RSS Feed
Archive for June, 2011
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...
U.S. firms should reveal more on shale drilling: Chevron
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Natural gas drillers are doing too little to inform the public about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, a practice essential for tapping the United States' shale gas reserves, a Chevron executive told a federal panel on Wednesday.
Advances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have led to a boom in shale gas drilling, but the expansion of shale gas development has led to concerns about potential water contamination.
While companies have begun releasing some details about the chemicals...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on U.S. firms should reveal more on shale drilling: ChevronGoogle uses sea water to cool Finland data centre
Posted by Business Green: Jonathan Bardelline on June 2nd, 2011
Business Green: Google's new data centre in Hamina, Finland, will be cooled exclusively with sea water, a side benefit from the location and previous use of the facility.
The data centre is situated in a former paper mill built in the 1950s by the Gulf of Finland.
"Our team was really anxious to utilize the opportunities of it being right near the gulf to come up with an innovative and very efficient cooling system," Joe Kava, Google's senior director of datacenter construction and operations, said in a video...
Putting a price on nature can’t be worse than giving it all away for free
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2011
Guardian: Feeling relaxed? A bird perches atop a blade of grass in a sunlit meadow.
Can you put a price on the smell of the sea and the wind in your hair? How much for a cool drink from a mountain spring on a summer's day? And what would you pay to lie under a tree and drift off to sleep serenaded by birdsong?
The simple answer is that nature and wildlife is priceless. Some would go further and say ascribing cash sums to wind and water, the birds and the bees, destroys the very thing that makes it special:...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Putting a price on nature can’t be worse than giving it all away for freeDam at heart of Amazon rain forest approved
Posted by WalesOnline: None Given on June 2nd, 2011
WalesOnline: The massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rain forest won approval from Brazil`s environmental protection agency, clearing the way for construction of a project fiercely opposed by environmentalists, indigenous activists and celebrities including film director James Cameron and rock star Sting.
The dam would be the world`s third largest, behind China`s Three Gorges dam and the Itaipu, which straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.
The consortium building Belo Monte...
Australia warns climate change threatens Kakadu park
Posted by Reuters: Rob Taylor on June 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Australia warned on Thursday that its World Heritage-listed outback Kakadu wetland, made famous in the "Crocodile Dundee" films, was at severe risk from climate change, as the government faced a growing battle to introduce a carbon tax.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's one-seat majority government is embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious climate policy debate, pitching mining magnates against environment activists including Oscar winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett.
Gillard, struggling...
Australia: Climate change will hurt Kakadu: report
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Jano Gibson on June 2nd, 2011
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has added more ammunition to her climate change arsenal after the release of a new report showing climate change could have direct impacts on world heritage listed Kakadu National Park. The Department of Climate Change report says saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels into freshwater areas could hurt iconic animal species. The study modelled the impact of sea level rises on the South Alligator River system for the years 2030 and 2070 and found saltwater intrusion...