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Archive for September 16th, 2010
Alien threat ‘needs swift action’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
BBC: Leading experts on invasive species are demanding Europe-wide legislation be put in place by next year to tackle the threat to native wildlife. The researchers want urgent action from the EU to protect Europe's indigenous species from these "alien invaders". Invasive, non-native animals, plants and microorganisms cause at least 12 billion euros of damage in Europe each year. The scientists are meeting at the Neobiota conference in Copenhagen. They are demanding ...
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Models show a 90 percent reduction of the magnitude of climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Daily Tech: Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology are looking to optimize climate change reduction by injecting sulfates into the stratosphere. George Ban-Weiss, lead author of the study, along with his team of Carnegie scientists, have studied how the injection of aerosols of sulfate into the stratosphere will affect Earth's chemistry and climate, and which aerosol distribution pattern will bring them closest to their climate goals. To do this, Ban-Weiss and his ...
Massive Fish Kill in Gulf Caused by “Dead Zone,” Oil?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
National Geographic: A huge fish kill in a Louisiana marsh was likely caused by annual low-oxygen conditions--but the Gulf oil spill may have been an additional "insult," experts say. The die-off occurred during a time of year when a giant low-oxygen "dead zone" regularly forms off the Gulf, according to Prosanta Chakrabarty, a fish biologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Agricultural runoff into the Mississippi River contains nutrients that support the growth of oxygen-hungry ...
Relief well intersects blown-out BP well in Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Associated Press: Crews started pumping cement Friday deep under the seafloor to permanently plug BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. A BP spokesman said there no longer was a need to use mud in tandem with the cement because pressure from the well wasn't an issue. BP expects the well to be completely sealed on Saturday. The government had previously said it expected the well to be declared dead by Sunday, but on Friday the Coast Guard indicated the culmination was likely to be ...
No environmental hurdle to restart Line 6A: EPA
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Reuters: There are no environmental factors precluding a restart of Enbridge Inc.'s key Line 6A crude oil pipeline, an official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. "There is nothing from EPA's standpoint that would preclude restart of the pipeline should (the U.S. Transportation Department) approve restart of the pipeleine," Susan Hedman, a regional EPA administrator, said on a teleconference. A Transportation Department official was not available to comment.
Gulf of Mexico bounceback seen distant after spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Reuters: Energy companies that operate in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico are having trouble obtaining permits for activities that are allowed under the government's drilling halt and a return to normal is not seen for years by some. The government put in place a deepwater drilling moratorium in May following BP Plc's (BP.L)(BP.N) disastrous Macondo well rupture that killed 11 people and caused a record crude oil leak. The drilling halt is expected to be lifted in November, but new safety ...
Company expects to meet Mich. oil cleanup deadline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
AP: Enbridge Inc. says it expects to meet a Sept. 27 deadline set by federal regulators for removing oil that spilled into southern Michigan waterways after a pipeline leak. The Canadian company says it's making progress on cleaning up the Kalamazoo River, a tributary called Talmadge Creek and other waterways and shorelines. More than 800,000 gallons of crude escaped from in the rupture, which Enbridge reported July 26. The line runs from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, ...
African ministers seek common biodiversity position
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
AFP: African environment ministers gathered in the Gabonese capital on Thursday to hammer out a common position ahead of a UN biodiversity conference in Japan next month. The continent "must have its voice heard" at both the October summit in Nagoya and next week's UN General Assembly in New York on issues related to biodiversity, Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba said in a video message. During the two-day conference, the ministers of around 20 countries would examine the views ...
Tourism one of the major causes of climate change, says filmmaker
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Times of India: CHENNAI: In one frame, Indian farmers talk about their crops failing due to the lack of rain. In another, foreign tourists in Mamallapuram go into raptures about the magic of India that draws them to it again and again. Are the two related? In author and filmmaker Pamela Nowicka's view, yes, as tourism is one of the major causes of climate change. In Chennai to screen her half-hour documentary Climate Change? No Thanks!', Nowicka spoke about the effects on tourism on the environment. ...
Restoring Ethiopia’s Forest Cover
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
IPS: Mesfin Mengistu has been growing trees on his two-hectare farm in Menagesha Woreda for years. "I understand planting trees helps maintain environmental balance, but I do it to earn extra income to cover the rising cost of fertilisers," Mesfin said. Wheat and maize are his main sources of income from his plot 45 kilometres west of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. In the last year, he has earned 10,000 birr (over $730) from his trees alone, an income most Ethiopian families would ...