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Archive for August, 2010
Pakistan’s Climate Change Floods, Seen From Above
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
Wired News: A series of satellite photographs conveys the epic scale of the floods sweeping through Pakistan, leaving millions homeless and the world aghast at an extreme weather disaster that experts consider the new normal. Above at left is the central Pakistan city of Hyderabad on July 31. At right is the city on August 19, as floodwater swelled the Indus River. In coming days the water will reach the coast, joining tidal waters and inundating the floodplain. An estimated four million people ...
Officials: Oil probably didn’t cause fish kill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
AP: Louisiana officials say thousands of dead fish floating at the mouth of a shipping channel likely died from a seasonal lack of oxygen -- not the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Between 5,000 and 15,000 dead fish were found Sunday, collected in pockets of spill boom near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Species included crabs, sting rays, eel, drum, speckled trout and red fish. An investigation and samplings by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries show the ...
Pakistan disease threat ‘serious’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
BBC: Pakistan's prime minister says the government is "seriously concerned" about the potential spread of epidemic diseases in the flood-hit country. Yousuf Raza Gilani was speaking during high-level talks aimed at preventing a mass health crisis. Doctors in many areas are reportedly struggling to cope with the spread of diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. The UN says more than 17 million people have been affected by the floods, with about 1.2 million homes ...
Climate change, capitalism and war produce disaster in Pakistan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
rabble.ca: The massive floods in Pakistan that affect 20 million people are far from a random "natural disaster." Rather, they are a predictable result of global warming, capitalist development, and US-backed war. There have been 12 major floods in Pakistan since 1973, and three years ago the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of worse flooding to come due to global warming. This year is the hottest year in recorded history, which has brought Russia's worst ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change, capitalism and war produce disaster in PakistanIndia Bars Company From Mining Bauxite
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
AP: India on Tuesday refused permission to a London-based company to mine bauxite for its alumina refinery in the country's east, citing violations of environmental and human rights laws. The company, Vedanta Resources, set up an alumina refinery in Orissa state in 2008 hoping it would be allowed to extract three million metric tons of bauxite annually from mines in the Niyamgiri Hills. It has been getting bauxite from neighboring Chhattisgarh state. But the environment minister, ...
India rejects Vedanta mining plan on green worries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2010
Reuters: India on Tuesday rejected a plan by UK-based mining group Vedanta Resources Plc to mine bauxite in an eastern state over environmental concerns, a blow to the firm already facing hurdles to a planned $9.6 billion (6.2 billion pound) energy deal in the country. The decision comes after about four years of a global campaign against Vedanta's (VED.L) plan to mine in Orissa state that the government says could affect large swathes of forested hills considered sacred by indigenous ...
RELEASE/VICTORY: Vedanta Mine Plan on Sacred Tribal Mountain Halted by Indian Government
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on August 24th, 2010
Vedanta's controversial bauxite mine on the Dongria Kondhs tribal land has been stopped, after four years of protests by local peoples supported by Survival International and a wide range of affinity campaigns, including most recently by EIs Earth Action Network.
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
Controversial plans to develop a bauxite mine on sacred tribal land in India [search] have been cancelled by India's environment ministry. The Dongria Kondhs an indigenous tribe who have lived since time immemorial around the mountain Niyamgiri in the Indian state of Orissa demands have been met, and the area will remain wild, lush and sacred. Multi-national company Vedantas existing aluminum refinery in the area had polluted local rivers, damaged crops and disrupted the lives of the local tribe; and will now not be able to expand six-fold. This is a Dongria Kondh victory first and foremost.
The project has been delayed by four years because of the Dongria Kondhs intense opposition locally including the brandishing of bows and arrows as well as from environmental and tribal rights group. Globally, a loosely coordinated campaign sought to persuade multi-national Vedanta's shareholders and financiers to distance themselves from ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on RELEASE/VICTORY: Vedanta Mine Plan on Sacred Tribal Mountain Halted by Indian GovernmentTropical 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 ...
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 ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists say the toxic blue-green algae will only get worse on Ohio lakesMuch 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 ...