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Archive for May, 2010
NY state might spare parks from budget ax
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Reuters: Cash-strapped New York state should keep 41 state parks and 14 historic sites open and avoid reducing services at others by tapping the environmental fund, Governor David Paterson proposed on Monday. The Democratic governor called on the legislature to approve this stop-gap measure; in January, he had proposed closing the parks and historic sites to help close a deficit. "I have heard from my colleague in the Legislature that funding State parks and historic sites is a top ...
UK honeybee numbers suffer further decline after harsh winter
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Guardian: Honeybee numbers in the UK dropped again over the winter, though the rate of decline appears to have slowed slightly despite the harsh weather. In an encouraging note, the number of hives has doubled in three years to an estimated 80,000, according to the British Beekeepers Association, which released the survey of winter honeybee losses. On average, beekeepers lost 17% of their colonies in 2009-10, compared to 19% the previous year and 30% during the winter of 2007-08. There ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on UK honeybee numbers suffer further decline after harsh winterClimate Change To Hit Vietnam’s Mangrove Forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Bernama: The impacts of climate change would severely affect the biodiversity of mangrove forests across the country, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported experts as saying. Addressing a forum on the impacts of climate change and biodiversity held on May 22, Dr Hoang Nghia Son, director of the Institute of Tropical Biology said that biodiversity was a crucial base for the existence and development of countries around the world but it had been severely affected by climate change. "Sea ...
Australia: Pacific climate change could drive droughts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Climate scientists are concerned a rise in temperature in the Pacific region due to climate change, could increase droughts in Australia. New research, published today in Nature Geoscience, has found the region will have significant temperature changes, which will affect the natural El Nino - La Nina weather cycle. One of the report's authors Scott Power says the cycle and temperatures in the Pacific have a direct link to drought conditions in Australia. But Dr Power ...
Bird Conservationist Weighs In On Oil Spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
National Public Radio: As more oil reaches shore in the Gulf of Mexico, more birds, turtles and other coastal animals are being coated and killed by it. While in Plaquemines Parish recently, Melissa Block spoke to bird conservationist Melanie Driscoll of the Audubon Society's Louisiana program about what's happening, and what to expect.
Despite BP oil spill, Louisiana still loves Big Oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: One week after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico, a letter arrived on President Obama's desk from Sen. Bill Nelson (D) of Florida, demanding an immediate moratorium on offshore oil drilling. The same day, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist – a man once seen cheering as Sarah Palin said "drill here, drill now" – called for a special state legislative session to ban offshore drilling. Even on the other side of the continent, the effects of the Gulf oil spill ...
La. Gov. Jindal Blasts Washington’s Response To Spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
National Public Radio: DAVID GREENE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Im David Greene. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And Im Renee Montagne. Along the Gulf Coast this morning, oil is washing ashore and there isstill no good idea of when the leaking well will be capped. We have two reports and we start in Louisiana. Governor Bobby Jindal now says 65 miles of his state's coastline have been touched by oil. Delicate wetlands and marshes, and the pelicans and other birds that live ...
United Kingdom: Raw sewage pumped into some bathing water `up to five times in a day’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Telegraph: Pipes affecting public beaches are supposed to spill out significant amounts of raw sewage and rainwater only three times at most during the whole summer. But data provided to a newspaper by the Environment Agency has revealed that in the worst cases some are operating as often as five times in a day. The data maps tens of thousands of sewage spills from overflow and outfall pipes into Britain's bathing waters during 2008 and 2009. The Environment Agency said the rainy ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Raw sewage pumped into some bathing water `up to five times in a day’BP CEO inspects La. beach stained by Gulf oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Associated Press: The chief executive of BP PLC walked the oil-stained sands of a closed Louisiana beach as workers in white coveralls and yellow boots tended to equipment being used to keep away crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. CEO Tony Hayward talked with the workers Monday at Fourchon Beach while the crews tended to booms meant to soak up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Reporters were kept at a distance. Fourchon Beach is one of the few sandy beaches in Louisiana, where ...
Pressure piles on BP as Gulf spill widens
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2010
Reuters: The U.S. government piled pressure on BP Plc on Monday to clean up a "massive environmental mess" in the Gulf of Mexico amid growing anger at the oil giant's failure to contain a five-week-old oil spill. The company insisted it was doing all it could to try to seal a blown-out oil well spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons (liters) of oil into the Gulf every day, a disaster that threatens to become the worst U.S. oil spill in history. London-based BP said it would make ...