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Archive for October 27th, 2011
Weather changes mean more dead zones for Lake Erie: expert
Posted by Reuters: Kim Palmer on October 27th, 2011
Reuters: After a celebrated comeback from abysmal water conditions and high pollution levels in the 1970s, Lake Erie is regressing to the highest levels of phosphorous contamination in 40 years, a Great Lakes expert said on Thursday.
"Levels are back-up to when it was considered a dead lake," said Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory at Ohio State University, speaking at the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference in Erie, Pennsylvania.
He said the lake is experiencing phosphorous...
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Haiti the most vulnerable to climate change; Iceland the least
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
USA Today: Haiti is the nation most at risk from rising sea levels, floods and other impacts of climate change, according to a new global survey from the U.K. risk analysis firm Maplecroft.
Thirty countries are listed as being at 'extreme risk,' with the top 10 comprising of Haiti, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Cambodia, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and the Philippines.
The survey, the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, ranks nearly 200 nations in terms of...
In Pipeline Debate, Silent Environmentalists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
New York Times: The absence of elected New York City officials and major environmental groups from the debate over a proposed natural gas pipeline has been rather conspicuous.
As I write in Thursday`s Times, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration supports the natural gas project, which would run from New Jersey to the West Village in Manhattan, as a way of weaning the city’s buildings from highly polluting heating oils.
In a metropolis that often fails to meet federal air quality standards, city officials...
Climate unknown: How serious the threat to life is
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
New Scientist: A warmer, wetter Earth with higher CO2 levels could support more life - if there were time to adapt to it. The problem for the plants, animals and people living today is that they and we have adapted to the unusually stable climate of the past few thousand years. Now the world is warming very rapidly and could become hotter than it has been for millions of years, and the climate is going to be anything but stable for the foreseeable future.
That will be a huge challenge. Many species will have...
New Zealand’s log exports to China surging
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
Mongabay: New Zealand's log exports to China are surging, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. Log exports from New Zealand in 2011 are running 25 percent of last year's rate and are expected to hit a record. Total log exports may reach 13 million cubic meters, which would represent a doubling over 2008. One third of New Zealand' total timber harvest went to China in the form of raw logs.
EU climate chief: science shows Canada oil sand risk
Posted by Reuters: Johanna Somers on October 27th, 2011
Reuters: The European Commission's plans to class fuel from oil sands, including Canada's, as highly polluting are based on science and it will proceed with talks with EU member states to implement the measure, its climate commissioner said on Thursday.
Canada, which has huge deposits of the unconventional crude oil, has hit back fiercely at a European Union proposal to label oil sands as carbon-intensive, in a ranking designed to help fuel suppliers choose the most environmentally friendly option.
Canada...
N.Y. Fracking Panel Defers Report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
New York Times: A protest against fracking at the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
In a sign that New York State may have to slow down a bit before authorizing a new kind of natural gas drilling, an advisory panel is delaying its recommendations on how the state should pay for new staff members to enforce regulations on the drilling operations.
The panel’s report had been due next Tuesday. But members say that state agencies like the health and transportation departments are having a tough time coming...
Water Bill Stagnates in Congress
Posted by Inter Press Service: Edgardo Ayala on October 27th, 2011
Inter Press Service: A bill for protection, recovery and use of water resources in El Salvador, drafted by a platform of about 100 social, religious and academic organisations, has been bogged down in parliament for the past five years in spite of the country's water crisis.
"Debate in Congress has been delayed due to lack of political will," Carlos Flores of the Salvadoran Ecological Unit (UNES), one of the civil society organisations belonging to the Water Forum, the umbrella group which presented the draft General...
David Cameron to snub Rio 20 Earth summit, despite MPs’ calls
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
Business Green: The Environmental Audit Committee of MPs will make a direct call today for Prime Minister David Cameron to confirm his attendance at next year's Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil, arguing that such a move would reinforce the UK's commitment to the low carbon economy and help boost the profile of the landmark conference.
However, it appears their calls will go unheeded as the Summit coincides with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.
Government sources confirmed the Prime Minister will not...
Two rivers: The chance to export power divides Southeast Asia
Posted by National Geographic: Jeff Smith on October 27th, 2011
National Geographic: The Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers, though unconnected and hundreds of miles apart, are both integral to life in Southeast Asia, supporting millions of people and more than 1,200 species of animals, including freshwater dolphins and-in the Mekong-giant catfish.
Now, in an energy-hungry age on the continent, the rivers share another distinction, as wellsprings of financial temptation for the struggling countries that rely on their flow, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). Both countries are grappling with decisions...