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Archive for September 17th, 2012
Battle over ancient Swedish forest
Posted by Guardian: Sylvia Rowley on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: A landmark case that could affect the fate of forests across Sweden reaches its final stage today in the supreme court. Environmentalists have warned that a damaging precedent will be set if Finnish company Nordkalk is allowed to carry out large-scale limestone mining in an ancient, biodiverse habitat on the northern Swedish island of Gotland. The planned limestone quarry would destroy part of Ojnare forest and neighbouring wetlands, a region that borders two protected areas and is so valuable...
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United Kingdom: Crossrail earth will be used to create huge wetland nature reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: The first giant scoops of almost 5m tonnes of earth from deep beneath London were delivered to the Essex coast on Monday, the first step in creating the biggest man-made nature reserve in Europe.
The soil, excavated from two new 21km rail tunnels under the capital, will transform the pancake-flat intensive farmland of Wallasea Island into a labyrinth of mudflats, saltmarshes and lagoons last seen on the site 400 years ago.
The RSPB hopes the new reserve will see the return to England of lost...
Southwest Likely to be Loser Thanks to Climate Change
Posted by KNAU Arizona Public Radio: Shelley Smithson on September 17th, 2012
KNAU Arizona Public Radio: Despite this year’s abundant monsoon season, researchers say climate change could be pushing the Southwest into a period of sustained drought.
That’s the subject of a new book by William deBuys.
The Santa Fe author will be speaking tonight about his book, “A Great Aridness.”
He says climate change will produce winners and losers. And the Southwest will be a loser…
deBuys: The reason the Southwest is likely to be a loser in climate change is because it will become more arid. And it will...
United States: E.P.A. Plans Crackdown on Muddy Upstate Waterway
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
New York Times: The federal Environmental Protection Agency wants to list the Lower Esopus Creek in the Catskills region of New York as an “impaired” waterway. Such a step could force New York City to stop discharging muddy water into the creek from a reservoir that helps supply city’s drinking water. The muddying of the Lower Esopus has been an issue for environmental officials from both the city and the state because the tributary is vital to recreation and agriculture in Ulster County. The county executive,...
European biofuel targets contributing to global hunger, says Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: European targets to replace fossil fuels with biofuels are contributing to spikes in food prices and global hunger, according to the latest analyis by Oxfam.
The aid organisation is calling for EU energy ministers meeting in Cyprus on Monday to scrap mandates that commit member states to sourcing 10% of transport energy from renewable sources by 2020. It has calculated that the land required to meet these mandates for biofuels for European cars for one year could feed 127 million people.
A...
United Kingdom: Work under way on nature reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
BBC: Construction work has begun on Europe's largest man-made nature reserve, located in Essex.
Wallasea Island is being transformed from farmland into a 670-hectare (1,500-acre) wetland.
The site is using 4.5 million tonnes of earth excavated from the Crossrail project, for which a 21km (13 mile) tunnel is being bored through London.
The land will be transformed into marshes, lagoons and mudflats to attract birds and other wildlife.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve...
Climate change: all that is solid melts into water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: Sometimes, the future arrives with alarming speed. In the 1990s, and again in 2000, climate scientists warned that – unless urgent action was taken – the Arctic Ocean could be clear blue water in summer by 2050. This August researchers making a first analysis of data from the European Space Agency's observation satellite CryoSat-2 were startled to find that the loss of sea ice – as measured both by depth, and by area – was far more dramatic than their own forecasts had predicted. The summer Arctic...
Protecting biodiversity key to food security, adaptation – expert
Posted by AlertNet: Johann Earle on September 17th, 2012
AlertNet: Biodiversity conservation will be key to ensuring food security and effective adaptation in the face of climate change, says Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, secretary general of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
"Much of the response to climate change will have to be based on biodiversity,' said de Souza Dias, head of the CBD, launched in 1992 as part of an international effort to promote sustainable development while protecting ecosystems. "Part of the response will come from new...
Droughts latest wrinkle in climate debate
Posted by Politico: Joel Brinkley on September 17th, 2012
Politico: Climate change is here. Even those who differ over its cause agree that it’s happening. In the United States alone, 28,570 high-heat records have been set so far this year, more than ever before, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this month.
As if that weren’t problem enough, the world is also plunging into another major food crisis. And what most people don’t know is that the two issues are directly related.
Food prices “soared by 10 percent in July” alone, the World...
Richer cities get more funds for toxic cleanups
Posted by MSNBC: Gwyneth Shaw, Beverly Ford and Evelyn Larrubia on September 17th, 2012
MSNBC: In Oak Creek, Wis., a fence slashed with holes surrounds a barren 300-acre complex of buckling former factories where the soil and groundwater are polluted with arsenic and other chemicals.
Asbestos sprayed for almost six miles from a shuttered textile mill in Sprague, Conn., when children trying to free a canoe set it on fire.
A toxic cocktail of volatile organic compounds, petroleum, hydrocarbons and metals lies alongside the banks of Massachusetts's Malden River.
Despite about $1.5 billion...