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Archive for July 22nd, 2012
Oil and gas infrastructure poisoning Texas with 30,000 tons of toxic chemicals a year
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 22nd, 2012
Environment News Service: Flares, leaking pipelines and tanks emitted 92,000 tons of toxic chemicals into the air during accidents, break-downs and maintenance at Texas oil and gas facilities, refineries and petrochemical plants over the past three years, finds a report released today by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, EIP.
Based on data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency, the EIP report shows that, in addition to the emissions from normal operations, more than 42,000 tons...
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Climate science: the gathering storm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: After the driest winter on record, Sir David Attenborough wouldn't be the only Briton to blame the wettest English summer ever on global climate change, on some inexorable shift in the planetary machinery that upsets all reasonable expectation. There is a connection, although no single meteorological episode in any locality could ever be directly linked to global warming: this flood or that cyclone might have happened anyway. Even the increasing frequency worldwide of climate-related disasters, along...
United Nations project to revive Zambia’s forest
Posted by Zambia Daily Mail: Doreen Nawa on July 22nd, 2012
Zambia Daily Mail: MONITORING forestry losses in Zambia and the effects that the loss has on the environment can be a challenge because of lack of technical know-how.
Following the effects that deforestation has on the environment in relation to climate change, the situation in Zambia is rather a hopeless case for the lack of expertise in monitoring and managing forestry countrywide.
Environmental advocates say that forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change through the confiscation and storage...
America’s corn farmers high and dry as hope withers with their harvest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: The worst drought in a generation is hitting farmers across America's corn belt far harder than government projections and forcing them to a heart-breaking decision: harvest what's left of their shrivelled acres or abandon their entire crop.
For Mike Buis, pictured, who farms in west-central Indiana, the most he could hope for, his best-case scenario, was saving one-third of his crop.
"I'd be tickled to death if it would make 50 bushels (1.5 tonnes), if we don't have rain," he said. Most of...
Drastic changes in weather spelled doom for American corn crop
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: The heat wave that lit up a vast swathe of the mid-west could not have come at a worse time for this year's corn.
Or delivered more of a shock to farmers. All signs had been pointing to a bumper crop this year.
A mild winter, a balmy spring – most farmers elected to plant some of their fields a few weeks earlier than usual. Mike Buis, who farms in west-central Indiana, put some of his corn in on 9 April.
Some farmers didn't even hold on that long, planting as early as March.
By 1 June,...
Beijing battered by rainstorms
Posted by Shanghai Daily: None Given on July 22nd, 2012
Shanghai Daily: STORMS that lashed large swathes of northern and southwestern China from Friday night through yesterday have killed at least 14 people, authorities said.
And heavy rains are forecast to continue in China's northern regions and some southern parts over the next three days.
In Beijing, rainstorms and gales that started around 10am yesterday have left at least four people dead and six others injured, police and medical workers said.
Roofs at a construction site in the city's suburban Tongzhou...
Risk of drilling for natural gas is too high
Posted by Denver Post: Allen Best on July 22nd, 2012
Denver Post: Like Josh Fox, the maker of the semi-documentary film "Gasland," I am an owner of natural gas in the Marcellus shale of Pennsylvania. My newfound wealth was reported to me one evening last year as I prepared to go to a Denver Nuggets game.
A third or fourth cousin from Kansas called to tell me about our common ancestor, Solomon Hinerman. He had farmed briefly in Pennsylvania's Green County more than a century ago, and a gas company -- I believe it was Chesapeake Energy -- wanted to lease our mineral...
When the rains don’t fall
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on July 22nd, 2012
Inter Press Service: For many Sri Lankans, the effects of climate change can be summed up in one word: rainfall.
"The biggest impact (of climate change) is rainfall or the lack of it," W L Sumathipala, one of Sri Lanka's foremost experts in changing climate patterns, told IPS on a scorching hot and humid day in Colombo.
"The availability of water can effect multiple things in Sri Lanka from crops to power generation to the currency," Sumathipala, who formerly headed the climate change unit at the Ministry of...
Reducing L.A.’s reliance on Delta is good for all
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Dayna Bochco on July 22nd, 2012
Sacramento Bee: Southern Californians have a reputation for wasting water. But that's more fiction than fact. We're actually a model for wise water use. Thanks to conservation and efficiency, the city of Los Angeles uses no more water today than it did 40 years ago, despite adding 1 million residents. And the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's new water plan shows how we Southern Californians can avoid the false choice between healthy rivers and a healthy economy simply by continuing to use our water resources...
China: Beijing’s heaviest rain in 6 decades kills at least 10 people; 10 killed elsewhere in storms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Associated Press: The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in six decades killed at least 10 people and left cars and buses submerged, and 10 other storm deaths were reported elsewhere as China braced Sunday for more downpours.
The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas. In Tongzhou district on the capital's eastern outskirts, two people were killed by collapsed roofs, one person was fatally struck by lightning and a fourth was electrocuted by a fallen...