RSS Feed
Archive for January, 2012
Canada faces legal challenge over Kyoto withdrawal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2012
Reuters: The Canadian government's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol is illegal, alleges a suit to be filed in federal court by a law professor and former Canadian MP on Friday.
Daniel Turp, professor of law at the University of Montreal and former MP of the Bloc Québécois party, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has violated national law by withdrawing from the 1997 climate treaty last month without first consulting Parliament.
On December 12, Environment Minister Peter Kent announced...
United States: Michael Mann: The climate scientist who the deniers have in their sights
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2012
Independent: He is one of the most vilified men in the highly vilified field of climate science, yet Professor Michael Mann is surprisingly jolly. Despite being the focus of a brutal campaign orchestrated by the fossil-fuel industry and senior politicians within the US Republican Party, Mann's cheery stoicism is positively infectious.
"I've been the focus for attack by those who deny the reality of climate change for so long that it almost seems like forever," the professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United States: Michael Mann: The climate scientist who the deniers have in their sightsAbout the Keystone XL pipeline, my reservation
Posted by Guardian: Dana Lone Hill on January 15th, 2012
Guardian: As a mom, I find myself to be somewhat arrogant in thinking that I am here to teach my children about the world. I sometimes feel it is my responsibility to let them know: this is how life is supposed to be and not supposed to be. I sometimes hope that maybe, they will take the many mistakes I made in life as an example of "how not to be", especially as they edge closer to adulthood.
Then they will twist me for a loop and teach me about how life is supposed to be or not supposed to be. They will...
United States: Geothermal Project to Tap into Volcano for Energy Production
Posted by Yahoo!: Rachel Bogart on January 14th, 2012
Yahoo!: According to USA Today, Seattle-based geothermal energy developer AltaRock Energy is planning on pumping 24 million gallons of water into Newberry Volcano, a dormant volcano near Bend, Ore., this summer. The project looks to tap into a new green energy source with the hopes that the water will return to the surface hot enough to generate energy.
So far, several investors, including $6.3 million from Google and $21.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, have stepped up to the promising energy...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Geothermal Project to Tap into Volcano for Energy ProductionNew Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on January 14th, 2012
New York Times: Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic fracturing. Environmentalists and landowners are looking forward to learning what acids, hydroxides and other materials have gone into a given well. But a less-publicized part of the new regulation is what some experts are most interested in: the mandatory disclosure of the amount of water needed to “frack” each well. Experts call this an invaluable tool as they evaluate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic FracturingMexico pipeline oil spill may take month to clean
Posted by Reuters: Julie Gordon on January 14th, 2012
Reuters: Two weeks after a pipeline leak in coastal Mexico sent oil gushing into a river, state oil monopoly Pemex has recovered about two-thirds of the spilled crude, but the full clean-up could take another month.
Mexico's environmental protection agency, Profepa, is supervising containment of the 1,500-barrel spill that killed fish, injured wildlife and left greasy slicks in the Coatzacoalcos river.
"Right now it is more about containing the emergency," Profepa official Sergio Herrera told Reuters....
The Greater Toronto Area’s warm winter puts wildlife, nature at risk
Posted by Toronto Star: Mary Ormsby on January 14th, 2012
Toronto Star: Finally, snow. Enough to shovel.
But nature’s first attempt to dump a lasting white calling card on Toronto Friday might be too little, too late for local critters, bugs and plants that have evolved to tolerate frigid, snowy Canadian winters -- not tennis-playing temperatures in December and January, which put their survival at risk.
“We don’t need statistics to tell us something odd is happening,” says Ryan Ness, manager of water resources at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The Greater Toronto Area’s warm winter puts wildlife, nature at riskPower plants accounted for 72 percent of greenhouse gases reported in 2010
Posted by Bloomberg: Andrew Childers and Avery Fellow on January 14th, 2012
Bloomberg: Power plants emitted 2.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) in 2010, 72.3 percent of reported emissions nationwide, according to data released by the Environmental Protection Agency Jan. 11. EPA released data for calendar year 2010, the first year industries were required to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the agency. Petroleum refineries emitted 183 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent in 2010, the second-largest category at 5.7 percent of emissions. Chemical...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Power plants accounted for 72 percent of greenhouse gases reported in 2010Access, benefit sharing of genetic resources gain ground in Asean
Posted by Business Mirror: Ana Maria Tolentino and Sahlee Bugna-Barrer on January 14th, 2012
Business Mirror: SERIOUS environmental concerns affect people and governments in the Asean region--climate change, pollution, forest fires and haze, access to clean water, land conversion, and mining, among others. One that is currently gaining greater attention is the issue of access and benefit sharing (ABS) of genetic resources.
In the past, there has been an imbalance in the use of genetic resources. Large companies--such as those in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and mining industries--generally earn millions...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Access, benefit sharing of genetic resources gain ground in AseanStudy: Slow global warming by cutting soot, methane
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 14th, 2012
Voice of America: An international team of scientists says global warming can be slowed in the short term by focusing less on carbon dioxide and more on the emission of methane and soot. Carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning fossil fuels are the major cause of global warming, so efforts to combat climate change have focused on ways to cut CO2 releases. But according to the new study published this week in the journal Science, a quicker and more effective strategy would be to reduce emissions of other, shorter-lived...