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Archive for April 14th, 2011
Druridge Bay panorama – interactive
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Guardian: Conservation Druridge Bay panorama - interactive
Landscape photographer Mike McFarlane has created a 360-degree virtual tour of Druridge Bay in Northumberland. The panorama is part of a visual arts project commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts that aims to raise awareness of its landscape-scale conservation schemes
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A single source for clean water and fuel
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
New Scientist: ALGAE are being put to work performing a unique double duty: cleaning up sewage waste while simultaneously producing biofuel.
All algae feast on phosphates and nitrogen-containing compounds, converting them to lipids. Some of these oils can be converted to biofuel, but only a few algal species produce lipids of the right type and quantity to be easily converted to fuel. In theory, though, algae are a perfect renewable fuel source. The main obstacle is that brewing the right nutrient mix can be...
Food price rises pushing millions into extreme poverty, World Bank warns
Posted by Guardian: Phillip Inman on April 14th, 2011
Guardian: A Kenyan farmer bags dried up maize sprouts from her planted field. The World Bank says the cost of maize has returned to levels last seen in the 2008 price boom. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images
Food-producing countries must relax export controls and divert production away from biofuels to prevent millions more people being driven into poverty by higher food prices, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said on Thursday in Washington.
Without action to increase the supply of...
A Reprieve for Western Water Users
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
New York Times: The spigots on the Glen Canyon Dam have been opened wide this winter, pouring water from Lake Powell, above, downstream 357 miles to Lake Mead.
Not quite five months ago, on Nov. 27, the level of Lake Mead, the massive federal reservoir that serves faucets and fields in Nevada, Arizona and California, hit an all-time low level of 1,081.85 feet above sea level. Seven feet lower, and the first water shortage ever would have been declared in the river`s lower basin.
An unusually wet winter, however,...
Toxic mine spill was only latest in long history of Chinese pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Guardian: Workers drain away polluted water near the Zijin copper mine in Shanghang on July 13, 2010, after pollution from the mine contaminated the Ting river, a major waterway in southeast China's Fujian province Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Even on the hottest summer days, few women wear skirts in Bitian village. They do not want to expose their feet, which are covered with festering blisters from the water of the Ting River.
The pollution disaster here, in Fujian province, eastern China, has brought...
BP faces wave of protests at shareholder meeting
Posted by Associated Press: Jane Wardell on April 14th, 2011
Associated Press: BP faced waves of protests at its shareholder meeting in London on Thursday as fishermen from the U.S. Gulf Coast complained about poor compensation for the oil spill and institutional investors claimed executive pay packets were excessive.
But the company gained some critical breathing room on another major problem -- at the last minute, it received an extension to the Thursday deadline to complete a stalled major deal in Russia.
Just ahead of the annual general meeting, BP said Russia's OAO...
Fast start to fire season as wildfires scorch Texas
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on April 14th, 2011
Climate Central: When one thinks of wildfire-prone states, Texas may not immediately come to mind. Rather, monstrous blazes in southern California, or the mountains of Wyoming, seem more fitting. But so far this year, Texas has been ground zero for fast-moving wildfires -- more than 5,300 of them, to be exact.
Aided by moderate to strong La Niña conditions this winter, the worst drought in 45 years has turned large parts of Texas into a tinderbox, with more than one million acres burned so far, and few signs of...
Current Biofuels Policies Are Unethical
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
redOrbit: Current UK and European policies on biofuels encourage unethical practices, says a report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics today following an 18-month inquiry. Policies such as the European Renewable Energy Directive are particularly weak when it comes to protecting the environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding human rights violations in developing countries. They also include few incentives for the development of new biofuel technologies that could help avoid these problems....