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Archive for May 10th, 2011
La Niña and global warming blamed as torrential rains swamp Colombia
Posted by Guardian: Marie Delcas on May 10th, 2011
Guardian: Rescuers at the site of a landslide that buried five houses in the Santo Domingo neighborhood of Medellin on 27 April 2011. It followed heavy rain. Photograph: Luis Eduardo Noriega/EPA
It has never rained so much in Colombia. "Over the past 10 months we have registered five or six times more rainfall than usual," says weather specialist Ricardo Lozano. Torrential rain and flooding have affected more than three-quarters of the country. The most recent Red Cross bulletin reports 425 fatalities and...
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Chile OKs divisive mega hydroelectric dam project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
Reuters: Chile gave the green light on Monday to the divisive $3.5 billion HidroAysen hydro-power dam project that promises to ease energy squeezes, despite objections that it will ruin pristine Patagonian valleys.
Chile, the world's top copper producer, is seeking to boost and diversify its power grid to confront rising energy needs and drought-induced energy squeezes, which this year prompted the government to reduce voltages to help avoid blackouts.
Regulators at Chile's regional environmental commission...
Chile approves $7bn hydroelectric dam in Patagonian wilderness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
Associated Press: A hydroelectric dam in Chile. The government has approved a project to build five dams on two of Patagonia's rivers. A $7bn (£4.2bn) project to dam two of the world's wildest rivers for electricity won environmental approval on Monday from a Chilean government commission, despite a groundswell of opposition.
The commissioners – all political appointees in President Sebastián Piñera's government – concluded a three-year environmental review by approving five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers...
Report lands fracking firms in hot water over contamination risks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
Business Green: Natural gas fracking operations are heavily contaminating drinking water, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.
Water in shallow wells near natural gas fracking wells contained 17 times more methane deposits than in wells near non-active areas, the report found.
The report, entitled Methane Contamination of Drinking Water Accompanying Gas-Well Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing and authored by researchers at the Nicholas School of the...
Canada opens up north to mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
BBC: Canada's Quebec province opens up north for mining
The plans to develop Quebec's wilderness will create thousands of jobs, says Jean Charest A large area of northern Canada is to be opened up to mining, energy and forestry projects.
The government of Quebec has unveiled a massive plan to develop a largely inhospitable but untouched area in the north of the province.
The "Plan Nord" aims to turn 1.2 million sq km of land into a major area of mining and renewable energy.
The plan also aims...
Climate change and the flood this time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
LA Times: Last week, at a place called Bird's Point, just below the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, the Army Corps of Engineers was busy mining a huge levee with explosives. The work was made dangerous by outbreaks of lightning, but eventually the charges were in place and corps Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh gave the order: A 2-mile-wide hole was blasted in the earthen levee, and a wall of water greater than the flow over Niagara Falls inundated 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland.
The...
Climate change makes extreme weather normal
Posted by Register-Guard: Bob Doppelt on May 10th, 2011
Register-Guard: The “tornado of a lifetime” ripped through the Southeast last month, killing more than 300 people.
Record drought contributed to wildfires that so far have burned more than 1.4 million acres across Texas.
The rampaging Mississippi River reached its highest levels in almost 100 years, damaging property throughout the basin.
Across the nation and the planet, unprecedented extreme weather events are on the rise.
Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared a record 81 disasters,...
Climate change and the flood this time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
LA Times: Climate change and the flood this time
Midwest flooding is a taste of climate change in its early stages. We've got to fight back, and fast.
Michael Young builds a walkway to his Tiptonville, Mo., home, surrounded by floodwater. Heavy rains have also swollen rivers and caused widespread flooding in Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.
Related Something in the water Greenhouse gases: Too hot for the courts Jonah Goldberg: Cooling on global warming Stories The best remedy for the price...
Brazil: Accusations Mount against Pulp and Paper Giant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Brazilian and international environmental organisations and peasant farmer movements are taking aim at the forestry industry once again, this time accusing transnational corporation Stora Enso of illegally profiting from the production of wood pulp in the state of Bahia.
The accusations specifically target Veracel Celulosa, a joint venture between "two international leaders in the pulp and paper market" according to the company website - namely Brazil’s Fibria and the Swedish-Finnish forestry...
Drought descends on Texas, surrounding states
Posted by Bloomberg: Betsy Blaney on May 10th, 2011
Bloomberg: With much of the nation focused on a spring marked by historic floods and deadly tornadoes, Texas and parts of several surrounding states are suffering through a drought nearly as punishing as some of the world's driest deserts.
Some parts of the Lone Star State have not seen any significant precipitation since August. Bayous, cattle ponds and farm fields are drying up, and residents are living under constant threat of wildfires, which have already burned across thousands of square miles.
Much...