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Archive for April 21st, 2011
South Africa invokes “fracking” moratorium in Karoo
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
Reuters: South Africa's cabinet placed a moratorium on Thursday on oil and gas exploration licenses in the semi-arid Karoo region, where the controversial shale extraction technique of "fracking" might be deployed.
The Karoo is a vast and ecologically sensitive region that is high on the radar screen of conservationists.
"Cabinet has endorsed the decision by the department of minerals to invoke a moratorium on licenses in the Karoo, where fracking is proposed," the government said in a statement.
Petrochemical...
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Melting Arctic ice could nearly fill Lake Erie: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
Vancouver Sun: Over the six years Alex Gardner monitored Canada's Arctic glaciers and ice caps, he says they lost almost as much water as there is in Lake Erie.
The ice loss has increased sharply "in direct response to warmer summer temperatures" since 2004 -- so sharply that Gardner and his colleagues say the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise outside Greenland and Antarctica between 2007 and 2009.
"Even though these Canadian glaciers and ice caps are...
Labeling palm oil as an ingredient is fine, provided other oils are labeled too
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
Mongabay: RSPO: Labeling palm oil as an ingredient is fine, provided other oils are labeled too
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body that sets criteria for social and environmental certification of palm oil, weighed in on the debate over Australia's proposal to require listing of palm oil as an ingredient on package labels. At the same time, the RSPO announced its own labeling initiative to distinguish products that use RSPO-certified palm oil from those that do not.
Darrel Webber, Secretary...
China risks civil strife with support for foreign dams: activists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
Reuters: Chinese support for controversial dam-building schemes around the world risks a backlash from affected communities and even violence due to a lack of transparency and the ignoring of residents' wishes, activists said on Wednesday.
Chinese companies and banks are becoming deeply involved in such projects in Africa and Asia, and despite a growing awareness they have to be more transparent and accountable, this frequently does not happen, the activists said.
"We are dismayed to see a reckless...
Kiss of Life for DR Congo Pygmies
Posted by Inter Press Service: Badylon Kawanda Bakiman on April 21st, 2011
Inter Press Service: "Most of the houses in our villages are still made with small branches that we have collected, while our timber and our medicinal plants are taken by people who are enriching themselves elsewhere," said Ampiobo Amuri, a traditional pygmy chief.
"It’s been several weeks now since I stopped listening to the requests of these people who come and bring us drink, give us used clothes, sometimes even salt, in exchange for our products," he said.
"I want our children to study," said Antoinette Ambulampo....
Room For Debate: Saving Species as the Climate Changes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
New York Times: Wildlife Conservation Society The North American wolverine is waiting in line with many other proposed additions to the endangered species list.
In the past few years, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been overwhelmed with hundreds of petitions to add plants and animals to the federal endangered species list. Conservation groups say they have had to barrage the agency because climate change and rapid habitat destruction are pushing many more species closer to extinction.
But the agency has...
Tornadoes, storms again lash the Midwest and South
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2011
Reuters: Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes tore across the Midwest and South bringing wind gusts and hail and snapping trees and damaging houses, authorities said on Wednesday.
Accuweather meteorologists said 33 tornado sightings were unofficially reported from Oklahoma to Ohio from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.
There were no deaths reported from the outbreak of severe weather that triggered tornado warnings from Texas to Indiana and across the South, including areas hit by storms last week...
intense rains could swamp Chicago’s aging sewers
Posted by Chicago Tribune: None Given on April 21st, 2011
Chicago Tribune: In a city built on a swamp, where rainstorms already flood basements and force sewage into Lake Michigan and local streams, climate change could make Chicago's chronic water pollution woes even worse.
Researchers hired by Mayor Richard Daley's office estimate that intense rainfall will happen more frequently in the not-so-distant future because of warming global temperatures, challenging the region's aging sewers and the troubled Deep Tunnel project more than ever.
Rains of greater than 2.5...