Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

The top 20 banks invested almost £150bn in the coal industry between 2005-2010, a big increase from previous years, says a study published today by German green group Urgewal. According to the Bankrolling Climate Change report, the biggest ‘climate killers’ are JP Morgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America. Continued investment in coal fired power [...]

The technologies and practices that have enabled the recent boom in shale gas production have also brought attention to the environmental impacts of its use. It has been debated whether the fugitive methane emissions during natural gas production and transmission outweigh the lower carbon dioxide emissions during combustion when compared to coal and petroleum. Using [...]

Mountaintop mining is the dominant form of coal mining and the largest driver of land cover change in the central Appalachians. The waste rock from these surface mines is disposed of in the adjacent river valleys, leading to a burial of headwater streams and dramatic increases in salinity and trace metal concentrations immediately downstream. In [...]

Southern Appalachian forests are recognized as a biodiversity hot spot of global significance, particularly for endemic aquatic salamanders and mussels. The dominant driver of land-cover and land-use change in this region is surface mining, with an ever-increasing proportion occurring as mountaintop mining with valley fill operations (MTVF). In MTVF, seams of coal are exposed using [...]

Each stage in the life cycle of coal—extraction, transport, processing, and combustion—generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and are thus often considered “externalities.” We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the [...]

A novel method to increase the tar yield through an integrated process of coal pyrolysis with CO2 reforming of methane by dielectric barrier discharge plasma was put forward. The pyrolysis of Shenmu (SM) subbituminous coal was carried out under different atmospheres, including N2, H2, and different plasmas of H2, CH4, CH4/H2, CO2/H2, and CH4/CO2/H2 (1/1/2, [...]

The growth and on-site bioremediation potential of an isolated thermal- and CO2-tolerant mutant strain, Chlorella sp. MTF-7, were investigated. The Chlorella sp. MTF-7 cultures were directly aerated with the flue gas generated from coke oven of a steel plant. The biomass concentration, growth rate and lipid content of Chlorella sp. MTF-7 cultured in an outdoor [...]