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Archive for February, 2010
Israel talks solar with Egypt, biofuel with Jordan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2010
Reuters: Israel has started talks with Egypt about possibly establishing a joint solar project in Egypt's Sinai Desert, Industry and Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Thursday. Ben-Eliezer raised the idea during a recent visit to Egypt with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the minister told a renewable energy conference in the southern Israeli city of Eilat. According to Ben-Eliezer, the project would provide energy for both Israel and Egypt. "Egypt has the ...
India: The battle with Vedanta is not over yet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2010
Guardian: Today it was announced that the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has withdrawn its investment in Vedanta, a company linked to serious human rights and environmental abuses. This is a clear victory for proponents of corporate and social responsibility, for those who believe that companies should adhere to ethical practices, and respect human rights. And it is a hopeful sign for the Kondh, an indigenous tribal people whose livelihoods are threatened by Vedanta's proposed bauxite mine on the ...
World’s top firms cause $2.2tn of eco damage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2010
Guardian: The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world's biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found. The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries ...
Second Hydrocarbon Boom Threatens the Peruvian Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2010
ScienceDaily: A rapid and unprecedented proliferation of oil and gas concessions threatens the megadiverse Peruvian Amazon. The amount of area leased is on track to reach around 70% of the region, threatening biodiversity and indigenous people. This is one of the central conclusions from a pair of researchers from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Washington DC-based NGO Save America's Forests, who have, for the first time, ...
Permafrost Line in Quebec Retreats 80 Miles in 50 Years, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Yale Environment 360: The southern limit of permafrost around the James Bay region in Quebec has moved 80 miles to the north since 1957, according to a new study. Scientists at the Université Laval tracked the northerly retreat of the tundra by examining distinctive, oval-shaped land elevations known as palsas, which form over permafrost. By comparing aerial photos taken in the James Bay region between the 51st and 53rd Serge PayetteMelt ponds on tundra parallels in 1957 with findings from helicopter surveys in ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Permafrost Line in Quebec Retreats 80 Miles in 50 Years, Study SaysProjection shows water woes likely based on warmer temperatures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
ScienceDaily: Keith Cherkauer, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, ran simulation models that show Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan could see as much as 28 percent more precipitation by the year 2070, with much of that coming in the winter and spring. His projections also show drier summer and fall seasons. "This was already a difficult spring to plant because of how wet it was. If you were to add another inch or so of rain to that, it would be a problem," ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Projection shows water woes likely based on warmer temperaturesCanada’s permafrost retreats amid warming trend
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Reuters: The permanently frozen ground known as permafrost is retreating northward in the area around Canada's James Bay, a sign of a decades-long regional warming trend, a climate scientist said on Wednesday. When permafrost melts, it can liberate the powerful greenhouse gas methane that is locked in the frozen soil. The amount of methane contained in permafrost around James Bay is slight compared to the vast stores of the chemical found in ancient, deep permafrost in the Yukon, Alaska and ...
Canada: Permafrost rapidly deteriorating in northern Quebec: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Canwest News Service: The thawing and decay of telltale, reddish mounds along the eastern shore of James Bay have led a team of Quebec researchers to conclude that the region's permafrost line has moved rapidly northward -- about 130 km in just 50 years -- as part of a broader transformation of Canada's sub-Arctic frontier in the age of climate change. And the University of Laval researchers are warning that "if the trend continues, permafrost in the region will completely disappear in the near ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Permafrost rapidly deteriorating in northern Quebec: StudyNew rules on corn ethanol may hurt environment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Reuters: U.S. corn growers expressed relief when the Obama administration unveiled new environmental rules that would boost use of corn-based biofuel, but green groups complained the guidelines may fill the air with nitrogen, a greenhouse gas viewed as more potent than carbon. The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled what amounted to a tweaking of the national renewable fuel standard in early February, and still found that ethanol made from corn is still cleaner than conventional gasoline, ...
United States: Otter Creek coal debate brings passion, outbursts to Helena
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Billings Gazette: From high school students to labor organizers to one man who essentially told Gov. Brian Schweitzer to shut up, the hot-button issue of Otter Creek coal drew a packed and passionate crowd to the Capitol Tuesday morning. "For what price are you willing to sell a piece of your children's future?" Missoula Big Sky High School student Allison Lawrence asked the Land Board before it voted to lower the bidding price on the state's 570 million tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley. "We are ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Otter Creek coal debate brings passion, outbursts to Helena