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Archive for January, 2011
Australia floods sweep south, trail of disaster grows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Reuters: Australian floods wreaked fresh havoc on rural communities in the south on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction across four states, at least 17 dead and the prospect of reconstruction of historic proportions.
As tens of thousands of people in flood-stricken towns and cities in the north worked to clean out their homes and offices, heavy rains and floods meted out fresh disaster in southern Victoria state, the nation's second most populous.
Four major rivers in Victoria were in full flood,...
Brazil rains death toll rises
Posted by Reuters: Sergio Queiroz on January 16th, 2011
Reuters: Rains that devastated a mountainous region north of Rio de Janeiro have killed at least 611 people, Brazil's Civil Defense agency said on Sunday, as forecasts of more storms and fears of disease outbreaks overshadowed rescue operations.
Nearly five days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides in one of Brazil's worst natural disasters, the death toll continues to rise steadily as rescuers dig up corpses buried by rivers of mud and reach more remote areas.
TV images showed rescue workers...
Drowning: Death tolls climb and more floods are on the way
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Independent: The suffering in the southern hemisphere grinds on. Torrential rain triggered fresh flood warnings in four Australian states yesterday just as the clean-up began in the Queensland capital, Brisbane. Meanwhile, 10 more people were reported dead in Sri Lanka's floods, and in Brazil the death toll from floods and mudslides is now rising inexorably towards, and possibly beyond, 600.
Uncommonly heavy rainfall -- Sri Lanka's hardest-hit area, the eastern port of Batticaloa, has had more rain in the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Drowning: Death tolls climb and more floods are on the wayHugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: The fisherman’s friend sails to the rescue
Posted by Guardian: Ian Tucker on January 16th, 2011
Guardian: There was a moment in Thursday's Hugh's Fish Fight when it was almost possible to detect a baton being passed from Jamie Oliver to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. They were in Parliament Square, campaigning to change the EU fish quota legislation that results in half of the fish caught in the North Sea being thrown back overboard dead.
Fearnley-Whittingstall was in his element. He tossed bits of fish into fellow Old Etonian Zac Goldsmith's mouth, cajoled fisheries minister Richard Benyon and asserted...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: The fisherman’s friend sails to the rescueGasland – review
Posted by Guardian: Philip French on January 16th, 2011
Guardian: This quiet, hard-hitting documentary began when director Josh Fox wondered why a company was offering his family $100,000 to drill for gas on the lands around their house in rural Pennsylvania. Discovering the pollution being wreaked locally, he set out on a journey of discovery that took him across America, where gas companies everywhere are destroying the environment and poisoning people by using hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") to drill for gas.
GasLand
Production year: 2010
Country:...
Many still missing in Brazil floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Reuters: Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities' response to one of Brazil's worst natural disasters which has killed nearly 600 people.
Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic mountain town are still struggling to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. The steadily rising death toll in the region north of Rio de Janeiro hit 591...
Italy and Panama continue illegal fishing, says new report
Posted by Mongabay: Morgan Erickson-Davis on January 15th, 2011
Mongabay: On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its biennial report identifying six countries whose fisheries have been engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing during the past two years. The report comes at a time when one-fifth of reported fish catches worldwide are caught illegally and commercial fishing has led to a global fish stock overexploitation of an estimated 80 percent.
The countries listed in the report - Colombia, Ecuador, Italy,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Italy and Panama continue illegal fishing, says new reportSri Lanka floods: United Nations seeks emergency aid as death toll rises
Posted by Guardian: Gethin Chamberlain on January 15th, 2011
Guardian: The United Nations said today it would launch an appeal for emergency flood aid in Sri Lanka as rescue efforts were mounted to reach those marooned. As many as 390,000 people have been driven from their homes and at least 3,744 houses have been destroyed, according to the country's disaster management centre.
The death toll continued to rise as flooding swamped areas in the east of the country, leaving hundreds of people homeless. At least 37 people had been confirmed dead by this afternoon, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Sri Lanka floods: United Nations seeks emergency aid as death toll risesWhat was the role of warmists in the Queensland flood disaster?
Posted by Telegraph: Christopher Booker on January 15th, 2011
Telegraph: Ever more alarming facts are emerging to show how Brisbane's floods were made infinitely worse by cockeyed decisions inspired by the obsession of the Australian authorities with global warming. Inevitably, the country's warmist lobby has been voluble in claiming that such a "freak weather event' (as the BBC called it) is a consequence of man-made climate change. But far from being an unprecedented "freak event', the latest flood was nearly a foot below the level of one in 1974 and 10 feet below the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on What was the role of warmists in the Queensland flood disaster?Brazilian landslides bring anger in their wake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Guardian: In the devastated countryside around Rio de Janeiro, the anger is growing. Late on Friday, many survivors of the floods and mudslides that have killed more than 500 people over the past week were still begging officials for aid.
Four nights of torrential rain have brought tragedy to these rural communities, and the authorities' response has sometimes been lumbering. In Teresópolis, a hilltop city 60 miles north of Rio, criticism is mounting of the government's efforts to rescue victims still stranded...