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Archive for October 30th, 2012
Climate change rears head
Posted by Vancouver Sun: William Marsden on October 30th, 2012
Vancouver Sun: As America's financial and political capitals braced for what the National Weather Service has called a storm of historic proportions, the subject that politicians here dare not mention has suddenly been pushed to the forefront of public attention by the massive power of nature.
Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney suspended their campaigns Monday. Obama was at the White House where he was briefed on storm preparations. He said there is a potential for fatalities as...
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India: Climate change adding sting to mosquito bite, says WHO report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 30th, 2012
Economic Times: The warning is ominous - climate change and global warming will make vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria - already causing havoc in the country more lethal.
A landmark report on climate change and health, published by the World Health Organization on Monday, said that in the last 100 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.75 degree Celsius. Over the last 25 years, the rate of global warming has accelerated, at over 0.18 degree Celsius per decade.
Global health will suffer...
Greens blast Romney, Obama on climate as Sandy hits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 30th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: The White House hopeful of the Green Party on Monday accused President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney of failing to address climate change as Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast.
"The Republicans and Democrats each talk about the election of the other party as the end of the world; maybe they're right," the Green candidate, physician Jill Stein, said in a statement.
"Hurricane Sandy is not the first warning we've had; let's not let there be another such warning before we...
China to raise environmental bar for mining projects: association
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 30th, 2012
Reuters: China is expected to issue new guidelines by the end of the year to encourage metals miners to conserve domestic resources and protect the environment, a director at the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said on Tuesday.
Hu Changping, director of heavy metals at the association, said Beijing aims to tighten the requirements on firms allowed to mine metals and will announce the guidelines before the end of this year.
"Copper, lead and zinc mines will be included," Hu told Reuters...
Sandy Slams Northeast: NJ Levee Topped and Homes Swept Away
Posted by MSNBC: Ian Johnston and M. Alex Johnson on October 30th, 2012
MSNBC: President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in parts of New York state Tuesday as superstorm Sandy pounded the Northeast coast, sweeping homes out into the ocean, flooding New York City subway tunnels and leaving millions without power.
In New Jersey, rising waters sparked an alert at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant while Geanne Baratta, chief of the Bergen County Executive, told Reuters that the towns of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt had been "devastated" by the sudden arrival...
U.S. Nuclear Plant Declares ‘Alert’ After Sandy Storm Surge: NRC
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 30th, 2012
Reuters: Exelon Corp declared an "alert" at its New Jersey Oyster Creek nuclear power plant due to a record storm surge, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, warning that a further water rise could force the country's oldest working plant to use emergency water supplies to cool spent uranium fuel rods.
The alert -- the second lowest of four NRC action levels -- came after water levels at the plant rose by more than 6.5 feet, potentially affecting the pumps that circulate water through the plant, an...
United States: Hurricane Sandy has drowned the New York I love
Posted by Guardian: Bill McKibben on October 30th, 2012
Guardian: New York is the city I love best, and I'm trying to imagine it from a distance tonight. The lurid, flash-lit instagram images of floating cars in Alphabet City or water pouring out of the East River into Dumbo, the reports of bridges to the Howard Beach submerging and facades falling off apartment houses – it all stings. It's as horrible in its very different way as watching 9/11.
But it's the subways I keep coming back to, trying to see in my mind's eye what must be a dark, scary struggle to...
New York City floods as Sandy slams into eastern U.S.
Posted by Reuters: Anna Louie Sussman and Michael Erman on October 30th, 2012
Reuters: Millions of people across the eastern United States awoke on Tuesday to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy, which knocked out power to huge swathes of the nation's most densely populated region, swamped New York's subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan's financial district.
At least 15 people were reported killed in the United States by Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, which dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall on Monday...