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Archive for May 3rd, 2011
Wilderness Bills Proliferate as Promoters Hope to Break 2-Year Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
Greenwire: Conservationists are working to build support for more than a dozen wilderness bills introduced in Congress that would provide the highest level of protections to more than 1.5 million acres in seven states. The bills, two of which were included in a failed last-gasp public lands package last December, represent unfinished business for wilderness supporters who lobbied hard for their passage during the last Congress. Proponents say they hope the bills can pass the 112th Congress despite lingering...
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‘Anti-Environmental’ House Freshman Leads Charge Against Obama’s Clean Water Agenda
Posted by New York Times: Paul Quinlan on May 3rd, 2011
New York Times: Just months into his first term, Rep. Bob Gibbs admits he has much to learn. But the Ohio Republican holds strong reservations about environmental regulation in general. To illustrate, Gibbs offered a homespun analogy, gleaned from the three decades he spent running his own hog farm before the House GOP put him in charge of the nation's clean water regulations. "When the hog market went south and times were tough, we were all focused on staying in business, paying the bills and paying employees,"...
A Boon to Birds: Public Preserves
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
New York Times: Publicly owned land, ocean and marshes provide habitat for at least half of the American populations of 300 bird species, the Department of Interior reports.
It is the first time that the department has devoted its annual State of the Birds report to an assessment of avian life on such property. Surveying some 850 million acres of public lands and 3.5 million square miles of ocean, it said that national wildlife refuges, parks and forests offer significant opportunities to reverse the decline...
Rethinking Water Pricing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
New York Times: At the Economix blog, David Leonhardt interviews Charles Fishman, the author of "The Big Thirst," about the world`s transition from a "golden age of water" to a strapped situation in which efficiency measures and investments in new technology will be vital.
Mississippi Levee Blast Is Successful, if Painful
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
New York Times: A.G. Sulzberger reports on a desperate effort to lower the level of the Mississippi River by blasting a protective levee. An update is here.
Slow clean up for Argentina’s worst environmental stain
Posted by AFP: Liliana Samuel on May 3rd, 2011
AFP: Along the Riachuelo river, one of the world's most polluted waterways lying south of Argentina's capital, many residents suffer from skin and lung problems and lack drinking water or sewers.
"This is what's killing us all," said Eduardo, an inhabitant of the poor neighborhood of Villa Inflamable, pointing to the Dock Sud petrochemical center, alleging oil refineries tip chemical waste straight into the water.
Riachuelo, a waterway of 40 miles (64 kilometers) along with its main Matanza tributary...
Deadly weather in US could become the norm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
New Scientist: Read more: See an interactive graphic of tornado devastation
It's been a severe start to the spring season in the United States. Tornadoes have ravaged the southeastern US, flooding threatens much of the Midwest, and wildfires are scorching Texas. But according to researchers, a confluence of seasonal oscillations in weather patterns, rather than climate change, is to blame. And growing populations mean that grim casualty figures from such events may become the norm.
"I don't think there's...
US army blasts holes in Missouri levee to save town from flooding destruction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 3rd, 2011
Guardian: The levee breaches will save Cairo, Illinois, which has been evacuated due to severe flooding. Photograph: Stephen Lance Dennee/AP
Engineers have blown up a levee in the US midwest, hoping to save a historic town from destruction by raging flood waters – but condemning a vast expanse of rich agricultural farmland.
Late on Monday night, the US army corps of engineers began detonating charges embedded in the levee at Birds Point, Missouri, in order to create a 610-metre (2,000-ft) breach. The...
Wild fires ‘a threat’ to ecology
Posted by BBC: Steven McKenzie on May 3rd, 2011
BBC: Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter A fire in Kintail has damaged efforts to regenerate ancient Caledonian pine forest
Wildfires which have been burning across parts of Scotland will have an impact on ecology and soil quality, according to scientists.
Ecologist Angus Jackson said food chains and the chemistry of soils, such as peat, have been threatened.
Dr Richard Dixon, of WWF Scotland, said mammals could escape the flames, but bird nest sites were at risk.
He added that the fires...
Endosulfan Ban Highlights Need for Alternatives
Posted by Inter Press Service: Marcela Valente* on May 3rd, 2011
Inter Press Service: The upsurge in the use of the toxic pesticide endosulfan, targeted for prohibition by the international community, illustrates one of the dilemmas of intensive agriculture in Argentina and Latin America in general.
"There is always a natural solution," insists farmer Alicia Alem, a member of an Argentine cooperative that produces cereal and forage crops without chemical fertilisers or pesticides.
"In terms of wheat, for example, the cooperative gets exactly the same yield as traditional producers...