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Archive for September 3rd, 2011
Texas Wildfires Still Rage as Drought Conditions Worsen
Posted by Yahoo!: Vanessa Evans on September 3rd, 2011
Yahoo!: Along with sparking increased debate about climate change, the ongoing drought conditions in Texas have made the state ripe for wildfires this year. Meteorologists are predicting Texans will not see relief from the extreme weather until later this year, or even possibly not until well into 2012. Which means firefighters are likely to continue to see more of the blazes like the Possum Kingdom Lake fire, which began Tuesday and has claimed dozens of homes and thousands of acres of land. Here are some...
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United Kingdom: Bill Bryson joins fight in countryside planning row
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
Guardian: Britain's leading countryside campaigner, Bill Bryson, has joined a growing wave of opposition to government moves to shake up planning laws.
As groups from the National Trust to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds line up against proposals to ease new development across the country, Bryson told the Observer he was deeply concerned by the direction of policy.
"The government's good intentions risk being undermined by the talk of economic growth at any cost," said the American writer,...
Can the world still feed itself?
Posted by Wall Street Journal: Brian M. Carney on September 3rd, 2011
Wall Street Journal: As befits the chairman of the world's largest food-production company, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is counting calories. But it's not his diet that the chairman and former CEO of Nestlé is worried about. It's all the food that the U.S. and Europe are converting into fuel while the world's poor get hungrier.
"Politicians," Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe says, "do not understand that between the food market and the energy market, there is a close link." That link is the calorie.
The energy stored in a bushel...
Keystone pipeline fight: Wall Street is watching
Posted by iwatch: Corbin Hiar on September 3rd, 2011
iwatch: Actresses Darryl Hannah and Margot Kidder and hundreds of less well-known activists are ending a two-week civil disobedience campaign focused on preventing Obama administration approval of a pipeline to ferry oil extracted from Canadian tar sands to U.S. refineries. They say it threatens forests, water supplies, and will radically worsen global warming. But climate scientists and oil industry analysts say more is at stake than the fate of the so-called Keystone XL project. It is among a handful...
U.S. focus on job creation bolsters Keystone bid
Posted by Calgary Herald: Rebecca Penty on September 3rd, 2011
Calgary Herald: The Obama administration on Friday halted new emissions rules in a surprise strategy shift observers say suggests the White House is likely to approve Trans Canada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama, citing the need to reduce the regulatory burden on business and encourage employment growth, reversed course on a key policy measure that would have limited smog pollution from power generators and factories.
The president's decision followed the same-day release of U.S. Labor Department figures...
The mighty Missouri River: the flooding and the damage done
Posted by Reuters: David Bailey and David Hendee on September 3rd, 2011
Reuters: The cost of America's quiet billion dollar disaster in the Upper Midwest keeps rising as floodwaters decline.
Shortly before Memorial Day, a summer of unprecedented flooding from Montana to Missouri along the Missouri River started washing away interstate highway lanes and swamping rail lines as it routed thousands of people from their homes.
Flooding continues this Labor Day weekend and is expected not to end for several more weeks. As the water recedes, the extent of damage from three months...
Louisiana declares state of emergency over storm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
Telegraph: Up to 50 centimetres of rain is expected in Louisiana when the storm hits this weekend in what will be the biggest test of the rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck in 2008. "I'd encourage people even as we go into a holiday weekend pay close attention to your local news, pay close attention to your local officials as these conditions get updated. This is going to be a slow moving storm, there's going to be a lot of rain and that water is going to accumulate," said Louisiana State Governor...
Global warming could lead to global warring
Posted by Toronto Star: Antonia Zerbisias on September 3rd, 2011
Toronto Star: Peel back the TV images of just about any war today and near the heart of the violence you’ll find climate change plays a part.
Not the leading role -- but certainly a growing one.
That’s what journalist Christian Parenti, 41, argues in his new book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.
In the hot zone that girds the Earth near the equator, ethnic violence, religious strife, vicious criminality, piracy on the high seas, even civil war are being fuelled by the...
Skepticism Directed at Study of Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
New York Times: New York State environmental officials commissioned a study of impacts of natural gas hydraulic fracturing from a consulting firm that counts oil and gas companies among its clients and that could gain business from increased drilling in the state.
The $223,000 study of the effects of “hydrofracking” on the economy and the quality of life was conducted by Ecology and Environment Inc., a global environmental and engineering services company based in Lancaster, N.Y.
The study has yet to be released,...