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Archive for April, 2011
Fires burn Texas from ‘stem to stern.’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2011
LA Times: Ranchers flung open gates in hopes their livestock could escape fast-moving flames. One family watched in horror as two of their horses caught fire and galloped away. Homes, barns, oil field pump jacks and thousands of acres of rangeland are now blackened.
Such were the scenes in drought-plagued west Texas, where the mammoth Rock House fire has raged for two weeks, part of a complex of more than a dozen fires stretching across a swath cut by the Pecos River.
No part of Texas has been spared....
Climate change threatening China’s water resources
Posted by Newstrack India: None Given on April 23rd, 2011
Newstrack India: Climate change is having an adverse impact on China's water resources, said the country's water resources minister.
Chen Lei's comments came during a meeting on climate change where he pointed out that global warming has become an important environmental issue, with water being one of the sectors most directly affected.
"China faces an imbalance between the supply and demand of water to support its rapid social and economic development, while protecting the natural environment and ecosystems,"...
Record number of endangered whales expected off Cape Cod
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Researchers in Massachusetts say they are on track to spot a record number of endangered right whales in Cape Cod Bay and nearby waters.
So far this season, which stretches from January through mid-May, more than 200 right whales have been sighted, accounting for nearly half of the known species population.
The total thus far is the same number tracked during the entire 2010 season, said Laura Ganley, flight coordinator for the right whale studies program at the Provincetown Center for Coastal...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Record number of endangered whales expected off Cape CodCooler, wet weather gives Texas firefighters a break
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Improved weather conditions allowed Texas firefighters to mount an offensive overnight against wildfires that have charred more than 1.8 million acres across the state and killed two responders this year, officials said on Friday.
With diminished wind speeds and increased moisture in the air, as well as modest rainfall, the roughly 1,800 firefighters contained nine wildfires overnight and waged battle against the remaining fires that still spans 600,000 acres.
"When conditions turn like that...
RELEASE: Earth Day 2011: Peace with Earth Day
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on April 23rd, 2011
Re-Declaration of Planetary Ecological Emergency by Ecological Internet
From Earth's Newsdesk and New Earth Rising, projects of Ecological Internet (EI)
Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, President, Ecological Internet glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
A year ago today Ecological Internet (EI) during Earth Day 2010 declared a planetary ecological emergency. After the past years Gulf oil spill, multiple nuclear meltdowns and unaddressed abrupt climate change escalates; it is eminently evident that Earths ecosystems are crashing. On Earth Day 2011, EI reiterates call for an immediate and escalating peoples power Earth Revolution on behalf of Earth, all her life, and the human family. And for the entire human family to find a way each and every to get out and plant organic Earth victory gardens, and protect and restore ecosystems.
Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internets President, says The human family faces the imminent collapse of the biosphere the thin layer of life organized into ecosystems, upon an otherwise lifeless planet that makes Earth habitable. As noted a year ago today, human pressures on Earth Systems life-support systems continue at such a dramatic scale that they are causing global ecosystems to collapse. Escalating people power revolutionary action may be the only adequate measures that exist to stop abrupt ...
Chesapeake seeks permanent plug for natgas well
Posted by Reuters: Edward McAllister on April 22nd, 2011
Reuters: Chesapeake Energy is looking for options to plug permanently a Pennsylvania natural gas well following a blowout this week that sent drilling fluid into local waterways.
Chesapeake, one of Pennsylvania's biggest shale gas producers, used a mix of plastic, ground-up tires and heavy mud on Thursday as a temporary plug for the well, which had spewed thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, fluid into the surrounding area.
The spill, which occurred late on Tuesday, has stoked...
This will be the Arab world’s next battle
Posted by Guardian: Lester R Brown on April 22nd, 2011
Guardian: Long after the political uprisings in the Middle East have subsided, many underlying challenges that are not now in the news will remain. Prominent among these are rapid population growth, spreading water shortages, and growing food insecurity.
In some countries grain production is now falling as aquifers – underground water-bearing rocks – are depleted. After the Arab oil-export embargo of the 1970s, the Saudis realised that since they were heavily dependent on imported grain, they were vulnerable...
More pine barrens, last Long Island wilderness, protected
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2011
Reuters: New York state officials chose Earth Day on Friday to announce purchase of a large tract of land in Long Island's pine barrens as a preserve for hikers and other naturalists and a source for pure drinking water.
The land, mostly surrounded by publicly owned property, had been sought for years by preservation advocates as an essential part of the 100,000-acre pine barrens in Suffolk County in eastern Long Island.
Calling the pine barrens a "beautiful natural resource" as well as "an important...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on More pine barrens, last Long Island wilderness, protectedEurope scorns “supersalmon” as GM battle widens
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 22nd, 2011
Reuters: European salmon farmers and breeders who dominate global sales have a wary eye on transgenic American superfish that grow fast and might gulp part of the $107 billion-a-year aquaculture business.
"We don't have any monster pigs in Europe, or monster cows, and there's no need for such a salmon," said Geir Isaksen, the chief executive at big Norwegian fish farmer Cermaq.
Genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon patented by U.S. biotech firm AquaBounty are widely billed as growing at double speed...
Free Rain Barrels for New Yorkers
Posted by New York Times: MIREYA NAVARRO on April 22nd, 2011
New York Times: New York City Department of Environmental Protection New York City is offering homeowners 55-gallon rain-collection barrels.
It’s raining barrels.
New York City is giving away 55-gallon rain barrels to homeowners to help conserve water and reduce pressure on the city’s sewer system, which is often overwhelmed during heavy storms. The city started promoting the barrels by distributing a few hundred of them in Queens in 2008 and 750 more in 2009 to homeowners who applied for them. This year,...