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Archive for September 27th, 2010
Climate change mars achievements in water, sanitation: Hasan Mahmud
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
Daily Star: Climate change is threatening to bring down all the previous achievements of Bangladesh in water and sanitary sectors and making it harder to meet the millennium development goal. State Minister for Environment and Forest Dr Hasan Mahumud said it yesterday at a dialogue calling to integrate climate change issues with relevant sectors including water and sanitary, agriculture, health, education and industry for sustainable water resource management stating Bangladesh as the most ...
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Enbridge gradually restarts Michigan oil pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
AP: After a two-month shutdown, oil flowed Monday through a pipeline that leaked more than 800,000 gallons of oil in southern Michigan this summer, with some of it polluting a major river. Enbridge Inc. confirmed the gradual restart of the pipeline running between Griffith, Ind., and Sarnia, Ontario, was under way in a short statement released Monday evening. The pipeline had been shut down since the company reported a massive oil leak July 26. An estimated 820,000 to 1 million gallons ...
Ohio farms more at risk as world warms, expert says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
Dayton Daily News: Ohio should start preparing now for a hotter planet that puts a top industry, agriculture, at risk, according to the state's climatologist. Ohio State University geography professor and State Climatologist Jeffrey Rogers said weather extremes that already have hit Ohio are leading indicators of climate change. The state climatologist, an unpaid position, is designated by the federal government as the person to keep track of the state's climate data. Agriculture is estimated to be ...
Could industrial interests ruin payments for environmental services?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
Mongabay: One of the biggest ideas in the conservation world over the past decade is Payments for Environmental Services, known as PES, whereby governments, corporations, or the public pays for the environmental services that benefit them (and to date have been free), i.e. carbon, biodiversity, freshwater, etc. For example, Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is the largest such proposed PES concept, yet many others are emerging. However, a new study in ...
US commission told 50 percent of oil spill remains in Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
AFP: More than half the oil released from a busted BP well remains in the Gulf of Mexico, a presidential panel was told Monday, as the US pointman lamented a "dysfunctional" response to the disaster. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar meanwhile told the bipartisan commission that the spill had bolstered a drive to reform federal regulations for offshore drilling, promising that lessons were learnt. In an ominous sign for Gulf residents, however, oceanographer Ian MacDonald told the ...
Save the planet – a message from another world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
Guardian: Jacinto Zarabata sits in a suburban back garden in north London and unselfconsciously uses a stick to probe the inside of a gourd, which is shaped like a rather phallic mushroom with a bright yellow cap. The first member of the Kogi people of Colombia ever to visit Britain is wearing traditional rough cotton clothes and has a cloth bag slung over each shoulder as he chews toasted coca leaves. It would be easy to view Jacinto as a noble savage; an exotic being from a pristine ...
Ugandan forest being stripped for fuel wood
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
Mongabay: A new study in the open access journal of Tropical Conservation Science finds that the Kasagala forest reserve in central Uganda is losing important tree species and suffering from low diversity of species. Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this ecosystem. The Kasagala forest reserve, according to the authors, was "previously set aside to provide ecosystem services and offer catchment protection to Lake Kyoga, an inland ...
Are human actions making natural disasters more destructive?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2010
CNN: As Pakistan struggles to recover after one of the worst floods in its history, questions are already being asked about how human decisions may have exacerbated the effects of this natural disaster. "Human activities have made the impacts of disasters more destructive," Claire Seaward, Oxfam, told CNN. In Pakistan, as in many countries around the world, a growing population has forced more and more people to live in vulnerable coastal areas and floodplains. "Increasingly, ...