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Archive for November 2nd, 2011
Thailand’s heart attack
Posted by LA Times: Michael D. Lemonick on November 2nd, 2011
LA Times: An obese, middle-aged man is running to catch a bus. Suddenly, he clutches his chest, falls to the ground and dies of a massive heart attack. It turns out that he's a smoker and a diabetic, has high blood pressure, eats a diet high in saturated fat and low in leafy green vegetables, pours salt on everything, drinks too much beer, avoids exercise at all costs and has a father, grandfather and two uncles who also died young of heart attacks.
So what killed him? Most people are savvy enough about...
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State Department Defends Keystone XL Pipeline Contractor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
New York Times: The State Department defended its decision to award a sensitive environmental impact study on the Keystone XL pipeline to a company that had previous ties to TransCanada, the company seeking a permit for the 1,700-mile project, which would run from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
In a written response Monday to Congressional inquiries, the department said the perception that Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor in Houston, had a conflict of interest was based on a misunderstanding....
Climate scientists foresee more extremes or heat, rain, drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Associated Press: For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: more floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them.
A draft summary of an international scientific report says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations could become "increasingly marginal as places to live."
The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change represents...
Military thinktank urges US to cut oil use
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Guardian: An influential military thinktank is urging America to cut its oil use by 30% over the next decade, as a national security imperative.
In its report, the Military Advisory Board said the US should aim to drastically reduce its energy imports over the next decade – or else risk exposing the economy to devastating oil price shocks.
"This is a national security threat that grows ever year, and we as a nation need to recognise is at such," said vice admiral Dennis McGinn, a former deputy chief...
Nuclear plant ammonia leak seen as no threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Workers were evacuated from a unit at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California on Tuesday after an ammonia leak, but the incident posed no threat to the public, officials said.
Southern California Edison, which operates the plant just south of San Clemente, said the leak was detected at about 3 p.m. in a water purification system for one of the two nuclear reactors.
The utility said an alert was issued because fumes could prevent access to certain areas of the plant, but that there...
Trees Aren’t Adapting to Climate Change as Predicted
Posted by Tree Hugger: Stephen Messenger on November 2nd, 2011
Tree Hugger: Numerous studies have shown the crucial role Earth's forests play in storing carbon and mitigating the effects of global warming , but according to the latest research, forests may be less capable of coping with climate change as previously thought. As temperatures rise, regions of favorable growing conditions shift towards the poles, experts expected plant species would migrate to survive, though it turns out not to be the case.
Drake University professor James S. Clark, a leading expert on how...