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Archive for September 20th, 2010
Climate change could spell disaster for national parks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Miller-McCune: National parks are slowly being done in by global warming, so much so that experts believe the Joshua trees may not last the century. The National Park Service is now officially tackling global warming's effects on its nearly 84 million acres of scenic land. (U.S. National Park Service) Related Stories Glacier National Park in Montana, one of the 10 oldest parks in the United States, is celebrating its centennial this year, but its glaciers won`t be around for another 100 years: They ...
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Floods in northern India sweep away homes, crops
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Reuters: Unusually heavy monsoon rains over northern India have flooded villages, leaving more than half a million people homeless and submerging crops in a key sugar producing region, officials said on Monday. Torrential rains have lashed the impoverished and densely populated state of Bihar since Friday, causing the Gandak river to overflow and sweep away hundreds of homes and destroy 30,000 hectares of rice, maize and sugarcane. In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, at least 50,000 hectares ...
United Kingdom: Working to reverse peat erosion
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
BBC: In the process of scaling the Lake District fells and Pennines the air cools and clouds are forced to shed much of their load of water before they get to us. Seathwaite in Cumbria is the wettest inhabited place in our region with average annual rain fall of 3300mm. That's six times that of the region's driest place, our very own Whitby, where we expect just 560mm each year. Perhaps we don't have too much to complain about after all! Protective peat bogs We ...
Fighting to save glaciers as they retreat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
IPS News: Argentina's glaciers, along with Chile's the most extensive of South America, manifest the damage caused by climate change, while they also face threats from mining and major transportation infrastructure projects. A law to protect them has been postponed yet again. Glaciers are vast reserves of freshwater, vital for feeding rivers, lakes and underground water tables. But rising global temperatures are shrinking their ability to serve that function. "Climate change is ...
BP oil spill cost hits nearly $10bn
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Guardian: BP's bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill has reached nearly $10bn (£6.4bn), as the US government declared that the blown-out well has finally been plugged, five months after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. The beleaguered oil company revealed that its total cost of the spill had climbed to $9.5bn. BP also said payouts to people affected by the spill such as fishermen, hoteliers and retailers had dramatically increased since it handed over authority for ...
A Rebranding for ‘Global Warming’?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
New York Times: Is the White House trying to rebrand global warming? That`s the impression that some conservative-leaning media outlets and blogs formed after recent remarks on climate change by John P. Holdren, a top White House science adviser. Getty ImagesJohn P. Holdren, the top White House science adviser. In a speech in Oslo on Sept. 6, Dr. Holdren called "global warming" a "dangerous misnomer" because it implied that the impact of greenhouse gases would be gradual, uniform across ...
Crystal-clear river becomes first in Madagascar to wins Ramsar protected status
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Mongabay: The Nosivolo river and its watershed has become Madagascar's first Ramsar site, reports Conservation International. The designation will enable better protection of the river's resources, including conservation of its 19 endemic fish species. "This is a huge success for the local community and for global conservation. I hope it will create opportunities for conservation of other important rivers in Madagascar," said Nick Davidson, the Deputy Secretary General for the Ramsar ...
India: Jatropha Boom Yields Tough Lessons
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Inter Press Service: With a gas-guzzler of an economy, India had been spending tens of billions of dollars annually to import petroleum. And so its 2009 policy on biofuels mandated that by 2017, India would have enough biofuel production to cover at least 20 percent of the country's oil consumption. The government has in fact been encouraging the cultivation of jatropha curcas for the past seven years, believing that would be the fastest way to have the volume of biofuel the country would need – 13 ...
FDA panel to consider GMO salmon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Reuters: The first genetically modified animal could move one step closer to U.S. dinner tables on Monday, when a federal advisory panel recommends whether such food -- a salmon -- is safe to eat. Both Food and Drug Administration staff and the salmon's maker, Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, have said the fast-growing fish appears to be the same as normal Atlantic salmon and poses little threat to the environment or diners. But some consumer advocates, environmentalists and others have ...
George Soros delivers harsh words for climate change movement
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2010
Financial Post: Beyond billions in government support, what's really needed to tackle climate change is trillions in private financing, a panel at the opening ceremony of Climate Change NYC said today. To help with the effort, Steve Howard, CEO of the not-for-profit Climate Group and the panel's host, joked that anyone whose mobile phone rang during the hour of presentations would be assumed to be wishing to make a donation to the cause. Moments later, as Quebec Premier Jean Charest's began his ...