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Archive for September 19th, 2011
New York fracking lawsuit could set drilling precedent
Posted by Reuters: Dan Wiessner on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: A lawsuit challenging a small town's ban on natural-gas drilling could have implications throughout New York, where state officials are poised to approve a controversial drilling method known as fracking.
Anschutz Exploration Corporation filed suit on Friday against Dryden, a rural suburb of Ithaca with about 13,000 residents that last month amended its zoning laws to bar all gas drilling within its unincorporated borders.
New York's Department of Environmental Conservation has recommended...
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EPA grants air permit to Shell for Arctic drilling
Posted by Associated Press: Dan Joling on September 19th, 2011
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency has approved an air quality permit for a Shell Oil drilling vessel and accompanying vessels that the company hopes to use in Arctic waters next year.
The EPA on Monday approved the air permit for the drilling vessel Noble Discover.
The permit was a key hurdle for Shell to overcome before it can begin exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.
Environmental groups and some Alaska Native groups oppose offshore drilling. Drilling...
Nobel Peace Laureates Urge Obama to Reject Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
New York Times: With his approval rating among American voters at an all-time low, President Obama could use a little support from his peers. But this month nine fellow recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama, sent the president a letter urging him to veto the construction of a huge pipeline that would bring bring crude oil to the United States from Canada.
On Monday, the letter was published as an advertisement in The Washington Post. It reads...
Idaho Couple’s Permit Fight Drags Wetlands Back to Supreme Court
Posted by Greenwire: Lawrence Hurley on September 19th, 2011
Greenwire: Sitting unobtrusively across the road from a pristine lake in the northern Idaho panhandle, the half-acre lot covered with weeds and piles of gravel isn't much to look at. And yet, in a few months' time, the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will decide its fate. For four years the land has sat idle while its owners, Mike and Chantell Sackett, have been locked in a fight with U.S. EPA. What started as a routine disagreement about whether the Sacketts needed a Clean Water Act permit to build...
Deforestation reduces rainfall in Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Physorg: Deforestation in the rainforests of West Africa reduces rainfall over the rest of the forest, according to new University of Leeds research published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The study shows that changing land use from forest to crop land reduces rainfall over neighbouring trees by around 50% due to changes in the surface temperature which affects the formation of rain clouds.
The authors say the findings have important implications for future decisions about land management in this...
Rains ease Argentina farmland dryness, but more needed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: Weekend rains brought much-needed moisture to farming areas in Argentina, but growers in the corn belt urgently need more rainfall in order to press on with plantings, a weather forecaster said on Monday.
If severe dryness persists, many farmers could shelve plans to seed corn and sow soy instead when the planting season for the oilseed starts in October.
"There were rains over the weekend, and a good amount of water in central and southeastern areas of Buenos Aires province. But it rained...
Analysis: Super weeds pose growing threat to U.S. crops
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: Farmer Mark Nelson bends down and yanks a four-foot-tall weed from his northeast Kansas soybean field. The "waterhemp" towers above his beans, sucking up the soil moisture and nutrients his beans need to grow well and reducing the ultimate yield. As he crumples the flowering end of the weed in his hand, Nelson grimaces.
"When we harvest this field, these waterhemp seeds will spread all over kingdom come," he said.
Nelson's struggle to control crop-choking weeds is being repeated all over America's...
Converting rainforest to cropland in Africa reduces rainfall
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on September 19th, 2011
Mongabay: Converting West African rainforests into cropland reduces rainforest in adjacent forest areas, reports research published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The study, based on a computer model used to simulate rainfall under different land-use conditions, found that cutting down tropical forests in West Africa reduces precipitation over neighboring forest areas by about 50 percent due to increased temperatures over cropland areas. Higher temperatures affect the formation of rain clouds.
"Rainfall...
Pakistan: Flood Relief by Caste, Creed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Inter Press Service: With just the clothes on their backs, Moora Sanafdhano, 68, and his family of nine waded through waist-deep flood waters swirling through their village of Allah Ditto Leghari, saving themselves in the nick of time.
"We heard that the water rose up to nine feet," says Sanafdhano, as the others nod in agreement. But, the lives of these mostly low-caste Hindus, considered the most marginalised group in Pakistan, are far from being out of danger.
They are being turned out of makeshift camps set...
What if population forecast is wrong?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: In a mere half-century, the number of people on the planet has soared from 3 billion to 7 billion, placing us squarely in the midst of the most rapid expansion of world population in our 50,000-year history -- and placing ever-growing pressure on the Earth and its resources.
But that is the past. What of the future? Leading demographers, including those at the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau, are projecting that world population will peak at 9.5 billion to 10 billion later this century...