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Archive for June 2nd, 2011
‘Routine antibiotic use’ linked to new MRSA strain found in UK dairy cows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
Ecologist: Fresh concerns over the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections from farm animals to humans have been raised after scientists find new strain of potentially deadly superbug in dairy cows
Scientists have discovered a new type of the potentially deadly MRSA bacteria in dairy cows that is almost identical to one found in hospital patients.
Strains of MRSA, which causes infections in humans and is resistant to many existing antibiotics, have already been found in pigs, poultry and cattle in several...
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House Panel Clears Fiscal 2012 Energy, Water Spending Bill; Programs for Renewables Take a Hit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
New York Times: House appropriators today cleared a $30.6 billion spending bill for the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers that could see a floor vote before August.
The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee this morning passed the fiscal 2012 funding measure (pdf) by voice vote. Full Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said he would move it through the full committee and to the House floor before the chamber breaks for summer recess in August.
The spending plan...
Canada: Manitoba to curb hog farms to save Lake Winnipeg
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Manitoba will tighten rules on expanding hog farms and ban manure spreading to cut the flow of phosphorus into the world's 11th-biggest freshwater lake, as Lake Winnipeg deteriorates from algae growth.
The western Canadian province, which has the country's third-largest pig herd, will also protect wetlands that filter out pollutants and force the capital Winnipeg to build a sewage treatment plant, Premier Greg Selinger said on Thursday.
The buildup of nutrients like phosphorus from sewage,...
United States: Fracking Brings Jobs And Pollution To Town
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
National Public Radio: NEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan broadcasting today from the studios of Texas Public Radio in San Antonio. And the headline in today's editions of the San Antonio Express News reports that Marathon Oil bought tracts in a once-desolate place called Eagle Ford for $3.5 billion. Towns that seemed set to dry up and blow away are booming back to life atop one of the most promising new oil fields anywhere. What's made that all possible is a relatively new drilling technique...
University of Regina researchers awarded $1.25 million to study climate change on Prairies
Posted by Regina Leader-Post: None Given on June 2nd, 2011
Regina Leader-Post: Researchers at the University of Regina have been awarded $1.25 million to study how climate change will impact the Prairies, particularly in agricultural and First Nations communities.
The money is part of a $2.5 million international project on Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Extremes in the Americas. A total of $12.5 million was announced by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) under the International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC) on Thursday...
Stalwarts in China’s Water Struggle
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on June 2nd, 2011
New York Times: To report out my article on China’s ambitious and troubled plan to divert water from the south to try to satisfy the drinking needs of people in the dying north, I traveled to the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River that winds through the heart of the country. It is there, at a reservoir at Danjiangkou, that the middle channel of the water diversion project starts.
Scientists who study the Han told me that the water project could kill or severely damage the river, which provides crucial...
Australia’s Kakadu wetlands ‘under climate threat’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Rising sea levels linked to global warming will endanger Australia's World Heritage-listed Kakadu wetlands, according to a government report released Thursday as part of the campaign for a carbon tax.
Prepared for the climate change department, the study found Kakadu was "one of Australia's natural ecosystems most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change", with higher oceans a "serious risk" to its ecosystem.
Monsoon rainforests, mangroves and woodlands would suffer and unique turtle, fish,...
United Kingdom: Our green spaces are priceless
Posted by Guardian: Nicholas Milton on June 2nd, 2011
Guardian: How much is your local park, playing field, allotment or nature reserve worth to you? What price would you put on hearing the rich, varied and flute like song of a blackbird while walking in the countryside? Or the view of a canal or river from your living room window?
According to the government's National Ecosystem Assessment, looking after all the UK's green spaces is worth the sum of £30bn a year to the economy. But to someone who has worked in the environmental movement for more than 20 years...
Australia: Garnaut says true climate info getting out
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
AAP: Federal government climate adviser Ross Garnaut says more "true information" is getting out on global warming and the need for Australia to do its fair share to solve the problem.
Prof Garnaut was in Perth on Thursday as part of a national series of public forums answering questions about his final update to his landmark 2008 climate change review released this week.
His Perth stop coincided with the release of an open letter from a group of senior economists advocating a price on carbon as...
Solar plans pit green vs. green
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
USA Today: Plans to create huge solar energy plants in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere in the West are pitting one green point of view vs. another. Janine Blaeloch, executive director of the Western Lands Project, a non-profit group that examines the impacts of government land privatization, supports developing America's renewable energy sources but says fields of mirrors along miles of open desert isn't the way to do it. "These plants will introduce a huge amount of damage to our...