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Archive for June, 2011
House Panel Fast-Tracks Bill to Divest EPA of Regulatory Power Over Water
Posted by New York Times: Paul Quinlan on June 22nd, 2011
New York Times: After a brief but rancorous debate, a House committee approved a fast-tracked bill that would shift regulatory powers over water, wetlands and mountaintop-mining regulation from U.S. EPA to the states.
In a 35-19, largely party-line vote, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this morning approved the bill (H.R. 2018 (pdf)) backed by the top Republican and Democrat on the committee, Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).
Four other Democrats also joined in support:...
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Senegal farmers fight desertification with trees
Posted by AlertNet: George Fominyen on June 22nd, 2011
AlertNet: Dame Diop looks at the green leaves of trees growing on the sandy Sahelian soil of his Senegal village, Khatre Sy, and talks with modesty about the community's effort to restore fertility to their degraded soil.
"There was a time when we could stand in the village and see cars on the road, although almost four kilometres separate the road from the village,' said the 45-year-old.
"The trees had disappeared because of many droughts and also because people were cutting them for firewood and for...
Droughts devastating East Africa
Posted by English Aljazeera: Andrew Wander on June 22nd, 2011
English Aljazeera: Many tribes across East Africa are having to leave their pastoral way of life for urban poverty because of severe droughts
Whether you ask about the carcasses of livestock baked white in the sun, the gaggle of people crowding around the district commissioner's door, or the wards of malnourished children lying listlessly in hospital beds, the explanation given is always the same.
"It's because of the drought", they say.
The failure of rains across arid parts of East Africa has brought misery...
Track the nation’s rivers: Missouri River floods and southern drought
Posted by Climate Central: David Kroodsma on June 22nd, 2011
Climate Central: This year's extreme weather, marked by unusually heavy precipitation in the northern half of the country and drought in the South and Southwest, continues.
The Missouri River is currently above flood stage in every state that it passes through. People are evacuating homes, bridges are down, and the Army Corps of Engineers is struggling to manage reservoirs swollen with runoff from weeks of heavy rains and melting mountain snowpack. A few unsettling pictures show floodwaters surrounding the Fort...
United Kingdom: Pupils join mass world water test
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2011
BBC: Children from hundreds of schools in Britain are taking part in what organisers say may be the biggest ever global chemistry experiment.
Students from around the world are testing the acidity of water from their local rivers and lakes.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry will collate the data into a map of global water quality.
Participating countries range from Australia to Slovakia, India and South Africa.
The project is part of the International Year of Chemistry...
Aussie chef catches flak for treated tap water
Posted by Reuters: Pauline Askin on June 22nd, 2011
Reuters: An Australian chef has received a chilly reception for charging diners for treated tap water and ditching boutique bottled water, which he termed wasteful, for an eco-friendly option. Mark Best, chef and owner of Marque Restaurant in Sydney, turned years of environmental consciousness into action by splashing out on a $6,000 Italian-made water system that filters, chills and carbonates tap water, the first of its kind in an Australian restaurant. He now charges A$5 ($5.3) for water -- but this...
Burkina Faso Losing Thousands of Hectares of Forests Each Year
Posted by Inter Press Service: Brahima Ouédraogo on June 22nd, 2011
Inter Press Service: The Burkina Faso authorities have sounded the alarm over the increased rate of degradation of forests in this Sahelian country.
According to a study by the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development, some 110,550 hectares of forest are destroyed each year, just over four percent of the country's total wooded area – around three-quarters of this annual loss linked to farming. The data covers forest loss between 1992 and 2002, but the trend continues, according the ministry.
The...
Texas forces firms to open up on ‘fracking’
Posted by Independent: Guy Adams on June 22nd, 2011
Independent: As the spiritual home of big oil, Texas may fairly be seen to be to environmentalism what its official food, chilli con carne, is to vegetarianism.
But that hasn't stopped the state becoming the first corner of America to require energy firms to disclose information about the chemicals they are pumping into the ground in order to release natural gas during the hugely controversial process of "hydraulic fracking".
The Lone Star state's Governor, Rick Perry, quietly signed a law last week which...
GAO: leaks at aging nuke sites difficult to detect
Posted by Associated Press: Jeff Donn and Justin Pritchard on June 21st, 2011
Associated Press: U.S. nuclear power plant operators haven't figured out how to quickly detect leaks of radioactive water from aging pipes that snake underneath the sites — and the leaks, often undetected for years, are not going to stop, according to a new report by congressional investigators.
The report by the Government Accountability Office was released by two congressmen Tuesday in response to an Associated Press investigation that shows three-quarters of America's 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked radioactive...
G20 ministers meet to tackle surging food prices
Posted by Reuters: Marie Maitre and Sybille de La Hamaide on June 21st, 2011
Reuters: G20 farm ministers meet in Paris on Wednesday to review steps to curb food price volatility amid doubts France will win unanimous backing for a cornerstone proposal to tighten regulation for commodity markets.
Paris has made tougher commodity trading rules a priority of its 2011 presidency of the Group of 20 leading economies as President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed speculators for food price inflation that fed unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
While all G20 nations have agreed that...