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Archive for October 23rd, 2012
Canada: Thousands Say No to Northern Gateway Pipeline
Posted by EcoWatch: Andy Rowell, Oil Change International on October 23rd, 2012
EcoWatch: And so they came in their thousands to gather on the front lawn of the legislature of British Columbia yesterday to protest against the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline.
More than 3,000 people braved the rain and cold to protest against the Northern Gateway, which is planned to take the dirty tar sands from Alberta through the forests of British Columbia to the west coast of Canada.
At the end of the protest they unfurled a black banner which was 235 metres long, the same length as an...
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United States: Judge Postpones Hearing to Halt Enbridge Pipeline Project
Posted by Inside Climate News: David Hasemyer on October 23rd, 2012
Inside Climate News: A federal judge in Michigan has postponed a hearing to decide whether a Canadian company should be blocked from further work on a project to replace an aging oil pipeline until the company complies with state and local regulations. The continuance came yesterday after a brief hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in which the judge asked for clarification about whether the group seeking the injunction against Enbridge Inc. could legally ask for an order to halt to the billion-dollar...
Unconventional energy jobs: 1.7 million and counting
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Laurent Belsie on October 23rd, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: "Unconventional" oil and natural gas drilling supports 1.7 million jobs, according to a new report. By 2020, it will support another 1.3 million new positions. The new unconventional extraction methods – called "fracking" – are creating so much energy so fast that by 2015 the United States will produce more oil from unconventional than conventional means, according to the new report from IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm based in Lexington, Mass. The jobs boom isn't evenly distributed....
World’s glaciers have new size estimate
Posted by CBS News: Becky Oskin on October 23rd, 2012
CBS News: The relatively small glaciers that drape the planet's mountains will play an important role in future sea level rise, according to a new study that estimated glaciers' collective size.
Researchers calculated the ice thickness for 171,000 glaciers worldwide, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which hold the bulk of Earth's frozen water. Through a combination of direct satellite observations and modeling, they determined the total volume of ice tied up in the glaciers is nearly 41,000...
Impoverished Niger creates fund to fight desert spread
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2012
Reuters: Niger said on Monday it will launch a $110 million project to counter the impact of rapid expansion of deserts and increasingly unpredictable rains in one of the world's poorest countries. "The programme aims to test strategies that will help us integrate climate risk and adapt climate change into our national planning," Abdou Souley, spokesman for Niger's planning and community development ministry, said. The five-year programme aims to improve community use of water resources and alter herding...
Australia: Climate change unit axed in cost-cutting push
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2012
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Northern Territory Government is disbanding the Energy Policy and Climate Change Unit set up by Labor inside the Environment Department.
The Government says the move will save about half a million dollars, and was put forward as a cost-cutting measure by the new Department of Lands, Planning and Environment.
Territory Environment Centre spokesman Stuart Blanch says the three-person unit deserved more funding, not the axe.
"We don't want to slip behind other states and other countries...
Farm runoff is accelerating demise of protective coastal salt marshes
Posted by ClimateWire: Robert S. Eshelman on October 23rd, 2012
ClimateWire: Pollution from agricultural production degrades coastal salt marshes more quickly than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The decline of these ecosystems, the authors add, not only harms the plants and animals that inhabit them but undermines the storage capacity of one of the world's primary carbon sinks.
"Perhaps the most obvious [benefit that salt marshes provide] is they're nursery grounds for many fish, shellfish and birds, especially migrating birds...
Fossil fuel experience expected in Romney nominee
Posted by Greenwire: Nick Juliano on October 23rd, 2012
Greenwire: With the presidential candidates racing to the finish line two weeks from now, attention in Washington policy circles is turning to who would staff key agencies in the next administration.
If Republican challenger Mitt Romney wins, observers expect his Department of Energy would be led by someone with ties to the oil, natural gas or coal industries, following a campaign in which he has accused President Obama of hostility to those fuels. Conservatives also are looking for Romney to tap someone...
How Does Climate Change Factor into Decision 2012?
Posted by PBS: Azmat Khan on October 23rd, 2012
PBS: Last election season, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain agreed that climate change was a critical issue demanding urgent attention. Four years later, both candidates Obama and Mitt Romney barely discuss climate change. In fact, the words were never uttered during any of the three presidential debates.
Coral Davenport has been investigating what`s behind the change as the energy and environment correspondent for The National Journal. FRONTLINE spoke with her about the dramatic...
190 Million Tons of Ice a Day Has Sea Rising 1MM a Year
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2012
Age: Antarctica is shedding an average of 190 million tonnes of ice every day, according to a landmark study that used satellites to ''weigh'' the vast landmass.
Although parts of East Antarctica are growing, glaciers in West Antarctica are melting faster, leading to a net loss of ice across the continent, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
''We're confident that the ice cover is shrinking, and the rate along the Amundsen Sea coast is accelerating,'' said the lead researcher...