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Archive for July, 2010
Brazilian Indians take hostages at Amazon dam site
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 25th, 2010
Reuters: Brazilian native Indians on Sunday took 100 workers hostage at the construction site of a hydroelectric plant in the southern Amazon region, local media reported. As many as 400 Indians from several different tribes occupied a power plant they say was built on an ancient burial site. "They didn't take into account the situation of the Indians. The company used dynamite to blow up part of an archeological site," Antonio Carlos Ferreira de Aquino, a local administrator with the ...
Flooding, tornadoes in Midwest as storms continue
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Reuters: Powerful storms spawned by intense heat and humidity produced flooding and tornadoes in the Midwestern United States on Saturday, disrupting travel and cutting power to thousands of homes. The National Weather Service said more than 7.5 inches of rain -- the amount the city would see over two months during a normal summer -- fell at Midway Airport in Chicago in the past day. "A large area is being impacted by this system," said Jack Hales, a weather service forecaster based in ...
Drilling down on fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Living on Earth: YOUNG: Natural gas is a hot topic. A spate of high profile reports and a series of public hearings this month explore the pros and cons of this booming energy source. The Environmental Protection Agency is getting public input as it considers regulation for what's commonly called "fracking." Hydraulic fracturing releases natural gas from deep in the earth by injecting water and chemicals into layers of shale. As EPA is hearing, fracking is also creating problems. Colorado resident ...
Canada: The energy bridge to China
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Globe and Mail: They are the scouts of a new frontier, slipping beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. Few notice, and even fewer understand their importance. But the growing numbers of crude tankers steaming past Vancouver to the Pacific are quietly rewriting the politics and economics of Canadian energy. Their destination: China, land of mounting energy thirst and growing energy might. The first vessel, loaded with Alberta crude, set sail roughly half-a-decade ago. Ever since, the numbers have ...
Ontario faces U.S. challenge in developing Great Lakes wind power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Toronto Star: Anders Soe-Jensen shows enthusiasm, he cites opportunity, he trumpets potential, but when asked if Denmark-based Vestas has plans to manufacture offshore wind turbines in Ontario the good-humoured executive backs away from commitment. The tease. "It's too early," he said, sipping coffee at a downtown hotel one morning. Still, as global president of Vestas' offshore wind division, Soe-Jensen made it clear that the province – and more generally, the prospect of developing ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Ontario faces U.S. challenge in developing Great Lakes wind powerObama and oil spill: Lessons from corporate world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Associated Press: As chief executive officer of America Inc., Barack Obama has walked the factory floor when it comes to managing the federal response to the Gulf oil spill, going directly to front-line workers. He's used wiles respected in the boardroom in wringing a $20 billion commitment from BP. But what was that talk about kicking butt? That's so assembly line Ford Motor Co., circa 1930. And why on Earth did it take him so long to talk to BP's chief? A real CEO would have had Tony ...
Despite oil, baby turtles being released to Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Associated Press: Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-sized swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its goopy mess. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are proceeding with the annual release of Kemp's ridley turtle hatchlings off Padre Island National Seashore because Texas has not been significantly impacted by the oil ...
Building green without losing greenbacks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2010
Washington Post: Although home builders have the opportunity to make a huge impact on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming, very few mention it in their sales pitches. To make a difference, home builders do not have to reinvent the house; they simply have to build ones that use less energy. Their challenges are minor compared with those faced by automakers shifting to plug-in hybrids, electric, and hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered cars. Builders can achieve significantly ...
Pakistan’s drinkers of the dust
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 23rd, 2010
Globe and Mail: The Indus looks nothing like the mighty river from history books. Alexander the Great once sailed galleys along these waters; centuries later, the British used steamboats. Now, the decaying remnants of boats are stranded high on the sandy banks, dozens of metres above the brown trickle that was once a legendary river. Only small fishing skiffs remain on the water, and most sit empty. As a sandstorm sweeps down from the dunes, obscuring the river with its haze, a fisherman named Ghulam ...
Technique for arsenic-free water developed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 23rd, 2010
SciDev.Net: A novel approach to arsenic removal could lead to a quick and inexpensive purification of drinking water in developing countries. Previous research demonstrated that arsenic can be removed from water using activated carbon or iron minerals, such as magnetite nanocrystals. However, such particles are too small to be effective in flowing water and they quickly degrade when exposed to the atmosphere, rendering them useless. Now scientists have combined the nanocrystals with ...