FRACKING: Shattered Ground

SATURDAY AUGUST 17 AT 5 PM ON CBC-TV

FRACKING:

“Fracking”, or Hydraulic Fracturing, is a new technology that has opened up immense resources of natural gas buried in deep shale beds. 

The process involves injection of highly-pressurized water, sand and chemicals to shatter underground layers of shale and extract previously inaccessible natural gas. 

But the process and its sudden spread across the North American landscape, has become an incredibly divisive issue, ripping apart communities and even families. The backlash to the gas industry is unprecedented, with some countries, Canadian provinces and American states adopting fracking bans and moratoriums.


As SHATTERED GROUND reveals, some see fracking as a great opportunity for money and jobs, and one that provides cheap, clean fuel. But, for others, the possible human health costs of this new drilling technology have motivated a large and vociferous anti-fracking movement.

The debate over fracking has been echoed in the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland and inPromised Land, the new Gus van Sant’s feature film starring Matt Damon. Fracking’s critics consider the industry a potential environmental disaster, citing chemical contamination of air and water. With pipelines proposed, terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) requiring billions of dollars of investment, and huge shale beds lying underneath highly-populated areas of the Canada and the US (including southern Ontario and the GTA), fracking is an issue that could affect every one of us.

Must there be a choice between health and wealth, or is it possible to find a balance? The gulf between proponents and opponents appears so wide, it’s difficult to find common ground. 

Travelling from the northern gas fields in Canada to the rancorous political battles and hot beds of shale gas activity in the US, SHATTERED GROUND looks at the people who benefit, and those who do not. The film gathers the new scientific data that is only now beginning to clarify a complex issue, and the health risks involved.

With fracking’s gigantic appetite for water – water permanently removed from the eco-system – what’s at stake may not just be about our supply of natural gas but the one resource none of us can live without: fresh water.

“Fracking is one of the ‘hot button’ issues of our time”, says SHATTERED GROUND director Leif Kaldor. “There are very strong opinions on both sides of the issue, and very little middle ground. We felt there was a need for a film that would give people a clear understanding of the process, the latest science, and how fracking is playing out on the ground, so they’d be better able to make up their own minds.”

SHATTERED GROUND is directed by Leif Kaldor, produced by Leslea Mair, and written by Leslea Mair and Leif Kaldor for Zoot Pictures in association with CBC-TV's The Nature of Things.

 

  

SOURCE:  http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/shattered-ground.html

Wild Koala seeking shelter from extreme heat shown kindness (PHOTOS) » DogHeirs | Where Dogs Are Family « Keywords: koala, heat, Australia

When a Koala needed refuge from the extreme heat, a family showed the wild animal some kindness after it wandered into their home. The following photos from Imgur were captioned as follows: "120°F (about 49°C). A Koala entered someone’s house, looking for water and shade, and here’s what happened when the owner gave him something to drink."





Read more at http://www.dogheirs.com/misst/posts/3764-wild-koala-seeking-shelter-from-extreme-heat-shown-kindness-photos#SODwdJf5WwxbX8YB.99

Wild Koala seeking shelter from extreme heat shown kindness (PHOTOS) »

Link: http://www.dogheirs.com/misst/posts/3764-wild-koala-seeking-shelter-from-extreme-heat-shown-kindness-photos

Threats to Sharks Destabilize Entire Ecosystems

Image: Flickr/Willy Volk





If sharks disappeared from seas, what would be so terrible, you ask? 

Here's what: 

Threats to Sharks Destabilize Entire Ecosystems

Fear of tiger sharks, for instance, helps protect seagrass from being over-grazed, which in turns pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere and provides a habitat for fish and shellfish

By Michael Heithaus and Inside Science Minds Guest Columnist

(ISM) -- Throughout most of the world sharks are in trouble. Big trouble. In some areas, with adequate management, shark populations have stabilized, but likely at levels far below what they were decades ago. In the rest of the world, shark fishing continues to be a major threat to many species. 

Recent estimates suggest that around 100 million sharks are taken by fisheries every year. 

Because of their slow growth – sharks may take a decade or more to reach maturity – and low rate of reproduction – many species have fewer than a dozen young a year – this rate of catches is unsustainable. The decline of sharks will continue.

