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Archive for November 28th, 2012
Rhino killings for horns rise rapidly in South Africa
Posted by Independent: Jon Gambrell on November 28th, 2012
Independent: Hunters killed eight rhinos at the private Finfoot Game Reserve inside the Vaalkop Dam Nature Reserve this month with single rifle shots that pierced their hearts and lungs. The poachers' objective: the rhinos' horns, cut away with knives and popped off the dead animals' snouts for buyers in Asia who pay the street value of cocaine for a material they believe cures diseases.
That insatiable demand for horns has sparked the worst recorded year of rhino poaching in South Africa in decades, with...
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United Kingdom: Lake District park authority opposes radioactive ‘waste grave’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2012
Guardian: The Lake District national park has added its huge clout to growing concern that nuclear waste burial in Cumbria is a dangerous and economically damaging non-starter.
The park's governing authority has written to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) minister responsible for nuclear waste, warning for the first time that fears about losing nuclear industry jobs in the region need to be balanced by potentially disastrous effects on tourism.
The move follows two public meetings in...
Doha: Sea levels to rise by more than 1m by 2100
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2012
Telegraph: The research, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, used the latest satellite technology to measure sea level rise
It found that sea levels have been rising by 3.2mm per year for the last 30 years, rather than the 2mm previously calculated.
If the trend continues then sea levels could be rising by 9mm per year within a century. The total rise by 2100 could be 1.2m.
The findings come as almost 200 countries gather in Doha, Qatar for the latest UN meeting on climate change....
The top of the world is melting
Posted by Brisbane Times: Ben Cubby on November 28th, 2012
Brisbane Times: CHARLES Miller rides plumes of greenhouse gases ''like a roller-coaster'' at the top of the world. The NASA scientist is one of a handful of researchers taking part in a remarkable experiment that few people have heard of, but which could prove to be one of the most crucial pieces of scientific field work so far this century. For now, the findings are under wraps. ''But I think 'tantalising' is probably the right word,'' he says. Miller's mission has fresh urgency in light of a new report that...
Patriot Coal to End Mountaintop Removal Mining
Posted by Rainforest Action Network: None Given on November 28th, 2012
Rainforest Action Network: Good news for Appalachia: Patriot Coal recently announced its decision to end mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining.
Rainforest Action Network has been talking for many years about why this egregious form of mining needs to be ended immediately.
This is significant news, Patriot is the third largest producer of MTR coal, responsible for almost 8% of the coal mined by this method in 2011.
Most encouragingly, along with its commitment to end large scale surface mining in the region, Patriot...
United Kingdom: Sea levels ‘rising more quickly’
Posted by Birmingham Post: None Given on November 28th, 2012
Birmingham Post: Satellite measurements show sea levels rose 3.2mm a year between 1993 and 2011, 60% above the 2mm estimate in central projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its most recent review of climate science.
A study published in the Institute of Physics journal Environmental Research Letters said it was "very unlikely" the higher rate of sea level rise is due to natural variability such as temporary ice discharge from ice sheets.
Lead author Stefan Rahmstorf said:...
US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2012
Guardian: Sea-level rise is occurring much faster than scientists expected – exposing millions more Americans to the destructive floods produced by future Sandy-like storms, new research suggests.
Satellite measurements over the last two decades found global sea levels rising 60% faster than the computer projections issued only a few years ago by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The faster sea-level rise means the authorities will have to take even more ambitious measures...