To Cut Climate Money, First GOP Must Find Where Obama Stashed It

via Climate Change Dispatch
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President Donald Trump will find the job of reining in spending on climate initiatives made harder by an Obama-era policy of dispersing billions of dollars in programs across dozens of agencies — in part so they couldn’t easily be cut. There is no single list of those programs or their cost, because President Barack Obama […]

via Climate Change Dispatch http://ift.tt/2jXMFWN

March 15, 2017 at 12:27AM

Sounding off on Noise

via Current News – Principia Scientific International
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Environmental psychologist Arline L. Bronzaft, PhD, is professor emerita of psychology at Lehman College, City University of New York, and an expert witness in court cases and government hearings on the impact of noise on mental and physical well-being. She spoke with us about the detriments of noise on everything from our physiology to children’s learning.

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via Current News – Principia Scientific International http://ift.tt/1kjWLPW

March 14, 2017 at 11:36PM

DDT: A Case Study in Scientific Fraud

via Current News – Principia Scientific International
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ABSTRACT: The chemical compound that has saved more human lives than any other in history, DDT, was banned by order of one man, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Public pressure was generated by one popular book and sustained by faulty or fraudulent research.
Widely believed claims of carcinogenicity, toxicity to birds, anti-androgenic properties, and prolonged…

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via Current News – Principia Scientific International http://ift.tt/1kjWLPW

March 14, 2017 at 11:24PM

Investors Beware: Wind Farms Risk Being Sued By Rural Communities

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

Big investors in wind farms are risking their shirts by investing in wind farms in Ireland. In a recent High Court case, Enercon Wind Farm Services Ireland Ltd., admitted liability for nuisance to seven families who left their homes due to excessive noise from wind turbines. Damages and costs, expected to run into millions,will be decided in April. Many more cases are likely to follow.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has known since 2015 that the minimum setback distance of a turbine from a house, required to protect human health from noise, is far greater than that currently recommended. This information, which emerged from an Access to Environmental Information enquiry, was kept under departmental wraps and publication of updated planning guidelines promised by Minister Naughten within 6 months of this government’s formation have been repeatedly postponed.
 
This information is now in the public domain. The State, by allowing continued development of wind farms, is risking costly legal actions against it. In addition, local councils and individual wind farm companies will face similar cases. Rural communities have had enough.
 
International financiers will attend the Global Sustainable Capital Forum in Dublin Castle tomorrow at Dublin Castle. Sustainable Nation Ireland will promote investment in projects including massive industrial wind farms firmly opposed by communities across Ireland.
 
Claiming to be “guided by responsible and sustainable investment principles” these financiers will channel money into projects that are contravening European and Irish legal requirements for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and cost benefit analysis (CBA). More worryingly, they will support the roll out of industrial wind farms without updated planning regulation that are causing families to leave their homes in rural Ireland.

Wind Aware Ireland, 15 March 2017

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

March 14, 2017 at 10:53PM