RSS Feed
Archive for February, 2012
Thirty degrees below – and at least a hundred dead: Europe’s big freeze
Posted by Independent: Shaun Walker on February 3rd, 2012
Independent: With record snowfalls, icy winds, and thousands of people trapped in remote villages, much of Central and Eastern Europe is in the grip of a cold snap that has caused more than 100 deaths. Temperatures in parts of Ukraine and other Eastern European countries are hovering around -30C (-22F).
The Adriatic islands of Croatia have had a rare dusting of snow, while in Romania, parts of the Black Sea have frozen over. Several towns in Bulgaria have recorded their lowest temperatures since records began...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Thirty degrees below – and at least a hundred dead: Europe’s big freezeUnited Kingdom: Giving an invasive water pest the bullet
Posted by BBC: Will Smale on February 3rd, 2012
BBC: If someone mentions mussels and your first thought is a big bowl of moules mariniere, then you are not alone.
However, the popular seafood dish has a much less palatable relative, the freshwater zebra mussel.
An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove.
The removal is more often done by having to send down divers to hack them off by hand.
This is because it is very difficult to get rid of zebra mussels...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Giving an invasive water pest the bulletCanada, Alberta to announce new oil sands monitoring
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: The governments of Canada and Alberta will announce details of a new environmental-monitoring regime in the province's oil sands on Friday, as they look shore up an industry whose growth plans are under attack from environmental groups.
Mark Cooper, a spokesman for Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen, said on Thursday that the two governments would make an announcement in Edmonton, Alberta, on the new monitoring plan. He did not offer details.
Separate panels commissioned by the two...
Analysis: Canada plan to sell oil to China faces big hurdles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Prime Minister Stephen Harper may still be smarting from Canada's failed bid to ramp up oil exports to the United States, but his plan B could prove to be even tougher.
Harper heads across the Pacific next week in a bid to convince China to satisfy its growing energy appetite with Canada's vast oil reserves.
Though it appears a classic supply-demand match on the surface, the plan faces hurdles that range from how long it will take to build the pipeline to environmental dangers and questions...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Analysis: Canada plan to sell oil to China faces big hurdlesIndia’s panel price crash could spark solar revolution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
New Scientist: SOLAR power has always had a reputation for being expensive, but not for much longer. In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news - which will boost India's "Solar Mission" to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 - could have implications for other developing nations too.
Recent figures from market analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) show that the price of solar panels fell by almost 50 per cent in 2011. They are now just one-quarter...
Drought, warmer weather persist in much of U.S
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma, according to climate experts.
Unseasonably warm temperatures were noted in Kansas and across many areas of the central Plains, with Kansas recording temperatures well above 60 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
For January, the state-wide average...
Harsh Roadside Environments Creating Hardy Salamanders, Study Suggests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Yale Environment 360: The old adage -- “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” -- seems to apply to salamanders evolving to survive in contaminated environments near roads. Yale University researcher Steven Brady compared Steven Brady/Yale University A spotted salamander salamanders breeding in roadside ponds with those breeding in woodland ponds, and he found that the roadside salamanders have a tough life. Only 56 percent of salamander eggs in roadside ponds survive the first 10 weeks, compared with an 87 percent...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Harsh Roadside Environments Creating Hardy Salamanders, Study SuggestsWhy Barack Obama will have to talk about climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Mother Jones: In his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama largely avoided the topic of climate change. He talked about it once, in passing, as a topic on which "the differences in this chamber may be too deep" to enact new legislation. Its less-controversial cousin, "energy," on the other hand, got a whopping 23 mentions as an area where Republicans and Democrats should be able to find agreement.
It became clear well before that address that the president and his administration don't think...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Why Barack Obama will have to talk about climate changeMiddle East trails again in green energy growth
Posted by Reuters: Maha El Dahan and Daniel Fineren on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Talk of a Middle Eastern green energy boom is likely to prove no more than a mirage with little hope of the region saving clean technology companies from the shrinking project pools of Europe.
Instead India, China and Latin America offer some hope for green energy companies struggling in a European market drowning in debt and a North American market awash with gas.
"We expect some growth will happen here in the Middle East but it will take time for this to become a robust industry," Juan Araluce...
Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 2nd, 2012
CBC: Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages worldwide by 2100 with the United States and China being hardest hit, says a new study.
The figure includes population and economic growth costs ($56 billion) as well as the effects of climate change ($53 billion). All figures are in U.S. dollars.
The estimates are based on a future global population of nine billion and an annual increase of approximately three per cent in gross world product until 2100, according to the study published on...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100