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Archive for January 23rd, 2013
From Activist to EPA: A Q&A with New Director for the Office of Environmental Justice
Posted by Scientific American: Brett Israel on January 23rd, 2013
Scientific American: Matthew Tejada has been tapped as the EPA's new Director for the Office of Environmental Justice. As executive director of the Air Alliance Houston for five years, Tejada fought against pollution in poor neighborhoods surrounding Gulf Coast ports.
Expected to begin his new role in early March, he'll have no shortage of challenges ahead. As EHN's series, Pollution, Poverty, People of Color, highlighted last summer, a legacy of lingering environmental problems and new dangers are jeopardizing people...
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Greenland ice cores reveal warm climate of the past
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
ScienceDaily: In the period between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago, Earth's climate was warmer than today. But how much warmer was it and what did the warming do to global sea levels? -- as we face global warming in the future, the answer to these questions is becoming very important. New research from the NEEM ice core drilling project in Greenland shows that the period was warmer than previously thought. The international research project is led by researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and the very important...
Canada: How Much Will Tar Sands Oil Add to Global Warming?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Scientific American: James Hansen has been publicly speaking about climate change since 1988. The NASA climatologist testified to Congress that year and he's been testifying ever since to crowds large and small, most recently to a small gathering of religious leaders outside the White House last week. The grandfatherly scientist has the long face of a man used to seeing bad news in the numbers and speaks with the thick, even cadence of the northern Midwest, where he grew up, a trait that also helps ensure that his sometimes...
A Closer Look at Melting Ice in the Andes and Antarctica
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on January 23rd, 2013
New York Times: Fascinating new studies of two of the world`s regions with accelerated melting, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Andes, are worth a closer look:
One paper, published in The Cyrosphere, finds that glaciers throughout the tropical Andes have been melting in the last 30 years at a faster rate than at any time since the peak of the "little ice age" 300 years ago. Here`s a direct link: "Current state of glaciers in the tropical Andes: a multi-century perspective on glacier evolution and climate change."...
Pennsylvania Fracking Wastewater Likely to Overwhelm Ohio Injection Wells
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 23rd, 2013
EcoWatch: The total amount of fracking wastewater from natural gas production in Pennsylvania`s Marcellus shale region has increased by about 570 percent since 2004, as a result of increased shale gas production, according to a study released yesterday by researchers at Duke and Kent State universities.
Though hydraulically fractured natural gas wells in the Marcellus shale region produce only about 35 percent as much wastewater, per unit of gas recovered, as conventional wells, according to the new analysis,...
When Trees Die, People Die
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Atlantic: The blight was first detected in June 2002, when the trees in Canton, Michigan, got sick. The culprit, the emerald ash borer, had arrived from overseas, and it rapidly spread -- a literal bug -- across state and national lines to Ohio, Minnesota, Ontario. It popped up in more distant, seemingly random locations as infested trees were unwittingly shipped beyond the Midwest.
Within four years of first becoming infested, the ash trees die -- over 100 million since the plague began. In some cases,...
Water-stressed Kenyans learn to share to keep the peace
Posted by AlertNet: Kagondu Njagi on January 23rd, 2013
AlertNet: By the time the violence had died down, more than 80 people lay dead and hundreds were left homeless.
Yet there was scarcely enough water -- the resource the Maasai and Kikuyu tribes were fighting over -- to wash away the blood that had stained this part of Kenya's Rift Valley.
"The rivers were drying up,' shrugs Salau Ole Kilusu, a lanky and sunbeaten Maasai elder, recalling the conflict that erupted in 2005. "The Maasai needed the water for their livestock. The Kikuyus said they needed it...
Nebraska governor approves Keystone XL route; Obama’s move
Posted by World-Herald: Joe Duggan on January 23rd, 2013
World-Herald: Gov. Dave Heineman delighted supporters and deflated opponents of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline Tuesday when he approved a new route through Nebraska, saying the project represents a minimal environmental threat while holding substantial economic promise. The governor sent a 2½-page letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, explaining that Nebraska`s review of the new underground pipeline route found that it meets state standards. "Construction and...
President Obama’s own words turn up heat on Keystone decision
Posted by Politico: Andrew Restuccia on January 23rd, 2013
Politico: President Barack Obama is in a pipeline pickle. The president’s call for action on climate change during Monday’s inaugural speech puts his upcoming decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline in an even brighter spotlight — pitting his pledge to tackle global warming against his stated commitment to an “all of the above” energy strategy. Republicans and industry groups will unleash a torrent of attacks on the president if he rejects the pipeline. And Keystone has strong support from some Democrats...
China: Nomads resettled to protect prairie and wetlands
Posted by Shanghai Daily: None Given on January 23rd, 2013
Shanghai Daily: MORE than 737,000 nomadic herders have been resettled away from the headwaters region of the Yellow River over the past five years in an effort to protect China's "mother river" and stop over-grazing and erosion.
According to recently released figures, the nomads are all ethnic Tibetans and have been resettled, along with their animals, in new communities in the southern tip of Gansu Province in northwest China. The move is aimed at protecting prairie and wetlands.
"We want to give the grassland...