RSS Feed
Archive for July, 2011
Chris Huhne: Climate change threatens UK security
Posted by Telegraph: James Kirkup on July 7th, 2011
Telegraph: The Energy Secretary predicted that UK will be "exposed to the shocking and alarming' consequences of a warmer world. Unchecked, climate change poses "a systemic threat' to the international order, he said.
Mr Huhne made the prediction in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute, a military think-tank.
The speech is meant to pave the way for a White Paper next week that will set out plans to boost the use of nuclear power and "renewable' energy sources like wind farms.
"With luck,...
Grizzly bear kills hiker in Yellowstone park
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
Associated Press: A grizzly bear roams in Yellowstone national park, where a man has been mauled to death while hiking with his wife. A grizzly bear has killed a man who was hiking with his wife in Yellowstone national park after the couple apparently surprised the female bear and its cubs.
It was the park's first fatal grizzly mauling since 1986, but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year.
The attack happened on Wednesday morning, two days after a peak weekend for tourism in the park, on a...
Kenyan herders switch to farming as droughts worsen
Posted by AlertNet: Gitonga Njeru on July 7th, 2011
AlertNet: Kenyan herders switch to farming as droughts worsen
Cattle graze near thorn trees in Eremit in Kenya's southern Rift Valley on July 21, 2007.Frequent droughts are causing a share of Kenya's cattle herders to abandon their longstanding tradition of livestock farming in favour of growing crops, in an effort to increase their income.
Poor rainfall over the past several years, likely related to climate change, has resulted in increasing levels of hunger and poverty in the east African country,...
United Kingdom: Climate Change Forces Early Spring
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
redOrbit: Spring is hailed as the season of rebirth, but if it comes too early, it can threaten the plants it is meant to welcome. A University of Alberta study shows that climate change over the past 70 years has pushed some of the province's native wildflowers and trees into earlier blooming times, making them more vulnerable to damaging frosts, and ultimately, threatening reproduction. U of A PhD candidate Elisabeth Beaubien and her supervisor, professor Andreas Hamann of the Department of Renewable Resources,...
Climate change and disaster in Montana
Posted by LA Times: Naomi Klein on July 7th, 2011
LA Times: "We're a disaster area," Alexis Bonogofsky told me, "and it's going to take a long time to get over it."
Bonogofsky and her partner, Mike Scott, are all over the news this week, telling the world about how Montana's Exxon Mobil pipeline spill has fouled their goat ranch and is threatening the health of their animals.
But my conversation with Bonogofsky was four full days before the pipeline began pouring oil into the Yellowstone River. And no, it's not that she's psychic; she was talking about...
Exxon says 40 landowners report property fouled by spill
Posted by Reuters: Emilie Ritter on July 7th, 2011
Reuters: About 40 Montana landowners have reported contamination of their property by crude oil spilled from a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline into the flood-swollen Yellowstone River over the weekend, the company said on Wednesday.
As the scope of property damage came into sharper relief, Montana's governor accused Exxon of underestimating how much oil spewed into the one of America's most pristine rivers 150 miles downstream from Yellowstone National Park.
"This cleanup would go a lot better if we could...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Exxon says 40 landowners report property fouled by spillExxon says Montana pipeline repairs to take weeks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2011
Reuters: Exxon Mobil Corp is working on a plan to repair and restart a ruptured Montana pipeline that spilled up to 1,000 barrels of crude into the Yellowstone River last weekend, but restoration is not expected for at least two weeks, an executive said on Wednesday.
"Restoration of the line is something we'll look at separately," said Gary Pruessing, president of Exxon Mobil Pipeline Company. "It's not something that's going to happen in the next day, or week, or couple of weeks."
He said the immediate...
Exxon said failed Mont. pipeline was deeply buried
Posted by Associated Press: Matthew Brown and Garance Burke on July 7th, 2011
Associated Press: Exxon Mobil Co. had reassured federal regulators and officials from a Montana town since December that an oil pipeline beneath the Yellowstone River was safe, buried deep enough to avoid any accidental ruptures.
Then, on Friday night, the pipe failed, spilling an estimated 42,000 gallons into the flooded river.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation, but the prevailing theory among officials and the company is that the raging Yellowstone eroded the riverbed and exposed the line...
Summer floods threaten record levels as rain predicted
Posted by Reuters: Molly O'Toole on July 6th, 2011
Reuters: With rivers still running above flood stage and soils saturated, forecasters predicted on Wednesday this summer flooding season could rival the worst in United States history.
In the "Great Flood of 1993," record-breaking floods from April to August cost more than $25 billion in damages in at least nine states.
But due to current high water levels and soaked soil, just a small amount of rain could trigger more flooding in areas that have already seen record flooding this 2011 season, the National...
Yellowstone Oil Spill Fuels Opposition to Proposed U.S.-Canada Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 6th, 2011
Greenwire: As cleanup continues along a Montana river despoiled by a 1,000-barrel oil leak, green groups see a new opening to secure stronger pipeline safety rules and to beat back a major U.S.-Canada oil link -- the types of victories that did not materialize after last year's Gulf of Mexico gusher.
The political ramifications of the Friday rupture on Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Silvertip line are likely to be felt most keenly in the next six weeks, as the Obama administration readies a final environmental review...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Yellowstone Oil Spill Fuels Opposition to Proposed U.S.-Canada Pipeline