Susan Christopherson, J. Thomas Clark Professor of City and Regional Planning, has received a $100,000 grant from the Ithaca-based Park Foundation to study the economic effects of the proposed drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation that extends from New York south into Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Christopherson has proposed conducting a $300,000 study that will examine issues such as the effects of the increase in gas drilling on schools, public health, and transportation systems.

The research project will be supported by several funders. “The question is, ‘What is going to be the cumulative effect of this kind of activity?’” says Christopherson, who specializes in economic development. “People are looking at this question from an environmental perspective, but no one is looking at it from an economic perspective.”

Christopherson worries about a “boom town” effect created by the surge of companies that want to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. “We have had these periodically in the U.S. like the Gold Rush, where you get lots of people coming into an area in order to extract natural resources and then leaving,” she says.

Her hope is that the gas drilling could create a long-term investment in the economy of the Southern Tier. “I think they could do that,” she says, “but it has to be done very carefully. There has to be careful planning for the economy and to protect the environment. What people rarely recognize is that good environmental planning will also produce better economic outcomes.”

See: Report: Marcellus Shale Drillers Amass 1435 Violations in 2.5 Years

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association seeks to protect Pennsylvania’s special places and landscapes for today and for generations to come.

To increase the quality and pace of land conservation, PALTA helps conservation practitioners improve their effectiveness, builds public understanding, and advocates for better governmental policy.

See also: Drilling in the Marcellus Shale | Academy of Natural Sciences

In April, 2010, the Academy's Center for Environmental Policy presented a public panel discussion, “The Marcellus Shale – The Science and the Policy.” Video of this program is available on our website.

On September 28, 2010, Dr. David Velinsky, vice president of the Academy's Patrick Center for Environmental Research, testified before the City Council of Philadelphia about the scientific questions at hand and need for new research. A copy of his testimony is available for download.

Democracy Now! interview with Environmentalist, 350.org Founder Bill McKibben on Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.

Ahead of Bolivia’s indigenous summit on climate change and the expected unveiling of a Senate climate bill next week, we speak to someone who sounded one of the earliest alarms about global warming.

Twenty years ago, environmental activist Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature, but his warnings went largely unheeded.

Now, as people are grappling with the unavoidable effects of climate change and confronting an earth that is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in unprecedented ways, Bill McKibben is out with Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, a new book about what we have to do to survive this brave new world. [includes rush transcript]

See: U.S. Senate. (2007). Health Risks to Children and Communities From Recent EPA Proposals and Decisions on Air and Water Quality

See:Global Warming Frequently Asked Questions

See also: Video - 350.org: Because the world needs to know.

What's the best way to introduce the world to 350? 

With over 4000 languages spoken around the world, it's probably not with a bunch of words. We did our best to boil down the science of global warming and vision of the 350 Campaign in 90 seconds--and with no words.

Our focus is on the number 350—as in parts per million CO₂. If we can't get below that, scientists say, the damage we're already seeing from global warming will continue and accelerate.  But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

Our theory of change is simple: if an international grassroots movement holds our leaders accountable to the latest climate science, we can start the global transformation we so desperately need.

ALBANY, NY (05/04/2011)—The New York Water Rangers, individuals working to protect state waters from dirty gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” today thanked the State Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee for passing legislation that would close a loophole in state law allowing the gas industry to circumvent requirements for the management and disposal of hazardous waste (A.7013 / S.4616).

The Defining Hazardous Fracking Waste bill would update state law so that any drilling waste that meets the characteristics of hazardous waste is subject to all state regulations related to its generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal.

“Why should the gas industry get a free pass on hazardous fracking waste? If wastewater generated by dirty gas drilling and fracking is hazardous, it must be treated as such in order to protect the health and safety of our communities and our waters.”

The New York Water Rangers are now calling on members of the Assembly Codes Committee to pass the bill without haste and keep it on track.

A new Marist College poll revealed that 41 percent of New Yorkers oppose fracking, and 21 percent aren’t sure where they stand on the issue. We’re committed to educating these undecided New Yorkers, especially the state lawmakers among them.

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Environmental Advocates of New York's mission is to protect our air, land, water and wildlife and the health of all New Yorkers. Based in Albany, we monitor state government, evaluate proposed laws, and champion policies and practices that will ensure the responsible stewardship of our shared environment.

We work to support and strengthen the efforts of New York's environmental community and to make our state a national leader.