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Archive for August 27th, 2010
Flood Fears Downstream Hinder Plans to Divert Red River of the North
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
New York Times: The rush to subdue the intemperate Red River of the North is being second-guessed, despite years of biblical flooding and the best efforts of North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan (D). The Red River's waters have swelled past flood stage for 18 consecutive years, including a record-breaker and near-record-breaker in 2009 and 2010, respectively, that submerged whole sections of Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., twin cities the shallow river bisects like a scratch in a ...
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Engineers drain water trapped in French Alps glacier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
Reuters: Workers have begun draining a pocket of water trapped inside a glacier on Mont Blanc which authorities warned could burst at any time, endangering the lives of more than 3,000 residents in the French Alpine valley. The 65,000 cubic meters of water -- enough to fill 20 Olympic pools -- was discovered in the Tete-Rousse glacier last month by researchers of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). In 1892, trapped water from the same glacier burst and flooded the ...
Pakistan | Floods | Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
GlobalPost: Pakistan's floods, the worst natural disaster in recent memory, have the potential to spark a series of crises that could affect large parts of the world, illustrating perhaps better than ever the political and economic consequences of climate change, analysts and international aid groups say. Randolph Kent, executive director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme, said that disasters now are far more interactive than they were in the past and Pakistan's floods are the prime example. ...
On Louisiana coast, residents bemoan a lost summer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
Reuters: On a typical summer weekend in Grand Isle, Louisiana, Frank Besson's small gift shop would be filled with customers picking up a souvenir as they headed back home from a weekend visit to the beach. But this summer, business at the Nez Coupe is down about 95 percent, Besson said, as most of this coastal community's beaches remain shut. Motels are filled with workers hired by BP Plc to clean up its oil spill, not tourists. Since BP's ruptured oil well was capped in July, no oil ...
Russia grain export ban benefits US farmers, sparks talk on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: The International Grains Council on Thursday cut its forecast for global wheat output by 1.1 percent, primarily on the news that major grain exporter Russia has seen one-third of its crop wiped out by the worst drought in a century. To prevent inflation and ensure supplies for Russian tables and livestock, the Russian government banned all grain exports from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31. The news has sent crop prices soaring. It's bad news for grain importers, but increased demand may boost ...
Shelling Out For A Chesapeake Bay Oyster Comeback
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
NPR: Chesapeake oysters are a succulent treat that for centuries have been loved almost to extinction. But some scientists and business people are making headway in bringing back the bivalve, for the sake of oyster lovers and the bay. A successful restoration project, a report showing that fewer oysters are dying from disease, and the growth of oyster farming all give cause for optimism. Still, experts caution that Chesapeake oysters have a long way to go. Overfishing, disease and ...
Acrimony Behind the Scenes of Gulf Oil Spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
NYT: Richard Lynch was walking down the hall in BP's crisis command center in early May when some engineers rushed up, bearing bad news. "We've lost the cofferdam," they said. In fact the cofferdam, a 100-ton, four-story-high steel dome that the company had lowered to try to contain the flow of oil from its out-of-control well, had become clogged with icelike crystals and was rising in the water, full of flammable gas and oil. "I said: 'What the hell do you mean you've lost ...
US offers international help with shale gas extraction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
Business Green: The US has offered to help developing countries use shale gas as a cleaner alternative to coal. Making the offer at a conference earlier this week involving 20 countries, US officials pointed to national security and climate change mitigation as key drivers. Shale gas is derived from underground shale deposits that are broken up using a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Liquid is injected into faults in the shale, extending them and opening them up, which in turn frees up ...
Russia halts forest highway construction as opposition grows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
LA Times: Reporting from Moscow -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday announced that he had ordered highway work crews to stop cutting down trees in a renowned nature preserve outside Moscow. The statement came just hours after leaders of the ruling United Russia Party had urged him to reexamine the controversial project. Despite previous government and judicial approval of the construction effort, the project "demands additional analysis," Medvedev said in the statement on his video ...
South Africa: Snail may be extinct due to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2010
Daily Dispatch: CLIMATE change could have killed off a rare Southern African snail that somehow managed to survive for more than 95 million years. Discovered in 1929 high in the Lesotho mountains -- and not seen since -- a month long search by a Rhodes University student still could not find the elusive mollusk. "It may have already been wiped out by climate change," Janine Fearon explained yesterday. Although the MSc student found and studied two other endangered snails from the ...