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Archive for August, 2012
No 10 asks ministers: Can we now support £30bn Severn barrage?
Posted by Independent: Matt Chorley on August 18th, 2012
Independent: David Cameron has ordered ministers to consider backing a £30bn project to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary, as the Government scrambles to find big infrastructure projects that could help kick-start growth.
The Prime Minister has asked Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, and Oliver Letwin, the Tory policy chief, to look in detail at a new proposal for a barrage which, supporters claim, could limit the environmental impact on world-famous wildlife habitats.
With the potential...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on No 10 asks ministers: Can we now support £30bn Severn barrage?Climate models that predict more droughts win further scientific support
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2012
Washington Post: The United States will suffer a series of severe droughts in the next two decades, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Moreover, global warming will play an increasingly important role in their abundance and severity, claims Aiguo Dai, the study's author.
His findings bolster conclusions from climate models used by researchers around the globe that have predicted severe and widespread droughts in coming decades over many land areas. Those models had been questioned...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate models that predict more droughts win further scientific supportEARTH MEANDERS: This I Know to Be Ecological Truth
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on August 18th, 2012
Abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse, caused by human industrial growth at expense of ecology, are poised to utterly destroy our one shared biosphere, and thus virtually all life including humanity.
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." Malcolm X
By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk
Ecological Internet is pleased to work with http://www.arbtech.co.uk/ to bring you this site.
Earth is an ancient organism, alive for 3.5 billion years. Only a few hundred years ago the disease of industrial capitalist growth arose, and is killing her by destroying her ecosystems. The current dominant economic paradigm mistakes ecosystem habitats which are necessary for life for disposable resources to be logged, mined, and burnt. Ancient, naturally evolved ecosystems are being stripped of life, largely for growth in throw-away consumer junk. As a result, water, soil, climate, and food systems are failing.
Human history can be summarized as the rich screwing the poor, stealing their work's surplus, while trashing ecosystems, at the point of a gun. For ...
Cambodia’s Hydro Plans Carry Steep Costs
Posted by Inter Press Service: Lawrence Del Gigante on August 18th, 2012
Inter Press Service: The Cambodian government has committed to the construction of five dams along the Mekong River in order to meet a huge demand for electricity, but environmental groups warn that severe repercussions loom for this strategy.
"While each project proposed in Cambodia comes with a different set of impacts, large dams are likely to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, increase malnourishment levels and lead to an environmentally unsustainable future," Ame Trandem, South East Asia programme...
Incentives slow rainforest destruction, researcher says
Posted by Phys.Org: None Given on August 18th, 2012
Phys.Org: Tropical rainforests are the biggest defense against global warming, absorbing 50 percent more carbon than other kinds of forests. Yet they are disappearing at a rate of about 11 million hectares a year.
Yeon-Su Kim, a Northern Arizona University ecological economic professor, is researching how economic incentives may slow the destruction of these important carbon-storing ecosystems and decrease the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
"We have a way of helping rainforest...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Incentives slow rainforest destruction, researcher saysCost-wary Forest Service tries to douse each fire
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2012
Associated Press: If lightning strikes in the New Mexico wilderness and starts a fire, the blaze would normally be little more than a blip on the radar of land managers who have earned a reputation for letting flames burn to keep forested lands from growing into a tangled mess.
This season is different. Now firefighters are trekking deep into the Gila National Forest with trains of equipment-carrying horses and one overriding goal: snuffing out all fires, no matter how small or remote.
The U.S. Forest Service's...
Climate is Ripe for Deadly West Nile Virus Attack on Texas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2012
Climate Central: Texas dodged one major bullet this year: the crushing drought that seared the Lone Star State in 2011 shifted its sights northward in 2012, frying the nation's agricultural midland but leaving Texas at least a little wetter than it was last summer.
But that little bit of extra moisture has put Texas in the crosshairs of another climate-related disaster. A major outbreak this month of West Nile virus -- the worst since the brain infection first reached America in 1999 -- has infected some 200 people...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate is Ripe for Deadly West Nile Virus Attack on TexasQ&A: Water and Food Security Are Inseparable
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2012
Inter Press Service: With the U.N. ominously warning of an impending food crisis following severe droughts in farmlands in the United States, Brazil, Russia and at least two rain-deprived states in India, the world will once again turn its attention to a finite natural resource: water.
The U.N`s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said last week that if the international community fails to heed the warning, the food crisis of 2008 could repeat itself, triggering worldwide shortages and raising prices for agricultural...
Activists in Argentina Expect Landmark Ruling against Agrochemicals
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2012
Inter Press Service: - After more than a decade of campaigning against toxic agrochemicals, a group of women from a poor neighbourhood in the northern Argentine city of Córdoba have brought large-scale soybean growers to trial for the health damages caused by spraying.
The trial began in June, and the sentence is to be handed down on Aug. 21. In the dock are two soybean producers, Francisco Parra and Jorge Gabrielli, and the pilot of a spray plane, Edgardo Pancello.
The prosecutors are seeking four years of prison...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Activists in Argentina Expect Landmark Ruling against AgrochemicalsBaltic fishing limits too high to save wild salmon: campaigners
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2012
Reuters: Fishing limits for wild salmon in the Baltic Sea will be unchanged or cut slightly next year, under European proposals published on Friday, which environmentalists say ignore concerns that some sub-species could face extinction.
The European Commission says there should be a year-on-year cut of 11 percent in the allowable catch for "main basin" salmon, referring to most of the salmon in the Baltic, for 2013.
That followed the agreement by European Union ministers for a cut of 51 percent for...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Baltic fishing limits too high to save wild salmon: campaigners