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Archive for October 13th, 2012
Business bosses attack George Osborne’s policy of ‘dash for gas’
Posted by Guardian: Toby Helm on October 13th, 2012
Guardian: George Osborne was increasingly isolated over energy policy last night, after the head of the CBI said that too much reliance on gas as a future source of energy would leave consumers and businesses dangerously exposed to further sharp price rises on global markets.
After a week in which two of Britain's biggest energy suppliers shocked customers by announcing increases of up to 9% on gas and electricity bills from next month, business leaders are warning that the chancellor's enthusiasm for a...
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Atlantic Sturgeon in Delaware River Watershed Nearing Extinction
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on October 13th, 2012
EcoWatch: With one recent survey showing the number of adult breeding Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River dipping to about 90 fish, there are concerns the species could disappear from the waterway. The Army Corps of Engineers shipping channel deepening project and the potential of shale gas drilling in the upper watershed will put even more pressure on the Atlantic Sturgeon. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network is criticizing federal officials for not doing enough to protect this endangered species.
Central Michigan University professor uses Facebook to track climate change
Posted by Morning Sun: Randi Shaffer on October 13th, 2012
Morning Sun: Central Michigan University professor Tom Rohrer has melded the 21st century with ideas generated in historic Europe to gain a better understanding of the changing climate in Michigan.
Rohrer, along with an honors class he teaches, has developed a Facebook page titled “Climate Change in the Great Lakes Basin” as a way of accumulating information about Michigan climate change for future reference.
Rohrer said as a part of the Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems, he focuses a lot of...
Food scarcity: the timebomb setting nation against nation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 13th, 2012
Guardian: Brandon Hunnicutt has had a year to remember. The young Nebraskan from Hamilton County farms 2,600 acres of the High Plains with his father and brother. What looked certain in an almost perfect May to be a "phenomenal" harvest of maize and soy beans has turned into a near disaster. A three-month heatwave and drought with temperatures often well over 38C burned up his crops. He lost a third and was saved only by pumping irrigation water from the aquifer below his farm. "From 1 July to 1 October...
UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 13th, 2012
Guardian: World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year, the United Nations has warned.
Failing harvests in the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has experienced record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to consume in the next year, says the...
United States: Lake drained for LA water at center of dust lawsuit
Posted by NBC: None Given on October 13th, 2012
NBC: The powerful Los Angeles Department of Water and Power sued air regulators Friday over demands to control dust from Owens Lake nearly a century after the exploding metropolis siphoned water to quench its growing thirst.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno, marks the latest salvo in a bitter back-and-forth over water rights in the arid region that was set in motion in 1913, when Los Angeles began diverting water from the lake 200 miles to its north. The lake went dry in 1926 and...
Women Hit Hard by Natural Disasters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 13th, 2012
Inter Press Service: In the aftermath of a natural disaster, women are often the most vulnerable. Particularly in rural areas, women suffer disproportionately from inadequate shelter and poor sanitation facilities and are often tasked with rebuilding shattered homes.
The theme for this year's international day of disaster reduction, led by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), is more relevant than ever: "˜Women and Girls: The [in]Visible Force for Resilience'.
Across India, droughts and...
Democrats in coal states diverge on Obama policies
Posted by Associated Press: Donna Cassata on October 13th, 2012
Associated Press: Friends of coal are certain they know the enemy.
They fault President Barack Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency for new clean air rules they deride as a devastating blow to a multibillion-dollar industry that has been the lifeblood of Appalachia for generations. The agency standards imposed earlier this year tightened limits on existing coal powered-plant emissions while guidelines on restricting greenhouse gases could affect new plants as early as 2013.
Along the rolling hills of...
Northeastern Minnesota experiment to study effects of climate change
Posted by Northland's NewsCenter: Jennifer Austin on October 13th, 2012
Northland's NewsCenter: Researchers are hoping that a first of its kind experiment in Northeastern Minnesota will provide new information on the effects of climate change.
Construction is underway on the $50 million project, called SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change). The project is located in the Marcell Experimental Forest, north of Grand Rapids.
"This is a whole ecosystem experiment," said Randy Kolka, a soil research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest...
First photos of Shell’s Arctic rig add perspective to drilling debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 13th, 2012
Daily Climate: Oregon-based photographer Gary Braasch flew to Alaska, chartered a plane in the town of Deadhorse, far above the Arctic Circle, and flew out to the rigs. His photographs provide, for the first time, a sense of perspective of the Kulluk rig in its environment, 12 miles offshore of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"The location has been published for years in Shell's permits," he said in a phone interview. "We just went out there and, sure enough, there it was. But having the landscape just...