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Archive for April, 2010
Video: Madagascar could become “Haiti-like”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 28th, 2010
Mongabay: Niall O'Connor from the World Wildlife Fund warns in a Carte Blanche production that if the ecological destruction of Madagascar continues, the poor island country could become "Haiti-like", where he says, "most of the biodiversity, most of the forests are gone". Carte Blanche, an African investigative journalism show, went to Madagascar to look into the current environmental crisis where rosewood is being logged in National Parks threatening Madagascar's unique ...
Gulf Of Mexico: Oil Leaking And Creeping To Shore
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 28th, 2010
National Public Radio: More than 5,000 barrels of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since a deep water drilling rig leased to BP exploded, caught fire and sank last week. For the last three days, robotic submarines have been trying to activate a large valve on the floor of the Gulf to shut off the oil leak but the operation hasn't been successful. The oil is coming closer to shore; it's within 20 miles of the coast of Louisiana. The Coast Guard is considering setting fire to the Gulf, to ...
Israel: Settler Sewage Ruins Palestinian Crops, Drinking Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 28th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Residents of this Palestinian village refuse to buy the idea that the flood of raw sewage from the adjacent Israeli settlement of Kfar Etzion, that destroyed vineyards and contaminated their drinking water, was an accident. The Israeli Civil Administration, which administers the occupied West Bank, claims the spillage was the result of an accidental power malfunction which caused excess settlement sewage to overflow onto Palestinian land. "This was no mistake," says a British ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Israel: Settler Sewage Ruins Palestinian Crops, Drinking WaterNatural gas supply, jobs and technique debate booming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 28th, 2010
USA Today: Robert Myers spends a lot of time hiking and fishing in state forests, "places where my grandfather went hunting," he says. But the hiking grounds for this Lock Haven, Pa., English professor and local activist are changing with what some critics say is the threat to the environment that comes as part of the latest boom: the hunt for natural gas. And Myers hates what it's doing to the Eastern forests. "It sickens me what the gas wells are doing to the places I love." Energy ...
Climate change increases heat waves, floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 28th, 2010
Reuters: Deaths from heat waves, property damage from floods and rising seas from melting glaciers are a few of the things Americans can expect as a result of climate change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released on Tuesday. The report, called "Climate Change Indicators in the United States," examined the impact of global warming on 24 environmental indicators, such as ice cover and ocean temperatures. It said there was scientific evidence that climate ...
World’s best water purifier may be the cactus
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2010
Y! Green: Scientists from the University of South Florida have discovered the water purifying power of the prickly pear cactus. An extract from the desert-dweller is very effective at removing sediment and bacteria from dirty H2O and, even better, it grows all around the world. The scientists aren't the first to realize this plant's ability. Nineteenth-century Mexican communities used the cactus as a water purifier. The thick gum in the cactus that stores water is responsible for the ...
Is climate change South Asia’s deadliest threat?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2010
BBC: "Intense floods, droughts and cyclones have impacted on the economic performances of South Asian countries and the lives of millions of poor, it also puts at risk infrastructure, agriculture, human health, water resources and the environment," it says. This is not the first time that Saarc summit has discussed the issue. The declaration of the 14th summit in Delhi in 2007, for instance, said leaders had agreed "to commission a team of regional experts to identify collective ...
Arctic explorers get nasty surprise: rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2010
Reuters: In what looks to be another sign the Arctic is heating up quickly, British explorers in Canada's Far North reported on Tuesday that they had been hit by a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The rain fell on the team's ice base off Ellef Rignes island, about 3,900 km (2,420 miles) north of the Canadian capital, Ottawa. "It's definitely a shocker ... the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event," ...
United Kingdom: Froome among riders targeted for water-bottle pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Britain's Chris Froome is among a trio of riders who have been targeted by an environmental group -- for throwing empty water bottles into the Belgian countryside during a top race. According to the Vers l'Avenir newspaper 'Coalition Nature' has lodged an official complaint with a court in Namur following last week's Fleche-Wallonne semi-classic, won by Australia's world champion Cadel Evans. Bike racers can drink several litres of fluids during one-day races and stages, and ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Froome among riders targeted for water-bottle pollutionIndonesia harnessing volcano power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Indonesia's 17,000 islands are home to hundreds of volcanoes and approximately 40 percent of the earth's geothermal energy potential and the nation's government is ready to harness that hot, clean energy. The country has set a goal of bringing online 4GW of geothermal capacity by 2014, which will almost quadruple the current capacity of 1,189 MW. If you think that sounds ambitious, you're right. It generally takes three to five years just to complete field exploration and then another ...