Another major US study: No evidence of groundwater contamination from fracking

Another major U.S. study shows no evidence of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing:

Hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract natural gas has no direct connection to reports of groundwater contamination, based on evidence reviewed in a study released Thursday by the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.

The University of Texas study, "Separating Facts from Fiction in Shale Gas Development", which can be downloaded here, should be read by all those - including quite a few European politicians -who have been misinformed by people behind the anti-shale gas propaganda "documentary" Gasland and other fake environmentalists.

Eleven internationally famous vocalists

On a Friday evening, maybe it is OK to relax with a little night music, performed by eleven soloists of international - but maybe not vocal - fame. Enjoy!

EU´s überwarmist Hedegaard blames global warming for the eurozone crisis

In an interview the EU`s überwarmist, former Danish journalist Connie Hedegaard, has repeated the old leftist slogan about western "overconsumtion" and the need to change "the current damaging model of economic growth", "forever". (By the way, Hedegaard is - or is supposed to be - a conservative back home in Denmark!).

What makes the interview interesting, however, is the way Hedegaard, at least indirectly, blames global warming/climate change for the eurozone crisis. The media are full of "studies" and reports about global warming causing countless catastrophic events all over the world, but this is probably the first time a leading European politician/unelected eurocrat blames global warming for the Eurozone mess!

This is what Hedegaard had to say:

The world must use a landmark environmental summit this year to change forever the current damaging model of economic growth, Europe's climate chief has warned, or face future crises as severe as the one currently enveloping the eurozone.
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"This has a lot of relevance to the euro crisis," said Hedegaard. "We're trying to make it clear that the climate change crisis is an economic crisis, a social and a job crisis – it should be seen as a whole. If we do not tackle these, we will be in crisis mode for many, many years."

Read the entire article here

PS

With regard to Greece, the EU is in a strange way actually heeding Mrs. Hedegaard´s advice, by forcing the poor Greek people to cut their "overconsumtion". Impoverished and jobless Greeks are thus model citizens of Connie Hedegaard´s Brave New Europe. However, it is less than certain that the Greeks themselves are enjoying themselves in this role.

"Herman for President"

The Belgian haiku poet Herman Van Rompuy is set get another 2 1/2 years term as unelected "President" of the European Union. According to an anonymous EU official Van Rompuy will be re-appointed at the meeting of EU leaders next week, reports the AP news agency.

As the EU president is not popularly elected, Haiku Herman - as the president is nicknamed - has only campaigned very moderately for the extension of his term. Just to be certain about his re-election he is, however, rumoured to have re-distributed his original campaign video from 2009 to the EU heads of state and government:

PS

Here is one of Van Rompuy´s most famous haiku poems:

Birds in concert.

One sings above all others.

I don't know its name.


Maybe the poet is less than honest here. Certainly he must know the name of the German chancellor! 

The Russian Orthodox Church openly supports Putin´s megalomaniac rearmament programme

Russia´s ruler Vladimir Putin has announced a huge military build-up:

"Within the next decade, the armed forces will receive more than 400 modern ground- and sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, eight ballistic missile submarines, about 20 general purpose attack submarines, over 50 surface ships and some 100 military-purpose spacecraft," Putin wrote in a new article for the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government daily.

He said the number will also include "over 600 modern aircraft, including fifth-generation fighters, more than a thousand helicopters, 28 regimental sets of S-400 (SA-21 Growler) surface-to-air missile systems, 38 division sets of Vityaz air defense systems, 10 brigade sets of Iskander-M (SS-26 Stone) tactical missile systems, more than 2,300 modern tanks, some 2,000 self-propelled artillery systems and guns, as well as more than 17,000 military vehicles".


At the same poverty in Russia grows faster than expected:

The number of impoverished people in Russia has increased by 2.3 million and made up 22.9 million in one year, the Russian Federal Statistics Agency said. Many experts believe that official statistics does not reflect the real state of affairs and is very often undervalued. Therefore, it means that the number of the poor in the country grows much faster.


