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Archive for December 17th, 2010
4 state AGs urge spill victims to get lawyers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
Associated Press: Attorneys general in four Gulf states are urging oil spill victims to consult lawyers before accepting final payments from a $20 billion compensation fund and agreeing not to sue BP.
They issued notices to claimants Thursday in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. The notices reminded residents that if they sign away their rights they can't come back later and get more money even if they suffer new damage from oil that came from BP's well following the April 20 rig explosion.
Claimants can...
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GE must do more to clean Hudson River: EPA
Posted by Reuters: Bernard Orr on December 17th, 2010
Reuters: The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday ordered General Electric Co to dredge deeper into the Hudson River as part of the next phase of an effort to remove cancer-causing chemicals dumped into the river over decades.
GE, the largest U.S. conglomerate, also must remove more contaminated sediment instead of capping and sealing the river bottom to get rid of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
The company has until January 14 to review the decision and notify the agency about how they plan...
Ecuador judge closes proof phase of Chevron pollution lawsuit
Posted by Reuters: Victor Gomez on December 17th, 2010
Reuters: The Ecuadorean judge hearing a $27 billion environmental damages case against oil producer Chevron Corp told Reuters on Friday that he has closed the evidentiary phase of the trial.
Local farmers and indigenous tribes in Ecuador's Amazon region want the company to pay for the cleanup of areas they say were polluted by faulty drilling practices in the 1970s and 1980s.
"The proof phase has been concluded," Sucumbios Provincial Court Judge Nicolas Zambrano said. "I have to read what there is in...
Dire Development Issues Converge in the Drylands
Posted by Inter Press Service: Kanya D'Almeida on December 17th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Few are aware that close to one billion people in over 100 different countries are suffering from or severely threatened by intense desertification. Yet awareness is crucial, for it is human behaviour that has led to the proliferation of hyper- arid, uncultivable drylands over the past few decades.
As vast amounts of land are increasingly lost to desertification, the United Nations General Assembly declared the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (UNDDD), scheduled...
WikiLeaks cables: the Dalai Lama is right to put climate change first
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
Guardian: The Dalai Lama, according to the latest release of WikiLeaks cables, told US diplomats that, for Tibet, climate change is a more urgent issue than a political settlement. This will certainly dismay some of the more radical elements of the region's independence movement. Many of the younger Tibetans in exile are already frustrated with their spiritual leader's moderate and non-violent approach. For them, independence will always trump the environment.
But if the concern is the survival of the nomadic...
E.P.A. Sets Tighter Rules for Hudson River Cleanup
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency announced tighter requirements on Friday for the second phase of General Electric’s cleanup of chemical pollution in the Hudson River, imposing a stringent limit for the first time on how much contamination can be capped and sealed on the riverbed rather than removed. G.E. will be allowed to cap only 11 percent of the total project area, which stretches over 40 miles of the upper Hudson, from Hudson Falls, N.Y., to Troy, north of Albany, the agency said. That...
Lack of schools, trade drive exodus from remote parts of the Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
Mongabay: Lack of school access and higher costs of trade are driving an exodus from remote areas in the Amazon, a new study published in Population & Environment reveals.
The research sheds light on to why people are leaving remote forest areas. It follows an earlier publication indicating that migration away from remote rural areas may have repercussions on deforestation. “Understanding why people are leaving is key to predicting future environmental change,” the paper explained.
There are many advantages...
EPA issues new PCB dredging rules for GE in NY
Posted by Associated Press: Rik Stevens on December 17th, 2010
Associated Press: General Electric must remove more PCB-tainted sediment from the Hudson River and will have to take better samples of the river bottom when it resumes dredging in the spring, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday.
Environmental groups said the new standards will ultimately mean a cleaner river but criticized the EPA for allowing GE to cap -- or, leave covered-over PCBs in the river -- up to 11 percent of the total project area, not counting rocky or other hard-to-reach areas. When those...
BHP submits environment study for Jansen potash mine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
Reuters: BHP Billiton said on Friday it had submitted an environmental impact statement to the government of Saskatchewan for its Jansen potash project in the Western Canadian province.
If given the go-ahead, the Jansen project would produce about 8 million tonnes of potash a year and would operate for 70 years.
700,000 lives at risk from floods, study finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2010
Bangkok Post: The lives of about 700,000 people and 1.16 million buildings in Bangkok will be seriously affected by floods caused by more rainfall and rising sea levels as a result of climate change in the next 40 years, a study has found.
The managing director of Phetchaburi-based Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Seeree Supratid, said yesterday the projections were based on a study his team had been conducting to determine the impact of global warming on the capital and its vicinity.
The study,...