The Climate Minute - The Frackquake edition

If it’s Friday, it’s the Climate Minute, thank you for joining us!  This week Rob and Ted reflect upon the week’s climate news, including an unexpected danger of fracking, a good news / bad news emissions story, and a kind listener takes us to task for pastry-related crimes… Now, the links Good News / Bad News: CO2 emissions are down, even with increase gross national product and more energy production.  However, all that natural gas use means methane emissions (from leaks in the natural gas delivery system) are up, and we all know how bad methane is compared to CO2... For carbon wonks, California has unveiled the “California Carbon Dashboard,” which has links and info about all things AB32-related.  AB32, of course, is California’s groundbreaking carbon regulation law. We first noted the apparent connection between subsurface fracking wastewater disposal and seismic activity several months ago, now the US Geological Survey has ruled out natural causes as the source of the recent “earthquake swarm” reported in the Oklahoma area. Is time running out for Cape Wind?  Grist has an interesting report that the clock is ticking.  The project needs to get underway before the end of this year, or some very important tax breaks and $200 million in financing disappear… Remember those Greenpeace “pirates” from last week?  Well, the Russian government has downgraded them to “hooligans.”  Sadly the penalty for hooliganism in Russia is up to seven years in jail. Which reminds me of our listener mail.  We apologize to the Russian security forces that we mistakenly accused of wearing dessert on their heads when they busted those dangerous Greenpeace activists.  Apparently you eat baklava, and wear a balaclava… Finally, for your weekly roundup of politics, here's a piece about Ted Cruz, Rachel Maddow talks about the history of "good governance" with historian Michael Beschloss, and Robert Reich wrote a very interesting piece in Commondreams about the focus on deficits and the "size of government" distract from the real problems in American governance. Things to do Go hear MCAN Board Member (oh, yeah, and head of the Better Future Project) Craig Altemose as he speaks about the need to build a movement to address the climate crisis tonight, at 7:30pm, First Parish, Concord.  Here’s our calendar listing. Cambridge City Council candidates will meet at a forum on Energy and the Environment on Oct 30th, at the Cambridge Senior Citizens Center. The EPA is taking “their show on the road” and is doing a “public listening tour” taking public input on their newly announced powerplant co2 rules.  They will be coming to Boston on November 4th, you can sign up to testify here. "You Had Me at Pigovian..." is the alluring tagline of an event being held Tuesday, November 19th, at Babson University discussing the importance of a carbon tax.  See more information here. Remember, for more climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer, so long as we reach our fundraising goal.   So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…