An interesting blog: Robert Stavins, An Economic View of the Environment.
Prof. Stavins is a member of the Core Writing Team behind the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s (IPCC) Synthesis Report. (See also the Summary for Policy Makers of the Synthesis Report.)
Step 1 in the battle to curb global warning: Educate people on the difference between weather and climate.
No, not fracking per se. The Tennessee Gas Pipeline is on its way to Dracut (by way of Groton and other towns along the Rt.2 corridor). It originates in Louisiana. Rumor has it that it will also transport fracked natural gas from New York state. Something to keep our eye on. Here’s what’s posted on the Groton town website:
Tennessee Gas Pipeline
What is it?
The Tennessee Gas Pipeline is a project by company Kinder Morgan to run a natural gas pipeline along the northern spine of Massachusetts ultimately connecting to existing infrastructure near Dracut, MA. The pipeline extends all the way from Louisiana some 13,900 miles facilitating natural gas distribution to those along its path.How will it affect Groton?Groton is home to hundreds of acres of conservation land, many of them, fought tirelessly for and actively to monitor for encroachment and abuse. The indiscriminate running of a pipeline through any part of our precious lands goes against the hard work of our Land Use department and the Conservation Commission. Homeowners in the vicinity of the line also will be disturbed by the construction itself and its lasting ecological, property, and aesthetic impacts.As a resident, what can I do?If you are upset by the impending pipeline project the best thing you can do is contact your representatives in congress. The Nashua River Watershed Association (NRWA) has already written to the Attorney General voicing their concern about the project and its effects, their letter is viewable in the documents on the right-hand side of the page. The Nashoba Conservation Trust also has a page where you can find more information about the project and where it stands.
UPDATE 11/7/2014: From the Lowell Sun, Hearings postponed on natural-gas pipeline as company unveils possible alternate routes
From Dougald Hine, What do you do, after you stop pretending?:
‘Changing the world’ has become an anachronism: the world is changing so fast, the best we can do is to become a little more observant, more agile, better able to move with it or to spot the places where a subtle shift may set something on a less-worse course than it was on. And you know, that’s OK – because what makes life worth living was never striving for, let alone reaching, utopias.
There’s a big difference between the task of trying to sustain “civilisation” in its current form … which is what “sustainability” has largely come to mean, and the task of holding open a space for the things which make life worth living. I’d suggest that it’s this second task, in its many forms, which remains, after we’ve given up on false hopes.