One would think that the Russian Orthodox Church is worried about the fast growing poverty in the country. That does not seem to be the case, however. Instead the church, upholding its traditonal policy of co-operation with the KGB and the Soviet establishment, is openly supporting Vladimir Putin´s megalomaniac rearmament programme, and it even promises to participate in a planned programme of military training in schools!

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the church's department for relations with society, who has openly welcomed the prospect of Putin returning to the Kremlin, had this to say about the new rearmament programme:


The Russian Orthodox Church says it fully supports Vladimir Putin’s initiatives on military reform and also rejects the allegations that the church is an intrinsically pacifist organization.

The cleric also highly valued the part of the article where Putin suggested more attention be paid to military and patriotic training in schools and, being a Church representative, expressed the readiness to take part in this process.

Chaplin also pointed out that in his article Putin gave the correct assessment of the current international situation and the challenges that Russia is facing.
“One cannot but agree with words that the instability zones are currently appearing in the world,the zones of artificially heated and controlled chaos and one can observe targeted attempts to create such zones near Russia’s borders and the borders of our allies,” Chaplin noted.

Greenies tweeting on a rooftop in London

The BBC reports about the latest Greenpeace stunt in London today:

Up to eight activists from environmental protest group Greenpeace climbed on to the roof of the National Gallery in London.

The campaigners said they were protesting against oil firm Shell's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.

They unfurled a 40m (131ft) long banner from the roof bearing the picture of an oil rig and reading 'It's No Oil Painting'.

Scotland Yard said the protesters came down from the building at 20:15 GMT.

No arrests were made.

Greenpeace itself describes what took place on its website:

So our climbers have made sure that guests at the National Gallery are met with an unexpected picture when they arrive; a short while ago, they evaded security and are preparing to unfurl a huge banner with the words “It’s no oil painting”.  Our climber Hannah is tweeting from the rooftop using the hashtag #SaveTheArctic.
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"No arrests were made". One sort of wonders what would have happened if some ordinary people would have done the same thing and started tweeting from the rooftop of the National Gallery?

"The Not-So-Wast Conspiracy"

The Wall Street Journal puts the (at least partly fake) Heartland Institute documents stolen by Dr. Peter Gleick in perspective:

Given the coverage the story has generated, you'd think some vast conspiracy had been uncovered. Heartland is, according to the Associated Press, "one of the loudest voices denying human-caused global warming, hosting the largest international scientific conference of skeptics on climate change." The Vancouver Sun reports that it is "heavily funded by right-wing industrialist Charles Koch," while the Virginian-Pilot dubs it "the ideological center of the denial movement."

So how flush is Heartland? The documents show the group is expecting revenues of $7.7 million this year, mostly from private donations and grants. Mr. Koch's "heavy" funding came to $25,000 in 2011, though the Heartland "Fundraising Plan" has it hoping for an increase in 2012. To put those numbers in not-for-profit perspective, last year the Natural Resources Defense Council reported $95.4 million in operating revenues, while the World Wildlife Fund took in $238.5 million.

Press coverage has focused in particular on Heartland's plans to produce and distribute "educational material suitable for K-12 students on global warming that isn't alarmist or overtly political." Heartland is budgeting $200,000 this year for the effort, which in the past has "had only limited success," per one of the documents. Little wonder if teachers aren't returning Heartland's calls: Last year the World Wildlife Fund spent $68.5 million on "public education" alone.

As for "the largest international scientific conference of skeptics," Heartland will, according to the documents, spend all of $388,000 this year on the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. That's against the $6.5 million that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change costs Western taxpayers annually, and the $2.6 billion the White House wants to spend next year on research into "the global changes that have resulted primarily from global over-dependence on fossil fuels."

In the pages of Rolling Stone last summer, Al Gore warned of the "Polluters and Ideologues [sic] . . . . spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on misleading advertisements in the mass media." He had the wrong spenders.

Read the entire article here

PS

The fraud and theft committed by Dr. Gleick will almost certainly lead to a sharp increase of private donations to the Heartland Institute. This would of course be very welcome, as the institute does an excellent job when one considers its very modest financial resources.