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Archive for August 26th, 2011
Some Gulf oil spill claims against BP dismissed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Reuters: A federal judge overseeing hundreds of lawsuits related to last year's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday dismissed some plaintiff claims and allowed others to remain in the litigation.
In a 39-page, 16-part ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier dismissed some claims against the main defendant, BP, and its co-defendants in the consolidated litigation in New Orleans. He dismissed state law claims, stating that state law is "preempted by maritime law." He also dismissed general...
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Obama approves oil pipeline from Alberta tar sands to Texas coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Guardian: The Obama administration gave an important approval yesterday to a controversial pipeline that will pump oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Texas coast.
In a blow to campaigners, who have spent the last week at a sit-in at the White House, the State Department said the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline would not cause significant damage to the environment.
The State Department in its report said the project – which would pipe more than 700,000 barrels a day of tar sands crude to Texas refineries...
Q&A: NGOs Must Play Key Role in Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development
Posted by Inter Press Service: Jose Domingo Guariglia on August 26th, 2011
Inter Press Service: As the United Nations readies for a major international conference on sustainable development next June in Brazil, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are preparing to play a key role in the run-up to the summit meeting and are preparing a plan of action to be adopted by world leaders.
The Rio+20 conference will take place 20 years after the historic Earth Summit in Brazil in June 1992.
Asked about the importance of NGO contributions, Michael G. Renner, senior researcher at the Worldwatch...
Global Warming Behind Somali Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Inter Press Service: The severe drought in the Horn of Africa, which has caused the death of at least 30,000 children and is affecting some 12 million people, especially in Somalia, is a direct consequence of weather phenomena associated with climate change and global warming, environmental scientists say.
"The present drought in the Horn of Africa has been provoked by El Ni-o and La Ni-a phenomena in the Pacific Ocean, which unsettle the normal circulation of warm and cold water and air, and dislocate the humidity...
Impact of Gulf Spill’s Underwater Dispersants Is Examined
Posted by New York Times: Joanna Foster on August 26th, 2011
New York Times: In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP sought and obtained permission to use dispersants, detergent-like compounds, to break up the 200 million gallons of Louisiana sweet crude, into tiny droplets that would mix throughout the water column, trying to lessen the immediate impact of the oil slick on fragile coastal ecosystems.
The dispersants selected, Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527, were used in large quantities (1.84 million gallons) and also in ways never before used - they were applied...
Underground river discovered below Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Associated Press: A huge underground river appears to be flowing thousands of feet beneath the Amazon river, Brazilian scientists said Thursday.
Valiya Hamza of Brazil's National Observatory said researchers found indications the subterranean river is 3,700 miles long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.
Hamza said the discovery of the possible underground river came from studying temperature variations at 241 inactive oil wells drilled in the 1970s and 1980s by Brazil's state-run oil company,...
Seasons of discontent
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Economist: BELIEVERS extol the infant Christ, after whom the global climate oscillation El Niño is named, as the Prince of Peace. Not so, according to a new analysis by Solomon Hsiang of Columbia University and his colleagues. Looking at data on weather and warfare from around the world over the past six decades, Dr Hsiang finds that in those countries where El Niño exerts its effects it brings with it a significant extra risk of civil conflict. The results, published in Nature, cannot be translated into a...
United States: Assessing Climate Change in a Drought-Stricken State
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
New York Times: Texas has endured its worst one-year drought in recorded history. And the hottest July. August is on course to be hotter still, setting another record.
As the drought persists, trees across Texas are dying, including some pecan trees in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.
Expanded coverage of Texas is produced by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization. To join the conversation about this article, go to texastribune.org.
So, is this the result of climate change?
Scientists hedge, particularly...
Idaho fire prompts evacuation of nuclear facility
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on August 26th, 2011
Reuters: Firefighters struggled on Thursday to control a fast-growing 28,000-acre wildfire raging within several miles of spent nuclear fuel stored at a U.S. Energy Department lab in the high desert of eastern Idaho.
The growth and intensity of the blaze, the nation's largest active wildfire, prompted the Idaho National Laboratory to order a key facility on the 890-square-mile site evacuated of all nonessential personnel, lab officials said.
The Materials and Fuels Complex, about 38 miles from Idaho...
Canada: Green groups seek wider review of Enbridge project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2011
Reuters: Five environmental groups are asking Canada's energy regulator to deny Enbridge Inc's request to reverse the flow in part of an oil pipeline, arguing that the company is trying to avoid a larger review for a bigger long-term project.
The Canadian and U.S. green groups said they believe Enbridge is looking to gradually advance its Trailbreaker project, which it proposed in 2008, by first asking the National Energy Board to reverse to flow of Line 9. The pipeline extends to Sarnia, Ontario, from...