Why should we care? What will that mean for the oceans and even for fisheries targeting species other than sharks? We know from studies on land that when large predators are removed, entire ecosystems can be destabilized. That can be bad for animals and people. If similar things happen in the oceans, we not only need to think about halting declines of sharks, we will probably need to find ways to rebuild their numbers.

The attention that the Discovery Channel's Shark Week brings to these animals is great, but that attention needs to extend beyond the first week of August for these predators and the places they live to recover and eventually thrive.

For the past fifteen years, my colleagues and I have been trying to figure out how important tiger sharks are in the aptly named Shark Bay, Western Australia. Why travel halfway around the world? Quite simply, to study sharks in a place where their ecosystem is relatively untouched. Also, because Shark Bay features some of the world’s largest seagrass beds. Seagrass is important because it provides a habitat that supports populations of fish and shellfish that people rely on. It also helps to combat climate change by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. By working in Shark Bay we can understand the role of sharks and what might happen to Shark Bay and its seagrass if tiger sharks were to disappear. It also lets us predict what might happen in other places where sharks have been overfished.

In Shark Bay, we have worked not only on sharks, but on their prey — including dolphins, sea turtles and sea cows — as well as the wider ecosystem. Our findings demonstrate that tiger sharks are critical to the Shark Bay ecosystem. But not in the way you might think. It turns out that the fear of sharks – by the sea cows and sea turtles that eat the seagrass – helps protect the seagrass from being over-grazed.  

Here is how it works: Tiger sharks like to hunt in shallow waters in the bay; a perfect place for seagrass to grow. To avoid becoming a shark snack, turtles and sea cows generally avoid these areas. The seagrass can grow into a lush habitat that provides shelter for small fish and shellfish that will grow up into species people want to catch. In areas that sharks don’t frequent, seagrass is heavily grazed and does not support big populations of fish and shellfish. That means that if we were to lose tiger sharks from the bay, the seagrass likely would be grazed down all over.

The loss of seagrass would be bad news for fish and fishermen – and maybe even for turtles and sea cows! It also could result in the loss of a large amount of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere that would no longer be stored by seagrasses. There is evidence that the loss of sharks is hurting seagrass in some places. 

In Bermuda and the Indian Ocean, where shark populations have declined, increasing populations of sea turtles are causing entire seagrass beds to virtually disappear. And it isn’t just in seagrass ecosystems where sharks are important. Recent studies point to the possibility that healthy coral reefs need sharks, too.

Threats to Sharks Destabilize Entire Ecosystems: Scientific American

Link: http://ht.ly/nJqRF

Amazing Video: Wild video shows the desert coming alive at night

San Diego, California News Station - KFMB Channel 8 - cbs8.com

Video, Desert At Night, Desert At Night Video, Desert Comes Alive, Desert Hidden Camera,Green News, Ocotillo Wells Desert, Ocotillo Wells Desert At Night, San Diego Desert, Desert, Green News

By day, the hot sands of Southern California's Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area are inhabited mostly by human visitors, who take advantage of the region's wide open spaces to ride all-terrain vehicles.

But by night, the desert comes alive with a diverse collection of animals, as revealed by a hidden motion-activated camera recently set up by park officials.

"What we were able to do was take those over 600 pics, stitch them together into a time lapse and put three days in just two minutes," park official Jeff Price told CBS 8.

The camera was positioned near a tiny watering hole, according to the station, a welcome and essential respite for the furry and feathered residents of the massive Ocotillo Wells state Vehicular Recreation Area, outside San Diego.

"The big players out here are of course the coyotes," park official Kevin Ponce told the station. The coyotes are followed by badgers, foxes, rabbits and even a road runner or two.

Officials said they set up the camera to raise awareness of all the life that's out in the desert they would normally not be able to see. "It's not just a deserted wasteland," Price noted. "A lot of life thrives."

Ocotillo Wells has made protecting its sensitive habitats a priority, according to the California State Parks website. Important areas known as mesquite dune habitats "occur sporadically" in the park, the site notes, and many natural springs are also fenced off by officials.

But the region has also faced criticism from environmentalists frustrated with human intrusions. Earlier this year, a pair of desert environmental groups filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court in an effort to curtail the freedoms enjoyed by the park's off-roading visitors, according to U-T San Diego.

Amazing Video: Wild video shows the desert coming alive at night