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Archive for January 21st, 2013
United Kingdom: London Heathrow cancels more flights as snow continues
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 21st, 2013
Reuters: London's Heathrow airport cancelled 10 percent of flights on Monday, a day after it cut its capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays with more snowfall expected.
Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said it had cut around 130 flights - most operated by IAG'S British Airways - from its schedule on Monday to allow more space between aircraft because of low visibility.
"Many airports have plenty of spare runway capacity so aircraft can be spaced out more during low visibility...
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U.N. clinches global deal on cutting mercury emissions
Posted by Reuters: Tom Miles and Emma Farge on January 21st, 2013
Reuters: More than 140 countries have agreed on the first global treaty to cut mercury pollution through a blacklist of household items and new controls on power plants and small-scale mines, the United Nations said on Saturday.
The legally-binding agreement aims to phase out many products that use the toxic liquid metal such as batteries, thermometers and some fluorescent lamps, through banning global import and exports by 2020.
The treaty will require countries with coal-fired power plants such as...
‘Warmer soils spew more carbon into air’
Posted by Indo Asian News Service: None Given on January 21st, 2013
Indo Asian News Service: Warmer soils spew additional carbon into the atmosphere under the impact of climate change, US research says. The study, conducted by Serita Frey, professor from the University of New Hampshire and others, throws new light on how soil bugs respond to temperature and could finetune predictions of how warming will affect the carbon dioxide (CO2) flux from soils. Activities of soil bugs release 10 times the CO2 that human do on a yearly basis. This release of CO2 has been kept in check by plants'...
Belgium Plans Artificial Island to Store Wind Power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 21st, 2013
Reuters: Belgium is planning to build a doughnut-shaped island in the North Sea that will store wind energy by pumping water out of a hollow in the middle, as it looks for ways to lessen its reliance on nuclear power.
One of the biggest problems with electricity is that it is difficult to store and the issue is exaggerated in the case of renewable energy from wind or sun because it is intermittent depending on the weather.
"We have a lot of energy from the wind mills and sometimes it just gets lost...
Report: Annual investment in watershed protection tops $8bn
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on January 21st, 2013
BusinessGreen: The number of projects that aim to enhance water security by protecting water-rich ecosystems such as forests and wetlands has nearly doubled over the past four years, according to a major new report that reveals annual investment in so-called ecosystem service projects has cleared $8bn.
The study from US-based NGO Forest Trends confirms there were at least 205 watershed protection projects in place by the end of 2011, generating $8.17bn in investment, an increase of nearly $2bn on 2008 levels....