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Archive for April, 2010
Florida citrus growers reject EPA water rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
Reuters: Plans by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Florida's waterways set unattainable goals and would saddle the state's farm industry with billions of dollars of costs it cannot afford, Florida citrus growers said on Friday. "There is no way Florida agriculture, including the $9 billion citrus industry, can survive if the EPA actually follows through with their proposal," said Michael Sparks, head of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's main citrus growers ...
Iceland: Ice-covered volcanoes may answer climate change questions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
LA Times: Ice-covered volcanoes like the one in Iceland that brought European air traffic to a standstill are the center of an emerging branch of volcano science that seeks to answer important questions about climate change. Scientists believe the rocks created when volcanoes erupt beneath glaciers contain distinct chemical signatures that indicate the thickness of the ice that was above the volcanoes when they blew. By correlating the thickness with the age of the rocks, researchers can ...
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Comments Off on Iceland: Ice-covered volcanoes may answer climate change questionsWorld Court Highlights Environmental Vulnerability of Uruguay River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
Inter Press Service: If anything was left clear by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the long-running pulp mill dispute between Argentina and Uruguay, it was the weakness of rules and regulations to prevent pollution of the Uruguay River in the 508-km stretch shared by the two countries. In its 80-page, 282-paragraph verdict, the Court stated on Tuesday, Apr. 20 that "there is no conclusive evidence in the record to show that Uruguay has not acted with the requisite degree of due ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on World Court Highlights Environmental Vulnerability of Uruguay RiverSharing the Okavango
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
Inter Press Service: Each January, a giant pulse of water from heavy summer rains over the south of Angola enters the Okavango River system and begins a five-month journey through Namibia to a richly biodiverse swamp in Botswana's Kalahari desert. The river is a rarity, scarcely disturbed by human development along its 1,100 kilometre length: shaping its future is the delicate task of the Okavango River Basin Commission. The Okavango Delta, which expands to three times its permanent size when the water ...
Study details at least four epic droughts in Asia
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on April 23rd, 2010
Independent (UK): A study of tree rings provided Thursday the most detailed record yet of at least four epic droughts that hit Asia over the past millennium, including one that helped end China's Ming Dynasty in 1644. Data collected over the past 15 years for the study is expected to help scientists understand how climate change can unleash large-scale weather disruptions. Any drastic shifts to the seasonal monsoon rains in Asia, which feed nearly half the world's population by helping crops ...
Canada: Syncrude faces multimillion-dollar tailings costs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
Reuters: Syncrude Canada Ltd, the country's largest oil sands producer, will spend hundreds of millions of dollars building two plants to reduce toxic waste under recently tightened regulations, it said on Friday. The plants, which will employ new technology to process tailings from oil sands production, are conditions of approvals by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, the first under a directive issued in February 2009. Syncrude and the ERCB said the new rules are tough, ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Syncrude faces multimillion-dollar tailings costsBolivian protesters suspend Sumitomo mine blockade
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2010
Reuters: Bolivian peasant farmers called off a 10-day protest against the San Cristobal mine owned by Japan's Sumitomo Corp late on Thursday, a local government official said. Hundreds of local residents, who are demanding compensation from the company for the use of water supplies, overturned containers full of mineral ore and destroyed a small office at the remote site in the Potosi region. "After yesterday's meeting between the residents and the governor, we've got a temporary ...
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 ...
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 ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Gallup poll finds most Americans supporting enviro movementStudy 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 ...