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Archive for September 11th, 2010
New Report Seeks To Improve Climate Forecasts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
redOrbit: From farmers to government officials in charge of efficiently managing Earth's precious water and energy resources, people all over the world rely on accurate short-term climate forecasts on timescales ranging from a few weeks to a few years to make more informed decisions. But today's climate forecast systems have limited ability to operate on such timescales. That's because it's difficult to realistically represent the complex interactions between Earth's ocean, atmosphere and land surface ...
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Egypt: Barge leaks 100 tons of gasoline into Nile
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
AP: A barge has leaked some 100 tons of gasoline into the Nile River in southern Egypt after it became partially submerged while workers unloaded its cargo. The vessel docked Saturday in Aswan, about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) south of Cairo, when part of the barge sank below the surface and began spewing gasoline into the river. The leak has since been stopped. Officials in three southern Egyptian provinces have declared a state of emergency to contain the spill and to prevent ...
Local Decisions Have Big Impact on Ecosystems
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
IPS: What do New York City, Vienna, Quito and Rio de Janeiro have in common? They all get their high quality drinking water through aqueducts connected to protected areas in nearby hills and mountains. Twenty years ago, a rapidly expanding New York City determined it was far cheaper to protect and restore the source of its water supply, the Catskill/Delaware forests and wetlands, than spend six to eight billion dollars on a water treatment plant. Cities are dependent on nature. ...
BP Report on Oil Spill Disaster Met with Scepticism
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
IPS: The report released Wednesday by energy giant BP of its internal investigation into the catastrophic explosion in April of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the subsequent spill from the Macondo oil well has been met with criticism by watchdog groups who question the company's motives. "BP is distributing the blame and deflecting responsibility for the incident so they can justify their continued operation in the Gulf," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, told ...
Lumbering along, barely
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
HCN: Brad Siegel can clear 6 to 10 acres of beetle-killed timber in a day with a full crew. This summer, however, he's settling for a single acre per day, as he removes topple-prone trees from campsites and insulates Keystone, Colo., from wildfire. There's just not a market for the wood. When Siegel calculated the per-acre rate he would charge the White River National Forest for this stewardship contract back in 2008, he anticipated offsetting costs by selling the timber to a local stove ...
United Kingdom: Earth, wind and fire: How tapping into the natural world is going mainstream
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2010
Independent: Water In short supply in many parts of the world, water will be come even more scarce as demand grows. Average consumption in the UK, at 146 litres per person a day, is only slightly less than the 152 litres used daily 15 years ago. The heatwaves and water restrictions of recent years have, however, encouraged some, such as 34-year-old Neil McNiven, an electronics engineer from Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, to do more to save water. "I started collecting rain in various ...