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Archive for September, 2011
World environment programs in budget crosshairs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 7th, 2011
Reuters: What do flood prevention in Nepal, wildlife preservation in Namibia and reef fishing in Indonesia have to do with the U.S. budget?
Global conservation programs like these have all gotten help from the U.S. government, and they are probably prime targets of the budget-cutting congressional "super committee," since they sit at the crossroads of two things Americans don't like spending much money on: foreign aid and the environment.
As the 12 members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction...
Wildfires rage out of control across Texas
Posted by Independent: Guy Adams on September 7th, 2011
Independent: More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in wildfires sweeping across rural Texas -- and the biggest of the blazes is still completely uncontained, state officials have admitted.
Powerful gusts of wind from Tropical Storm Lee continued to fan the flames last night, making it virtually impossible for emergency services to gain an upper hand on the unfolding disaster. About 5,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.
Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, has taken time out from campaigning...
Global warming amplifying Texas drought, wildfires, scientists say
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward on September 7th, 2011
Climate Central: Just when it looked like weather conditions couldn't get any worse in Texas, a new wildfire burning outside of Austin destroyed nearly 800 homes in the past few days. This came on the heels of the state's hottest and driest summer in recorded history, with many parts of the state smashing all-time records by wide margins. Yesterday, Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon announced this was the hottest summer on record for Texas -- and the hottest summer ever for any U.S. state, based on preliminary...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Global warming amplifying Texas drought, wildfires, scientists sayToxic Waste Victims Wait Years for Compensation
Posted by Inter Press Service: Inaki Borda on September 6th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Thousands of victims affected by toxic waste dumping in 2006 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's commercial capital, still have not received the economic compensation they were promised.
"There is a complete lack of transparency as to what happened to the millions of dollars which should have been paid out by the government compensation scheme," Benedetta Lacey, special advisor on corporate accountability at Amnesty International, told IPS.
According to a United Nations report published in 2009, toxic...
Canada: Native Lands Ruling Opens Up New Questions
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fawzia Sheikh on September 6th, 2011
Inter Press Service: dAs Canada's aboriginal community celebrates last month's milestone legal ruling regarding clear-cutting in Ontario and the forestry sector mulls its future strategy, discussions are taking place about how to carry out an impact assessment evaluating damage incurred by decades of industry encroachment on traditional lands and forests.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice in mid-August ruled that the province, which has offered companies logging and mining rights in the past, cannot infringe on...
Texas A&M prof says study shows that clouds don’t cause climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2011
EurekAlert: Clouds only amplify climate change, says a Texas A&M University professor in a study that rebuts recent claims that clouds are actually the root cause of climate change.
Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professor considered one of the nation's experts on climate variations, says decades of data support the mainstream and long-held view that clouds are primarily acting as a so-called "feedback" that amplifies warming from human activity. His work is published today in the American...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Texas A&M prof says study shows that clouds don’t cause climate changeClimate test for Obama: 1252 people arrested over notorious oil pipeline
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on September 6th, 2011
Mongabay: Two weeks of climate disobedience at the White House ended over the weekend with 1,252 people arrested in total. Activists were protesting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in an effort to pressure US President Barack Obama to turn down the project. If built the pipeline would bring oil from Alberta's tar sands through six US states down to Texas refineries. While protestors fear pollution from potential spills, especially in the Ogallala Aquifer which supplies water to millions, the major fight...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate test for Obama: 1252 people arrested over notorious oil pipelineTwo dead in Texas wildfires, homes destroyed
Posted by Reuters: Jim Forsyth on September 6th, 2011
Reuters: Sixty separate wildfires, whipped by strong winds, were burning across Texas on Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and killing at least two people, officials said.
Authorities in Gregg County, in northeast Texas, say a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed on Sunday when they were trapped in their mobile home by flames.
The Texas Forest Service estimates 424 homes may have been destroyed so far, including 300 from the so-called Bastrop County Complex fire east of Austin....
Unlocked by melting ice-caps, the great polar oil rush has begun
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2011
Independent: It's the melting of the Arctic ice, as the climate warms, that makes it possible - and you can understand why they're all piling in. In July 2008, the US Geological Survey released the first ever publicly available estimate of the oil locked in the earth north of the Arctic Circle.
Scramble for hydrocarbons above the Arctic Circle: click here to download graphic (900k)
It was 90 billion barrels, representing an estimated 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil resources. If you're an oil...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Unlocked by melting ice-caps, the great polar oil rush has begunTotal Arctic sea ice at record low in 2010: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 5th, 2011
Reuters: The minimum summertime volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year, researchers said in a study to be published shortly, suggesting that thinning of the ice had outweighed a recovery in area.
The study estimated that last year broke the previous, 2007 record for the minimum volume of ice, which is calculated from a combination of sea ice area and thickness.
The research adds to a picture of rapid climate change at the top of the world that could see the Arctic Ocean ice-free within...