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Archive for April 3rd, 2011
BP back in business in Gulf of Mexico – a year after ‘Deepwater Horizon’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2011
Independent: BP has been given permission to restart deep drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, one year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in history. The group plants to drill 10 existing wells from this summer, following a deal with US regulators to continue work halted by a moratorium imposed after 200 million gallons of oil were leaked into the Gulf.
The plans, which have angered environmentalists, are a coup for Bob Dudley, BP's new American chief executive,...
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S. Korea to expand bullet train network by 2020
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: South Korea will expand and upgrade its bullet train network to cut travel time from the capital to major cities to under an hour and a half and slash greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Sunday.
High-speed train services connecting Seoul and its suburbs with the southeastern region will be expanded to cities elsewhere in the country by 2020, the transportation ministry said.
A bullet train ride from Seoul to the southeastern port of Busan, one of the most distant cities from the capital,...
Declining mangroves shield against global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Mangroves, which have declined by up to half over the last 50 years, are an important bulkhead against climate change, a study released on Sunday has shown for the first time.
Destruction of these tropical coastal woodlands accounts for about 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation, the second largest source of CO2 after fossil fuel combustion, the study found.
Fewer trees not only mean less CO2 absorbed from the air, but also the release of carbon stocks that have been accumulating...
Japanese nuclear crisis could go on for months, officials warn
Posted by Guardian: Measures To Stem Leaks At Fukushima Plant Appeared To Have Failed, Amid Discover on April 3rd, 2011
Guardian: A senior Japanese official has warned that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could drag on for months, after another attempt to stem leaks of highly radioactive water appeared to end in failure.
Goshi Hosono, an aide to the prime minister, Naoto Kan, said everything possible was being done to contain radiation leaks, which have contaminated the environment and food and water supplies, prompted mass evacuations and fomented fear as far away as Tokyo, 150 miles to the south....
Assessing the true value of water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2011
Inter Press Service: As water resources in Southern Africa come under pressure from growing population, climate change and increasing industrial and agricultural use, economic accounting for water is among the tools that could aid better management.
"Economic accounting for water - EAW - is a process of systematically measuring the contribution of water to the economy as well as the impact of economic activity such as agriculture, mining, and industry on water resources through abstraction and pollution," explains...
Dalai Lama in warning over Tibet glaciers
Posted by Scotsman: Matthew Pennington on April 3rd, 2011
Scotsman: THE Dalai Lama has voiced concerns that the glaciers of Tibet are retreating faster than those in any other part of the world. The Tibetan spiritual leader called for special attention to be paid to ecology in Tibet, adding "it's something very, very essential."
The glaciers are considered to be vital lifelines for Asian rivers, including the Indus and the Ganges. Once they vanish, water supplies in those regions will be in peril. The Dalai Lama was quoting recent studies by Chinese environmental...
United States: Taking Big Coal to task is difficult
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on April 3rd, 2011
Gazette-Mail: On Jan. 14, 2009, officials from Aracoma Coal Co. pleaded guilty to 10 mine safety crimes. Prosecutors uncovered the violations during their investigation of a January 2006 fire at Aracoma's Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County.
Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield were in court that day, too. Their husbands, Don and Elvis, died in the fire. The widows came to speak out against the government's promise not to bring any future charges against Aracoma's parent company, Massey Energy.
It wasn't the first...
Ukraine: Milk, berries still contaminated from Chernobyl: Greenpeace
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2011
Reuters: Milk and other staples like mushrooms and berries are still contaminated in parts of Ukraine by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, 25 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster, Greenpeace said on Sunday.
The environmental group published findings of a field investigation ahead of a Ukraine-hosted international conference on Chernobyl on April 19.
The meeting has taken on added significance since the nuclear crisis in Japan.
Ukraine is seeking 600 million euros ($840 million) in extra...
Philippines: Loren: Diseases linked to climate change
Posted by Manila Bulletin: Hannah L. Torregoza on April 3rd, 2011
Manila Bulletin: Diseases caused by unusual changes in the weather are now on the rise, Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on climate change Sunday warned.
According to Legarda, there had been at least 13, 821 patients in hospitals across the country that were afflicted with dengue from January to February this year. In Metro Manila alone, there were 3,640 dengue cases--a 106 percent increase from the figures cited by the Department of Health (DoH) in 2010.
"This rise in dengue cases is a cause...