This week, bloggers look at whoâs making decisions about coal:
- At Gristmill (home of David âcoal is the enemy of the human raceâ Roberts), Ted Nace explains how a bureaucratâs change of one number in a spreadsheet can lead to 132 fewer new coal plants being built, but Tom Philpott warns that Appalachian coal will be mined anyway â and shipped to China.
- Keith Johnson at Environmental Capital explains how Kansas has become Big Coalâs new battlefield, and the role of state courts and officials in determining who wins.
- At Appalachian Voices, jdub reacts to Hillary Clintonâs remarks about mountaintop removal mining, and collects other online responses.
Elsewhere:
In the wake of the New York crane collapse that killed seven people, Kane at OSHA Underground chronicles OSHAâs slow progress on a crane standard.
Shelley Batts at Of Two Minds provides an overview of research on Gulf War Syndrome.
David Roberts at Gristmill looks at how the greenhouse gases associated with Iraq War and the opportunity costs of using money on those military efforts rather than fighting global warming.
Nandini Oomman at Global Health Policy highlights some encouraging steps and some still-difficult issues on Congressional reauthorization of PEPFAR.
Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth describes the problems caused by a serious global shortfall in sanitation, and attention-grabbing efforts to rally support for the International Year of Sanitation.
Carol Lloyd at Broadsheet gives a thumbs-down to a Russian brand of vodka aimed at women, and reminds us how it mirrors tobacco marketing trends.Â
Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata explains how differences between generic drugs and the corresponding brand-name pharmaceuticals can affect people taking the drugs, and what the FDA should be doing about it.
Gina Solomon at Switchboard warns that an air quality standard for toxic lead might get updated in a way thatâs not good for public health.
Danny Bloom at Polar Cities [http://pcillu101.blogspot.com] explains how if worst comes to worst in the far distant future, and global warming creates a serious a major problems for the human species, people might need to move north to live in resource development towns, aka polar cities, along the Arctic Circle dotted line, not the North Pole per see. See images here. Not a pretty picture, but worth thinking about, if only to work harder to try to solve the problems now.