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Archive for January 30th, 2013
Feeding its people, India also confronts huge climate change challenge
Posted by Daily Climate: Kieran Cooke on January 30th, 2013
Daily Climate: India has to find a new model of development if the twin challenges of job creation and climate change are to be met, says an Oxford University academic, Barbara Harriss-White, of the Oxford Department of International Development.
"At present economic development in India is looked at very much in terms of catching up with Europe and East Asia", says Professor Harriss-White, a South Asia expert and part of an Oxford-based team investigating greenhouse gas emissions in India's informal economy...
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Pakistan: Efforts on to improve climate change adaptation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
The Nation: Director NDMA Brig Sajid Naeem has said that the government is working to improve climate change adaptation in the country to ensure that the risks faced by millions of poor and vulnerable communities across Pakistan are reduced, said press release issued here on Tuesday.
Addressing a seminar 'Building Resilience in the Indus Basin', organized by 'Save the Children' here, Brig Sajid said that Pakistan remains vulnerable to climate change and this vulnerability is likely to increase in the coming...
State Dept’s Keystone XL Review Will Face EPA Scrutiny a Third Time
Posted by InsideClimate News: Lisa Song on January 30th, 2013
InsideClimate News: One of the biggest unknowns in the unfolding Keystone XL debate is the role the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency might play.
Because the Canada-to-Nebraska oil pipeline crosses an international border, the State Department, not the EPA, will decide whether to give the project the federal permit it needs. But the EPA can weigh in during the review, and its opinion will carry new weight now that the Obama administration has vowed to make climate change a national priority.
The EPA's position...
United Kingdom: Broadband an ‘excuse’ to build overhead cables in national parks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Telegraph: The Growth and Infrastructure Bill, due to pass through the House of Lords this week, is designed to kick-start the economy by making it easier to build roads, rail and warehouses in the countryside.
But hidden in the Bill is a clause that makes it easier to put in broadband infrastructure such as overhead cables, boxes and antennae in national parks.
Clause 8 removes the need for developers to seek approval from the relevant National Park Authority before building.
Lord Deben, a former...
In Energy Taxes, Tools to Help Tackle Climate Change
Posted by New York Times: Eduardo Porter on January 30th, 2013
New York Times: To understand the complicated politics of climate change in the United States, you may want to talk to Pamela Johnson, president of the National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Board. She is concerned about the weather. The drought that parched the lower 48 states cut the harvest at her northern Iowa farm by about 40 bushels an acre. For the first time in memory, she says, she had to rely on the federally subsidized crop insurance program to stay afloat. And yet Ms. Johnson’s main concern, and...
Report: Climate change a threat to wildlife
Posted by USA Today: Doyle Rice, on January 30th, 2013
USA Today: From birds in the Plains to bighorn sheep in California to caribou in Alaska and moose in Minnesota, a new study says animals are struggling to adapt to the new climate conditions caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which produces the carbon dioxide that warms the atmosphere.
"Climate change is the biggest threat wildlife will face this century," says the report released today by the National Wildlife Federation, an environmental group based in Reston, Va.
Though animals have adapted to...
Boats Still Idled by Oil Spill on Mississippi; Reopening Uncertain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Associated Press: With more than 50 vessels idled on the water for a fourth day today, authorities said they still do not know when they will be able to reopen a 16-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that has been closed due to an oil spill. A plan to pump oil from a leaking barge onto another barge — a process known as lightering — had been approved but it was unclear how long that would take, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said. He said the other barge was en route. Severe weather that was...
Wide area of U.S. faces unusual tornado threat in January
Posted by Reuters: Greg McCune on January 30th, 2013
Reuters: A wide area of the central and southeast United States faces the unusual threat of tornadoes in January over the next 12 to 18 hours as an approaching cold front clashes with unusually warm air, a meteorologist said on Tuesday.
The first tornado warning of the approaching storm was issued for western Missouri, said meteorologist Bill Bunting at the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
A warning is intended to signal residents to take cover because a tornado...
EU executive thwarts Canada lobby on tar sand oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Reuters: Canada's urgent hunt for buyers for its oil is being thwarted as the European Commission sticks to a plan to label fuel from tar sands deposits as highly polluting, deterring refiners bound by environmental rules.
Intense pressure from Canada, seeking new markets to compensate for dwindling U.S. buying and discounted sales, has not convinced the EU executive to abandon its proposal to brand tar sands oil as more carbon-intensive than conventional crude.
"The Commission stands by its proposal,"...
House GOP, Citing North African Turmoil, Boosts Keystone XL Pressure on Obama
Posted by The Hill: Ben Geman on January 30th, 2013
The Hill: A mostly Republican group of House lawmakers is putting fresh pressure on President Obama to greenlight the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, and a senior member said that another Capitol Hill hearing could be in the offing.
“In light of the recent events in North Africa, we need to be investing in energy infrastructure to control our own resources. We need to be able to move resources, not only from Canada, but from the many domestic shale plays that have recently come on line. We need to make...