They wrote,
"We urge you to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline as a
project that will contribute to climate change at a time when we should
be doing all we can to put clean energy alternatives in place." They
added, "Keystone XL is a step in the wrong direction." These experts
explained that the pipeline will increase global carbon emissions, and
worsen the climate change crisis that we face. This letter came just one
week after 200 business leaders also called on President Obama and
Secretary Kerry to reject the pipeline, saying Keystone would be a bad
business investment. And, these calls echo the two million comments that
the State Department received against Keystone XL. Scientists,
economists, business leaders, and the general public have all demanded
that the Obama administration says "No" to this toxic tar sands
pipeline. Keystone XL would allow a foreign company to hijack American
land, leave us with their waste and pollution, and export their sludge
to the global market. The only ones who will benefit from Keystone are
the Oil Lobby and their billionaire investors. Our future is now in the
hands of President Obama and Secretary Kerry, and we must demand that
they listen to the experts, and say "No" to Keystone XL.
Vermont says that residents have a right to know what's in their food.
Last Thursday, the State Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved
a GMO labeling bill, and that legislation only has a few legal hurdles
before becoming law. Vermont House Bill 112 already passed the state
House in May of 2013, and it would go into effect in 2016 if the full
state Senate and Governor approve of the final version. Although similar
laws have been passed in Maine and Connecticut, those provisions are
dependent on other states enacting labeling requirements. But, Vermont
won't wait on surrounding states before protecting people's right to
know what's in their food, and state lawmakers say they'll be proud to
be the first to enact GMO-labeling requirements. The Vermont law
provides time for food producers to adopt the new labels, and it
includes a legal fund to defend these requirements in the event of a
lawsuit. Once again, Vermont is leading the nation by enacting laws to
protect its residents, and hopefully, more states will be brave enough
to follow their lead.
It's only April, and Oklahoma has already had more than 100 earthquakes.
And, residents and officials say that these quakes are a direct result
of oil and gas activity. Last year, state regulators shut down one drill
site and curtailed operations at another after a series of earthquakes
in that area. However, this year, there have been so many seismic
events, that regulators are overwhelmed with trying to link the events
to specific fracking sites. A research seismologist with the Oklahoma
Geological Survey, Austin Holland, said, "We certainly likely have cases
of earthquakes being caused by different oil and gas activity, [but]
evaluating those carefully can take significant amounts of time,
especially when we're swamped." Between 2000 and 2011, earthquakes have
increased six-fold in the central United State, and the US Geological
Society says that increase is linked to gas and oil drilling. We already
know that fossil fuel extraction threatens our land, our air, and our
water supply, and there is now plenty of evidence to show that Big Oil
is also responsible for these earthquakes. How much more evidence do we
need before we finally end our addiction to gas and oil?
About one year after the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power
plant, officials in Canada announced that they would stop testing
seafood for radiation. However, one Canadian tenth grader says that
imported seafood is still testing way above so-called safe levels. The
Canadian Food Inspection Agency admits that it found more than 200
seafood samples contaminated with radiation in 2011 and 2012, but they
said those samples were "found to be below Health Canada's actionable
levels for radiation." As many experts predicted that it would take
three years from the 2011 accident for the radiation plume to reach the
North American West Coast, it appears that officials stopped testing
before the bulk of the radiation even arrived. Using a $600 Geiger
counter, Bronwyn Delacruz, a tenth-grader in Alberta, documented levels
up to 1,800 counts per 10-minutes in kelp and seaweed – well above the
level that International Atomic Energy Agency considers safe. Her
amazing work was rewarded with gold honors at the regional science fair,
and it has sparked concern over the lack of government testing in Canada
and the US. Various independent studies have found Fukushima-related
radiation in seafood throughout North America, and it should be our
government – not a high school student – providing the public with this
important information.
And finally... Last month, our government quietly made a big investment
in clean energy. As part of a contract for the Illinois Department of
Transportation, the US just committed $225 million dollars to purchase
new hybrid electric trains. Although that number may sound astronomical,
the trains only cost about a million dollars more than regular trains.
However, they'll save us a ton on fuel costs, and create more American
jobs. The trains will be manufactured by Cummins in Columbus, Indiana,
and they will run through Washington, Michigan, Missouri, and
California. Similar trains have reduced carbon emissions and energy use
by 25 percent in Germany, and that spells big savings here in the US.
Although we need to go further in the fight against climate change,
these trains are a great step towards a cleaner, greener future.
And that's the way it is for the week of April 14, 2014 - I'm Thom
Hartmann, on Science & Green News.
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