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Archive for September, 2011
Nigeria: FG Worries Over Loss of Biodiversity
Posted by Daily Trust: Tina A. Hassan on September 20th, 2011
Daily Trust: The Federal Government has expressed concern over the degradation of the Hadejia-Jema'are-Komadugu-Yobe dam by climate change leading to decrease in water level and loss of biodiversity.
Speaking to a delegation of the Jema'are Hadejia Komadugu Yobe Trust Fund in Abuja, Minister of Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe said government is interested in achieving integrated water management to avoid conflicts among communities sharing water resources which is becoming scarce due to degradation.
She...
China solar company pledges toxic waste cleanup
Posted by Associated Press: Elaine Kurtenbach on September 20th, 2011
Associated Press: A solar panel maker targeted by violent protests over pollution from one of its factories in eastern China has apologized and says it will do what's necessary to clean it up.
Jinko Solar Holding Co., parent company of the factory in Haining city west of Shanghai, said in a statement Monday that initial tests showed pollutants may have spilled into a nearby river due to "improper storage of waste."
Police detained at least 20 people after hundreds of villagers protested last week, some storming...
US court upholds Chevron oil fine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2011
BBC: A US court has overturned a block on Ecuadoreans collecting damages totalling $18.2bn (£11.5bn) from Chevron over Amazon oil pollution.
The order reversed a previous judge's ruling that froze enforcement of the fine outside Ecuador.
But it is not the end of the legal saga, which is also going through the courts in Ecuador.
Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping toxic materials in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
In February, an Ecuadorean court ruled that Chevron should...
Mali farmers adopt short-season crop as rainfall shifts
Posted by AlertNet: Soumaila T Diarra on September 20th, 2011
AlertNet: Mariam Coulibaly surveys the leaves of groundnuts growing in the fields outside her village. The crop is a traditional one in this west African country, but the seed variety is not.
"We no longer grow tikaba (a traditional variety of groundnut)... It has disappeared from our region,' Coulibaly says.
Shifting patterns of rainfall, likely associated with climate change, have shortened the rainy season in Mali to no more than three months. But the old groundnuts took four months to grow, which...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Mali farmers adopt short-season crop as rainfall shiftsChildren want to learn about the environment, survey finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2011
Guardian: Children are so concerned about the environment they would rather learn about it than traditional subjects such as science and history, a survey found today.
And while parents struggle to answer their children's questions on environmental problems, they are bending to pester power to be more green, the research from the Co-operative showed.
The survey of 1,027 youngsters aged seven to 14 revealed that 82% of children rated learning about green issues as important, putting it ahead of science,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Children want to learn about the environment, survey findsWaste water + bacteria = clean energy
Posted by Science Magazine: Sid Perkins on September 20th, 2011
Science Magazine: For the first time, researchers have sustainably produced hydrogen gas, a potential source of clean energy, using only water and bacteria. The challenge now, scientists say, is to scale up the process to provide large amounts of hydrogen for various purposes, such as fueling vehicles or small generators.
Hydrogen may be the ultimate clean fuel because burning it-in chemical terms, reacting it with oxygen-yields only water vapor. Previously, researchers have produced hydrogen gas in microbial-powered,...
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...
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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Idaho Couple’s Permit Fight Drags Wetlands Back to Supreme Court