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Archive for December 30th, 2010
New York State Buys Conservation Rights for 89,000 Acres of Forest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
New York Times: In 2007, the Nature Conservancy bought 161,000 acres of forest in the Adirondacks from the Finch, Pruyn paper company for $110 million.
The state of New York paid $30 million on Friday to secure extensive conservation rights on 89,000 acres of forest in the Adirondacks, another big step toward protecting lands once owned by the Finch paper company.
In exchange for the payment, the state got a legal document known as a conservation easement from the Nature Conservancy, the environmental group...
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Minnesota sues 3M over pollution claims
Posted by Reuters: James B. Kelleher on December 30th, 2010
Reuters: The state of Minnesota sued 3M Co on Thursday, saying that the company contaminated the state's waters for decades with chemicals used in some of its best known products, including Scotchgard stain repellent.
The lawsuit, filed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, seeks unspecified damages from 3M.
The company did not respond to a request for a comment.
According to the complaint, filed in state court, St. Paul-based 3M polluted public and private wells in the state for years by pumping...
Another Setback for a West Coast Coal Port
Posted by NYT: Felicity Barringer on December 30th, 2010
NYT: A worker unloading coal at a storage site by a railway station in Shenyang, China.
When my colleague Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote last month about the growth of coal exports to China from all over the world, she noted that the Port of Tacoma in Washington had nixed proposals for a new coal export terminal in the area.
Now the state government has blocked a proposed export terminal in the southwestern corner of Washington, which could have provided another outlet for coal companies like Peabody...
Water companies struggle with impact of thaw
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: A water company has been flooded with 40,000 calls since Christmas Eve from customers reporting leaks and burst pipes.
United Utilities, which owns and operates the water network in north-west England, said the unprecedented volume of calls was 10 times the usual number.
United Utilities said the problem was caused by ice melting following the prolonged freezing weather.
Scott Beard, United Utilities' regional water network manager, said: "It is not unusual to see the number of bursts increase...
Conservation stories of 2010
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: From bitterns and pine martens in the UK, to Sumatran orang-utans and Congolese chimps, the International Year of Biodiversity saw mixed fortunes for Earth's animals. Some species suffered further declines, but there were also conservation success stories to celebrate
The bittern, one of Britain's rarest birds, is booming again after research revealed record numbers across the country Photograph:
Decades of neglect led to this Northern Ireland water crisis
Posted by Guardian: Ruth Collins on December 30th, 2010
Guardian: Witnessing thousands queue in the cold and dark over the past two nights to collect water from depots across Northern Ireland, I've found it hard to understand how things could have gone this far. One member of the public described it as "scandalous", a second as "unacceptable", while others are speechless as to how to describe the current water crisis that has left about 80 towns and 36,000 homes without running water. Understandably, the public are angry and want somebody to blame. However, the...
Population 7 billion
Posted by National Geographic: Robert Kunzig on December 30th, 2010
National Geographic: One day in Delft in the fall of 1677, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a cloth merchant who is said to have been the long-haired model for two paintings by Johannes Vermeer—“The Astronomer” and “The Geographer”—abruptly stopped what he was doing with his wife and rushed to his worktable. Cloth was Leeuwenhoek’s business but microscopy his passion. He’d had five children already by his first wife (though four had died in infancy), and fatherhood was not on his mind. “Before six beats of the pulse had intervened,”...
Sea trout and otters return as British rivers improve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2010
Telegraph: Water quality in English and Welsh rivers has improved year on year for the past 20 years, according to the Government agency responsible for regulating the use and management of rivers.
A number of wildlife species have benefited, including otters which were hit by the effects of pesticides but are now found back in every region in England and Wales.
But conservationists warned that almost three quarters of rivers fall below tougher new European standards because they do not support the wildlife...