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Archive for September 9th, 2011
United Kingdom: Group releases river ‘blacklist’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
BBC: Wildlife campaigners have published a list of 10 rivers in England and Wales where they say environmental problems have not been tackled properly.
The Our Rivers group released the list, which includes the Thames and Trent, after the Environment Agency last week named the top 10 most-improved rivers.
They say pollution, over-abstraction of water and invasive species are threatening hundreds more waterways.
The agency said a multi-billion pound improvement programme was under way.
'Sewage'...
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Is it time we all gave up meat?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Guardian: If you share the typical British appetite, you will have worked your way through more than 1.5kg of meat this week as part of your annual 80kg quota of flesh-eating. That leaves you behind your typical American counterpart – working his or her way to 125kg a year – but still near the top of the international league of carnivores.
The case for cutting our meat consumption has long been a compelling one from whichever perspective you look at it – human health, environmental good, animal welfare,...
United States: Upstate Flooding Brings New Wrinkle to Fracking Report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
New York Times: The floods in upstate New York are raising new concern about plans for natural gas drilling in New York.
The areas most affected by the disaster happen to sit on the Marcellus Shale, the rich natural gas field that the natural gas industry hopes to open for future drilling using horizontal hydraulic fracturing, the controversial extraction method that is currently under public review in New York.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has set a timeline that calls for a...
Pennsylvania nuclear plants operate despite floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Reuters: All three nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River continued to operate at high power, plant operators said on Friday, after the river had flooded several towns in New York and Pennsylvania.
The Susquehanna River, swollen by rainfall from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, reached record levels in Pennsylvania and submerged some towns amid worry that flood waters had been turned toxic by swamped sewage processing plants.
The nuclear operators, PPL and Exelon, said they...
Judge backs deal on imperiled species
Posted by Associated Press: Matthew Brown and Matthew Daly on September 9th, 2011
Associated Press: A federal judge on Friday approved a pair of sweeping settlements that require the government to consider endangered protections for more than 800 animal and plant species.
The order by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan means the government must act on imperiled species ranging from the northern wolverine and Pacific walrus to dozens of snails, mollusks, butterflies and plants. Some decisions could come by the end of the year and others by 2018.
The agreement between the Obama administration...
DOJ Is Urged to Seek Stay of Wyo. Ruling on NEPA Waivers for Oil and Gas Projects
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Greenwire: Top Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee asked the Justice Department today seek a stay of a Wyoming judge's decision to toss the Interior Department's oil and gas reforms.
Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal's injunction last month of Interior's reforms to using categorical exclusions, or CXs, for oil and gas wells could imperil human health, archaeological sites, endangered species and their habitats.
Following the ruling,...
Malaysian court blocks rainforest tribes’ fight against mega-dam in Borneo
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Mongabay: Indigenous tribes in Borneo suffered a stinging defeat Thursday after Sarawak's highest court ruled against them in 12-year-long legal battle. Tribal groups had challenged the Malaysian state government for seizing indigenous lands in order to build a massive hydroelectric power plant, dubbed the Bakun dam, but the three-person top court found unanimously against the tribes.
"It is an unfair decision. I have not been fully compensated," said Ngajang Midin, 50, of the Ukit tribe, told the AFP as...
Saudi Arabia’s water needs eating into oil wealth
Posted by Reuters: Reem Shamseddine and Barbara Lewis on September 9th, 2011
Reuters: Long before it understood the value of oil, the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia knew the worth of water.
But the leading oil exporter's water challenges are growing as energy-intensive desalination erodes oil revenues while peak water looms more ominously than peak oil -- the theory that supplies are at or near their limit, with nowhere to go but down.
Water use in the desert kingdom is already almost double the per capita global average and increasing at an ever faster rate with the rapid expansion...
Replacing coal with natural gas would do little for climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Washington Post: The great hope among energy wonks is that natural gas is the short-term salve for our climate woes. After all, burning natural gas for electricity emits just half the carbon dioxide that burning coal does. Plus, the United States seems to have an abundance of gas, particularly in the Marcellus Shale, and low natural-gas prices are already prodding many electric utilities to retire their coal plants. That's why liberal groups like the Center for American Progress have dubbed natural gas a "bridge...
Rainfall Brings Bumper Crop Of Fungi
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
National Public Radio: IRA FLATOW, host: Now on to something a little bit lighter, so that we don't end the day completely thinking about 9/11 and the depression or other things that might may follow it. So Flora Lichtman is here with our Video Pick of the Week. And I can't think of anybody I'd rather be talking to...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FLORA LICHTMAN: Thanks, Ira. To lighten it up.
FLATOW: ...to make our spirits rise a little bit, because you've got something really interesting.
LICHTMAN: Yeah. We can...