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Archive for April, 2010
UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone countries, says report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 19th, 2010
Guardian: Britain and other rich countries depend heavily on importing hidden "virtual" water from places that regularly experience droughts and shortages, according a report published today by the Royal Society of Engineers. Although the UK is notoriously wet, it is estimated that two-thirds of all the water that its population of 60 million people needs comes embedded in imported food, clothes and industrial goods. The result is that when people buy flowers from Kenya, beef from Botswana, or ...
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Comments Off on UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone countries, says reportIsrael aims to reverse Sea of Galilee fish decline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2010
Reuters: Israel hopes to fill the Sea of Galilee with a great multitude of fishes. Responding to a decline in the number of fish in the Biblical lake -- where the Gospels say Jesus miraculously produced huge catches for his disciples' nets -- Israel has banned fishermen from trawling the waters for two years. "This stems from a desire to maintain an ecological balance, preserve water quality and revive fishing which has nearly died out in the Kinneret," Prime Minister Benjamin ...
Bolivia: In Defence of Pachamama
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Through their ancestral knowledge and traditions, indigenous peoples will make a unique and invaluable contribution to the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which begins Monday, Apr. 19 in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba. Julio Quette of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) told IPS that the 74 different indigenous groups who inhabit South America's Amazon region "have traditionally coexisted with nature ...
White honey grows scarce as bees abandon Ethiopia’s parched peaks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2010
Observer: The truffle of the apiary world – rare white honey from Ethiopia's highest peaks – is in danger of disappearing, according to beekeepers in the Tigray region. "No rain for the flowers,'' said Ashenaf Abera as he stood on his rocky, parched slope in the northern Ethiopian region whose famine inspired Bob Geldof to stage Live Aid in 1985. "The bees need high-altitude flowers for the white honey. When they cannot find them, they go to other plants and produce yellow honey.'' Abera is ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on White honey grows scarce as bees abandon Ethiopia’s parched peaksUK water use ‘worsening global crisis’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2010
BBC: The amount of water used to produce food and goods imported by developed countries is worsening water shortages in the developing world, a report says. The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside its borders. The Engineering the Future alliance of professional engineering bodies says this is unsustainable, given population growth and climate change. It says countries such as the UK must help poorer nations curb ...
Gore takes cash for water campaign from chemical firm
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on April 18th, 2010
Independent (UK): Al Gore, the self-styled squeakiest-clean and deepest-green politician in American history, has some explaining to do this weekend. His environmental organisation has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company involved in the aftermath of one of the world's worst pollution disasters. Dow Chemical, the US firm which now owns the leaking pesticides factory responsible for thousands of deaths in Bhopal, India, is sponsoring Life ...
Anglo American under fire for prospecting in the Alaskan wilderness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2010
Observer: Anglo American, the London-listed mining group, will this week face accusations that it risks damaging one of the world's most valuable salmon habitats. Alaskan tribal leaders and fishermen will come to London on Thursday to tell the company's annual meeting that plans to build an open-pit gold and copper mine in the Bristol Bay region will destroy the breeding grounds of sockeye salmon. They claim that mining the ore deposit, which is located underneath some of the most ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Anglo American under fire for prospecting in the Alaskan wildernessReduction Arctic summer ice is source of great concern
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2010
Northwest Cable News: The University of Washington is one of the key institutions looking at what's happening to the Arctic, global warming and the rise in the oceans. When we think of NASA, we often think about space, but NASA is also behind the flights over the poles. It's called Operation IceBridge and the news this spring near the North Pole is not good. "The ice mass is decreasing. Both the Arctic sea-ice appears to be shrinking and thinning and the ice sheets are dropping in elevation," said ...
Bomb blasts rock China JV hydropower site in Myanmar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2010
Reuters: A series of bombs exploded at a controversial hydropower project site being jointly built by a Chinese company in northern Myanmar on Saturday, just two days after bombs killed eight in the former capital of Yangon. There was no immediate report of casualties or damage. "We don't have any further details about it as yet," said a government official who asked not to be identified since he was not allowed to talk to the media. Myanmar's junta has in the past blamed ...
Canada: Speculation rampant B.C. to green-light Site C hydroelectric dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 16th, 2010
Globe and Mail: The B.C. government will make a major energy announcement at the Peace River on Monday, fuelling speculation that it will give a green light to the long-shelved plans to build the Site C hydroelectric dam. BC Hydro is inviting officials to what is being billed as a "clean energy workshop" at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on Monday, near the proposed location for Site C on the Peace River. In the town of Hudson's Hope -- the closest community -- the airstrip is being prepared for the arrival ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Speculation rampant B.C. to green-light Site C hydroelectric dam