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Archive for July 5th, 2012
Peru anti-mining protests escalate during state of emergency
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2012
Associated Press: A civilian was killed and a prominent anti-mining activist arrested in protests on Wednesday against Peru's biggest gold mining project, further inflaming tensions after the government declared a state of emergency.
Peru's prime minister, Oscar Valdés, announced the civilian's death at a news conference in Lima but did not provide further details. It was the fourth protest-related death in two days.
Marco Arana, a former Roman Catholic priest, was arrested hours earlier in Cajamarca, one of...
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China Battles Desertification
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2012
Inter Press Service: As scientists increasingly label desertification as one of the most burning challenges facing the world today, a small village in China's semi-arid Northeastern region of Inner Mongolia is fighting back.
Chifeng City's dry climate and sparse vegetation have given way to severe surface erosion and poor soil fertility. Agriculture and animal husbandry, the two economic cornerstones of Chifeng City's nine counties and three districts, are increasingly threatened by the spell of desertification, though...
United Kingdom: Set clear targets for water meters, urge MPs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2012
Press Association: The Government must set clear targets for increasing the number of homes with water meters as part of efforts to better manage England's water supplies, MPs urged today.
Current plans to reform the regime for taking water from rivers by the mid to late 2020s will not take effect swiftly enough given that rivers are already running dry, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee said.
The committee's report into the Government's plans for conserving scarcer water resources in the face...
River life ‘at risk’ from water firms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2012
Telegraph: Water voles, otters and kingfishers are among the wildlife threatened by the draining of rivers to supply homes and businesses.
The Government is looking at implementing new rules in the Water White Paper to try to stop water companies draining rivers dry.
But a report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee said the tough rules would not take effect quickly enough to save some salmon and trout rivers.
The cross-party group also criticised the Government for failing to ensure...
United States: Climate change: Forest warming forces warming
Posted by Great Lakes Echo: Saodat Asanova-Taylor on July 5th, 2012
Great Lakes Echo: A rise of global temperatures will release more carbon dioxide from forest soils, according to a new study that includes a look at a Wisconsin forest.
And that increased release of the greenhouse gas could make the climate heat yet even faster.
Scientists at the University of the California Irvine heated by 10 to 20 degrees soil collected from forests in Wisconsin and North Carolina. They discovered that the warming released up to eight times more carbon dioxide.
The study was published...
Officials worry that ‘megafires’ becoming ‘new norm’ for American West
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Gloria Goodale on July 5th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: Alaska reeling from sudden death of revered Eagle elder and renaissance man Polynesian community searches for answers after police shooting deaths Veepstakes: Why Sarah Palin will choose Romney's vice president
The worst has passed in Colorado, which recently faced the most destructive in wildfires in state history, but this is only a pause, according to the National Inter-Agency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho.
Federal agencies in charge of fighting fires are turning their attention to...
Feeling the heat yet?
Posted by Miami Herald: Eugene Robinson on July 5th, 2012
Miami Herald: Still don't believe in climate change? Then you're either deep in denial or delirious from the heat.
As I write this, the nation's capital and its suburbs are in post-apocalypse mode. About one-fourth of all households have no electricity, the legacy of an unprecedented assault by violent thunderstorms Friday night. Things are improving: At the height of the power outage, nearly half the region was dark.
The line of storms, which killed at least 17 people as it raced from the Midwest to the...