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Archive for November, 2010
Oil demand to rise during next 25 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 9th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Oil demand and price are set to grow steadily during the next 25 years despite environmental policies, essentially dooming climate-change goals, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast on Tuesday.
Even under climate change pledges made under the Copenhagen Accord last year, fossil fuels will still account for over half the increase in total energy demand, with oil to remain the dominant fuel, the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook report.
It forecasts demand for oil to rise by 18 per...
Ex-CEO says BP was unprepared for oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 9th, 2010
Associated Press: Former BP PLC chief Tony Hayward has acknowledged that the company was unprepared for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the media frenzy it spawned, and said the firm came close to financial disaster as its credit sources evaporated.
In an interview with the BBC to be broadcast Tuesday, Hayward said company's contingency plans were inadequate and "we were making it up day to day."
"What was going on was some extraordinary engineering," he said in extracts released in advance by the...
The view from beneath the waves: climate change in the Solomon Islands
Posted by Guardian: Priestley Habru on November 9th, 2010
Guardian: The smaller outer islands in the Solomon Islands are already seeing devastating impacts of the rising sea level. The impact of climate change is already affecting the rural population of Solomon Islands, an archipelago of eight bigger islands and hundreds of small, mostly uninhabited islands.
The ocean is part and parcel of the livelihood of 500,000 people of this country situated just north of Australia. But the ocean is turning against the very people it supposed to serve and is destroying their...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on The view from beneath the waves: climate change in the Solomon IslandsU.S. companies should help drive push toward sustainable palm oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 9th, 2010
Mongabay: U.S. companies should take a leadership role in helping ensure that palm oil production is sustainable and does not come at the cost of forests, climate, and communities, argues a new report published ahead of the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The report, published by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), says that while the U.S. is only a minor consumer of palm oil, its demand for the vegetable oil is fast rising, increasing four-fold since 2006. Palm oil, which...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. companies should help drive push toward sustainable palm oilWorld must act today to boost rice supply: experts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 9th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Urgent action is needed to reverse inefficient farming methods and boost the world's supply of rice in order to prevent rising poverty and hunger, experts told a major world rice congress on Tuesday.
"We must take action now, not next week, not next month, not next year, but today," Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, told the gathering in Hanoi.
Rice is the staple food for more than three billion people, about half the world's population, and...
Canada: Secret Agreement in the Works Between ENGOs and Tar Sands Industry
Posted by Montreal Media Co-op: Dru Oja Jay on November 9th, 2010
Montreal Media Co-op: A slew of recent articles have pointed to the likelihood that some foundation-funded environmental groups and the tar sands extraction industry are getting ready to make peace and sign a deal. The precedent, these reports note, has been set with the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement and the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement. What the media coverage doesn't mention is the actual character of these previous deals, and the unprecedented consolidation of funder influence in the hands of one man that is...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Secret Agreement in the Works Between ENGOs and Tar Sands IndustryGulf Oil Plumes Still a Threat?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 8th, 2010
National Geographic: Several weeks after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, researchers familiar with the Gulf revealed that their research team had detected a large plume made up of oil droplets and it was located more than 3000 feet under the water’s surface.
One of those researchers is University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha Joye.
The oil plume data collected by Joye and the other researchers working with her initially received a cool reception from officials in NOAA. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
Interpol pledges war on environmental crime
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 8th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Interpol on Monday adopted a resolution unanimously pledging support to back the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and to fight environmental crime.
"One couldn?t have asked for a better result," the secretary general of CITES, John Scanlon, said in gas-rich Qatar where the resolution was adopted.
"The endangered fauna and flora of the world cannot be safeguarded without you, without the police," he told the annual assembly of Interpol, which adopted the resolution....
Climate Change Impacting World’s Most Vulnerable Nation’s Fresh Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 8th, 2010
redOrbit: Preeminent climate scientist and noted environmental leaders speak out on behalf of the Kiribati Nation, calling upon world leaders who will gather this month at the Economic Summit in Seoul and the U.N. Climate talks in Cancun to address the issue of water scarcity and its impact on food sources. James Hansen, world renowned climate scientist, Lester Brown, Founder and President of Earth Policy Institute, Rabbi Warren Stone, religious environmental activist who served as delegate at the U.N. climate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change Impacting World’s Most Vulnerable Nation’s Fresh WaterIndependent panel to share findings on Gulf spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 8th, 2010
Associated press: The causes of the massive Gulf oil spill will be laid out for the first time Monday by investigators working for President Barack Obama's independent commission, potentially shifting the blame and settling disputes between companies over the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Representatives of the three companies most involved in the April accident -- Halliburton, Transocean and BP -- will be on hand to answer the allegations and respond to questions.
"It's the first public look at...