Elizabeth Shogren

College Divestment Campaigns Creating Passionate Environmentalists

Elizabeth Shogren — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:16:00 +0000

At about 300 colleges across the country, young activists worried about climate change are borrowing a strategy that students successfully used in decades past. In the 1980s, students enraged about South Africa's racist Apartheid regime got their schools to drop stocks in companies that did business with that government. In the 1990s, students pressured their schools to divest Big Tobacco.

This time, the student activists are targeting a mainstay of the economy: large oil and coal companies.

So far only a few small colleges have opted to drop investments in fossil fuel companies.

EPA: Tar Sands Pipelines Should Be Held To Different Standards

Elizabeth Shogren — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:59:15 +0000

Up until now, pipelines that carry tar sands oil have been treated just like pipelines that carry any other oil. But the Environmental Protection Agency now says that should change.

Lionfish Attack The Gulf Of Mexico Like A Living Oil Spill

Elizabeth Shogren — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 06:56:00 +0000

A gluttonous predator is power-eating its way through reefs from New York to Venezuela. It's the lionfish.

And although researchers are coming up with new ways to protect some reefs from the flamboyant maroon-striped fish, they have no hope of stopping its unparalleled invasion.

Lad Akins has scuba dived in the vibrant reefs of the Bahamas for many years.

Arkansas Oil Spill Sheds Light On Aging Pipeline System

Elizabeth Shogren — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:21:00 +0000

Amber Bartlett was waiting last Friday for her kids to come home from school. One of them called from the entrance to the upscale subdivision near Little Rock, Ark., to tell her the community was being evacuated because of an oil spill. Bartlett was amazed by what she saw out her front door.

"I mean, just rolling oil. I mean, it was like a river," she says.

Environmentalists, Drillers Reach 'Truce' For Fracking Standards

Elizabeth Shogren — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:41:14 +0000

A group of environmentalists and drilling companies has crafted a truce of sorts over the rapid spread of natural gas production in the Appalachian Basin. Four major drilling companies and several environmental groups have agreed on 15 voluntary standards for cleaner drilling practices.

The practices of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — when companies inject water laced with chemicals deep underground to split open rock formations and get the gas to flow faster — are transforming the rural region in the Eastern U.S.

After Keystone Review, Environmentalists Vow To Continue Fight

Elizabeth Shogren — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:57:32 +0000

Environmentalists have a hope.

If they can block the Keystone XL pipeline, they can keep Canada from developing more of its dirty tar sands oil.

Protesters Call On Obama To Reject Keystone XL Pipeline

Elizabeth Shogren — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:37:00 +0000

Tens of thousands of protesters turned out on the National Mall Sunday to encourage President Obama to make good on his commitment to act on climate change.

In his Inaugural address from outside the U.S. Capitol, the president said: "We will respond to the threat of climate change knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."

Just a few weeks later, next to the Washington Monument, Paul Birkeland was one of a couple dozen people holding a long white tube above their heads.

"It's a backbone. It's a spine.

In Second Inaugural, Obama Makes Climate A Priority

Elizabeth Shogren — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:52:00 +0000

President Obama pulled out a surprise in his inaugural address on Monday. After barely mentioning climate change in his campaign, he put it on his short list of priorities for his second term.

"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," he said.

Understanding Climate Change, With Help From Thoreau

Elizabeth Shogren — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:43:00 +0000

Modern scientists trying to understand climate change are engaged in an unlikely collaboration — with two beloved but long-dead nature writers: Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold.

The authors of Walden and A Sand County Almanac and last spring's bizarrely warm weather have helped today's scientists understand that the first flowers of spring can continue to bloom earlier, as temperatures rise to unprecedented levels.

"If you take the old historical records of Thoreau and Aldo Leopold and use those to sort of predict when plants will be flowering in an astonishingly warm

Coal Loses Crown As King Of Power Generation

Elizabeth Shogren — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:21:00 +0000

Just a few years ago, Georgia Power generated nearly three-fourths of its electricity with coal. Last year, for the first time, natural gas edged out coal, and just this week the company announced plans to close 10 coal-fired power generators within the next few years.

"We do recognize this is a historic event for our company. We've never announced this many closings at one time," says Mark Williams, a company spokesperson.

If all goes as planned, within a few years only a third of the company's power plants will run on coal. The company has already built three new natural gas plants.