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Archive for May 5th, 2010
United States: Farmers ponder climate measures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
Billings Gazette: Montana's major farm groups aren't warming to federal climate change legislation, but a small group of independents say environmental changes will put them out of business if nothing is done. Baker farmer Wade Sikorski said he and other independent farmers from around Montana have seen declining snowfall and extreme temperature fluctuations in their lifetimes that will damage farm production beyond the point of profitability if changes continue. "There's definitely a difference ...
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Chinas Coal Price Rises as Drought Cuts Stockpiles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
Bloomberg: Coal prices at Qinhuangdao, China's largest port for the fuel, gained the most in more than four months as demand increased amid a drought in the southwest. Prices for coal with an energy value of 5,500 kilocalories per kilogram rose 2.8 percent to between 720 yuan ($105) and 730 yuan a metric ton as of yesterday compared with a week earlier, according to data from the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association. That's the biggest increase since Dec. 28. China, the ...
Obama officials travel to survey Gulf oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
Associated Press: High-ranking Obama administration officials are visiting the Gulf Coast to reassure the public that the government is doing all it can to prevent the massive oil spill from damaging the region's economy and wildlife. Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar planned Wednesday to tour the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana and the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. He also will visit the oil spill command center in Robert, La. Homeland Security Secretary ...
Giant Dome May Be Best Short-Term Oil Leak Fix
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
National Public Radio: One of three leaks has been capped at a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico, but that development is not expected to reduce the estimated 5,000 barrels of crude oil a day flowing from the site. The best short-term solution to bottling up a disastrous oil spill threatening sealife and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast should be headed out to sea Wednesday, in the form of a specially built giant concrete-and-steel box designed to siphon the oil away. Oil company BP used remotely ...
Countries Ranked on Environmental Impact
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
redOrbit: A new study led by the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute in Australia has ranked most of the world's countries for their environmental impact. The research uses seven indicators of environmental degradation to form two rankings – a proportional environmental impact index, where impact is measured against total resource availability, and an absolute environmental impact index measuring total environmental degradation at a global scale. Led by the Environment ...
U.S. targets invading carp with poison, nets, shocks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
Reuters: Looking for Asian carp that could pose a dire threat to billion-dollar Great Lakes fisheries, U.S. authorities announced plans on Wednesday to poison, net and shock any invaders in Chicago-area rivers. Authorities want to find out if any of the invasive Bighead and Silver Carp -- which have populated the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers -- have made it past electric barriers erected near Chicago to keep them out of the Great Lakes. Carp DNA has been found in Lake Michigan, ...
Biologists fear that spill could be a ‘disaster ecologically’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
McClatchy Newspapers: Scientists and environmentalists worry that 3,500 miles of Gulf of Mexico coastline from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to Cape Sable in Florida's Everglades National Park , ringed with rich, diverse habitats where many imperiled birds and animals breed and feed, would be at risk if the oil spill reaches them. "It has the potential of being a disaster ecologically," said John Bente , the lead biologist for 13 coastal state parks in Florida . "It's just frightening." In his office ...
Anatomy of an Oil Disaster: Heckuva Job, Kenny!
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2010
Mongabay: Who is responsible for the great environmental disaster arising from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? As the country reels from the sheer magnitude of the accident, the media has rightly pointed the finger at BP. Yet, not nearly enough attention has been paid to the role of Ken Salazar and his derelict Department of Interior, a government entity which, in theory, regulates offshore oil drilling. With a budget of almost $16 billion, Interior is a hugely important department ...