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Archive for July, 2010
Mexican girls survive flood by clinging to tree for four days
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 11th, 2010
Guardian: Two girls aged nine and 10 have survived floods that wreaked havoc in Mexico by clinging to the branches of a tree for almost four days. Lizbeth Dalin and her younger sister Lesli Dalimel Gaona Trevino, who were found in the north-east state of Tamaulipas, told rescue workers they had survived without any food or water in that time. Authorities were alerted to their plight after the girls were spotted by a group of fishermen who had set up camp on the banks of a ...
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Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 11th, 2010
Toronto Sun: Still recovering from a 10-year drought on the world's driest inhabited continent, Australia is increasingly turning to the oceans that surround it for drinking water. Australia's five largest cities have embarked on a massive $13-billion plan to build desalination plants that can remove the salt from seawater and make it potable. By 2012, when the last plant is scheduled to be up and running, Australia's big cities will get 30% of their water from the oceans, The New York ...
Value of oil skimming Gulf flotilla is uncertain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2010
Associated Press: The value of one highly touted facet of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup -- the small navy of vessels skimming oil from the surface -- has proven all but impossible to measure, which could make it difficult to figure out how much damage BP is liable for when the gusher is finally stopped. BP and the federal government admit they have no idea how much oil has been collected by hundreds of boats that range from retrofitted fishing vessels to state-of-the art craft designed ...
We fiddle while Farm Belt copes with climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2010
Houston Chronicle: Legend has it that the Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Almost two millennia later, Congress keeps quarreling while the world keeps warming. Greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 70 percent from 1970 to 2004 and are projected to increase from 25 percent to 90 percent more by 2030. By the end of the century, global average temperatures are expected to increase by from 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius. In the face of this, food production is at risk and actions are needed. While the ...
Gulf oil spill panel to look at root causes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
Associated Press: The leaders of the new presidential oil spill commission say they will focus on how safety, government oversight and the ability to clean up spills haven't kept up with drilling technology. Panel members hold their first meetings Monday and Tuesday in New Orleans. Co-chairman William Reilly says existing clean-up technology and response plans are primitive. He and co-chair Bob Graham say they also will examine the root causes of the April 20 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of ...
Farming kicked up dust in West Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
Science Now: Dust from the Sahara desert can warm the atmosphere, increase the production of clouds, and prolong drought conditions. Now, researchers have found evidence that intensive farming is responsible for a significant portion of that dust. Experts are cautious, but the connection suggests that factoring in dust production could lead to better global climate models. The world's biggest sandbox is also its biggest source of airborne dust. The Sahara region's famous sandstorms also carry ...
Navy blimp arrives in New Orleans for Gulf duty
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
Associated Press: A blimp that will fly over the Gulf of Mexico so observers can spot oil slicks and ailing wildlife has arrived in the region. After being delayed by bad weather, the 178-foot long airship landed Thursday in New Orleans, where it will be based for the next several days. Coast Guard Cmdr. Howard Wright says the blimp is better suited for observation than a helicopter or plane, because it can move slowly over the sea at low elevations for up to 12 hours at a stretch. It is ...
Washington residents urged to water sun-baked city trees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Residents of the leafy US capital were delivered an unusual request Friday as the city sweltered under a prolonged heatwave: please water our trees. A statement from the forestry administration said it was "launching an effort to engage as many residents as possible in watering street trees so they survive this hot summer." Temperatures have soared along the East Coast in the past days, creeping above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) and cloaking the city's ...
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Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
Guardian: Saddam Hussein's draining of the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq – recorded as the Garden of Eden in the Bible - was one of the most infamous outrages of his regime, leaving a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them. But nearly two decades later the area is buzzing and twittering with life again after local people and a new breed of Iraqi conservationists have restored much of what was once the world's ...
US could experience many more heat waves in next 30 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2010
USA Today: Killer heat waves caused by climate change could become much more common in the United States over the next 30 years, a two-year study by scientists at Purdue University finds. Heat waves could become five times as likely between 2020 and 2029 in the western and central United States as they were from 1951-1999. The 2030s would be even hotter -- most of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico might experience at least seven summer seasons as intense as the hottest summers ever recorded ...
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