RSS Feed
Archive for October 11th, 2012
Antarctic ice map may hold clues to global warming
Posted by Reuters: Pauline Askin on October 11th, 2012
Reuters: Scientists have produced the first three dimensional map of the surface beneath Antarctic sea ice, helping them better understand the impact of climate change on Antarctica.
The team of scientists from eight countries have used a robot submarine to chart a frozen and inverted world of mountains and valleys, allowing accurate measurements of the crucial thickness of Antarctic sea ice.
By combining the data with airborne measures of surface ice and snow, scientists can now accurately measure...
Posted in 
Palm oil set to grow Indonesia’s climate changing emissions
Posted by ClimateWire: Nathanael Massey on October 11th, 2012
ClimateWire: Despite government pledges to rein in deforestation, Indonesia is on track to release vast amounts of greenhouse gases over the next decade as its burgeoning palm oil industry churns under carbon-rich peat and cuts down its rainforest.
According to a new study by researchers at Stanford and Yale universities, emissions from the palm oil industry alone could release 558 million metric tons of carbon dioxide -- more than the national emissions of Canada -- by 2020.
The study adds doubt to a compact...
Global warming adding to Antarctic ice, experts say
Posted by Pioneer Press: None Given on October 11th, 2012
Pioneer Press: The ice goes on seemingly forever in a white flat landscape, stretching farther than ever before. And yet, that spreading ice may be a cockeyed signal of man-made climate change, scientists say.
This is Antarctica, the polar opposite of the Arctic.
While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. That happened just days after reports of the biggest loss of...
The Latest Science from Europe—Safe Fracking is a Fairy Tale
Posted by Natural Resources Defense Council: Amy Mall on October 11th, 2012
Natural Resources Defense Council: There are a few new reports from Europe on fracking that provide a lot of valuable information:
A joint report from Germany`s Federal Environment Agency and Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety was released in September. Among the conclusions about the environmental impacts of fracking:
Fracking technology can lead to groundwater contamination.
There are current gaps in knowledge about environmental risks.
Germany should use a step-by-step approach...
Alaska village short of water as winter nears
Posted by Associated Press: Dan Joling, Mark Thiessen on October 11th, 2012
Associated Press: Inupiat Eskimo villagers in a small Alaska community are facing six long months of melting ice and snow nearly every time they want to cook a meal or bathe, after freezing temperatures hit before workers could fill the village's two large storage tanks with water.
Officials in Kivalina had hoped to pull more than 1 million gallons from the nearby Wulik River before it froze over -- enough to allow residents to cook, clean and keep its Laundromat, or "washeteria," open all winter.
But city administrator...
How No-Flush Toilets Can Help Make a Healthier World
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Cheryl Colopy on October 11th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: My apartment in Kathmandu, where I lived for five years, had a toilet that looked very much like the one in my house in California. Nicer even; it was pastel porcelain and had dual flush.
But although flush toilets in Nepal and the rest of South Asia may work quite well, sewer systems have not kept pace. My toilet and all the others in my Kathmandu neighborhood were connected to pipes that carried the contents of toilets away from our residences and straight into a small river a half-mile away....
EPA Worried That Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More Than 2 Years After Spill
Posted by Inside Climate News: David Hasemyer on October 11th, 2012
Inside Climate News: The hidden, long-term effects of the 2010 pipeline accident that spilled more than a million gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River became public last week when the EPA revealed that large amounts of oil are still accumulating in three areas of the river.
The problem is so serious that the EPA [3] is asking Enbridge Inc. [4], the Canadian pipeline operator, to dredge approximately 100 acres of the river. During the original cleanup effort, dredging was limited to just...
Maine Becomes New Front in Battle Over Canadian Oil Sands
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on October 11th, 2012
Globe and Mail: The latest flashpoint is in Maine, where activists held a news conference on Wednesday to denounce an allegedly secret plan by Portland Pipe Line Corp. to open a new route to carry western crude by way of Ontario and Quebec through northern New England to the Atlantic coast.
That prospect highlights the mismatch between abundant, low-cost western crude and the reliance of eastern refineries on premium-priced offshore imports. As the oil industry looks to spread eastward, governments in Quebec...
EPA: Latest Wyoming Water Tests Still Link Pollutants to Fracking
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on October 11th, 2012
Bloomberg: Tests of drinking water near a natural-gas drilling site in Wyoming back up findings that established the first link by the federal government between hydraulic fracturing and tainted water, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
The EPA yesterday issued its follow-up analyses of two test wells it drilled in Pavillion and of five residents’ water wells, saying the pollutants it found were “consistent” with the results last year used to establish that connection to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking....
Canada: Enbridge Leak Detection Ability Unknown Until Pipeline is Built, Lawyer Tells Hearing
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Dene Moore on October 11th, 2012
Vancouver Sun: The ability to detect leaks along the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline won't be known until the pipeline is built and pumping oil through the remote wilderness of northern British Columbia, a lawyer for the province noted at a hearing deciding the pipeline's fate. Chris Jones grilled a panel of company experts on the design of the 1,100-kilometre pipeline that would deliver oil from the Alberta oilsands to a tanker port on the B.C. coast. "So is what you're telling me that the actual sensitivity...