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Archive for April, 2011
Europe faces ‘drought and flood burden’: scientist
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2011
AFP: A leading climate scientist warned Tuesday that Europe should take action over increasing drought and floods, stressing that some climate change trends were clear despite variations in predictions.
"There are some robust areas like Siberia, we know what the climate will be, another robust area is the Mediterranean, because the models tell the same story," said Zbigniew Kundzewicz, review editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) chapter on freshwater resources.
"Climate...
Study: Some natural gas threatens climate more than coal
Posted by Wall Street Journal: Tennille Tracy on April 12th, 2011
Wall Street Journal: Extracting natural gas from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than burning coal, according to a new study that drew immediate attacks from oil and gas interests already facing pressure from lawmakers and regulators worried about the environmental effects of shale-gas development.
The study, conducted by professors at Cornell University, found that natural gas obtained from shale formations using a process known as "hydraulic fracturing" releases...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Study: Some natural gas threatens climate more than coalNew rights challenge to Belo Monte dam in Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2011
Guardian: A native from the Caiapo tribe holds a poster of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during a protest against the construction of Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in front of the National Congress, in Brasilia, in February. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/Getty
For the first time in the long drawn-out struggle between indigenous peoples living in the Xingú river basin and the Brazilian government, the underdogs have won the support of a sizeable ally. In a letter addressed to the state of Brazil, the Inter-American...
it’s hard to care for so many thirsty babies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2011
Guardian: Native ... the cassowary, a large flightless bird, is found in the rainforests of far north Queensland. Photograph: Fredrik Von Erichsen/AFP/Getty Images
I'm on the Atherton tablelands, in far north Queensland, to participate in a bit of reforestation. This is no ordinary tree-planting exercise. It is the beginning of a long-term reforestation experiment: a planting of 28,000 trees. The aim is to identify a cost-effective way to recreate rainforest biodiversity on once-forested grazing lands,...
Bolivia: El Alto, city of rural migrants whose crops failed when the climate changed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2011
Guardian: Poor El Alto is the satellite city of rich La Paz, overlooking the capital of Bolivia from up in the altiplano. In 1952 it was little more than a village; in 1960 it had fewer than 30,000 people; now it has exploded into a metropolis with up to 1 million or more living in the rarified, 4,100m (13,000ft) air. It's remarkable because this is one of the few cities in the world where the poor live physically above the rich, and where the vast majority are indigenous – from just one of the country's many...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Bolivia: El Alto, city of rural migrants whose crops failed when the climate changedFresh triumph for ethical tuna fishing campaign
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Independent: Letters from customers and embarrassing headlines have forced the last major British supermarket group to drop a destructive form of tuna fishing.
As the latest domino to topple in one of the most successful environmental campaigns in years, Morrisons told The Independent it would ban purse seining using fish-aggregating devices, or Fads, by the end of 2013.
Fads are man-made rafts that attract tuna and other species such as turtles and sharks -- which are all scooped up in nets and killed...
NGO sues to save forest for Paraguay natives
Posted by France 24: None Given on April 11th, 2011
France 24: An NGO supporting the rights of native Paraguayans said Monday that it filed complaints with environmental authorities over the destruction of forests in the northwestern Chaco region.
The Support Group for the Totobiegosode (GAT) says that 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of virgin forest in land where Paraguay's Ayoreos-Totobiegosode Indians live has been destroyed.
"It is the last redoubt of the Ayoreos-Totobiegosode indians in Paraguay," said Jorge Vera, a member of the non-governmental organization...
Red River floods fields, but U.S. farmers ready
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Reuters: Record flooding in parts of the U.S. Red River Valley has slowed grain movement, but lake-like fields are nothing new to farmers who battle flooding on some scale each spring, industry officials said.
The Red River, which divides North Dakota and Minnesota, is slowly easing from its Saturday crest at Fargo-Moorhead that left widespread flooding in fields north of the city.
Every year, farmers in the valley all but halt deliveries of stored crops to handling facilities due to muddy or flooded...
Wanted: Frack Busters (Costume Preferred)
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
New York Times: Meet the New York Water Rangers, the stars of an advertising campaign by environmental groups seeking to mobilize opposition to the natural gas drilling method known as hydrofracking.
New York Water Rangers A promotion intended to counter the gas industry`s plans for hydraulic fracturing in New York States.
The groups, including Riverkeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Mountainkeeper, are trying to recruit New York State residents to call attention to what they view as...
Dry weather helps Brazil cane harvest to advance
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Reuters: Brazil's 2011/12 cane harvest that started officially last week should progress faster with weather expected to be drier over the next few weeks, Somar meteorologists said Monday.
Forty-four mills had started crushing cane from the new season by last Thursday, but most of the 350-odd mills in the main center-south region should be operational by the end of the month, sugar cane industry association Unica said.
"Between Tuesday and Wednesday we predict some instability that could make the weather...