The Stream, August 29: State Department Report Backs Tar Sands Pipeline

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline Project, designed to carry crude from the oil sands in Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, will have minimal impact on the environment, according to the final environmental impact assessment report released last Friday by the U.S. State Department, Politico reported. But the State Department insists the fate of the pipeline is still undecided.

Skeptical Science examines the climate impact of tar sands and the proposed pipeline.

New estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey drastically lowered the amount of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, The New York Times reported. As a result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration will slash by nearly 80 percent its official estimate for the rock formation.

Reuters answers some of the major questions about Australia’s growing coal seam gas industry.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Earth Institute have established the first strong correlation between climate and conflict in the modern world, Financial Times reported.

NGOs must play a key role in the Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development in June 2012, a senior researcher from the Worldwatch Institute told the IPS.

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