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Archive for October 25th, 2010
Feds OK Largest-Ever U.S. Solar Project In Calif
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
AP: The Obama administration has approved a thousand-megawatt solar project on federal land in southern California, the largest solar project ever planned on U.S. public lands. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hailed the $6 billion Blythe Project, to be built in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, Calif., as the start of a boom in solar power on federal lands. "Today is a day that makes me excited about the nation's future," Salazar said Monday at a news conference. "This project shows in ...
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Slide in EPA Clean Water Criminal Enforcement Continues Under Obama
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
New York Times: Criminal enforcement of federal water-pollution laws has continued a more than decadelong slide under the Obama administration, despite pledged improvements, according to U.S. EPA data. The government reported 32 new Clean Water Act convictions during the fiscal year that ended in September, down from 42 in 2009. The number of criminal water pollution cases initiated by the agency fell from 28 last year to 21 this year. Both figures have dropped nearly 60 percent since the late ...
Fed panel gets 60-day extension on spill report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
AP: A federal panel investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is getting 60 extra days to complete its report partly because more time is needed to do forensic testing on the piece of equipment that failed to stop BP's well from gushing into the sea. Separately on Monday, a member of a White House-appointed commission that also is looking into the spill was critical of BP's safety record. A key piece of evidence -- the blowout preventer -- was lifted from the ocean floor on Sept. ...
In Yemen, Water Grows Scarcer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
NYT: Increasingly sharp water shortages could cost Yemen 750,000 jobs and slash incomes by as much as 25 percent over the next decade, warns a new report on Yemen, an increasingly troubled Middle Eastern nation. The report was produced by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company at the request of the Yemeni government. Groundwater depletion rates are so rapid in the capital, Sana, that the city could effectively run out of water by 2025, according to an estimate in the report by a ...
Ecologist surprised at abrupt end to Serengeti-Mara wildebeest migration
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
East African: A change in the spectacular wildebeest migration schedule in the great Serengeti-Mara ecosystem has caught ecologists offguard. Traditionally, the wildebeest used to roam in Maasai Mara Game Reserve for at least three months and return to Serengeti National park, but this year they are reported to have spent less than the usual period. "In September, the wildebeest were supposed to be still in Maasai Mara, but by then they they had started their return journey to Serengeti," ...
Geoengineering for a Desperate Planet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Delegates to the world summit on biodiversity here are calling for a moratorium on climate engineering research, like the idea of putting huge mirrors in outer space to reflect some of the sun's heating rays away from the planet. Climate engineering or geoengineering refers to any large-scale, human- made effort to manipulate the planet to adapt to climate change. Representatives from Africa and Asia expressed concern about the negative impacts of geoengineering during the ...
Papua New Guinea criticised on forest funds call
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
Irish Times: PAPUA NEW Guinea (PNG) "is in no fit state" to receive international funds under a global deal to stop deforestation and mitigate climate change because of continued logging and corruption, according to a new report by Greenpeace Asia-Pacific. The organisation presented the Asia-Pacific state with a "Golden Chainsaw" award for demanding fast-track funding from donor countries under the UN`s Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme, even though it continues ...
Last house on sinking Chesapeake Bay island collapses
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
Washington Post: On Holland Island, Md. The story was strange enough to be a child's fable: In an isolated section of the Chesapeake Bay, there was a two-story Victorian house that seemed to emerge directly from the water. And, scurrying around it, there was a retiree, trying to keep the house from falling in. Finally, the man gave up. And last week, the house did, too. Raked by a storm, it cracked at the spine and collapsed into a one-story wreck. The tale of the house and the ...
Farmers union bows down over disastrous climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
Jakarta Post: On the back of the prolonged rainy season and its impact on crops, the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) has given its consent on the government's plan to import food commodities, given a transparent process is in place. HKTI chairman Prabowo Subianto said last week that the government must be transparent in importing rice, sugar and wheat to prevent abuses in the market, which could damage the livelihood of more than 80 million farmers nationwide. "The government must be ...
Crisis forecast as prices reach record highs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2010
Guardian: Global food crisis forecast as prices reach record highs Cost of meat, sugar, rice, wheat and maize soars as World Bank predicts five years of price volatility Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further widespread droughts and floods. Although food stocks are generally good despite much of this year's harvests being ...