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Archive for March 5th, 2011
US appeals judge’s order on drilling permits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2011
Associated Press: The Obama administration has appealed a judge's order requiring regulators to act on seven drilling permit applications.
The government filed court documents late Friday saying it may have to deny the applications if regulators must make a decision within 30 days as ordered. The order was issued by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who overturned the administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling after BP PLC's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The documents say the Bureau of Ocean Energy...
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DeChristopher trial, demonstration signal new direction for environmental movement?
Posted by Deseret News: Amy Joi O'Donoghue on March 5th, 2011
Deseret News: Now that environmental activist Tim DeChristopher has been convicted for monkey wrenching a Bureau of Land Management auction, it remains to be seen what impact he will have on the environmental movement. Even DeChristopher himself has said that his cause is larger than climate change or protecting the environment and more about righting the wrongs caused by the unjust — be it the government or others. "This is about building self-empowerment," DeChristopher told a crowd of supporters Thursday...
Canada: Risks of shale gas seem to outweigh the advantages
Posted by Montreal Gazette: Henry Aubin on March 5th, 2011
Montreal Gazette: The Charest government wants to permit the exploitation of shale gas while applying safeguards to prevent permanent damage to the environment. Is that a realistic ambition?
Let’s see what steps Quebec can and cannot take to prevent environmental harm.
Here are some measures that would help. Quebec:
Could insist on stringent rules for capping wells that are not in use. This would help keep methane from leaking from wells, as has already happened at 19 of the 31 gas-exploration sites in Quebec....
Brazil: Can REDD work for the Amazon?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2011
Living on Earth: GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman.
[RAINFOREST NOISES, AKAKI BIRDS CALLING]
GELLERMAN: The Amazon is by far the world's largest rainforest. In this remote corner of the forest, high overhead in the canopy, Akaki birds warn of intruders as our footsteps crunch dead leaves on the forest floor.
The vast Amazon is more than a rainforest--it's also a giant carbon storage system. Scientists call it a...
Canada: The greening of the North: Climate change shrinking tundra, says study
Posted by Postmedia News: Randy Boswell on March 5th, 2011
Postmedia News: The vast Canadian tundra, brought fully into the country's consciousness by Farley Mowat's classic 1956 children's novel Lost in the Barrens, will itself get lost in the woods this century as the treeline marches northward to the Arctic Ocean coast and all but wipes out the desolate but caribou-friendly bioregion from mainland Canada, a new international study predicts.
Forecasting profound changes to all Arctic ecosystems "fuelled by human-induced global warming," the U.S.-led team of scientists...
Antarctic ice may be more stable than we thought
Posted by New Scientist: Jeff Hecht on March 5th, 2011
New Scientist: WHETHER Antarctica's ice will survive a warmer world is one of the great puzzles of climate science. Now it seems vast expanses of ice may have hung on for the past 200,000 years, surviving the last interglacial.
The west Antarctic ice sheet's base is below sea level, which should make it unstable. If it were to collapse the torrent of fresh water could raise global sea level by 5 metres. Whether or not this will happen as temperatures climb is a hotly debated topic.
A new study by David Sugden...
United States: Coastal cities prepare for rising sea levels
Posted by LA Times: Tony Barboza on March 5th, 2011
LA Times: Cities along California's coastline that for years have dismissed reports of climate change or lagged in preparing for rising sea levels are now making plans to fortify their beaches, harbors and waterfronts.
Communities up and down the coast have begun drafting plans to build up wetlands as buffers against rising tides, to construct levees and seawalls to keep the waters at bay or to retreat from the shoreline by moving structures inland.
Among them is Newport Beach, a politically conservative...