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Archive for January, 2012
Malawi traditional leaders step up to help fight forest fires
Posted by AlertNet: Karen Sanje on January 3rd, 2012
AlertNet: Malawi's traditional leaders have been enlisted to help prevent forest fires that are threatening livelihoods, producing climate-changing emissions and damaging the environment in this southeast African nation.
"As community leaders we should take a leading role in preventing and putting out fires,' said Paramount Chief M'mbelwa of Mzimba during a meeting on fire prevention in the government-owned Viphya plantation.
Those efforts may include things like improving labour relations to curb arson...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Malawi traditional leaders step up to help fight forest firesIt’s time for sustainable development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 3rd, 2012
Guardian: Bill Clinton was set to enter the White House, the European Union was born and China had its first taste of a double cheeseburger with fries when McDonalds opened its doors in Beijing. That was 1992. A lot can happen in 20 years.
In June 2012, two decades after the groundbreaking Earth summit, which put climate change and biological diversity on the global political agenda, attention will turn once again to Rio de Janeiro for the UN conference on sustainable development, or Rio+20.
But the...
Spaceship Earth: A new view of environmentalism
Posted by Washington Post: Joel Achenbach on January 3rd, 2012
Washington Post: Spaceship Earth enters 2012 belching smoke, overheating and burning through fuel at a frightening rate. It’s feeling pretty crowded, and the crew is mutinous. No one’s at the helm.
Sure, it’s an antiquated metaphor. It’s also an increasingly apt way to discuss a planet with 7 billion people, a global economy, a World Wide Web, climate change, exotic organisms running amok and all sorts of resource shortages and ecological challenges.
More and more environmentalists and scientists talk about...
BP seeking at least $20 billion from Halliburton: report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 3rd, 2012
Reuters: BP (BP.L) has called on contractor Halliburton (HAL.C) to pay all costs and expenses it incurred to clean up the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which the oil major previously put at around $42 billion.
Halliburton cemented the failed well that caused the United State's biggest offshore oil spill.
In a U.S. court filing, BP said it was suing to recover costs and expenses from cleaning up the oil spill, lost profits, and "all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on BP seeking at least $20 billion from Halliburton: reportOil-Drilling Wastewater Seen Causing Earthquake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 3rd, 2012
Associated Press: A northeast Ohio well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling almost certainly caused a series of 11 minor earthquakes in the Youngstown area since last spring, a seismologist investigating the quakes said Monday.
Research is continuing on seismic activity near the now-shuttered injection well at Youngstown, Ohio, but it might take a year for the wastewater-related rumblings in the earth to dissipate, said John Armbruster of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory...
Small town rises up against deforestation in Pakistan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2012
Mongabay: The town of Ayun, home to 16,000 people in the Chitral district of Pakistan, has been rocked by large-scale protests and mass arrests over the issue of corruption and deforestation in recent days. Villagers are protesting forest destruction in the Kalasha Valleys, the home of the indigenous Kalash people.
The protests first began in November with 18 people arrested, all of whom were eventually released on bail. On December 25th, police allegedly used batons, tear gas, and aerial firing to disperse...
Protests over Newmont mine resume in Peru
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Foes of Newmont Mining's $4.8 billion Conga project resumed their protests in Cajamarca on Monday but turnout was weak nearly a month after the government cracked down on environmental activists it labeled as intransigent.
About 1,000 people marched in the Andean city of Cajamarca against the gold mine proposed by the U.S. miner and its Peruvian partner, Buenaventura. The government says the largest mining investment ever in Peru would generate thousands of jobs, but opponents of the project say...
Ohio suspends well operations after series of small quakes
Posted by Reuters: Kim Palmer on January 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Ohio has suspended operations at five deep-well hazardous fluid disposal sites after a series of 11 earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio, in the past year, including one on Saturday with a magnitude of 4.0, officials said.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said Sunday it was halting operations at five Mahoning County wells owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC as a precaution, citing concerns of a possible link between well activity and the quakes.
"We are being overly cautious in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ohio suspends well operations after series of small quakesNYC helps upstate towns prepare streams for more major floods as climate change worsens storms
Posted by Associated Press: Mary Esch on January 2nd, 2012
Associated Press: The mountain-ringed hamlet of Phoenicia, snuggled at the confluence of two world-renowned trout streams, was about to dig out the delta of silt dumped by two previous floods when Hurricane Irene hit at the end of August. Tropical Storm Lee followed closely, turning Main Street into a roiling red river.
"Fortunately, we were able to take a prepared plan off the shelf and work in a way that otherwise would have been impossible," said Danny Davis, a hydrologist with the New York City Department of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on NYC helps upstate towns prepare streams for more major floods as climate change worsens stormsNo Clear Studies on Impacts of Merowe Dam
Posted by Inter Press Service: Reem Abbas on January 2nd, 2012
Inter Press Service: The multi-billion dollar Merowe Dam on the Nile River more than doubled Sudan's electricity supply, but its environmental impacts are still unknown to the public, and communities whose villages were flooded have not yet received compensation.
The Merowe Dam, which was completed in 2010, will affect the aquatic ecology of the Nile River in Sudan by blocking fish migration and degrading water quality.
It will also cause at least eight percent of Sudan's annual share in the Nile Water Agreement...