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Archive for March 30th, 2010
China: Drought may force power station to halt operation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Xinhua: The worsening drought in southwest China could force the Longtan hydropower station, the country's second largest in operation, to halt power generation in another month, a company official said Tuesday. The water level in the upper reservoir had been falling by 20 cm per day, said Chen Deqing, deputy chief of the hydropower station. Children pitch in for drought reliefChen said should the water level keep falling at the current speed, the power station would have to halt ...
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New Frogs Appear; Their Discoverers Disappear
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Shortly after it informed the world of the discovery of three new species of frogs, the environmental organisation Fundación Andígena closed its doors in Venezuela this month due to lack of financial support. "There is a lack of communication with and support and funds for environmental organisations in this extremely biodiverse country, which is currently experiencing water and power shortages linked to environmental questions," anthropologist César Barrio, executive director of ...
United Kingdom: Nature reserve that inspired Tolkien gets £376,500 grant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Telegraph: Birmingham's Moseley Bog, where the creator of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit played as a child in the 1890s, will use the funding to restore aspects of the site and improve public access. The reserve is thought to have been the inspiration for Tolkien's mystical Old Forest and is also home to a scheduled ancient monument dating back to the Bronze Age. The Heritage Lottery Fund said a new open air performance and education space would be created as part of the project, ...
Water crisis in Trinidad: authorities
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Trinidad and Tobago is facing a crisis in its ongoing water shortage, with consumption levels recklessly high, authorities warned Tuesday. The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) cautioned that at current consumption levels, water will not last until the end of the dry season in June. Despite strict water restrictions on citizens, water levels "are dropping at an unprecedented level in the nation?s reservoirs," WASA?s Corporate Communications Manager Ellen Lewis told ...
Global water crisis and cheaper technology sparks surge in desalination
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Guardian: The world's unquenchable thirst for clean water drove a record increase in the desalination of seawater and reuse of sewage last year, new figures reveal, as water-stressed countries around the world try to build their way out of trouble. Making fresh water from the sea was once the preserve of cruise ships and oil-rich Gulf states that could afford the huge cost of energy required to remove the salt. But as rivers, lakes and aquifers dry up, rains become less reliable, and the cost ...
Climate Contributed To Angkor’s Collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
redOrbit: Decades of drought, interspersed with intense monsoon rains, may have helped bring about the fall of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago, according to an analysis of tree rings, archeological remains and other evidence. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may also shed light on what drives--and disrupts--the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's ...
Ethiopia dam will not displace 200,000: builder
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Reuters: The Italian firm building Africa's biggest hydropower dam in Ethiopia on Tuesday denied allegations that the dam would deprive 200,000 self-sufficient people of a living and make them dependent on aid. The ethnic rights group Survival International said last week that the dam would disrupt fishing and farming and displace more than 200,000 people, among them the Kwegu and Hamar tribes. "The project will not cause drought: the dam will not block the flow of water to the river ...
Indonesia: Polluted rivers are a CO2 ticking time bomb
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
Jakarta Post: Nine of Indonesia's main rivers are contaminated with dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to the dumping of industrial chemicals and agriculture and domestic waste, a four-year study shows. There is a far higher percentage of CO2 in the nine rivers than in the atmosphere, the survey shows. "The rivers are far more polluted than the atmosphere," said Elvin Alrian, director of the climate change and air quality unit at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics ...
Gloom and Gaia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2010
BBC: The man who achieved global fame for his theory that the whole earth is a single organism now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change. Interviewed by Today presenter John Humphrys, videos of which you can see below, he said that while the earths future was utterly uncertain, mankind was not aware it had "pulled the trigger" on global warming as it built its civilizations. What is more, he ...