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Archive for February, 2012
“Only the Mayor Will Benefit from the Mine”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Inter Press Service: "No one will pay for the damages when work at the mine has finished," says María del Rosario Velásquez, who lives in a town near the Oasis mine 100 km southeast of the Guatemalan capital.
The Canada-based Tahoe Resources company plans to extract gold, silver, zinc and lead from the mine.
Velásquez is not so sure that the mine will bring benefits to her hometown, San Rafael Las Flores. But she is sure of the risks that it poses to the environment.
"We know it will cause a great deal of pollution,...
New York City’s ‘once-a-century’ storms could become ‘once-a-decade’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Massive storm surges that statistically threaten New York City once a century could occur at intervals from three to 20 years by 2100, according to estimates by US scientists published Tuesday. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University built a computer model that simulated tens of thousands of storms under different scenarios for global warming. In the model, intense storms become more frequent by the period from 2081 to 2100, a finding that backs...
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Comments Off on New York City’s ‘once-a-century’ storms could become ‘once-a-decade’Keystone XL: Five stories not told
Posted by Media Matters: None Given on February 15th, 2012
Media Matters: In the media storm surrounding TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, news outlets have largely focused on the employment impacts of the project, often parroting discredited industry statistics in the process. But jobs are only a part of the story. A review of recent testimonies, tax records and local news reports shows that, on many other important issues at stake, TransCanada has been advertising one thing to its stakeholders and delivering another. What follows is a list of stories that...
Study: Sierra snowfall consistent over 130 years
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Peter Fimrite on February 15th, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle: Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada has remained consistent for 130 years, with no evidence that anything has changed as a result of climate change, according to a study released Tuesday.
The analysis of snowfall data in the Sierra going back to 1878 found no more or less snow overall - a result that, on the surface, appears to contradict aspects of recent climate change models.
John Christy, the Alabama state climatologist who authored the study, said the amount of snow in the mountains has not...
Where the Colorado Runs Dry
Posted by New York Times: Jonathan Waterman on February 15th, 2012
New York Times: MOST visitors to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon probably don’t realize that the mighty Colorado River, America’s most legendary white-water river, rarely reaches the sea. Until 1998 the Colorado regularly flowed south along the Arizona-California border into a Mexican delta, irrigating farmlands and enriching a wealth of wildlife and flora before emptying into the Gulf of California. But decades of population growth, climate change and damming in the American Southwest have now desiccated...
Texas drought leads to shade tree die-off
Posted by Reuters: Jim Forsyth on February 15th, 2012
Reuters: Some 5.6 million urban shade trees were killed by the record drought that baked Texas last year, the Texas Forest Service reported on Wednesday.
Last year was the driest year on record in the state and the second-hottest, according to the National Weather Service.
The shade tree die-off represents some 10 percent of the state's urban forest, and is in addition to as many as a half-billion rural, park and forest trees that the forest service reported in December were killed in the drought. ...
Activists form network to fight Sarawak dam-building spree
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Mongabay: Last October indigenous groups, local people, and domestic NGOs formed the Save Sarawak's Rivers Network to fight the planned construction of a dozen dams in the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The coalition opposes the dam-building plans, known as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative, due to its impacts on indigenous and river communities, the destruction of pristine rainforest, and the degradation of the state's rivers.
"At the moment, there is no coordinated...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Activists form network to fight Sarawak dam-building spreeObama’s Budget Seeks $300 Million for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Posted by Yahoo!: Rachel Bogart on February 14th, 2012
Yahoo!: According to the Associated Press, under a budget proposal submitted by President Barack Obama, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative would receive another $300 million for tackling environmental problem in the Great Lakes system. If approved, the funding would go to individual projects and partnerships the federal government has with state, local and tribal agencies that specifically seek to help alleviate ecological concerns. Initially Obama sought $5 billion for Great Lakes restoration projects...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama’s Budget Seeks $300 Million for Great Lakes Restoration InitiativeClimate change increases risk of storm surges, according to MIT study
Posted by Boston Globe: Carolyn Y. Johnson on February 14th, 2012
Boston Globe: Studies of climate change and its impact on coastal communities usually focus on rising sea level. Now, scientists from MIT and Princeton University have developed a method to examine how multiple effects of climate change – including the combination of sea-level rise and stronger hurricanes -- will affect storm surges that wash over sea walls and inundate communities, damaging buildings and infrastructure.
As a demonstration of the new technique, the scientists quantified how hurricane storm...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change increases risk of storm surges, according to MIT studyWashing clothing pollutes oceans with billions of microplastics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
Mongabay: Washing synthetic clothes-such as nylon, polyester, and acrylic-is polluting the oceans with billions of microplastics: plastics that measure less than one millimeter. It may sound innocuous, but research has shown that these microplastics are accumulating in marine species with unknown health impacts, both on the pollution-eating species and the humans who consume them.
"An important source of microplastic appears to be through sewage contaminated by fibers from washing clothes," the authors...
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