Archive for February 12th, 2010

Human error to blame for Indonesia’s mud volcano: scientists

Agence France-Presse: Scientists Friday unveiled fresh evidence that gas drillers were to blame for unleashing a mud volcano in Indonesia's East Java that claimed 14 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. In a paper published by the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, a group led by experts from Britain's Durham University said the new clues bolstered suspicions the catastrophe was caused by human error. The company being fingered for the disaster, drilling firm Lapindo Brantas, replied ...

The Day After Tomorrow Might Have Been Yesterday

Inter Press Service: When the 2004 film "The Day After Tomorrow" depicted the northern United States buried under tens of feet of snow following an abrupt change in global climate patterns, it cemented the association in the public consciousness between climate change and extreme weather events. While the three feet or so of snowfall in Washington and throughout the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast this past week was a far cry from the tidal waves and walls of ice that haunted Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid in ...

Investors urge companies to come clean over water risks

Business Green: The vast majority of companies operating in water intensive industries are failing to provide investors with adequate information on the water-related risks they face and in many cases have little idea how their supply chains could be impacted by water shortages. That is the stark conclusion of a major new report from sustainable investor group Ceres, financial services firm UBS and news agency Bloomberg, which yesterday warned many firms operating in water intensive industries have ...

United States: As politicians waffle on climate change, glaciers exit Glacier National Park

Colorado Independent: As Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper waffles on climate change, the U.S. Geological Society is reporting that Montana`s Glacier National Park will be glacier-less in a decade. Scientists had previously estimated that the park`s signature glacier-grade ice fields would last until 2030. Glacier National Park, where glaciers are an endangered species. "The 2020 date is new. Dan Fagre, glacier-melting expert [for the USGS], took a close look at ...

Becoming vegetarian ‘can harm the environment’

Telegraph: It has often been claimed that avoiding red meat is beneficial to the environment, because it lowers emissions and less land is used to produce alternatives. But a study by Cranfield University, commissioned by WWF, the environmental group, found a substantial number of meat substitutes -- such as soy, chickpeas and lentils -- were more harmful to the environment because they were imported into Britain from overseas. The study concluded: "A switch from beef and milk to highly ...

Indonesia: New study links drilling to Indonesia mud volcano

Reuters: A team of scientists said in a report on Friday that they had found the strongest evidence yet linking a devastating mud volcano in Indonesia to drilling at a gas exploration well by local energy firm PT Lapindo Brantas. Lapindo has denied triggering the disaster through its drilling activities, arguing the mud volcano near Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya was triggered by an earthquake. The hot mud started spewing from the East Java drilling site in 2006 and has now ...

Models of sea level change during ice-age cycles challenged

ScienceDaily: Theories about the rates of ice accumulation and melting during the Quaternary Period -- the time interval ranging from 2.6 million years ago to the present -- may need to be revised, thanks to research findings published by a University of Iowa researcher and his colleagues in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science. Jeffrey Dorale, assistant professor of geoscience in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, writes that global sea level and Earth's climate are closely linked. ...

United Kingdom: How to make your school more eco-friendly

Ecologist: With the carbon footprint of English schools already tipping 9.4m tonnes CO2, many campaigns to "green" schools are already underway. But reducing carbon is not the only goal. School buildings, food, waste – even school curriculum should all support a connection to, and appreciation for, the environment. The success stories so far prove that in many cases it is down to one or two dedicated teachers, parents or students to make a positive difference. School food The Food ...

Pakistan: Sanitation, drinking water issues top priority, says Afridi

Daily Times: Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi on Thursday said that development of a management information system (MIS) for water and sanitation sectors would contribute to better planning and decision-making on nationwide provision of safe drinking water and sanitation services. He also said the MIS development along with the launch of a website on water and sanitation situation in Pakistan (WATSAN) by the ministry would help meet millennium development goals (MDGs). Addressing ...

Glaciers: Changing at a less than glacial pace

Time Magazine: Glaciers are thought to change at, well, a glacial pace. Certainly that has been true throughout the planet's history. The current ice age -- known as the Pilocene-Quatenary glaciation, which began 2.6 million years ago -- has witnessed some 20 cycles of glacial (freezing) and interglacial (thawing) periods, with ice sheets advancing and retreating completely on roughly 100,000-year time scales. But scientists are unsure exactly what prompts the shifts in cycles. In glacial periods, ...