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Archive for August 23rd, 2010
Tropical storm to lash south China, bring more rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Reuters: Southern China is bracing for heavy rain and strong winds from a new tropical storm heading its way, state media said on Monday, the latest in a series of severe weather which has killed nearly 3,000 people so far this year. Tropical storm Mindulle is expected to hit the southern island province of Hainan late on Monday or early on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua said, before heading into neighboring Guangdong province and possibly affecting Vietnam. Ships have been stopped ...
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Scientists say the toxic blue-green algae will only get worse on Ohio lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Cleveland: "We're going to see a greener and greener lake until changes are made," said John Hageman of Stone Laboratory, Ohio State University's water research station on Gibraltar Island in western Lake Erie. "Everything points to this just getting worse." That might be hard to imagine. But it could help to survey the squalid situation at Grand Lake St. Mary's -- a large, inland lake in western Ohio. The 13,000-acre lake near Celina grabbed the attention of both the public and health ...
Much can be done to avert water problem, experts say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Herald: A recent study points to a combination of the growing population, rising temperatures and evapotranspiration all working together under the umbrella of global warming as the reason it claims that by 2050, all but one county in Arizona could risk facing serious water shortages. However, the report was met with some local skepticism, and even its lead author says it's just conjecture. Commissioned by the Natural Recources Defense Council, "Evaluating Sustainability of Projected Water ...
Hot river forces costly cutback for TVA
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Times Free Press: The Tennessee Valley Authority has lost nearly $50 million in power generation from its biggest nuclear plant because the Tennessee River in Alabama is too hot. Unless the summer cools down, TVA could lose millions of dollars more, pushing up fuel costs and consumer electric bills even after seven consecutive monthly increases. The Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Athens, Ala., has operated at only about half power for most of the past month and could remain at reduced ...
Compensation Czar Takes Over BP Fund
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
National Public Radio: LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: Today, the man who managed the fund for 9-11 victims and pay packages for executives at bailed out companies officially takes over the BP claims process. Kenneth Feinberg will administer the $20 billion fund set to compensate oil-spill victims. And as NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports, the process is already under fire for being unfair. WENDY KAUFMAN: Kenneth Feinberg says he will make interim payments to eligible individuals within 48 hours. ...
As floodwaters recede, anger grows in northwest Pakistan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
McClatchy Newspapers: In the village of Drab Korona in northwest Pakistan, Sirajuddin returned to where his house had stood to salvage what he could. What he found was just a shallow muddy pool. "This was our house," the 30-year-old Sirajuddin, who goes by only one name as is common in the region, said as he pointed to the puddle. In northwest Pakistan, some villagers are returning home after the massive flooding only to find destruction and an absence of government help. The northwest ...
Ecuador: Yasuni and the New Economics of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
CNN: Yasunà is both a place and a metaphor. The place is a UNESCO Biopshere Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon where two indigenous communities, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, live in voluntary isolation. Below the biosphere lie the oil fields Isphingo, Tambococha and Tiputini, abbreviated to ITT. Yasunà the metaphor is the initiative for paying to keep that oil underground and leave the biological and cultural diversity undisturbed. Upon learning of just these bare-bone ...
UN official attacks international response to Pakistan floods crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Guardian: The British public is "shaming politicians across the world" with the generosity of its response to the devastating floods in Pakistan, the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said today. The committee – the umbrella organisation for British aid agencies – said the crisis caused by huge monsoon rainfall in the last three weeks combined the scale of the Asian tsunami, the destruction of the earthquake in Haiti and the complexity of the Middle East. Its chief executive, ...
Heavy rain brings floods and road chaos to southern England
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Guardian: Heavy rain has brought localised flooding and transport disruption to southern England, with forecasters warning of further heavy rainfall to come. Up to 4cm (1.5in) of rain – more than half the normal monthly total – fell on parts of the south in just a few hours overnight, and there were also gale force winds in places. The average August rainfall in southern England is 6-7cm. The Met Office issued severe weather warnings affecting six regions – Grampian, central ...
White House, Critics Reach Stalemate in Dispute Over Oil Budget in Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Greenwire: Neither the White House nor critics of an Obama administration report is crying uncle in a dispute over a government report suggesting that three-fourths of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is "gone." After being blasted by lawmakers, scientists and environmentalists in recent weeks, the administration is standing behind its claims that all but 26 percent of the oil is accounted for, despite widespread criticism that such a claim paints too rosy a picture of the situation in the ...