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Archive for December 3rd, 2012
United Kingdom: Will George Osborne hail the shale gas in his own backyard?
Posted by Independent: Oliver Wright on December 3rd, 2012
Independent: It is what you might describe as the politician's ultimate Nimby dilemma. On the one hand you represent two of the more beautiful constituencies in England's green and pleasant land – with voters well used to protecting it. On the other you're a firm believer in a technology that could ruin them – turning green fields into gas fields with the added bonus of a minor earthquake or two.
That, The Independent can reveal, is the unfortunate quandary facing the Chancellor George Osborne and the Environment...
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Schools shut as toxic levels rise after New Jersey train wreck
Posted by Reuters: Dave Warner on December 3rd, 2012
Reuters: Schools in Paulsboro, New Jersey, were ordered closed on Monday after authorities detected rising levels of toxic chemicals streaming from a freight train wrecked in a derailment last week.
Investigators, meanwhile, said Conrail workers had checked a bridge just one day before it collapsed on Friday, derailing seven of the 82 freight-train cars crossing the Mantua Creek, which feeds into the Delaware River near Philadelphia.
"We have information that there were people out from Conrail working...
Activists Barricade Themselves Inside Pipe to Halt Keystone XL Construction
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 3rd, 2012
EcoWatch: Several protestors with Tar Sands Blockade sealed themselves inside a section of pipe destined for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to stop construction of the dangerous project. Using a blockading technique never implemented before, Matt Almonte and Glen Collins locked themselves between two barrels of concrete weighing more than six hundred pounds each. Located twenty-five feet into a pipe segment waiting to be laid in the ground, the outer barrel is barricading the pipe’s opening and neither...
How Safe Are America’s 2.5 Million Miles of Pipelines?
Posted by OnEarth Magazine: Lena Groeger on December 3rd, 2012
OnEarth Magazine: At 6:11 p.m. on September 6, 2010, San Bruno, California 911 received an urgent call. A gas station had just exploded and a fire with flames reaching 300 feet was raging through the neighborhood. The explosion was so large that residents suspected an airplane crash. But the real culprit was found underground: a ruptured pipeline spewing natural gas caused a blast that left behind a 72-foot-long crater, killed 8 people, and injured more than 50.
Over 2,000 miles away in Michigan, workers were still...
Climate change is responsible for “weather” records 2012
Posted by Deutsche Welle: None Given on December 3rd, 2012
Deutsche Welle: This has been a record-breaking year in terms of heatwaves, drought, floods, hurricanes, melting Arctic ice. There are those who would say we have always had extreme weather events and they have nothing to do with human-induced global warming. But the World Meteorology Organisation (WMO) is in no doubt that all these are signs that global climate change is already happening. The experts brought out their provisional climate report for 2012 in Doha, where the climate talks have so far failed to make...
Climate Change, Migration, and Conflict in South Asia
Posted by Center For American Progress: None Given on December 3rd, 2012
Center For American Progress: South Asia will be among the regions hardest hit by climate change. Higher temperatures, more extreme weather, rising sea levels, increasing cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, as well as floods in the region’s complex river systems will complicate existing development and poverty reduction initiatives. Coupled with high population density levels, these climate shifts have the potential to create complex environmental, humanitarian, and security challenges. India and Bangladesh,...
Big changes to agriculture in warming climate
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Will Ockenden on December 3rd, 2012
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: ELEANOR HALL: Scientists say a four to six degree rise in average temperatures would require a complete change in the world's farming practices.
A warming climate could be beneficial for some countries, especially those in the northern hemisphere, like Russia and Canada. But Australia may have to import more food than it produces.
CSIRO research scientist Dr Mark Howden, is writing the food security chapter for the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
He spoke to Will Ockenden....
It’s already too late to stop climate change
Posted by National Journal: None Given on December 3rd, 2012
National Journal: Amid the glittering skyscrapers of Doha, capital of the arid, oil-rich Arab emirate of Qatar, 17,000 diplomats, delegates, nongovernmental organizations, and environmentalists are converging this week and next in the conference halls and backrooms of the 18th annual United Nations climate-change summit. Their goal: pave the way toward a world treaty, to be signed in 2015, aimed at slowing global emissions of heat-trapping fossil-fuel pollution enough to keep the planet’s temperature from rising by...
Australia: Climate change: Melbourne braces for the deluge
Posted by Northern Weekly: Bridget Fitzgerald on December 3rd, 2012
Northern Weekly: It was a day few Elwood residents will ever forget. On February 4, 2011 the suburb was hit by an intense tropical storm. During the afternoon high tide the waves were pushed up onto the sand by fierce winds. Elster Creek – which runs from Bentleigh through Brighton and into the Elwood canal – gushed and overflowed, spilling into the street.
The combination of the incoming storm tide and the overflowing canal pushed drains to capacity. Sewage was released from emergency drains at Elwood, Brighton...
Colombia’s cities at risk as Andes high above undergo change
Posted by Daily Climate: Autumn Spanne on December 3rd, 2012
Daily Climate: Nearly a mile above this city of almost eight million is a rugged, fog-shrouded world, silent except for the trickle of water and whispering wind pushing through the treeless tundra.
This is Chingaza, a national park 40 miles from Bogotá in the eastern range of the Colombian Andes.
Known as páramos, these ecosystems at more than 11,000 feet above sea level exist only in Central and South America, the majority in Colombia. Páramos resemble a sort of alpine archipelago, each a link in the chain...