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Archive for December 27th, 2010
Satellite data reveals fires in region plagued by illegal logging in Madagascar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Mongabay: New satellite data reveals active burning in Sava, a region in Madagascar that has been ravaged by illegal logging for rosewood and other valuable rainforest timber.
According to data provided by the Fire Alert System, a joint monitoring program run by NASA, Conservation International and the University of Maryland, more than 1,100 fires have burned in Andapa, Antalaha, Sambava, and Vohimarina--districts where the bulk of Madagascar's illegal logging is taking place--since October 1. Roughly a...
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Sacrificing the Rainforest on the Altar of Energy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study.
More than 1,000 km of roads will have to be carved out of primary and secondary forests to build the dams and power plants and put up power lines, says the report, carried out by engineer José Serra for ProNaturaleza, a leading conservation...
Liquid gas expands to fill Britain’s energy gap
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Guardian: On a freezing morning, Simon Fairman, manager of National Grid's Isle of Grain liquified natural gas terminal, greets a blue-faced engineer in a control room. The engineer had just come inside after a morning checking nuts and bolts on the windswept new jetty which opened for business at the start of this month. Protruding some 300 metres into the murky River Medway, the jetty can accommodate tankers the size of aircraft carriers to offload their precious cargo of supercooled liquid gas.
The timely...
Of climate change and water conservation
Posted by News Day: PETER MAKWANYA on December 27th, 2010
News Day: From the complex and intricate discourse of carbon emissions and their subsequent cuts, reductions, compliance or simply taking no action at all, to the palliative and massaging of Cancun, where wishes, as usual failed to become horses, climate change issues will remain skeletons in our cupboards for some time.
In fact, just like our shadows, it will continue to mimic its presence. We are together with climate change.
Besides the issue of our desperate attempt to control emissions or imagining...
Unnatural disasters
Posted by Cosmos: None Given on December 27th, 2010
Cosmos: On the night of 13 December 1991, a group of climbers had gathered in a hut on New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, in preparation for an attempt on the summit. The ascent would mean risking their lives, but that threat was nothing compared with what was about to come. Shortly after midnight, 12 million cubic metres of rock and ice crumbled from the peak and roared down the east face of the mountain, travelling at over 200 km per hour for more than seven kilometres before plunging to the valley...
Climate change: the black, white and grey in the science
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Sydney Morning Herald: The rains have come but that is not a reason to ignore the scientific evidence on climate change. The US National Climatic Data Centre issued figures for the year to the end of October that indicate global average surface temperatures for 2010 are heading for one of the warmest years on record. Climate change is about trends that operate on time scales longer than that of individual human memory.
Ever since it became apparent the atmosphere was warming, people have been questioning the evidence...
Asian Megacities Threatened By Climate Change
Posted by World Bank: None Given on December 27th, 2010
World Bank: Asia's coastal megacities will flood more often, on a larger scale, and affect millions more people, if current climate change trends continue, a new report warns.
The report Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities examines the impact of climate change on Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila, under a range of different scenarios through to 2050. The report is the product of a two-year collaborative study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan International Cooperation...
What happened next? Torrey Canyon oil clean-up, Guernsey
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Guardian: In 1967 the Torrey Canyon ran aground between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, spilling every drop of its cargo of 119,328 tonnes of crude oil. Beaches in Cornwall were cleaned up within several years but the slick spread across the Channel and despoiled the beaches of Guernsey. Extraordinarily, earlier this year, 43 years on, gloopy black oil from the spill was still daily killing wildlife – a warning of the possible long-term implications of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
After repeated...
What happened next? Pakistan floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Guardian: With three million people affected by the floods in Pakistan during the first week of August, it was hard to imagine what pundits and experts meant when they said the disaster was only in its initial stages. Over the next month, as the flood waters moved down the length (and to some extent, along the breadth) of the country, the unimaginable unfolded. Twenty-one million people were made homeless, one-fifth of the nation was submerged, an estimated 17 million acres of the most fertile arable land...
Australian downpour spreads south, cuts off towns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Reuters: Heavy rain across much of eastern Australia left towns cut off by floods on Monday as the storms spread southwards and threatened agriculture and mining, forecasters said.
The deluge over the Christmas weekend has gradually moved south from northeastern Queensland to hit agricultural areas of New South Wales, with further rainfall forecast for coming days.
Up to 250 mm of rain was recorded in the 24 hours to 6 p.m. EST Sunday in parts of Queensland, as the remains of a tropical cyclone that...