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Archive for July 19th, 2010
Canada: Oil sands producers must cut emissions: U.S. envoy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Reuters: Oil sands producers must do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said on Monday, as the two countries move to harmonize rules on carbon dioxide cuts. Canada's oil sands, the largest crude reserve outside the Middle East, offer secure energy supplies for the United States. But David Jacobson, appointed as President Barack Obama's envoy to Canada in 2009, said the companies exploiting the resource must take further steps to reduce their environmental ...
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European Commission boosts environmental research with 205m
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Business Green: Environmental research projects across the EU are to get a EUR205m (£173m) leg-up courtesy of the European Commission. The cash is part of a EUR6.4bn programme of investment in "smart growth and jobs' unveiled in Brussels today by EC innovation commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. "Investment in research and innovation is the only smart and lasting way out of crisis and towards sustainable and socially equitable growth,' said Geoghegan-Quinn. "This package will contribute to new ...
Canada Coming With Worse Than Oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Fears of a trade dispute with Canada have made European Union officials reluctant to categorise tar sands from North America as a more polluting fuel than conventional petrol. Officials working for the EU's executive, the European Commission, are considering the implementation of a fuel quality law nominally designed to make transport cleaner. While the overall goal of the directive has been agreed -- that oil companies bring down their emissions of climate changing greenhouse ...
Kabul faces severe water crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Guardian: Kabul and its surrounding region are perilously short of water and may not be able to supply a fast-growing, more affluent population, a joint US and Afghan government scientific report has warned. Rapid population growth and expected temperature rises due to climate change mean the area – which just manages to support 6 million people today – will need six times more water by 2050, the US Geological Survey report says. More than half the shallow wells people now rely on will ...
Kline’s New Research on the Implications of Climate Change on Agribusiness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
PR Newswire: Kline & Company, a worldwide consulting and research firm, announced a groundbreaking new research initiative designed to gather research on climate change and its implications for agribusiness companies in the U.S. region. The first edition of Implications of Climate Change on Agribusiness 2010: U.S. Analysis is designed to help marketers with the essential long range planning in today's investment-heavy agricultural sector. Whether one believes that climate change is man-made or ...
A Livelihood from Whales – Without Hunting
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Inter Press Service: If you want to observe the charismatic southern right whale (Eubalaena australis), the most popular place to do so is off Argentina's Valdés Peninsula, an enclave on the Atlantic coast that relies on tourist dollars -- and therefore opposes whale hunting. From May to December, about a thousand of these whales gather in the Argentine waters to reproduce. Located in the southern province of Chubut, the peninsula is a protected natural area and, in 1999, UNESCO (United Nations ...
When climate change becomes a health issue, are people more likely to listen?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Physorg: Framing climate change as a public health problem seems to make the issue more relevant, significant and understandable to members of the public -- even some who don't generally believe climate change is happening, according to preliminary research by George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication (4C). The center recently conducted an exploratory study in the United States of people's reactions to a public health-framed short essay on climate change. They found ...
Along With the Heat, Scorched Lawns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
New York Times: They are the casualties in a profoundly parched region: the yellowed lawns; the scorched median strips on highways from Westhampton, N.Y., to West Orange, N.J.; and the orangy brown tree on the island in the lake in Central Park. Don't worry, says the Central Park Conservancy. The tree is not dead. After a week that was hot and mostly dry, New York sweltered through a weekend that felt even hotter than it was, because of high humidity. It was a time when many people finally ...
New Zealand: Rural women’s drought experiences key to policy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Times-Age: The reality of drought for rural Wairarapa women will be put under the microscope next year. University of Otago lecturer Dr Charlotte Chambers has just completed a series of nine interviews in Marlborough as part of a research project exploring the social well-being of rural women during drought in that region. The second phase of the project comprises a similar series of interviews of rural women in Wairarapa in May next year, she said, and the results from each region would ...
China: Three Gorges dam faces major test
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Guardian: China's Three Gorges dam faces its biggest test this week as rain storms threaten to swell upstream water levels beyond those that preceded the Yangtze's last devastating flood in 1998. Flood control is one of the major objectives of the 16m tonne concrete barrier, which was pushed through by the government despite concerns about the environmental and social impact. Torrential downpours, which have claimed at least 146 lives since the start of the month, have created the most ...