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Archive for December, 2012
United Kingdom: Green belt housing gamble – a bet too far?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2012
Guardian: Watching two of the better-known rightwing thinktanks prime their intellectual cannons and bombard the same target is an impressive, if stomach-churning, sight. In the past week the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Policy Exchange, both of which have the ear of No 10 and No 11 Downing Street, have taken aim at the UK's planning laws.
The IEA opted for a straightforward bombardment of the green belt. It argued that property developers should be allowed to give incentives to local communities...
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Between Drought and Floods – A Year of Extremes in Sri Lanka
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on December 30th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Wild elephants are usually the primary attraction in the remote shrub jungles of Udawalawe, about 180 kilometres southeast of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo. But this Christmas season, the massive Udawalawe dam stole the limelight from the lumbering beasts.
By the end of December, heavy rains had brought water levels in the Udawalawe reservoir close to spilling point, forcing irrigation engineers to open the sluice gates.
Despite these efforts, the massive tank continued to spill over, creating...
United States: Officials worry that agriculture community will bear burden of water shortages
Posted by Imperial Valley Press: Antoine ABOU-DIWAN on December 30th, 2012
Imperial Valley Press: Global warming and increased demand for water by urban and municipal users make shortages of the Colorado River inevitable, according to a recently-released study by the Bureau of Reclamation and the seven Colorado River Basin states.
Population growth in the study area, expected to increase from about 40 million to anywhere between 49.3 million and 76.3 million, is expected to drive the projected increase in demand for water by the municipal and industrial sectors. The publication of the report...
“Chasing Ice” captures beauty and tragedy of melting glaciers
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Pia Lopez on December 30th, 2012
Sacramento Bee: Seeing "Chasing Ice," a new movie that chronicles the rapid disappearance of the world's glaciers as man-made climate change proceeds, I was reminded of Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now."
In "Chasing Ice," we watch transfixed at the beauty of ancient ice mountains larger than Manhattan falling into the sea even as we are struck by the horror of that destruction – and the moral dilemma it poses as we consume fossil fuels.
Similarly, we watch mesmerized in "Apocalypse Now" as a squad...
Even With Bipartisan Push, Is Keystone XL Still A Pipe Dream?
Posted by Forbes: Larry Bell on December 30th, 2012
Forbes: Yes, elections do have consequences, and those associated with a likely continuation of disastrous Obama administration energy policies will be huge. Now in this coming new year, with his hold on the Oval Office secure for a final term, the question remains whether the president will be less compelled to acquiesce to demands of ideologically-driven anti-fossil environmental lobbies, and more willing to address reality-based opportunities and imperatives. A clear test will be his decision to approve...
Storms on U.S. Plains stir memories of the “Dust Bowl”
Posted by Reuters: Kevin Murphy on December 30th, 2012
Reuters: Real estate agent Mark Faulkner recalls a day in early November when he was putting up a sign near Ulysses, Kansas, in 60-miles-per-hour winds that blew up blinding dust clouds.
"There were places you could not see, it was blowing so hard," Faulkner said.
Residents of the Great Plains over the last year or so have experienced storms reminiscent of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Experts say the new storms have been brought on by a combination of historic drought, a dwindling Ogallala Aquifer underground...
Canada: Why we are Idle No More
Posted by Ottawa Citizen: Pamela Palmater on December 29th, 2012
Ottawa Citizen: The Idle No More movement, which has swept the country over the holidays, took most Canadians, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government, by surprise.
That is not to say that Canadians have never seen a native protest before, as most of us recall Oka, Burnt Church and Ipperwash. But most Canadians are not used to the kind of sustained, co-ordinated, national effort that we have seen in the last few weeks -- at least not since 1969. 1969 was the last time the federal...
United Kingdom: It never rains and then it pours. What is going on with our weather?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 29th, 2012
Guardian: The transformation of the British landscape over the last 12 months has been dramatic.
At the end of 2011, the nation was caught in the grip of one of the severest droughts on record. Low rainfall over the previous year had reduced water levels in rivers and reservoirs to exceptional levels. The year ahead promised to be one of parched landscapes, hosepipe bans and streams turned to trickles. There could have been widespread consequences for farmers, food production, tourism, industry and domestic...
How Britain went from a drought to a deluge as south-west is drenched again
Posted by Guardian: Tess Reidy and Jamie Doward on December 29th, 2012
Guardian: The view through the windows of the packed 11.55 London Paddington to Penzance train was of burst rivers and drowned fields.
Those on board were the lucky ones. On Friday, the train was the first to make it through to the west country for days after torrential rain plunged large parts of the UK into chaos. Rising water levels threatened to swallow the track as passengers grew increasingly bewildered.
"We were told one thing at Paddington," said Chris McColm, 70, who was trying to get to Totnes...
Ice Seals Get Endangered Species Protection
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on December 29th, 2012
LiveScience: Six groups of seals threatened by shrinking sea ice are gaining new protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced late last week.
NOAA will list as threatened two distinct bearded seal populations -- one in the Beringia region, which includes Alaska, and one in the Okhotsk region of Russia's far east -- and three subspecies of ringed seals (Arctic, Okhotsk and Baltic). Another ringed seal subspecies found only in...