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Archive for November 1st, 2010
Shifting sands threaten Mali’s remote communities
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Guardian: Global development Environmental sustainability
Shifting sands threaten Mali's remote communities
Last month, Madeleine Bunting visited Mali to see the impact of climate change on the west African county. In Anakila, the effects are stark, as the community tries to prevent a sand dune encroaching on the remote town
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Judge Suspends Navajo Mining Permit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
New York Times: In a significant legal victory for Navajo campaigners, a federal judge has voided a permit for the expansion of one of two operating mines on the Navajo reservation, calling for a more thorough review of the project’s impact on the environment and on cultural sites.
In a decision issued Friday, Judge John L. Kane of United States District Court for the District of Colorado ordered the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, part of the federal Department of Interior, to reassess...
We’ve been conned. The deal to save the natural world never happened | George Monbiot
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Guardian: 'Countries join forces to save life on Earth", the front page of the Independent told us. "Historic", "a landmark", a "much-needed morale booster", the other papers chorused. The declaration agreed last week at the summit in Japan to protect the world's wild species and places was proclaimed by almost everyone a great success. There is one problem: none of the journalists who made these claims has seen it.
I checked with as many of them as I could reach by phone: all they had read was a press...
Camelford poisoning: ‘water authority insisted supplies were safe’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Guardian: Camelford poisoning: 'water authority insisted supplies were safe'
Inquest hears how water authority said there was no health risk after aluminium sulphate was dumped in wrong tank
A water authority instructed its communications centre to tell people their tap water was safe even as one customer reported that his hair was sticking together and others said the milk in their tea was curdling, an inquest heard today.
Worried householders called for help and advice after a lorry driver accidentally...
After Toxic Mine Spill, Locals Demand Both Jobs and Cleanup
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Inter Press Service: Four months after Peru's worst toxic spill of mining waste, workers at the Caudalosa mine are demanding that it be reopened, while local communities want more cleanup of the rivers they depend on for water supplies.
Caudalosa, a Peruvian-owned mining company, produces copper, zinc and lead. Its main mine is Huachocolpa Uno, employing some 1,000 workers in Huancavelica, in Peru's southeastern highlands.
The Jun. 25 collapse of a tailings dam caused the spill of 25,000 cubic metres of toxic waste....
Supreme Court Asks Obama Admin to Weigh In on Riverbed Dispute
Posted by Greenwire: Lawrence Hurley on November 1st, 2010
Greenwire: The Supreme Court asked for the Obama administration's views today on whether the Montana Supreme Court correctly ruled that a power company must pay rent for the use of riverbeds where its hydroelectric dams are located.
The decision to ask for the federal government to weigh in on the case indicates the court has a keen interest in the issues and is more likely than not to eventually decide to hear it.
In its decision (pdf), the Montana court held over the objections of power company PPL...
Japanese making themselves sick with dolphin hunt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Mongabay: Japan's dolphin hunt of Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) could be making people sick, according to a new study by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Campaign Whale. The controversial hunt, which kills some 15,000 dolphins annually, produces cheap meat-for-consumption that on average contains over double Japan's limit on mercury contamination.
"We are very concerned that people in Japan are threatening their health and possibly that of their children by unwittingly eating Dall’s...
Number of residents denied BP money up sharply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Associated Press: Denied claims for Gulf of Mexico oil spill victims are rising dramatically because of a flood of new filings coming in without proper documentation or with no proof at all, the head of the $20 billion BP fund said Monday.
Some 20,000 people have been told they have no right to emergency compensation, compared to about 125 denials at the end of September. This is in addition to many others who say they are getting mere fractions of what they've lost, while others are receiving large checks and...
Illegal logging rampant in Vietnam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Mongabay: Illegal logging is rampant in Vietnam, according to a new report from the the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's General Forestry Department.
As reported by Viet Nam News, there have been 2,463 illegal logging cases across Vietnam so far this year. Action to address logging has resulted in 44 forest rangers being injured and four deaths.
Illegal logging was worst in the northern provinces of Bac Kan, Lang Son and Thai Nguyen; the central provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Nam and Khanh...
An Awakening in Nagoya
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 1st, 2010
Inter Press Service: The international community has finally awoken to the other great trans-boundary challenge of our time, with a new international agreement to halt the unravelling of the web of life that sustains humanity.
The new agreement by 193 nations that are part of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity includes a commitment to reduce the rate of species loss by half by 2020, as well as the historic Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources.
This awakening only applies to...