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Archive for November 10th, 2011
French Company Found Guilty of Spying on Greenpeace
Posted by New York Times: David Jolly on November 10th, 2011
New York Times: Électricité de France, the giant power utility and the world’s biggest operator of nuclear power plants, was found guilty on Thursday of spying on Greenpeace in a bizarre and convoluted computer hacking case that also ensnared the disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis.
A court in Nanterre, near Paris, fined E.D.F. 1.5 million euros, or about $2 million, for complicity in concealing stolen documents and complicity to intrude in a computer network. It also sentenced two E.D.F. security officials...
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Monarch butterflies decline at wintering grounds in Mexico, Texas drought adds to stress to migration
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
Mongabay: Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies travel south to Mexico and take refuge in twelve mountain sanctuaries of oyamel fir forests. Now, declining numbers of the overwintering butterflies expose the migration’s vulnerability and raise questions about threats throughout the monarch’s lifecycle.
A study published online last spring in Insect Conservation and Diversity shows a decrease in Mexico’s overwintering monarch butterflies between 1994 and 2011. The butterflies face loss of wintering...
China’s grain output in danger
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
United Press International: China will face yield losses in rice, wheat and corn -- the country's three main crops -- unless it takes steps to offset the effects of climate change, an expert warns.
"The impact of climate change, especially extreme weather and plant diseases and insects, will cause a bigger grain production fluctuation in China and bring more serious threats to the country's food supplies," said Tang Huajun, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Daily newspaper reports
In an...
Feds Delay Decision On Pipeline Project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
National Public Radio: The State Department is delaying a decision for at least a year on whether to approve the Keystone pipeline. The $7 billion pipeline would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, through the U.S. to Gulf of Mexico refineries. Nebraska's state government and environmental groups have put intense pressure on the State Department and White House to reject the pipeline's proposed route. NPR's Richard Harris talks with Robert Siegel about the project.
Obama Administration bows to pressure, delays tar sands pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
Mongabay: In what can only be described as a major victory for green activists, the Obama Administration has announced it will delay a decision on TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline for 12-18 months. Notably, putting the decision off until after the last election. The delay comes less than a week after about 12,000 people encircled the White House in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, which they argue threatens one of the most important water supplies in America's heartland and will worsen...
Final Keystone Pipeline Decision Delayed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
National Public Radio: The U.S. State Department is ordering the developer of a pipeline that would carry oil from western Canada to Texas to reroute it around environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska.
That means possibly delaying a final U.S. decision until after the 2012 election.
The decision to order Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. to figure out a way around an area that supplies water to eight states will require an environmental review of the new section. That review probably will take at least a year. ...
Photos: 40% of Madagascar’s reptiles at risk of extinction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
Mongabay: 40 percent of Madagascar's terrestrial reptiles are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and over-collection for the pet trade, reports the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its latest update of the Red List of Threatened Species.
Experts from around the world conducted the assessment of 370 native terrestrial reptile species found in Madagascar, including snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, and tortoises. Overall 22 were found to be critically endangered, or...
Keystone XL pipeline: US government set to pursue new oil sands route
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
Guardian: The Obama administration said it would explore new routes for the Keystone XL pipeline through the heartland state of Nebraska on Thursday, delaying a decision on the controversial project until after next year's elections.
The delay gives Barack Obama an escape clause from a decision that risked alienating key voting blocs – organized labour and environmental groups- on a project that had been framed as a choice between the environment and the economy.
In a statement, Obama said he supported...
Thai confidence at 10-year low; floods hit more firms
Posted by Reuters: Alan Raybould and Kochakorn Boonlai on November 10th, 2011
Reuters: Thai consumer confidence fell to a 10-year low in October because of flooding that has taken 533 lives and shut thousands of factories, with another industrial estate threatened on Thursday as water spread in the east of the capital, Bangkok.
"The flooding has dragged down consumer confidence and it will probably fall further if the economy is severely affected and the government can't speed up rebuilding within 3-6 months," said university economist Thanavath Phonvichaisaid.
The consumer confidence...
Trees on tundra’s border are growing faster in a hotter climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2011
ScienceDaily: While forests elsewhere are thinning from wildfires, insect damage and droughts partially attributed to global warming, some white spruce trees in the far north of Alaska have grown more vigorously in the last hundred years, especially since 1950, the study has found. The health of forests globally is gaining attention, because trees are thought to absorb a third of all industrial carbon emissions, transferring carbon dioxide into soil and wood. The study, in the journal Environmental Research Letters,...