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Archive for December, 2010
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...
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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...
Rain May Disappear from the World’s Breadbasket
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 26th, 2010
Inter Press Service: South America still has vast extensions of land available for growing crops to help meet the global demand for food and biofuels. But the areas of greatest potential agricultural production -- central-southern Brazil, northern Argentina, and Paraguay -- could be left without the necessary rains.
Every deforested hectare in the Amazon -- a jungle biome extending across the northern half of South America -- weakens the system that has been protecting the region from the desert fate of the Sahara,...
Climate change leaves Assam tea growers in hot water –
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 26th, 2010
Guardian: Climate change is affecting the cultivation of Assam tea, with rising temperatures reducing yields and altering the distinctive flavour of India's most popular drink, researchers say.
High hills and abundant rainfall make the north-eastern state of Assam an ideal place to grow tea, with 850 gardens over 320,000 hectares (593,000 acres) producing the majority of the country's harvest. But in the last 60 years, rainfall has fallen by more than a fifth and minimum temperature has risen by a degree...
EARTH MEANDERS: Ecological Internet: Being Green and Meaning It
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on December 26th, 2010
By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk
Caring for Earth is cool; not caring, overly consuming, greenwashing, ecological ignorance, superstition and inaction are not acceptable
The Earths life is some 3.5 billion years old. In a mere 300 years human super-predators have taken it upon themselves to cut and burn other life forms to make a more comfortable life. Most are blissfully unaware that they are destroying their habitat. Remedial actions are orders of magnitude inadequate, band-aids instead of open heart surgery. We will quickly halt this growing industrialization, commit to ecosystem protection and restoration, and return to the forest garden, or we will all die. Really, if we continue as we are, the biosphere and ecosystems collapse taking being with it. And it will be grisly.
I havent written a really good rip-snorting Earth Meanders in awhile; though this is largely what I am known for doing. I use to meander quite frequently, writing personal essays in the tradition of Montesquieu looking at ecological sustainability in relation to other social issues, showing it is all related with ecology as the unifier. Nor have I literally ruminated regarding my life and ecology like I use to, spilling my guts ...
Dodoma hit hard by Climate Change effects
Posted by IPPmedia: Gerald Kitabu on December 26th, 2010
IPPmedia: For the past ten 10 years or so, Kelda Ligoha, a resident of Mvumi Ward, in Chamwino District, Dodoma Region, had to fetch water in gullies located more than three kilometrers away. Her husband would escort her on the journey when it took place before dawn. Traditionally men in Mvumi, as in many other parts of Tanzania, have not a big role to play when it comes to issues of water for domestic use. So it was an unusual decision for Gelda's husband to accept the task of guiding the wife to the water...
Australia: Storms brew in harshest climate
Posted by Canberra Times: None Given on December 26th, 2010
Canberra Times: Climate change, whaling, wild weather and water were the environmental issues dominating headlines this year. Australia mourned the loss of a conservation giant, University of Canberra freshwater ecologist and self-described political ''shit stirrer'' Peter Cullen, who died in March. His funeral service was attended by more than 900 people, who came to Canberra from all over Australia to pay their respects to a courageous, outspoken champion of national water reform. In its annual summary of world...
Small beetles massacre the Rockies’ whitebark pines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 26th, 2010
National Public Radio: The Whitebark pine trees in the high-elevation areas of America's Northern Rockies have stood for centuries. But these formerly lush evergreen forests are disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate; what remains are eerie stands of red and gray snags.
Warmer climates have sparked an outbreak of a voracious mountain pine beetle that is having devastating consequences for whitebarks and the wildlife that depend on them.
If you want to see how quickly tiny mountain pine beetles are devouring Yellowstone's...
Red River air rivalry has Oklahoma and Texas battling over air quality and coal plants
Posted by New Sok: Michael Baker on December 25th, 2010
New Sok: Red River air rivalry has Oklahoma and Texas battling over air quality and coal plants
The approval of about a dozen new coal-fired power plants in Texas has Oklahoma officials and environmental groups worried about the effects on the Sooner State's air quality.
This Oklahoma-Texas rivalry -- with a bit of Nebraska mixed in -- has to do with what blows across the Red River.
Texas environmental regulators earlier this month awarded air permits to an Omaha, Neb., developer of a cleaner coal-fired...