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Archive for June 17th, 2010
EPA moves to tighten water safety regulations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to tighten rules protecting the safety of water in public systems. A new rule proposed Thursday would call on water suppliers to make repairs whenever testing indicates the possibility of contamination. For example, that could mean when tests detect even harmless microbes, which could suggest a broken water main or other pathway that also might allow dangerous germs into the system. Currently, water systems are required to do ...
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Oil ends life on the water for Gulf boat captain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
Associated Press: Grounded by oil, the charter boat owner along Alabama's Gulf Coast known as Capt. Bligh walks past an old first mate. "Arrrrrrgh," Bligh growls like a pirate. He has beard like Santa Claus and a belt with saltwater fish embroidered in the webbing. Hardly anyone calls him by his real name, Brent Shaver. A lot of people don't even know it. Earlier this month, Shaver began a scary season -- one without fishing. He had to shut down his inshore guide business after oil from the ...
Rain impacts of warmth to persist
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
BBC: Impacts of man-made greenhouse warming on rainfall would endure long after temperatures fell, a study suggests. UK Met Office scientists constructed a hypothetical future in which carbon dioxide levels rise and then fall, and modelled what might happen to rainfall. Their computer simulation showed temperature falling decades after CO2's decline, with changed rainfall going on for several more decades after that. The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research ...
Film challenges safety of U.S. shale gas drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
Reuters: A new documentary purporting to expose the hazards of onshore natural gas drilling illustrates its point with startling images of people setting fire to water flowing from faucets in their homes. "GasLand," which premiers on cable's HBO on June 21, fuels the debate over shale gas and the extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, which involves blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and diluted chemicals into shale rock, breaking it apart to free the gas. It comes ...
United States: Re-Engineering Mississippi River Could Help Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
National Public Radio: The mighty Mississippi River may be the only thing with the enduring power to clean the marshes and waterways damaged by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But to put the river to work requires a massive rerouting of the waterway not a piece meal approach.
Africa push for ‘great tree wall’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
BBC: African leaders are meeting in Chad to push the idea of planting a tree belt across Africa from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. The Great Green Wall project is backed by the African Union and is aimed at halting the advancing Sahara Desert. The belt would be 15km (nine miles) wide and 76,775km (47,705 miles) long. The initiative, conceived five years ago, has not started because of a lack of funding and some experts worry it would not be maintained ...
Why the BP Spill is Bigger Than You Think
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
U.S. News and World Report: Americans are notoriously bad at math, so it may come as a shock to learn that the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is 42 times bigger than many people might have believed. It's not just because of the ballooning guesstimates of the size of the spill. It's also because the standard unit of measurement for oil makes the volume of goo sound smaller than it is, at least to the untutored ears of anybody who doesn't pump or process oil for a living. The oil industry measures crude ...
GEF backs ‘Great Green Wall’ with 119 million dollars
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: The Global Environment Facility announced Thursday at a summit in Chad that it will fund a "Great Green Wall" to reforest northern Africa to the tune of 119 million dollars (96 million euros). "We will make an allocation to each of your countries," GEF chief executive officer Monique Barbut told leaders from 11 nations in Ndjamena. "The size of the allocation will depend on the country. (...) The cumulative total of aid from the GEF comes to about 119 million dollars." The ...
Hayward estimates size of oil field at 2B gallons
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
Associated Press: BP CEO Tony Hayward says the reservoir that feeds the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico probably still holds about 2 billion gallons of oil. Appearing before a House subcommittee, Hayward estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil. At 42 gallons per barrel, that's 2.1 billion gallons. According to government estimates of daily flow figures, anywhere from 73.5 million to 126 million gallons gushed from the breached ...
Pakistan: Snouts in place, Kashmir glaciers lose thickness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2010
The News: The footprints of climate change are becoming increasingly visible in Jammu and Kashmir – a phenomenon borne out by a scientific investigation which concludes that glaciers are melting due to average temperature increase in this Himalayan region. The situation is particularly of deep concern for Pakistan, the lower riparian on Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers fed by glaciers in Kashmir. Interestingly, the glaciers are showing a differential response to increase in temperature even in ...