RSS Feed
Archive for June 16th, 2010
IPCC error correction moves at glacial speed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Climatewire: The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said yesterday that he welcomes "vigorous debate" on climate science. "We who are on the side of the consensus must remind ourselves that the evolution of knowledge thrives on debate," Rajendra Pachauri said in an essay published on the website of the BBC. But Pachauri, whose panel has come under fire in recent months after revelations of multiple errors in its last major report, said he also believes that "many people ...
Posted in 
Joint Environmental Monitoring, a Way Forward?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: A mutual inspection system, like the one Argentina and Brazil have developed for the nuclear industry, could contribute to solving the conflict between Argentina and Uruguay over pulp mills on border rivers. "A group of professional inspectors for mutual monitoring would create trust, and the idea could be extended to Mercosur," Federico Merke, a professor of international relations at the private Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, told IPS, referring to the Southern Common ...
Alps to Become More Dangerous in Warming World
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
LiveScience.com: Heat waves, floods, avalanches and other deadly natural disasters could become more common in mountainous regions thanks to climate change, a new study suggests, making the famous peaks more dangerous for mountaineers and skiers. Extreme weather events are predicted to become more frequent on a warmer Earth. In the Eastern European Alps, two such events - the 2003 heat wave and the 2005 flood - gave researchers a preview of how similar events could pose a threat to alpine regions and ...
DEVELOPMENT: Violence Escalates Around India’s Largest Inland Lake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Basudev Dalai, 43, never thought that the fishing village where he has lived all his life and which has been home to generations of fishermen like him would be embroiled in violent clashes over the very source of their livelihood. "The stakes are so high people are even prepared to kill those they have lived with for generations," says Dalai, a native of Alupatna village near Chilka Lagoon along the Bay of Bengal in eastern India. A pitched gun battle and crude bomb attack ...
Water CO2 calculator goes online
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
BBC: Science and environment reporter, BBC News The calculator produces a personalised report for households A website that helps people to work out how much CO2 is being emitted to heat water in their homes has gone online. Produced by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), it also suggests ways that users can save water and energy, as well as cutting their carbon footprint. The Trust says CO2 from energy used to heat water in UK homes accounts for 5% of the nation's total carbon ...
Western leaders draw water charter to protect resource
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Vancouver Sun: Immediate action must be taken to conserve Canada's fresh water supplies, a group of western premiers and territorial leaders agreed Tuesday. Premier Gordon Campbell joined his counterparts from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut for the two-day Western Premiers' Conference at Vancouver's Pan Pacific Hotel. The leaders agreed to a Water Charter Tuesday that makes protecting the resource a priority. In the charter, leaders agreed that water is "an ...
Obama to meet Gulf restoration pick
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Associated Press: President Barack Obama is to meet Thursday with Navy secretary and former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus (MAY'-buhs), the man he's tapped to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. The meeting will be held in the Oval Office, the White House said. Obama announced Mabus' selection in a prime-time speech Tuesday and said Mabus would be responsible for developing a restoration plan designed by local communities and Gulf residents and paid for by BP PLC. The White House said ...
Afganistan: New survey points to major water problems in Kabul
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Reuters: Afghanistan's capital Kabul could face water shortages in the next 50 years, with wells likely to dry up due to rising temperatures associated with climate change, said a U.S. study released on Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey study estimated drinking water needs in the Kabul basin area could rise six-fold in the next five decades because of rising population as refugees return and an increase in per capital water usage . Future water resources -- some already subject to ...
United States: EPA concerned about Monsanto pollution control dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Associated Press: Federal regulators are concerned that a dam built by Monsanto Co. earlier this year to trap phosphate mine runoff may be stopping more than just pollution. They say the dam has also halted millions of gallons of water in Sheep Creek that would otherwise help fill the Blackfoot River. The Environmental Protection Agency now wants the maker of Roundup herbicide to begin a costly treatment to remove selenium and heavy metals, then discharge clean water downstream, instead of ...
Polar Heat Bringing Harder Winters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Last winter's big snowfall and cold temperatures in the eastern United States and Europe were likely caused by the loss of Arctic sea ice, researchers concluded at the International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference in Norway last week. Climate change has warmed the entire Arctic region, melting 2.5 million square kilometres of sea ice, and that, paradoxically, is producing colder and snowier winters for Europe, Asia and parts of North America. "The exceptional cold and snowy ...