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Archive for September 9th, 2011
Second-Warmest U.S. Summer Recorded in 2011, Federal Agency Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: U.S. scientists say the summer of 2011 was the nation’s second-warmest on record, with an average temperature of 74.5 degrees F from June through August — about 2.4 degrees higher than long-term averages — and with four states setting new summer records. Heat conditions were particularly blistering during August, with an average temperature of 75.7 degrees F, about 3 degrees warmer than the average between 1901 and 2000, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Across...
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Germany Lacks Clear Plan for Climate Change
Posted by Spiegel: Michael Fröhlingsdorf on September 9th, 2011
Spiegel: Germany is preparing for climate change by installing air conditioners in overheated cities and irrigation systems on dry fields. But a new federal proposal is short on details, state programs differ and there is no solid plan for preparing the country for a warming world. Volker Mommsen is the mayor of one of the smallest communities in Germany. The island of Gröde, a flat green disk in the middle of the Wadden Sea, lies four kilometers (2.5 miles) off the coast of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein....
Heat Records Smashed in Texas and Oklahoma
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward on September 9th, 2011
Climate Central: Texas has set a new record for the hottest summer ever recorded for a U.S. state, beating a Dust Bowl-era record. Oklahoma came in a close second. Credit: NCDC.
Weather officials have confirmed what people in many states along the southern tier of the U.S. have said for months: this has been the hottest summer on record.
This year, four states -- Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana -- each had their warmest-ever June through August periods, according to weather data compiled by the National...
Hurricanes, floods and wildfires – but Washington won’t talk global warming
Posted by Guardian: Jules Boykoff on September 9th, 2011
Guardian: In 2007, then New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin pondered the possibility that thanks to the vast geographical expanse of the United States, "there is almost never a shared sense of meteorological misery." This, he noted cautiously, might help explain why global warming had not become a front-burner political issue, unlike geographically tighter places like Europe where elected leaders were tackling the problem with more vim.
But recent record-breaking "meteorological misery"...
Nigeria: Dire Pollution in Ogoniland but Little Action So Far
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
IRIN: An August 2011 UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study has found hazardous levels of pollution in Ogoniland in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta, lending credence to claims by locals of environmental damage, health problems and lost livelihoods as a result of 50 years of oil operations in the area.
The UNEP report found oil spills occur with "alarming regularity" and residents had been exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons in air, water and soil. Some 28 wells across 10 communities were found to be contaminated,...
United States: NRC allows closure of Yucca Mountain nuclear dump
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
Associated Press: A divided Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday allowed the Obama administration to continue plans to close the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The commission split, 2-2, on whether to uphold or reject a decision by an independent nuclear licensing board. The board voted last year to block the Energy Department from withdrawing its application for Yucca Mountain, a remote site 90 miles from Las Vegas. The licensing board said the government failed to make a scientific...
Bolivia: Amazon protest — development before environment?
Posted by Green Left Weekly: Federico Fuentes on September 9th, 2011
Green Left Weekly: The decision by leaders of the Sub Central of the Indigenous Territory and National Isiboro Secure Park (TIPNIS), to initiate a 500-kilometre protest march on Bolivia's capital of La Paz capital has ignited much debate about the nature of Bolivia’s first indigenous led-government.
The Sub Central of TIPNIS unites the 64 indigenous communities within the park.
Much analysis has focused on the supposed hypocrisy of the government headed by Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous head of state....
Impasse Persists on Drugs in Drinking Water
Posted by New York Times: Hillary Rosner on September 9th, 2011
New York Times: Five years after the federal government convened a task force to study the risks posed by pharmaceuticals in the environment, it is no closer to understanding the problem or whether these contaminants should be regulated under the Clean Water Act. That’s the finding of a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
Many studies have found traces of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, hormones, and antidepressants, in municipal water supplies over the past few years. Some cities have...
Study Casts Doubts On Natural Gas’s Impact On Global Warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 9th, 2011
redOrbit: Despite the reduced amount of carbon dioxide given off by the burning of natural gas, increasing use of it and decreasing our reliance on coal would do little to slow down global climate change, claims a new study set for publication in the journal Climatic Change Letters.
The research, led by Tom Wigley, a senior research associate at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), “underscores…the complex and sometimes conflicting ways in which fossil fuel burning affects Earth’s climate,”...
Ethiopia says plans to build more Nile dams
Posted by Reuters: Aaron Maasho on September 9th, 2011
Reuters: Ethiopia has announced plans to construct two dams along its share of the Nile, six months after embarking on a 5,250 MW power plant that rankled Egypt over concerns it might affect the flow of the river.
The Horn of Africa nation aims to produce 20,000 megawatts (MW) of power within the next 10 years, part of a plan to spend $12 billion over 25 years to raise power generating capability.
Officials estimate the hydropower potential of the nation -- blessed with cascading rivers flowing through...