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Archive for September, 2011
U.S. focus on job creation bolsters Keystone bid
Posted by Calgary Herald: Rebecca Penty on September 3rd, 2011
Calgary Herald: The Obama administration on Friday halted new emissions rules in a surprise strategy shift observers say suggests the White House is likely to approve Trans Canada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama, citing the need to reduce the regulatory burden on business and encourage employment growth, reversed course on a key policy measure that would have limited smog pollution from power generators and factories.
The president's decision followed the same-day release of U.S. Labor Department figures...
The mighty Missouri River: the flooding and the damage done
Posted by Reuters: David Bailey and David Hendee on September 3rd, 2011
Reuters: The cost of America's quiet billion dollar disaster in the Upper Midwest keeps rising as floodwaters decline.
Shortly before Memorial Day, a summer of unprecedented flooding from Montana to Missouri along the Missouri River started washing away interstate highway lanes and swamping rail lines as it routed thousands of people from their homes.
Flooding continues this Labor Day weekend and is expected not to end for several more weeks. As the water recedes, the extent of damage from three months...
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Comments Off on The mighty Missouri River: the flooding and the damage doneLouisiana declares state of emergency over storm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
Telegraph: Up to 50 centimetres of rain is expected in Louisiana when the storm hits this weekend in what will be the biggest test of the rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck in 2008. "I'd encourage people even as we go into a holiday weekend pay close attention to your local news, pay close attention to your local officials as these conditions get updated. This is going to be a slow moving storm, there's going to be a lot of rain and that water is going to accumulate," said Louisiana State Governor...
Global warming could lead to global warring
Posted by Toronto Star: Antonia Zerbisias on September 3rd, 2011
Toronto Star: Peel back the TV images of just about any war today and near the heart of the violence you’ll find climate change plays a part.
Not the leading role -- but certainly a growing one.
That’s what journalist Christian Parenti, 41, argues in his new book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.
In the hot zone that girds the Earth near the equator, ethnic violence, religious strife, vicious criminality, piracy on the high seas, even civil war are being fuelled by the...
Skepticism Directed at Study of Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
New York Times: New York State environmental officials commissioned a study of impacts of natural gas hydraulic fracturing from a consulting firm that counts oil and gas companies among its clients and that could gain business from increased drilling in the state.
The $223,000 study of the effects of “hydrofracking” on the economy and the quality of life was conducted by Ecology and Environment Inc., a global environmental and engineering services company based in Lancaster, N.Y.
The study has yet to be released,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Skepticism Directed at Study of Impact of Hydraulic FracturingA feared mass killer, Irene got victims one by one
Posted by Associated Press: John Curran on September 3rd, 2011
Associated Press: In Ayden, N.C., a man dies in his recliner, riding out Hurricane Irene at home because he didn't want to leave his Chihuahua at home alone.
In Newport News, Va., a falling tree crushes an 11-year-old boy, sparing the mother who tried to protect him.
In Whitemarsh Township, Pa., a supermarket bookkeeper determined to make it to work for her 4:30 a.m. shift drives into floodwaters and drowns trying to walk the final mile.
And in Rutland, Vt., a public-works employee "conscientious to a fault"...
Ontario “mega-quarry” faces environmental review
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2011
Reuters: Ontario has ordered a full environmental review of a proposed "mega-quarry" backed by one of Boston's best-known hedge funds, a move that may threaten a project that has already raised local opposition.
The project, which would supply crushed limestone for Toronto's booming construction industry, has counted value investor Seth Klarman's Baupost Group as one of its investors.
Highlands Cos, the company behind the quarry, plans to carve out the huge pit on thousands of acres of potato fields...
U.S. Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 2nd, 2011
Inter Press Service: With four times as many oil rigs pumping domestic oil today than eight years ago and declining domestic demand, the United States is awash in oil. In fact, the U.S. exports more oil than it imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration - and has done so for nearly two decades.
The country's oil industry is primarily interested in who will pay the most on the global marketplace. They call that "energy security" when it suits, but in reality it is "oil company security" through...
EcoCommerce 101: adding an ecological dimension to the economy
Posted by Mongabay: RGabriel Thoumi on September 2nd, 2011
Mongabay: EcoCommerce 101: Adding an Ecological Dimension to the Economy provides a foundation for an analysis of environmental economics from the perspective of a theorist and a practitioner. The author, a fifth-generation farmer living in the USA with a background in economics, separates his book into three easy-to-read sections. Each section is filled with examples through which the reader can understand both the theory and the application of ecocommerce. By defining ecocommerce, as envisioned by the author,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EcoCommerce 101: adding an ecological dimension to the economyMillions hit by heavy floods in north and eastern India
Posted by Reuters: Nita Bhalla on September 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Surging flood waters in northern and eastern India have affected millions of people, forcing many from their homes as swollen rivers wash away roads and make rescue work difficult, government and aid officials said on Friday.
Aid workers said 5.2 million people are now affected, double the figure from 10 days ago, as tail-end seasonal monsoon rains sweep the heavily-populated states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam where 158 people have died in flooding incidents in the past three months.
"The...
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