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Archive for August, 2010
Canada: New Findings on Toxic Pollutants and Oil Sands Mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
NYT: Native Canadians living downstream from the oil sands mines in Alberta have long contended that their high cancer rates were related to the expanding excavation of bitumen for the production of synthetic crude. Their assertions have been disputed by the reports of a joint oil industry-government research panel that concluded that natural causes -- and not mining -- were responsible for the high levels of various metals in the sub-Arctic Athabasca River. But now a new study in the ...
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China Takes Another Stab at Resettlement With $62 Billion Water Plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2010
National Geographic: While the residents of Majestic Mansion, a new high-end real estate development on the outskirts of Beijing, splash in their glittering blue swimming pool, residents of lakeside Danjiangkou City, just 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) away in neighboring Hubei Province, are packing up their belongings. They are leaving because the Chinese government will soon flood their village to expand the local reservoir. It turns out these two communities are tied to each other by lopsided demands for water, ...
Sewage Could Spawn Hurricane Protection, Wetland Growth in New Orleans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2010
National Geographic: Standing among the overgrown lots and derelict homes of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, it is hard to imagine that the wetland abutting this neighborhood used to be a fisherman's paradise, houseboat community, and retreat destination. Bayou Bienvenue is now a degraded 30,000-acre swampy wasteland confined by years of flood management engineering--the Industrial Canal to the west, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the north, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) to the east, and an ...
Deepwater Horizon fears resurface as rigs probe for oil under Arctic ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
Guardian: In a few days' time, officials at the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland will reveal the winners of a new round of licences to drill for oil and gas in its waters. The announcement promises to be explosive. Among those waiting are most of the world's leading oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and Norway's StatOil. Watching with equal attention will be the planet's leading green groups, who they have pledged to block every effort to drill in the Arctic. "The ...
Canada’s lost salmon found
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
AFP: Sockeye salmon, which mysteriously vanished last year prompting a government inquiry, are expected to return to Canada's Fraser River this month in numbers not seen since 1913, officials said Wednesday. "Test fishing catches of sockeye have continued to be strong in the marine approach routes over the past several days," the Pacific Salmon Commission said in a report. "Current run size assessments suggest that the total Fraser sockeye return this season is slightly over ...
Saved from Pakistan’s endless sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
Guardian: At first it looks like just another tiny island of ruined and abandoned buildings, poking out of the vast, unnatural inland sea that stretches away into the distance on all sides. But as the boat edges closer, gliding over the tops of bushes and brushing over raised banks that were once roads, it is clear that this one is different. There are people here, pouring out of their rough shelters, streaming down to the water's edge, shielding their eyes from the sun, squinting to get a ...
South Pakistan floods displace a million in 48 hours
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
BBC: Fresh flooding in southern Pakistan has displaced almost a million people in the past 48 hours, the UN has said. In Sindh province, 70% of the 300,000 residents of the town of Thatta have been forced to flee to safer areas after the Indus river burst its banks. A UN spokeswoman said teams in the south were working around the clock. Further north, floodwaters are starting to recede, revealing the full extent of the damage caused by the disaster that has affected some 17 ...
Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
Nature: With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins. Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden ...
Endangered sea turtles released off Singapore waters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
AFP: Thirteen endangered sea turtles born and bred in Japan were released off Singapore waters Tuesday as part of efforts to conserve the species. The five one-year-olds and eight three-year-olds are the offspring of Hawksbill turtles donated by the Underwater World Singapore aquarium to the Port of Nagoya aquarium in 1997 and 2002. They were brought to Singapore earlier this year and kept at the Underwater World aquarium before the eventual release into their natural ...
Drought in Russia ripples beyond the wheat fields
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2010
NYT: Early reports from Russia's harvest indicate that yields of wheat and barley are down sharply, as predicted after a major drought here this summer that has helped send global wheat prices up sharply since June. Despite the implications for Russian consumers and the global market, the crop failures may translate to a relatively minimal financial effect on the country's agricultural companies, which before the drought were just catching their stride after an overhaul of Soviet-era ...