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Archive for September, 2011
Listeria outbreak expected to cause more deaths across US in coming weeks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2011
Associated Press: An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe melons in the US may cause more illness and deaths in coming weeks, say health officials.
So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses and up to 16 deaths, in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the country in more than a decade.
The Colorado farm where the potentially deadly cantaloupes were traced to, Jensen Farms in Holly, says it shipped fruit to 25 states, and people with illnesses have been discovered in several states that...
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Climate change threatens Yellowstone region
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on September 29th, 2011
Reuters: A warming climate is imperilling the wildlife and landscapes in the Yellowstone National Park region, two environmental groups said in a study.
The report by Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and Greater Yellowstone Coalition shows temperatures in the past decade in the Yellowstone area have exceeded the rate of warming worldwide compared to the 20th Century average.
Left unchecked, climate change is likely to transform the greater Yellowstone area, which includes parts of Wyoming, Idaho...
Hundreds of plants, animals up for new protections
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2011
Associated Press: The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark -- from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat.
Compelled by a pair of recent legal settlements, the effort in part targets species that have been mired in bureaucratic limbo even as they inch toward potential extinction.
With a Friday deadline to act on...
Fracking gas test drill discussed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2011
BBC: An application to test drill for gas in the Vale of Glamorgan will be discussed by the council's planning committee later.
A Bridgend-based company called Coastal Oil and Gas Ltd has applied for a right to explore for conventional and shale gas at an industrial estate in Llandow.
There is opposition to the application, and to other gas drilling sites in south east Wales. A group called The Vale Says No has been formed.
Much of the concern is about an element of drilling for shale gas called...
Climate change affects Namibia’s trade routes
Posted by Namibian: None Given on September 29th, 2011
Namibian: Trade between Namibia and other countries could suffer severely when roads and railways are damaged by floods caused by changing weather patterns as a result of climate change.
Laudika Kandjinga from Integrated Environmental Consultants Namibia (IECN) made this observation during a presentation titled ‘Trade and Climate Change - How does it Affect Namibia?’
The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the Agricultural Trade Forum (ATF) organised the breakfast meeting that took place at the NamPower...
Geothermal power plants could help produce lithium for electric cars
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2011
Scientific American: An industrial add-on to geothermal power plants near the Salton Sea in California could one day produce the lithium that is required for electric car batteries. Already, Simbol Materials, the company behind the process, has begun purifying lithium from conventional mining operations in Argentina, Chile and elsewhere for the global battery market at a demonstration facility in Brawley, Calif.
"We developed the technology and the process to take the brines coming out of geothermal power plants'...
Grim predictions say 9 more years of Texas drought possible
Posted by Reuters: Jim Forsyth on September 29th, 2011
Reuters: A devastating Texas drought that has browned city lawns and caused more than $5 billion in damages to the state's farmers and ranchers could continue for another nine years, a state forecaster said on Thursday.
"It is possible that we could be looking at another of these multiyear droughts like we saw in the 1950s, and like the tree rings have shown that the state has experienced over the last several centuries," State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon told Reuters.
Some 95 percent of the state...
Canada: Metro Vancouver especially vulnerable to climate-change flooding: Report
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Randy Shore on September 29th, 2011
Vancouver Sun: Metro Vancouver is at greater risk of flood damage to homes due to climate change than any place in Canada, according to a groundbreaking assessment released Thursday by a federal advisory panel.
The comprehensive study, titled Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada, recommends that a detailed assessment of flood risk and the ability of the region’s protective dikes to withstand climate change be undertaken.
Although Metro Vancouver has an extensive system of protective...
Egypt inches towards far-reaching food subsidy reform
Posted by Reuters: Maha El Dahan on September 28th, 2011
Reuters: Egypt, once the breadbasket of the ancient Roman empire and now the world's biggest wheat importer, is paying a hefty price to keep its citizens fed with cheap loaves and other foodstuffs.
The $5.5 billion which it spends each year on food subsidies, mostly on wheat, is a burden that it can ill afford as the economy falters and the budget deficit balloons after the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.
But the financial pressure is not the only cost of the subsidy system;...
United States: Scientists predict dramatic temperature increases at Yellowstone
Posted by KECI: Jess Antonio on September 28th, 2011
KECI: Researchers from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition predict rising temperatures in Yellowstone National Park by as much as ten degrees over the next sixty years. But not everyone is buying into the science.
Scott Christensen, the Climate Change Program Director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition says Montana is experiencing the warmest decade on record and the driest since the 13th century.
"If the science is on track then the trend looks like it's...