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Archive for April 22nd, 2010
South Africa: When the rains don’t come on time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
IRIN: Rain rules the lives and wellbeing of rural people in most developing countries: it determines whether they will have enough to eat, be able to provide basic necessities and earn a living, but climate change has made rainfall more erratic in many parts of the world. "What is scary is how fast things have been changing in the last 20 years," said Abba Ayalew Tegene, 83, a farmer in northern Ethiopia quoted in a report released on Earth Day, 22 April, by development agency Oxfam, which ...
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Gallup poll finds most Americans supporting enviro movement
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Greenwire: As Earth Day marks its 40th birthday, three-fifths of Americans consider themselves either active in or sympathetic to the environmental movement, a new Gallup poll shows. Although the percentage of those favoring the green movement has declined about 10 percent since Gallup first measured it in 2000, it "remains high" at 61 percent, Gallup said. Nineteen percent of Americans say they are active participants in the environmental movement, while 42 percent are sympathetic but ...
Study challenges IPCC’s Bangladesh climate predictions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Scientists in Bangladesh posed a fresh challenge to the UN's top climate change panel Thursday, saying its doomsday forecasts for the country in the body's landmark 2007 report were overblown. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), already under fire for errors in the 2007 report, had said a one-metre (three-foot) rise in sea levels would flood 17 percent of Bangladesh and create 20 million refugees by 2050. The warning helped create a widespread consensus that ...
Obama uses executive power to reverse Bush environmental policies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Gannett: For eight years, environmentalists cried foul as President George W. Bush used his executive power to weaken clean air and water regulations, open public lands to increased oil and gas drilling and block action to fight climate change. Now, President Barack Obama is exercising that same authority to reverse course, and business groups are the ones yelling. Obama has moved to improve the fuel efficiency of cars, halt uranium mines near the Grand Canyon, strengthen anti-smog ...
From rebellious roots, Earth Day now mainstream
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Associated Press: There was no "Green Movement" yet and little talk of global warming. Instead, the original Earth Day 40 years ago emphasized "ecology" and goals like cleaning up pollution and litter -- along with a more anti-establishment vibe than today. "Welcome, sulfur dioxide, hello, carbon monoxide," a woman sang from the 1968 countercultural Broadway hit, "Hair," at a rally in Philadelphia that day. Across the country, activists donned gas masks or spread out in grassy parks to hear speeches ...
Scientists to study biodiversity along river Congo
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Agence France-Presse: A large team of DR Congolese and Belgian scientists will next week embark on a 47-day expedition to study the fauna and flora along central Africa's Congo river, organisers announced Wednesday. At least 67 ornithologists, biologists, geologists, linguists and other experts will thus mark both the International Year of Biodiversity and the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The scientists will board a boat in Kisangani in the northern DR ...
EU lawmakers raise pressure on Canadian oil sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Reuters: European parliamentarians are raising the pressure on the Canadian oil sands industry, which they accuse of destroying forests and polluting the air and waterways. Seventeen members of the European Parliament wrote to European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard on Tuesday, urging her to maintain barriers to oil sands in draft EU standards to promote greener fuels. "The extraction and refining of tar sand oil is around three times more carbon intensive than conventional oil," ...
Colorado River water policy faces an age of limits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Salt Lake Tribune: Change comes hard to Western water policy. The Prior Appropriation Doctrine, interstate compacts, groundwater law, the "law of the river" -- all of these seem set in stone in the minds of the region's policymakers. Of course, the West's rivers aren't bound by such a static existence. Indeed, they are changing in fundamental ways, opening a wide chasm between our water policy and our water sources. This is particularly true for the Colorado River Basin. Climate scientists are ...
Canada: RBS faces climate change protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
Guardian: Royal Bank of Scotland will be the target of a series of direct action protests this summer, the organisers of Climate Camp have announced today. The environmental group wants to broaden its campaign to target banks which fund the oil industry, particularly controversial tar sands developments, and engage in carbon trading, which they say is exacerbating climate change. The bank, following its £20bn taxpayer funded bailout, is a crucial link between government and the oil ...
Earth Day at 40: How it Began, Where It’s Going
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2010
National Geographic: From grassroots beginnings in 1970, Earth Day--which celebrates its 40th anniversary today--has blossomed into a global tradition. Organizers expect more than a billion to honor Earth Day in 2010--but many will do so with Facebook rather than megaphones. As part of the Billion Acts of Green, an initiative organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network's Green Generation campaign, more than 30 million people will use social media to encourage green activities. One ...