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Archive for January 23rd, 2013
Europe ‘has failed to learn from environmental disasters’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Guardian: Europe has failed to learn the lessons from many environmental and health disasters like Chernobyl, leaded petrol and DDT insecticides, and is now ignoring warnings about bee deaths, GM food and nanotechnology, according to an 800-page report by the European Environment Agency.
Thousands of lives could have been saved and extensive damage to ecosystems avoided if the "precautionary principle" had been applied on the basis of early warnings, say the authors of the 2013 Late Lessons from Early warnings...
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Vermont green groups urge Legislature to keep up climate change efforts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Associated Press: Vermont environmental groups are urging the Legislature to keep efforts to stem climate change at the center of its agenda. A half-dozen groups sent representatives to a State House news conference Tuesday to speak on issues ranging from the need for more money to weatherize Vermonters’ homes to a ban on tar sands oil running through a pipeline that crosses northeastern Vermont. The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and the Building Performance Professionals...
Thai firm says work at controversial Laos dam on schedule
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Reuters: Thailand's second-largest building contractor, Ch Karnchang Pcl (CK), said construction work at the controversial $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam in Laos was pushing ahead and it was on schedule to be completed in 2020.
Executive Vice-President Prasert Marittanaporn told reporters late on Tuesday that the hydropower dam on the Mekong River was about 10 percent completed.
Ch Karnchang has been criticized along with the Laotian government for racing ahead with construction of the dam in defiance of...
Hundreds Expected at Tar Sands Protests in Maine
Posted by Forecaster: William Hall on January 23rd, 2013
Forecaster: Hundreds of people from across New England are expected to gather this week in South Portland and Portland to protest plans to pump tar-sands oil from Canada to New England.
The action will culminate with what organizers are calling "the biggest tar-sands protest the region has ever seen" on Saturday in Portland.
On Wednesday, 350 Maine is organizing a noon protest at Portland Pipeline Co. on Hill Street in South Portland. According to the self-proclaimed "Climate Justice" group, Canadian energy...
State Department Delays Keystone XL Pipeline Decision
Posted by Reuters: Timothy Gardner and Andrew Quinn on January 23rd, 2013
Reuters: The Obama administration has delayed a decision on TransCanada Corp's rerouted Keystone XL oil pipeline until after March, even though Nebraska's governor on Tuesday approved a plan for part of the line running through his state.
"We don't anticipate being able to conclude our own review before the end of the first quarter of this year," said Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman at the State Department, which had previously said it would make a decision by that deadline.
She said the department would...
Wyoming Judge Hears Fracking Disclosure Case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
Associated Press: A judge heard arguments Tuesday over whether Wyoming regulators should empower the public to look up the ingredients in the chemical products used for hydraulic fracturing, the petroleum industry practice that splits open oil and gas deposits with pressurized water.
The Powder River Basin Resource Council and others say landowners need to know what those chemicals are in case a gas or oil well rupture or some other mishap released pollutants into their well water. The council sued last year after...
Climate change bill readied for 2013 Legislature
Posted by Salt Lake Tribune: Judy Fahys on January 23rd, 2013
Salt Lake Tribune: Climate change is making it harder and costlier to deal with wildfire on state lands, so state’s land managers should take up the proper tools, according to a bill headed for the 2013 Utah Legislature.
Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Midway, is proposing legislation, HB77, that urges the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands to adopt pre-suppression strategies with an eye on the how climate change is already affecting wildfire in the Utah.
"This will give the division the tools it needs to respond...
India: Climate Change and Population Growth Meet Along the Brahmaputra River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
New York Times: A multichannel mammoth stretching up to 10 kilometers (six miles) wide, the Brahmaputra River in Assam causes havoc every year when it floods. Now climate change is intensifying the hydrological cycle.
Brian Orland, a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow, is starting a nine-month study on climate change adaptation along the Brahmaputra River, where the environment challenges the region faces are likely to be repeated in other parts of developing Asia.
His relationship with the Brahmaputra began at a Mumbai...
Keystone Pipeline Route Approved by Nebraska Governor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2013
New York Times: The governor of Nebraska on Tuesday approved a revised route through the state for the Keystone XL pipeline, setting up a decision for President Obama that pipeline opponents say will be a crucial test of his intentions on climate change. Gov. Dave Heineman, reversing an earlier position and brushing aside vocal opposition from some citizen groups, said the pipeline could be built and operated safely and would bring thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to Nebraska....
Pensions could be “wiped out” by resource shortages, actuaries warn
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on January 23rd, 2013
BusinessGreen: Shortages of water, metals, and other crucial resources could see pensions "wiped out and reduced to negligible levels", according to new research.
Such constraints are not currently being factored into standard economic modelling even though they have had a significant impact in the past, the paper by Anglia Ruskin University's Global Sustainability Institute finds.
Commissioned by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the report models how resource constraints will affect investment and...