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Archive for August, 2010
Compensation czar takes charge of $20 billion BP fund
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
Reuters: A $20 billion compensation fund for economic victims of the BP Gulf oil spill opens for business on Monday amid accusations that the rules established by its administrator are unfair. Kenneth Feinberg who will run the fund said those who sustained financial loss because of the spill could claim for damages and he promised claimants more generous treatment than they would get if they sued the energy giant for damages. "The goal here is to try and explain to eligible claimants: ...
United States: Indian Point Nuclear Plant’s Toll on River Stirs Debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2010
NYT: Just beneath the wind-stippled surface of the Hudson River here, huge pipes suck enough water into the Indian Point nuclear plant every second to fill three Olympic swimming pools. And each second they take in dozens of organisms – fish and crabs, but mostly larvae – that are at the center of a $1.1 billion debate: should the plant have to put in cooling towers that would vastly reduce the intake of water? Yes, says New York State, which puts the annual death toll at nearly a ...
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Comments Off on United States: Indian Point Nuclear Plant’s Toll on River Stirs DebateOutrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger delta
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Guardian: A three-year investigation by the United Nations will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the Niger delta, causing outrage among communities who have long campaigned to force the multinational to clean up its spills and pay compensation. The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Outrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger deltaBrazilian Biofuels Run into EU Obstacles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Inter Press Service: Brazil has begun a counterattack on the European Union's measures for certifying crop-based fuels, which could lead to import barriers for this energy source coming from the South American giant. Brazil is the world's leading producer of sugarcane ethanol. The EU's certification requirements for ethanol and biodiesel are intended to ensure that their production and use represent a substantial reduction in emissions of greenhouse-effect gases, as compared to fossil fuels, and ...
South Pakistan braces for more floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Reuters: More than $800 million (514 million pounds) has been donated or pledged to help Pakistan's flood victims, the foreign minister said in Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of people in the south feared more destruction. Rising waters in Sindh province threatened to wreak havoc in U.S. ally Pakistan in a catastrophe that has made the government more unpopular and may help Islamist militants gain supporters. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed gratitude for the $815.58 ...
BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash Corp is timely as fertiliser market grows fast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Guardian: Welcome back, Marius. BHP Billiton's chief executive Marius Kloppers has re-entered the takeover battleground two years after abandoning an assault on rival Rio Tinto with a $39bn, $130-a-share hostile bid for Canadian fertiliser group Potash Corp. It might not sound glamorous, but potash, as we report opposite, has become a hot commodity. The fertiliser market is predicted to boom as emerging markets need more food for their populations, and as meat-eating becomes more common in ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash Corp is timely as fertiliser market grows fastClinton sparks debate by linking Pak floods with global climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Asian News International: Linking devastating Pakistan floods with global climate change, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the deluge and other extreme weather events in the recent past clearly points towards climate change getting worse. In an interview with a private television channel, Clinton said: "There is a linkage" between the recent spate of deadly natural disasters and climate change. "You can't point to any particular disaster and say, 'it was caused by,' but we are ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Clinton sparks debate by linking Pak floods with global climate changeCanada: B.C. wildfire smoke gives Calgary its worst air quality in seven years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2010
Calgary Herald: Calgary's air pollution levels soared Friday to heights not seen since 2003 as smoke from B.C.'s forest fires blanketed the city for a second day. The eerie haze continues to hang over much of Western Canada, with a warning that the elderly, small children and those with pre-existing respiratory conditions could be in for a tough weekend. Calgary's air-quality index sank into the very poor category Friday morning, then hovered into the poor and fair range for much of the day as ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: B.C. wildfire smoke gives Calgary its worst air quality in seven yearsAlaska leaders must unite on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2010
Dutch Harbor Fisherman: It is simply incredulous that as leaders and policymakers of the free world that our United States Senate could not come to a general understanding of the seriousness of the issues related to climate change. How many Alaska coastal villages most we lose, retreating glaciers or diminished fisheries must we suffer, in Alaska before our elected policymakers realize that our accelerated use of carbon in the last 100 years is placing all of our Alaskan environment in jeopardy? This past ...
Mauritania plants trees to hold back desert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2010
Reuters: Mauritania has launched a tree-planting program aimed at protecting its capital from the advancing desert and coastal erosion, a project that could eventually extend thousands of kilometers across Africa. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on Saturday planted the first of some 2 million trees that are meant to form a "green belt" around the capital, Nouakchott, and curb erosion elsewhere in the desert nation that straddles black and Arab Africa. "The aim of this green belt is to ...