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Archive for February 17th, 2011
Ecuador plaintiffs appeal Chevron damages award
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Reuters: Ecuadoreans suing U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp for environmental damages on Thursday appealed a recent court ruling that awarded them $8.6 billion, claiming that more money would be needed for cleanup efforts.
Residents of Ecuador's Amazon jungle say that Texaco, which was later acquired by Chevron, dumped polluted water into their rivers and left drilling waste to fester in unlined pits, charges that the company denies.
At $8.6 billion, the damages figure is one of the biggest environmental...
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Anti-fracking bill gets Oscar hopeful’s support
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Reuters: Hoping success rubs off, a U.S. lawmaker had the director of the Oscar-nominated film "Gasland" near when announcing he will reintroduce a bill making companies reveal chemicals used in natural gas drilling.
"Before this country embraces natural gas as the solution to our energy needs ... we need to take every step possible to ensure our water is not contaminated, our air is not polluted, and our communities are not irrevocably harmed," Representative Maurice Hinchey of New York, who will reintroduce...
Sting “ringleader” re-enters Chevron-Ecuador case
Posted by Reuters: Braden Reddall and Dan Levine on February 17th, 2011
Reuters: Plaintiffs in the Ecuador pollution case against Chevron Corp will get to question the man they call the "ringleader" of a sting operation that is key to Chevron's efforts to avoid paying a massive judgment.
The deposition of Diego Borja will be the first chance for the plaintiffs to use the same kind of U.S. legal device extensively used by the oil company in building its extortion case against them.
The Borja ruling comes just days after an Ecuadorean court awarded plaintiffs $8.6 billion...
Rep. Whitfield Scores One for Coal, Stripping $1.5M From ‘Greening the Capitol’
Posted by Greenwire: John Mcardle on February 17th, 2011
Greenwire: Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) won a victory for the coal industry in the wee hours of the morning today when the House adopted a relatively cheap but highly symbolic amendment to the fiscal 2011 continuing resolution. Whitfield's amendment, which was adopted by voice vote at about 1 a.m. this morning, stripped $1.5 million from the House's Greening the Capitol initiative, a program begun in 2007 under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to make Congress an example of energy efficiency in the workplace....
Regulation Haters Join Chorus Urging New Clean Water Act Rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
GreenWire: Third in a series on federal wetlands regulations. Click here for part one and here for part two.
Environmentalists and Washington lobbyists for agriculture, mining, homebuilding, road building, electric utilities and manufacturing industries have found something to agree on.
It's time, they say, for the Obama administration to write new Clean Water Act regulation.
Both camps say the rulemaking could settle a long-stalled legal argument over what wetlands qualify for federal regulatory oversight....
United States: Hudson River Fish Resist PCBs Through Gene Variant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
New York Times: Most people think of evolution occurring gradually over thousands of years, but apparently no one told the Atlantic tomcod.
In just 50 years or so, the Hudson River fish has evolved to become resistant to toxic PCBs that polluted the river, researchers reported Thursday. Their secret is a gene variant.
"You're talking about very rapid evolution," said Isaac Wirgin, an associate professor of environmental medicine at New York University School of Medicine.
The speed of evolution depends on...
Toxic Avengers: Pollution Drove Fish Evolution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
National Public Radio: Scientists have discovered a strange fish that lives in a soup of some of industry's worst pollutants. The fish, found in rivers in New York and New Jersey, survive because they've evolved to cope with dangerous chemicals. As one scientist who has heard about the fish says, "pollution has driven evolution."
Between 1947 and 1976, high levels of extremely toxic chemicals were dumped into the Hudson River. By the 1980s, about 95 percent of fish in some areas had liver tumors.
Between 1947 and...
Russia: World’s largest lake sheds light on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Physorg: Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's oldest, deepest, and largest freshwater lake, has provided scientists with insight into the ways that climate change affects water temperature, which in turn affects life in the lake. The study is published in the journal PLoS ONE today.
"Lake Baikal has the greatest biodiversity of any lake in the world," explained co-author Stephanie Hampton, deputy director of UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS). "And, thanks to the...
Hibernating Bears Keep Weirdly Warm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
National Geographic: Hibernating black bears can dramatically lower their metabolism with only a moderate drop in body temperature, a surprising new study says.
The North American mammals generally slumber about five to seven months without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating, and then emerge from their dens in the spring none the worse for wear.
Scientists have long known that to survive this lengthy fast, the bears drop their metabolism, the chemical process that converts food to energy.
But it was...
UT researchers link algae to harmful oestrogen-like compound in water
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on February 17th, 2011
Science Centric: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers have found that blue-green algae may be responsible for producing an oestrogen-like compound in the environment which could disrupt the normal activity of reproductive hormones and adversely affect fish, plants and human health. Previously, human activities were thought solely responsible for producing these impacts.
Theodore Henry, an adjunct professor for UT Knoxville's Centre for Environmental Biotechnology and faculty at the University of Plymouth,...