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Archive for August 4th, 2010
Giant rubbish islands threaten China dams
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: Vast floating islands of rubbish and debris, accumulated after torrential rains and flooding, are threatening to topple a bridge and jam two big dams in China, state media reported on Wednesday. One layer of garbage covering 15,000sq m – had lodged under a bridge in the north-eastern city of Baishan in Jilin province and was blocking water flow, the China Daily reported. Officials fear a fresh wave of flooding, if crews fail to clear the debris, could bring down the bridge. If ...
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Heat wave and drought shrivel harvests across Europe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Wall Street Journal: A woman digs out potatoes Tuesday in her former garden, ravaged by wildfires that also burned her house, in Verkhnyaya Vereya village, Russia. The scorching temperatures and dry skies threatening Russia's wheat harvests have also been beating down on Western Europe, which is forecasting lower output of crops from French wheat to Italian tomatoes. Russia's Agriculture Ministry Tuesday cut its forecast for the country's 2010 grain output to between 70 million and 75 million ...
New York City’s Parallel to Gulf Oil Spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
New York Times: The salt marshes are long gone from Newtown Creek, and so are most of the birds and fish. Instead, this waterway straddling Brooklyn and Queens is dotted by bulkheads and containment booms meant to keep oil away from the shoreline while underground pumps work around the clock removing petroleum from adjacent land. Decades in the making and confined to a corner of industrial New York, the oil spills in and along Newtown Creek lack the drama of disasters like the current one in the Gulf ...
Giant trash islands threaten China bridge and dams
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: Vast floating islands of rubbish and debris, accumulated after torrential rains and flooding, are threatening to topple a bridge and jam two big dams in China, state media reported on Wednesday. One layer of garbage covering 15,000 square meters -- more than 150,000 square feet - had lodged under a bridge in the northeastern city of Baishan in Jilin province and was blocking water flow, the China Daily reported. Officials fear a fresh wave of flooding, if crews fail to clear ...
Cameroon cholera deaths rising as heavy rains bring flooding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: The death toll from cholera in far northern Cameroon has surged above 100 after unusually heavy rains triggered severe flooding and landslides that have submerged houses and made traditional pit toilets unusable, officials say. "We have never witnessed such an alarming death toll due to cholera or any other epidemic before," said Joseph Beti Assomo, governor of Cameroon's Far North region. In 2009, he said, Pouss - a northern border town with neighbouring Chad - saw 35 cholera ...
China says waters on North Korean border surge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: Water levels on the two main rivers which divide China from North Korea are dangerously high, state media said on Wednesday, augering potentially devastating floods for China's diplomatically isolated neighbor. Flooding in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, which borders North Korea, has killed at least 74 people in the last two weeks and forced the evacuation of around 784,000 people, state news agency Xinhua said. The Yalu and Tumen rivers, which border ...
Niger marks independence by focusing on famine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Agence France Presse: Niger on Tuesday celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence after the military ruler called for agricultural reforms under the shadow of a famine that threatens the lives of millions. After a long drought, the poor sub-Saharan country in west Africa is again confronted with a food crisis that threatens seven million people, or almost half the population, according to the United Nations. But General Salou Djibo, who took power in a coup earlier this year, said in a ...
United Kingdom: Companies ‘must adapt’ to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Financial Times: Companies are ill-prepared for the floods and droughts that are likely to become more commonplace in an era of global warming, says a survey published on Wednesday by Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary. Only 23 per cent of businesspeople interviewed had taken any action to counter the impact of climate change, according to the survey by pollsters Ipsos Mori for Defra, the environment department. That was despite three-quarters of those surveyed saying they were ...
United States: Enbridge says two-thirds of spill oil gathered up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: Enbridge Inc said on Tuesday it has removed two-thirds of the more than 800,000 gallons of oil spilled into a Michigan creek last week when one of its pipelines ruptured, as U.S. regulators reported the waters of the Kalamazoo River have begun to clear. Susan Hedman, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said little oil sheen remained on the Kalamazoo eight days after clean-up efforts began. "The water surface looked very clear on both Talmadge ...
Refiners feel pinch from Enbridge line shutdown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 4th, 2010
Reuters: A second oil refiner has reduced operating rates as some U.S. and Canadian refineries processing more than 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil felt a supply pinch on Wednesday due to Enbridge Inc's ruptured crude pipeline. United Refining said it has cut rates at its 70,000 bpd refinery in Warren, Pennsylvania due to Enbridge's crude oil pipeline rupture early last week. A company spokesman did not elaborate as to how much rates were cut or if the refinery had an alternate ...