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Archive for November 3rd, 2012
Huge scale of UK’s ‘dash for gas’ revealed
Posted by Guardian: Damian Carrington and Jamie Doward on November 3rd, 2012
Guardian: The amount of power expected to be generated from gas by 2030 has quadrupled in the last year, according to official projections that will infuriate green campaigners who are demanding greater use of renewable energy sources.
They claim that the statistics, buried in recently published government documents, will leave the country unable to meet its carbon emission targets. The figures will reinforce the sense that chancellor George Osborne is winning his battle to downgrade the role of green energy...
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Under pressure: the man who must rule on next UK airport
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 3rd, 2012
Guardian: Reclining in an office chair usually filled by the transport minister, Norman Baker, who is away for the day, Sir Howard Davies, 61 – former senior mandarin at the Treasury, one-time aide to Nigel Lawson, former director of the London School of Economics, head of the Financial Services Authority under Labour and now chairman of Phoenix Insurance – oozes the confidence of a man who has seen it all before.
"It happened in the way these things do. Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, gave me a...
Fight intensifies over NW coal exports
Posted by Associated Press: Phuong Le on November 3rd, 2012
Associated Press: The progressive college town of Bellingham, Wash., is known for its stunning scenery, access to the outdoors and eclectic mix of aging hippies, students and other residents. But lately it's turned into a battleground in the debate over whether the Pacific Northwest should become the hub for exporting U.S. coal to Asia.
Five ports proposed for Washington and Oregon could ship as much as 140 million tons of coal, mostly from the Rockies, where it could travel by rail through communities such as...
Lake District in peril from phone mast ‘free-for-all’
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 3rd, 2012
Guardian: A plan to relax planning constraints on phone masts and overhead cables being erected across Britain's most protected countryside has been described by campaigners as the biggest attack on national parks and areas of outstanding beauty in more than 50 years.
Ministers are to be allowed to prioritise the expansion of broadband and 4G into rural areas over the need to maintain the splendour of cherished countryside, when it comes to sites for telecoms networks. The move, contained in a bill to be...
Climate change: Trees are invading mountain meadows
Posted by Summit County Citizen: Bob Berwyn on November 3rd, 2012
Summit County Citizen: As the Earth steadily warms, snowpacks are dwindling, especially in spring, leading to a longer growing season that enables trees to replace grasses and wildflowers by taking root in high mountain meadows.
A new study by Oregon State University researchers suggests the tree invasion has been accelerating the past few decades, at least in the Pacific Northwest, where the scientists reported the results of a long-term monitoring project in Jefferson Park, a subalpine meadow complex in the central...
Australia: Rising sea a threat to riverside homes
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Nicole Hasham on November 3rd, 2012
Sydney Morning Herald: WATER will swamp homes and businesses from Haberfield to Homebush as rising sea levels inundate the Parramatta River foreshore over the next century, a new analysis shows.
The findings are critical as valuable river frontage becomes increasingly urbanised and former industrial sites are redeveloped into housing.
Even under a limited sea level rise of 0.4 metres, predicted by 2050, the area of riverside land submerged every year would increase by 450 per cent on current levels.
Once the sea...
Pennsylvania Omitted Poison Data in Water Report
Posted by New York Times: Jon Hurdle on November 3rd, 2012
New York Times: Pennsylvania officials reported incomplete test results that omitted data on some toxic metals that were found in drinking water taken from a private well near a natural gas drilling site, according to legal documents released this week. The documents were part of a lawsuit claiming that natural gas extraction through a method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and storage of the resulting wastewater at a site in southwestern Pennsylvania has contaminated drinking water and sickened seven...
A Shared Determination to Rebuild and Restore the Jersey Shore
Posted by New York Times: Peter Applebome on November 3rd, 2012
New York Times: John Schaad, 53 a longtime Jersey Shore resident, was staring out to the sea and looking shellshocked on the Boardwalk just across from what is known as the Sinatra House, where the sounds of big-band music waft into the air all summer long as an endless parade of people sashay by. “You know,” he said on Thursday, “used to be no one wanted to say they were from Jersey. Now everyone knows the Jersey Shore. There’s no place like it, there’s nothing like being on the Boardwalk in the summer.” “We’ll...
Climate change jeopardizing fish in the Pacific Northwest
Posted by Oregonian: Bill Monroe on November 3rd, 2012
Oregonian: If "Frankenstorm Sandy" didn't get your attention, it should have; no matter where it occurred. Our past week wasn't nearly as tumultuous or intimidating, although a near-bankfull Wilson River in October is unusual (not unheard of). It may have effectively ended a less-than-stellar fall chinook season on the north coast after high hopes following such good fishing on the lower Columbia River. Keep an ear to the ground (or an eye on www.ifish.net) this week as the water recedes and we find out...