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Archive for June, 2010
United States: Ottawa to study effects of climate change on coasts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
Canadian Press: The federal government is trying to come up with ways to protect millions of dollars worth of vulnerable infrastructure and coastline, years after it was urged to adapt to the effects of climate change. Ottawa has solicited a study on how some of the 1,000 small craft harbours that are critical to the fishing industry could be affected by rising sea levels, storm surges and a loss of shorefast ice -- all linked to climate change. The call for proposals from the Department of ...
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Comments Off on United States: Ottawa to study effects of climate change on coastsHow Obama decided to expand offshore oil drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
McClatchy Newspapers: Weeks before the world had ever heard of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, President Barack Obama stood in the Roosevelt Room of the White House poring over maps of oil drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and elsewhere. Satisfied that he knew all he needed to know and confident that it was safe, he decided to propose expanded offshore drilling. "This is not a decision that I've made lightly," he said when he unveiled his proposal on March 31. "Oil rigs today ...
Utah park remains closed following oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
Associated Press: Emergency workers believe they have stopped a 21,000-gallon oil leak from reaching the environmentally sensitive Great Salt Lake, one of the West's most important inland water bodies for migratory birds that use it as a place to rest, eat and breed. But the spill has taken a toll on wildlife at area creeks and ponds, coating about 300 birds with oil and possibly threatening an endangered fish. The leak began Friday night when an underground Chevron Corp. pipeline in the ...
Obama to visit oil-hit Gulf region
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama will address the nation after he returns from a trip to the Gulf of Mexico region stricken by the country's worst ever oil spill, a top aide said on Sunday. "The president is going down to the Gulf on Monday and Tuesday to the states he hasn't visited, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. When he returns he will address the nation from the White House," David Axelrod said. "We're at a kind of inflection point in this saga. He wants to lay out the steps ...
US orders BP to set up fund for oil spill claims
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: US officials have demanded that BP set up a special fund to pay oil spill claims and said President Barack Obama will give a rare White House address next week, in a sign of the seriousness of the disaster both for the country and his presidency. As Obama prepared to tour stricken states on his fourth visit to the Gulf of Mexico since the disaster, top aides ordered BP to set up an escrow account to pay legitimate claims and let an independent panel oversee the process. The ...
A Vital River Is Withering, and Iraq Has No Answer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2010
New York Times: The Shatt al Arab, the river that flows from the biblical site of the Garden of Eden to the Persian Gulf, has turned into an environmental and economic disaster that Iraq's newly democratic government is almost powerless to fix. Withered by decades of dictatorial mismanagement and then neglect, by drought and the thirst of Iraq's neighbors, the river formed by the convergence of the Tigris and the Euphrates no longer has the strength the keep the sea at bay. The salt water of ...
Russia: Sturgeon: On the edge of extinction
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on June 13th, 2010
Independent (UK): As glum Russian fishermen haul in their net from the Volga river, just two small sturgeon are splashing about among the daily catch. "In the old days, we would catch sturgeon each weighing 132lb," sighed Pavel Syzranov, the head of the once thriving Lenin fishery in southern Russia. "Now there are no sturgeon left of that size." Nor are there many of any size. Caviar poaching is all but eliminating the species, once a source of national pride. The relentless hunt for the so-called ...
Oil spill covers geese, ducks in Utah
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2010
Associated Press: A leaked pipeline caused oil to spill into a Salt Lake City creek Saturday, coating geese and ducks and closing a park, officials said. An estimated 400 to 500 barrels of oil spewed into Red Butte Creek before crews capped the leak site. Nearly 50 gallons of crude oil per minute initially had spilled into the creek, according to Scott Freitag, a Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman. "Our real concern is keeping people safe, and keeping the oil from reaching the Great Salt ...
United Kingdom: Surfers Against Sewage: the muck stops here
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2010
Guardian: Activists who form a campaign group usually have a noble desire to hand humanity a more progressive operating code. Humanity may or may not listen. Greenpeace's origins lie in the determination of a core group of activists to "bear witness" to nuclear testing beneath the island of Amchitka; Amnesty International's genesis was in lawyer Peter Benenson's article on two forgotten Portuguese prisoners, published in this very newspaper. The conception of Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), 20 ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Surfers Against Sewage: the muck stops hereEurope, US to see snowy, cold winters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Europe, North America and east Asia can expect more cold, moist and snowy winters such as the one just passed, a top scientist said Friday. While it may seem counter-intuitive, warmer Arctic climes caused by climate change influence air pressure at the North Pole, shifting wind patterns in such a way as to boost cooling over adjacent swathes of the planet. "Cold and snowy winters will be the rule rather than the exception," said James Overland of the US National Oceanic and ...