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Archive for December 1st, 2012
United Kingdom: Tory rural raid will ruin countryside, says Andrew Motion
Posted by Guardian: Tim Adams and Daniel Boffey on December 1st, 2012
Guardian: Andrew Motion, the chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, has launched a scathing attack on the "incredibly irresponsible" planning minister leading the charge to build on England's green fields.
The former poet laureate describes feeling emotions "somewhere between horror and enormous anger" as Tory minister Nick Boles set out his plans to build on 2m acres of unspoiled land.
In an unusually personal attack on the credibility of a new minister, Motion further castigates Boles for...
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Qatar’s first climate change march urges Arab states to act
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on December 1st, 2012
AlertNet: Several hundred climate activists, including members of a fledgling Arab youth movement, waved banners and called for Arab governments to take the lead in tackling climate change on Saturday, in Qatar's first-ever environmental march.
Following a 1.3 km route along the Doha waterfront, near rows of towering buildings, they urged politicians attending the U.N. climate talks in Qatar to make commitments to reduce emissions from fossil fuels, use more renewable energy, and provide fresh funds to...
Megastorms could drown massive portions of California
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2012
Scientific American: The intense rainstorms sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean began to pound central California on Christmas Eve in 1861 and continued virtually unabated for 43 days. The deluges quickly transformed rivers running down from the Sierra Nevada mountains along the state’s eastern border into raging torrents that swept away entire communities and mining settlements. The rivers and rains poured into the state’s vast Central Valley, turning it into an inland sea 300 miles long and 20 miles wide. Thousands...
United Kingdom: Anti-fracking activists drill home message with parliament protests
Posted by Guardian: David Batty on December 1st, 2012
Guardian: Anti-fracking activists plan to erect a mock drilling rig outside the Houses of Parliament as part of a series of protests on Saturday against the controversial technique to extract shale gas.
The protests come as Greenpeace warned that the government had earmarked nearly two-thirds of England for potential shale gas drilling sites.
Campaign group Frack Free will deliver a letter to 10 Downing Street calling for a ban on exploration and development of shale gas and coal bed methane.
As well...
Experts’ review of NY fracking soon to be complete
Posted by Associated Press: Mary Esch on December 1st, 2012
Associated Press: Experts reviewing the health effects of shale gas development in New York are among the nation's most prominent in environmental health, giving opponents hope but the industry concern that reviewers will warn against drilling operations that use hydraulic fracturing.
The state has had a moratorium on "fracking" for shale gas since the Department of Environmental Conservation started an environmental impact study in 2008. The department released proposed new regulations Wednesday stemming from...
Long-term research reveals how climate change is playing out in real ecosystems
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2012
PhysOrg: Around the world, the effects of global climate change are increasingly evident and difficult to ignore. However, evaluations of the local effects of climate change are often confounded by natural and human induced factors that overshadow the effects of changes in climate on ecosystems. In the December issue of the journal BioScience, a group of scientists writing on long-term studies of watershed and natural elevation gradients at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire and in the...
United Kingdom: Fracking ‘exploitation’ report dismissed by energy department
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2012
BBC: The energy department has dismissed a report that "60% of the UK countryside could be exploited" for fracking, the controversial gas extraction method.
The Independent reported that more than 32,000 square miles could be affected, notably in south, north-west and north-east England and central Scotland.
It said it based this on official maps, but the department called the 60% figure "nonsense".
Meanwhile, an anti-fracking protest will be held in London later.
The process of fracking involves...
United Kingdom: Did cuts in dredging rivers cause floods?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2012
Telegraph: Ministers have been accused of only spending money on headline-grabbing flood defences, rather than more mundane and necessary processes such as dredging.
More than 1,800 homes were damaged and thousands of cars swept away during the latest bout of flooding.
Having visited the flood-hit areas, David Cameron, the Prime Minister David Cameron, announced £120m in additional funding for flood defence schemes.
"I have seen how flood defences can help protect people and property from being ravaged...
Climate Change: Methane and CO2 in thawing Arctic permafrost a climate tipping point
Posted by Climate IMC: Takver on December 1st, 2012
Climate IMC: A new report on permafrost slowly thawing in the Arctic creating methane and carbon dioxide emissions highlights an approaching dangerous climate tipping point. There is a huge amount of organic matter frozen in permafrost, estimated to contain 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon, twice the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere. And it is starting to melt. With no way to stop it except indirectly through us reducing the rate of global warming by reducing our own emissions.
"The release of carbon...
Feds adopt state water pollution rules for Florida
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2012
Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will adopt a combination of state and federal water pollution rules for Florida after a lengthy court fight with environmental groups that favored the federal version, agency officials said late Friday.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson initially filed a brief notice in federal court in Tallahassee saying she had taken all actions required by a consent decree that the agency had entered with the environmental groups. They had accused the agency of failing...