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Archive for February 17th, 2012
Only the heavens can prevent a dreadful drought in England
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Telegraph: Writing about impending drought, in my experience, is a dicey business. The last time I did so -- in June 2011, after the second driest spring on record -- a wet summer duly followed. And I well remember, as a young reporter, interviewing Denis Howell, the newly appointed Minister for Drought, in the long dry summer of 1976: within days the heavens opened and he was made Minister for Floods.
Yet last summer's rains only provided brief relief and the country is now facing the biggest water crisis...
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Panel reinforces Ecuador award halt in Chevron case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Reuters: An arbitration panel reinforced an order that Ecuador's government seek to suspend an $18 billion court award against U.S. oil company Chevron Corp over pollution in the South American country's rainforest.
A year after its original order, the three-person panel, working under The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, told the Republic of Ecuador on Thursday to "take all measures necessary" through its judicial, legislative or executive branches to suspend enforcement of the award at home and...
Brazil’s plan to cut protected areas for dams faces constitutional challenge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Mongabay: Federal public prosecutors in Brazil have challenged a plan to strip protected status from 86,288 hectares of land to make way for five new dams, reports International Rivers. The challenge is set to be heard by Brazil's Supreme Court, according to the group, which is campaigning against new hydroelectric projects in environmentally-sensitive areas.
The prosecutors, known as the Ministério Publico Federal (MPF), filed a complaint against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on the grounds that eliminating...
Climate change leads to pollution of indigenous people’s water supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Physorg: These are the preliminary findings of Sherilee Harper, a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar in Aboriginal People's Health at the University of Guelph, who says that there has been a significant increase in the incidence of diarrhea and vomiting following these weather events.
Harper is undertaking a comparative study of how extreme weather events affect waterborne diseases in the Arctic and in southwestern Uganda--and is finding plenty of similarities between health issues faced by indigenous groups...
United Kingdom: Nuclear power is an expensive gamble that may (or may not) pay off
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Guardian: Britain's energy future starts in Paris with David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy signing formal agreements for the UK and France to work together on nuclear power. Attention will soon shift to a 500-hectare (1,250-acre) plot in Somerset where the French state energy giant EDF hopes to start work on Hinkley C. If all goes to plan, the first nuclear power station to be built in Britain since 1995 will generate 2,000MW of electricity a year by 2018-2019.
The reality is that few, if any, of the world's...
Paraná River Not What It Used to Be
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Lower water levels and increasing pressure from overfishing in the Paraná river are causing an unprecedented decline in fish stocks in the river that is regarded as the second most biodiverse in South America after the Amazon river.
The problems faced by the Paraná river were described to IPS by experts studying this nearly 4,000-km river, which rises in southern Brazil at the confluence of the Grande and Paranaíba rivers, forms Argentina's northern border with Paraguay, then flows south though...
Scottish and Southern Energy’s £800m vision for hydro dam in Great Glen
Posted by Scotsman: Frank Urquhart on February 17th, 2012
Scotsman: ENERGY giant Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has revealed ambitious plans to build Scotland`s biggest hydro-electric scheme in the heart of the Great Glen.
The company’s green energy division, SSE Renewables, has submitted a planning application to the Scottish Government to construct a 600-megawatt power scheme above Loch Lochy, with depths of 230ft the third deepest loch in Scotland. Under the plans for the new “pumped storage” hydro-electric scheme, a 300ft high dam would be built at Coire...
United Kingdom: Fears of severe drought recall the summer of 1976
Posted by Guardian: Jason Rodrigues on February 17th, 2012
Guardian: For readers of a certain age, 1976 will bring back memories of Fernando by Abba being played on transistor radios, Manchester United being humbled by lowly Southampton in the FA Cup final, inflation raging over 20%, and a blistering summer heatwave that dried up reservoirs and rivers for the first time in living memory.
With much of the country baked by temperatures of around 32C and not a drop of rain in sight, the Labour government led by Jim Callaghan began to panic, so much so that it considered...
House passes Keystone bill, Senate action uncertain
Posted by Reuters: Roberta Rampton on February 17th, 2012
Reuters: The House of Representatives passed an energy bill on Thursday that would wrest control of a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline away from President Barack Obama, who has put the project on hold.
The bill, part of a broader House Republican effort to fund highways and infrastructure projects, would also expand offshore oil drilling and open up parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
While approval of the Keystone measure by the House was widely expected,...
Water-Gate: Texas State Report on Dealing with Current and Future Drought
Posted by Think Progress: None Given on February 17th, 2012
Think Progress: Ironically, the cover of a major Texas report on drought and water planning points out that it`s been "dry" and "hot" and implies humans have some control over the state`s thermostat. But the report is silent on human contribution to the heat and drought now and in the future - and is thus dangerously misleading as a planning document.
Can a state devastated by its most severe hot-weather drought on record actually release a water-planning report on the future of drought in Texas that never mentions...