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Archive for September, 2010
Fireball tragedy in California suburb brings gas industry under scrutiny
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2010
Guardian: The natural gas industry is coming under intense scrutiny today, after a massive fireball ripped through a ruptured pipeline in a suburban town near San Francisco, killing at least four people, injuring dozens more, and burning more than 50 homes to the ground. The cause of the fire, traced to a pipeline operated by the Pacific Gas & Electric company in the town of San Bruno, was under investigation today. But it ramps up public pressure for the Obama administration to take a hard ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Fireball tragedy in California suburb brings gas industry under scrutinyRELEASE/VICTORY: Australian Timber Giant Gunns to End Old Growth Logging
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on September 10th, 2010
Shows strength of Tasmanian, Australian and global forest protection movements, yet need firm dates for commitments, and assurances other bad forestry practices will not be embraced. First and foremost, as Gunns pulls out of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, these old-growth native forests that were to be industrially cleared must be protected, not sold to others to log certified or otherwise. EIs network contributed mightily to victory.
By Earth's Newsdesk and Forests.org, projects of Ecological Internet (EI)
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
(Tasmania, Australia) - In a massive win for the environmental movement, the new head of Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited [search] has broke ranks with Tasmania's forest industry and confirmed it will pull out of native forest logging altogether. At an industry conference in Melbourne Thursday, Gunns new chief executive Greg L'Estrange announced the company will move away from logging native forests [search] and develop plantation-based products. Further, Gunns revealed it would quit the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, which was arguing for a continuation of native forest logging in the state.
The promises, if fully implemented, are a huge victory for Tasmania and Australias forest movement, such as the Wilderness Society, as well as a large body of ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on RELEASE/VICTORY: Australian Timber Giant Gunns to End Old Growth LoggingUnited Kingdom: Defra wants public to help shape water strategy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
Business Green: In a move apparently taken straight from David Cameron's vision for more open government, Defra has today launched an online survey calling on the public to help shape its up-coming overhaul of the UK's water policy. The department, which is currently working on a major Water White Paper designed to address rising climate change risks and fears over water supplies and affordability, will ask for ideas from the public on how to improve the UK's water industry. "There's a growing ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Defra wants public to help shape water strategyPacific sockeye salmon return in record numbers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
AFP: After years of scarcity, the rivers of the US and Canadian Pacific Northwest are running red, literally, with a vast swarm of a salmon species considered to be in crisis. Sockeye salmon, whose stocks ran perilously low last year, are gushing in record numbers from the Pacific Ocean toward their spawning grounds far inland. Since mid-August, in a torrent expected to last through early October, sockeye have plunged and leapt up Alaskan streams, massed through the mouth of the ...
Scarce Water Diverted by Greased Palms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The battle to resolve the global water crisis is being grossly undermined by bad governance: bribery, extortion, embezzlement and high-level corruption. "Corruption in the water sector is a root cause and catalyst for the global water crisis that threatens billions of lives and exacerbates environmental degradation," complains the Berlin-based Water Integrity Network (WIN) founded in 2006. The water crisis, it argues, is a governance crisis with corruption at its ...
Canada helps create an oil sands world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
Tyee: Efforts to develop oil sands in Alberta are serving as a model for many other nations eager to exploit similar reserves within their borders. Huge unconventional fuel reserves -- extra heavy crude, oil sands and oil shale -- lie untapped across the globe. These resources emit much more carbon than regular oil, causing green groups to call them climate killers. So far, only a small fraction of the planet's unconventional oil has been tapped. Most countries lack the necessary capital, ...
Shun oilsands, save ‘billions’: Greenpeace
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
Edmonton Journal: Canadians could save billions of dollars while reducing greenhousegas emissions and creating thousands of jobs if the country plots a new energy strategy that turns away from the oilsands industry, says a new report to be released today. The study, produced by the European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace International, is being released in advance of a world energy conference in Montreal and suggests the oilsands sector could become obsolete by 2050 through domestic and ...
Study: Pine beetle threat rising in warmer West
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2010
KTVZ: The potential for outbreaks of spruce and mountain pine beetles in western North America's forests is likely to increase significantly in the coming decades, according to a study conducted by U.S. Forest Service researchers and their colleagues. Their findings, published in the September issue of the journal BioScience, represent the first comprehensive synthesis of the effects of climate change on bark beetles. "Native bark beetles are responsible for the death of billions of ...
Studies: Climate change threatens bees, flowers, food
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 8th, 2010
USA Today: Climate change could threaten the pollination of plants and the watering of crops, both of which could affect food security, according to two studies released this week. New Canadian research suggests climate change may be causing flowers to open before bees wake up from hibernation, so the bees don't get early nectar and the flowers aren't pollinated. The findings could apply to a wide range of flowering plants such as tomatoes and strawberries. "Bee numbers may have declined ...
After the flood: ‘We are grateful for any help.’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 8th, 2010
Spiegel: The scope of the disaster is becoming more and more visible as flood levels fall along the Indus River in Pakistan. In the Swat Valley, controlled by the Taliban only last year, US troops are now helping the victims. It remains unclear as to who will gain their trust -- the government, the West or the extremists. The United States military transport helicopters arrive at daybreak, booming down from a sky where there is not a cloud in sight, now that the monsoon rains have ended. They ...