RSS Feed
Archive for June, 2011
Defiant NRC Chief Rejects Calls to Resign Over Yucca Mountain Dispute
Posted by Greenwire: Hannah Northey on June 16th, 2011
Greenwire: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko rebuffed a top House Republican's call for his resignation yesterday, saying he did not break any laws and that only President Obama has the authority to take away his chairmanship.
"I have no intention to leave office and the only other person who has the ability to remove me from office is the president, so if the president makes that decision then that's what will happen," Jaczko said during an interview. "But I have no intention of stepping...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Defiant NRC Chief Rejects Calls to Resign Over Yucca Mountain DisputeHow Calif. Farmers Finessed Impacts of Long Drought but Could Stumble in the Next One
Posted by Climate Wire: Colin Sullivan on June 16th, 2011
Climate Wire: The third of an occasional series. Click here to read the first story and here for the second in the series.
California's three-year drought ending earlier this year was poorly understood by the media and demonstrated how vulnerable the state's water supply could be in years ahead, especially as climate change brings prolonged dry years, a new report says.
The Pacific Institute, in a study released today, found that press coverage of the drought, which was declared over in March by Gov. Jerry...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How Calif. Farmers Finessed Impacts of Long Drought but Could Stumble in the Next OneMore sewage on EU beaches last year: watchdog
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2011
Reuters: Europe's beaches became more polluted with bacteria from the sewage of humans or livestock last year, the European Union's environmental watchdog said on Thursday.
The European Environment Agency (EEA), which monitors 22,000 bathing sites, reported a 3.5 percent drop in the number of swimming areas meeting the basic standards for intestinal bacteria such as E.coli and fecal streptococci.
It also reported a 9.5 percent fall in the number meeting its more stringent "guide values" for the cleanest...
Food ark
Posted by National Geographic: Charles Siebert on June 16th, 2011
National Geographic: Food Ark A crisis is looming: To feed our growing population, we’ll need to double food production. Yet crop yields aren’t increasing fast enough, and climate change and new diseases threaten the limited varieties we’ve come to depend on for food. Luckily we still have the seeds and breeds to ensure our future food supply—but we must take steps to save them.
Six miles outside the town of Decorah, Iowa, an 890-acre stretch of rolling fields and woods called Heritage Farm is letting its crops go...
California drought drove up energy costs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2011
LA Times: One of the biggest costs of California's recent drought went largely unnoticed, according to a report that estimates state ratepayers paid $1.7 billion to replace lost hydropower with natural gas generation that also pumped millions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere.
"Some of the drought's most direct and costly impacts were to air quality and California electricity ratepayers," concludes an analysis of the drought's impacts by the Pacific Institute, a Northern California think tank that...
Southwest wildfires and global warming, explained
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward and Andrew Freedman on June 16th, 2011
Climate Central: The Guadalupe Fire Department fights a wildfire near Nutrioso, Arizona on June 4, 2011. Credit: US Forest Service, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.
For much of the Western US, wildfire season hits its peak near the end of summer, after months of hot and dry weather have increased the susceptibility of plants and trees, or "fuels' in wildfire parlance, to burning. But 2011 has already been a banner year for wildfires, in terms of acres burned to date, and the official start of summer is still...
Dozens killed in Burma amid clashes over Chinese dams
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2011
Guardian: Kachin soldiers gather around the body of a comrade they claim was killed in fighting with Burmese government troops near the border with China, in this undated handout photo provided by the US Campaign for Burma. A bloody outbreak of fighting that has ended a 17-year ceasefire between Burmese government forces and a tribal militia was partly caused by the expansion of Chinese hydropower along the Irrawaddy river, conservationists claim.
Dozens of people in northern Burma have reportedly been...
French analyst cuts EU grain crop views due drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2011
Reuters: French analyst Strategie Grains on Thursday sharply cut its forecast for this year's grains crops in the European Union due to renewed dry conditions in the Western part of the bloc in May and despite recent rainfall.
Soft wheat saw the largest reduction, at 6 million tonnes, with the estimate of the 2011 crop lowered to 125.6 million tonnes, now 1 percent below last year's 126.6 million tonnes.
"The springtime drought continued throughout May in West Europe, reaching critical levels in many...
Climate change panel in hot water again over ‘biased’ energy report
Posted by Independent: Oliver Wright on June 16th, 2011
Independent: The world's foremost authority on climate change used a Greenpeace campaigner to help write one of its key reports, which critics say made misleading claims about renewable energy, The Independent has learnt.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up by the UN in 1988 to advise governments on the science behind global warming, issued a report last month suggesting renewable sources could provide 77 per cent of the world's energy supply by 2050. But in supporting documents released...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change panel in hot water again over ‘biased’ energy reportPeru cancels massive dam project after years of protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2011
Mongabay: Three years of sustained community opposition have brought down plans for a massive dam on the Madre de Dios River in Peru. Yesterday the Peruvian government announced it was terminating the contract with Empresa de Generación Eléctrica Amazonas Sur (Egasur) to build a 1.5 gigawatt dam, known as the Inambari Dam. The dam was one of six that were agreed upon between Peru and Brazil to supply the latter with energy.
"Although this resolution does not prevent the construction of all dams in the Inambari...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Peru cancels massive dam project after years of protests