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Archive for May 22nd, 2011
Americans take a gamble with the Mississippi floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2011
Guardian: A levee protects a house from the flooded Mississippi near Vicksburg. The Riverwalk Casino in Vicksburg was one of the last gambling establishments operating on the Mississippi during these historic floods, and the management lined the drive with insistent signs. "Still open", they said, "Still happy". Another sign, an electric one, bragged about the new decor. Workers had stuck pink plastic flamingos on the 4ft sand wall. The river had swallowed up the lawn and trees and was lapping at the parking...
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Alaska villages sold on biomass
Posted by Daily News Miner: Molly Rettig on May 22nd, 2011
Daily News Miner: Some Interior villages are already sold on biomass. Community leaders shared how they harvest energy from the forests and rivers around them with roughly 200 attendees at the Alaska Wood Energy Conference on Wednesday.
“We are a rural community that wants to promote to other rural communities that this can be done,” Tanana city manager Bear Ketzler said.
The three-day event focused on various fuel types, technologies, environmental impacts and supply issues associated with wood energy.
The...
Koch, GOP fire back at Waxman over oil sands pipeline inquiry
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on May 22nd, 2011
Hill: Koch Industries and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are criticizing Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) probe of whether Koch stands to gain from a proposed pipeline to import Canadian oil sands – a project that Republicans hope to expedite with legislation. “Waxman's decision to question a single company rather than looking at the broader effects for the energy sector, U.S. workers, and families reveals his blatant disregard for the 7 in 10 Americans who are struggling to fill up at...
Texas drought: Texas farmers struggle to survive brutal drought
Posted by LA Times: Julie Cart on May 22nd, 2011
LA Times: The wind in West Texas is famously powerful and incessant. But this year, more big blows than anyone can remember have roared through, stripping away precious topsoil and carrying off another season of hope for farmers and ranchers. Everywhere, it seems, the land is on the move: sand building up in corners of the just-swept front porch and coating clean laundry on the line, dust up your nose and in crevices of farm machinery. Drive along unpaved county roads and the farmers' plight becomes clear:...
Brazil: Add coastal vegetation to the climate critical list
Posted by Nature: Margareth Da Silva Copertino on May 22nd, 2011
Nature: My country, Brazil, is home to 80% of the remaining Amazon rainforest, and has rightly worked to find ways to sustainably manage and commercialize these stocks of forest carbon. However, like most countries with long coastlines, Brazil has so far missed the opportunity to value and protect another important carbon store: its mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes.
The 9,000-kilometre vibrant and productive Brazilian coastline is covered with vegetated ecosystems that together contain hundreds...
Forest fires rage in Russia’s Far East, Siberia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2011
Reuters: Fires are spreading fast across vast Siberian forests in a reminder of last year's worst drought on record which killed dozens of people and forced Russia to suspend grain exports.
The Emergency Ministry said on Sunday on its web site www.mchs.gov.ru that around 100,000 hectares of forestry was caught up in fires, mainly in the Far East as well as in the oil-rich Siberian province of Khanty-Mansiysk and nearby areas.
The European part of Russia, the country's agricultural hinterland, remained...