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Archive for July, 2010
Fishing families turn to fast food, ‘grind meats’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Associated Press: Grow up on the water, the children of southern Louisiana learn, and you'll never go hungry. As long as you can toss a line, a net or a trap, you can eat -- and eat well. Or you could, until now. Millions of gallons of oil from the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig have fouled some of the world's richest fishing grounds from Florida to Texas, and even though BP stopped the leak for the first time Thursday, more than a third of the Gulf of Mexico remains closed. For ...
BP oil cap may not have stopped leak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Guardian: Concerns are mounting about the new cap over BP's damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well after engineers detected seepage and a possible methane gas leak on the seabed. Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of the US government's response to the disaster, has written to BP demanding answers to "undetermined anomalies at the well head". US scientists grilled BP engineers last night about how the site is being monitored. Allen gave BP permission to keep the containment cap closed for ...
US fears Gulf seabed oil seepage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
BBC: The US fears oil may be seeping from the ocean floor near the stricken Gulf of Mexico oil well. The official in charge of the clean-up, Thad Allen, said if a substance leaking from the seabed was found to be methane this might mean oil was also leaking. US Oil Spill Damage assessment Alaska heals from 1989 spill Which way forward for BP? Ways BP has tried to stop the leak He ordered BP to submit a plan to reopen the capped well if the seepage was confirmed, so ...
Hedge funds accused of gambling with lives of the poorest as food prices soar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 19th, 2010
Guardian: Financial speculators have come under renewed fire from anti-poverty campaigners for their bets on food prices, blamed for raising the costs of goods such as coffee and chocolate and threatening the livelihoods of farmers in developing countries. The World Development Movement (WDM) will issue a damning report today on the growing role of hedge funds and banks in the commodities markets in recent years, during which time cocoa prices have more than doubled, energy prices have soared ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Hedge funds accused of gambling with lives of the poorest as food prices soarCabinet to consider conservation land mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
TV New Zealand: Cabinet will today consider and possibly make decisions on proposals to mine on conservation land, Prime Minister John Key said. The government has proposed removing 7000 hectares of conservation land in the Coromandel, Great Barrier Island and Paparoa National Park from schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act, which protects it from mining, so valuable minerals can be extracted. However Labour has previously said that figure has been reduced to 3500ha. More than 30,000 ...
Philippines: NGO promotes ducks as solution to global warming, rice insufficiency
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Business Mirror: While the world's leaders are scratching their heads and expensive think tanks wrack their brains trying to find answers to global warming and food security, a nongovernment organization here is propagating a solution that hit these two problems at one go, but has not talked much about its successes. Instead, the Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National Development (Parfund) Inc. is letting its ducks do all the "quacking." Through its Rice-Ducks Integrated Farming ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Philippines: NGO promotes ducks as solution to global warming, rice insufficiencyDrought is bad news for anglers in Scotland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Scotsman: THE worst summer drought in more than 30 years has dried up some of Scotland's top salmon rivers, leading to unusually low catches and fish found with bellies rubbed raw by gravel. Anglers on major fishing beats say water levels are at their lowest since the long hot summers of the mid-1970s, stopping wild salmon and sea trout from getting up rivers. The water is so shallow in places on the North and South Esks that midstrADVERTISEMENTeam gravel banks are clearly visible and anglers ...
N.J. firms pouring billions into wind, solar ventures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
New Jersey: Investors chasing high returns like to get in early on the next big thing. For some pioneering firms in New Jersey, that means multimillion dollar bets on clean energy. From Short Hills to Princeton, public and private companies are committing their own capital, or that of large investors, to building wind and solar farms and developing other types of renewable power, as well as smart-grid and energy-storage technologies. Despite the worldwide recession, total venture capital ...
Canada: Clayoquot Under Siege
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Pacific Free Press: Those who fought to save the trees at Clayoquot and the tens of thousands of their fellow citizens – indeed environmental defenders from all over the globe - would, if they knew the truth, be appalled and ashamed and fighting mad at what has happened since 1994 when then Premier Mike Harcourt thought he had protected much of the Clayoquot old growth timber. The battle known as the "War In The Woods" solved little if anything when all's said and done. [For complete article reference ...
BP cleanup wages to be deducted from spill claims
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2010
Associated Press: The federal administrator of a $20 billion Gulf oil spill compensation fund says the wages earned by people working on BP's cleanup will be deducted from their claims against the company. Kenneth Feinberg told The Associated Press on Sunday the fund is designed to compensate fishermen and others for their lost income. If BP PLC is already paying someone to help skim oil and perform other cleanup work, those wages will be subtracted from the amount they're eligible to claim from the ...