RSS Feed
Archive for September 29th, 2012
Flash floods kill 10 in Spain as torrential rain causes havoc
Posted by Guardian: Lin Jenkins on September 29th, 2012
Guardian: At least 10 people, three of them children, died after torrential rain triggered flash floods across a swath of southern Spain and another 35 were injured when a tornado swept through a fairground, knocking down a ferris wheel.
The strength of the torrents washed away cars, turned roads to rivers, damaged houses, brought down a motorway bridge and forced thousands to abandon their homes. Many people had to be rescued by the emergency services using inflatable rafts to ferry them to safety.
Among...
Posted in 
Malaysia: 200 indigenous block road to dam in Sarawak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2012
Mongabay: 200 indigenous men and women are blockading shipments of construction materials to a dam site in Malaysian Borneo to protest the impact of the hydroelectric project on their traditional forest home, reports the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a Switzerland-based group that campaigns on behalf of forest people of Sarawak.
According to the NGO, on the morning of September 26, 200 Penan and Kenyah set up a blockade on the road used by trucks to deliver supplies to Murum dam, a controversial project being...
NY Fracking Policy Faces Do-Over
Posted by Shale Gas Review: Tom Wilber on September 29th, 2012
Shale Gas Review: New York officials crafting policy to regulate shale gas drilling amid unanswered health concerns will likely re-open the process to public hearings, essentially guaranteeing more momentum for the movement that has effectively stalled the industry’s advancement into the Empire State for more than four years.
Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), said late this afternoon that agency officials expect to begin a new rulemaking process rather than try...
Flash floods hit southern Spain
Posted by Guardian: Jo Adetunji on September 29th, 2012
Guardian: Eight people have been killed and hundreds evacuated from their homes after extreme weather and flash floods hit southern Spain on Friday.
The flooding, caused by torrential rain after months of drought, hit areas around Murcia and Almería in the south-east and Málaga in the south.
A 52-year-old British woman is believed to be missing in Almería, according to a government official.
The weather brought down a motorway bridge and cars were swept away. Officials in the region said at least...
The Arctic’s changing climate first hand
Posted by Channel 4 News: Tom Clarke on September 29th, 2012
Channel 4 News: After days of drizzle, this morning it started to snow in Northern Greenland.
By the last days of September the ground would normally be white and the sea would be starting to freeze in the more sheltered bays and fjords.
But this hasn't been a normal year in the arctic - and as if to reinforce the point this morning's snow is melting as soon as it falls.
Earlier this month the amount of sea ice in the arctic ocean reached its minimum extent since records began. Though it still envelops...
Rio shift on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2012
Sydney Morning Herald: RIO Tinto's language on climate change has shifted, with the company now recognising that global warming is ''largely caused by human activities''.
Previously, Rio had accepted that human activities were making ''a contribution'' to climate change.
In a speech yesterday, Rio's head of coal in Australia, Bill Champion, said the company recognised the value of action on climate change.
''The scale of the necessary emissions reductions and the need for adaptation, coupled with the world's increasing...
United Kingdom: Now climate experts warn that every house in the country is at risk of flooding
Posted by Independent: Jonathan Brown on September 29th, 2012
Independent: The flood waters may finally be receding across parts of Britain lashed this week by the worst autumn storm in 30 years.But as home and business owners begin the long, demoralising task of clearing up the filth left in their wake, it has emerged that increasing numbers of flood victims are completely unaware that they were ever at risk from rising water levels.
Of the 5,000 properties damaged in the extreme weather events of this summer and autumn, more than half were hit not by overflowing rivers...
Conflicting reports fuel fracking debate tied to Wyoming town
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on September 29th, 2012
Reuters: Government testing of a drinking water aquifer near a tiny Wyoming town has shown concentrations of gases like ethane and propane and diesel compounds, but a natural gas company said it did not cause the contamination.
A report by the U.S. Geological Survey showed petroleum-based pollutants in samples from a monitoring well in the aquifer adjacent to Pavillion, Wyoming, which is at the center of a national debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
A draft study released in December by...