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Archive for July 13th, 2010
Mercury poisoning, the dark side of Colombia’s gold boom
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Reuters: Colombia's gold bonanza has a dark side, U.N. experts said on Tuesday: mercury poisoning spreading from miners to the population of a northwest state where they use mercury to extract the precious metal, U.N. experts said on Tuesday. Colombia is one of the world's top mercury polluters, as 50 to 100 metric tons of mercury are lost annually in the process of capturing gold while soaring prices push miners and artisans to extract ever more of the yellow metal, analysts say. "As ...
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Biodiversity threat to business is bigger than climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Greenwise Business: Biodiversity threat to business is bigger than climate change Greenwise Staff 13th July 2010 The threat from the decline in biodiversity should be viewed as larger and more urgent to business than climate change. That is one of the conclusions made by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which has contributed to the business perceptions of the risk posed by biodiversity loss to a major UN study launched in London today. PwC analysis shows less than one in ...
Biological bonanza
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
BBC: The scientists found bats, tiny rats and frogs in the Matthews Range The Matthews Range of mountains rises from the arid brown plains of northern Kenya like a green tropical island; its peaks looming above the dusty haze blanketing the otherwise featureless landscape. The flat lands that surround it stretch for almost 100km in any direction, leaving the Matthews blissfully isolated. The isolated mountain range is described as a "sky island" It has been this way ...
Customs seize thousands of dead pangolins
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Guardian: Chinese authorities have intercepted one of the biggest ever hauls of illegally smuggled pangolins, which were almost certainly destined for the dinner table. Customs officials in Guangdong boarded a suspect fishing vessel and seized 2,090 frozen pangolin and 92 cases of the endangered anteater's scales on 5 June, according to the conservation group Traffic, who have commended authorities for their work. Police have arrested the six crew members, including five Chinese ...
U.S. agriculture could be disrupted by climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Climate change is expected to disrupt agriculture in the U.S. Midwest, with high carbon dioxide promoting crop growth but stronger storms, drought, floods and migrating yields dampening yields. Overall, there are signs that crops will be stressed, and that weeds and insects will change their range. The Midwest climate has already become wetter and warmer, said Gene Takle, an atmospheric scientist at Iowa State University. That could mean a longer crop-growing season and savings on air ...
BP oil spill: Michelle Obama urges US holidaymakers to support Gulf coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Guardian: Michelle Obama today used her first visit to the Gulf coast devastated by the BP oil spill to urge Americans to support the local economy by spending their summer holidays there. However, after extolling the "thousands of miles of beautiful beaches" untouched by the spill and urging people to "do a few things [to] help this community", America's first lady headed back to Washington to prepare for a family holiday to a national park in Maine at the weekend. Conservative blogs, ...
United States: EPA seeks comment in Denver on fracking study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Associated Press: Natural gas industry groups on Tuesday urged the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the scope of an upcoming study on the effects of a natural gas extraction process known as fracking. Some environmental groups want the federal agency to also examine eventual effects on air quality. The EPA held the second of four public meetings to gather comments about its upcoming study on how drinking water might be affected by a method of extracting natural gas. The process -- called ...
BP to begin slowly choking off Gulf oil geyser
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Associated Press: A pivotal moment in the Gulf oil crisis hit an unexpected snag Tuesday evening when officials announced they needed more time before they could begin choking off the geyser of crude at the bottom of the sea. BP and federal officials did not say what prompted the decision or when the testing would begin on a new, tighter-fitting cap it had just installed on the blown-out well. The oil giant had been scheduled to start slowly shutting off valves on the 75-ton cap, aiming to stop the ...
Brazil: Amazon storm killed half a billion trees: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Reuters: A powerful storm destroyed about half a billion trees in the Amazon in 2005, according to a study on Tuesday that shows how the world's forests may be vulnerable to more violent weather caused by climate change. Researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans used satellite data, on-site observations and computer models to calculate that between 441 million and 663 million trees were killed by the storm that swept through the region in January 2005. The destruction was ...
United States: EPA public meeting in Denver focuses on fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday was holding the second of four public meetings to gather comments about an upcoming study of how drinking water might be affected by a method of extracting natural gas. The decades-old process -- called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- pumps water and chemicals underground at high pressure to help extract trapped oil and natural gas. The fluids break open fractures in shale formations, and sand or another substance is pumped in to ...