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Archive for January, 2013
Floods hit 250,000 Mozambicans, cyclone threatens Madagascar
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on January 30th, 2013
AlertNet: Severe flooding in southern Mozambique has affected a quarter of a million people, while heavy rains are pounding the north of the country and a tropical cyclone threatens the island of Madagascar, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Floods that started around 10 days ago have killed at least 48 people in the south of Mozambique, and 146,000 people are still being housed in temporary shelters in the Limpopo Basin, the United Nations said in an update. Government officials put the death toll...
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Lawmakers to hold hearing on fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
LA Times: State lawmakers will hold a hearing next month to examine the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in California. Unlike other major oil-producing states, California does not require energy firms to disclose where they use the controversial procedure or what chemicals they inject into the ground. Regulators released draft rules for fracking last month that would mandate such disclosure but allow oil companies to keep secret the names of certain chemicals they claim to be proprietary....
Satellite Analysis Shows Gulf Oil Spills Typically Underestimated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: An analysis of satellite images has revealed that small oil spills that have become common in the Gulf of Mexico are often much larger than reported, U.S. scientists say. Using technology that calculates the size of oil slicks based on differences in the texture of water surface, as captured in publicly available satellite photos, a team of oceanographers at Florida State University (FSU) estimated that known human-caused spills in the Gulf were typically about 13 times larger than reported to the...
Pennsylvania Fracking Victims Come to New York to Share Their Stories
Posted by EcoWatch: New Yorkers Against Fracking on January 30th, 2013
EcoWatch: As the state rapidly approaches the deadline to decide whether to allow fracking to go forward in New York, residents from across Pennsylvania came forward to tell legislators their stories. New Yorkers Against Fracking also released an ad, which will initially run in the Albany and New York City markets highlighting stories of dead cows and poisoned water.
Since fracking began in states outside of New York, there have been numerous reports of water contamination in those states. Studies link...
Controversial research outlines physics behind how forests may bring rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Mongabay: It took over two-and-a-half-years for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics to finally accept a paper outlining a new meteorological hypothesis in which condensation, not temperature, drives winds. If proven correct, the hypothesis could have massive ramifications on global policy-not to mention meteorology-as essentially the hypothesis means that the world's forest play a major role in driving precipitation from the coast into a continent's interior. The theory, known as the biotic pump,...
A One-Stop Shop for Water Worries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
New York Times: Water, or the lack thereof, is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. As temperatures rise and droughts become more frequent, the threat of dwindling water resources worries not just environmentalists and governments but companies and their investors, too.
Nearly every industrial sector, from food and beverages to mining to pharmaceuticals, depends on water for its operations. Figuring out which places are likely to be hit hardest can help a company either steer clear of a certain...
Asia–Pacific Analysis: Pushing for a strong climate change policy
Posted by SciDevNet: Crispin Maslog on January 30th, 2013
SciDevNet: Although the region is not a big polluter, the threat of climate change means it should lead the way on cuts, argues Crispin Maslog.
The category 5 super typhoon Bopha, which wreaked havoc in southern and central Philippines in the first week of December 2012, was the world's second deadliest disaster last year.
It wiped out villages, leaving around 1,900 people dead or missing and resulting in losses of more than US$1 billion. Bopha also caused damage worth US$20 million to the Pacific island...
The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking
Posted by Mother Jones: Tom Philpott on January 30th, 2013
Mother Jones: In a recent Nation piece, the wonderful Elizabeth Royte teased out the direct links between hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the food supply. In short, extracting natural gas from rock formations by bombarding them with chemical-spiked fluid leaves behind fouled water--and that fouled water can make it into the crops and animals we eat.
But there's another, emerging food/fracking connection that few are aware of. US agriculture is highly reliant on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, and nitrogen...
United Kingdom: Cumbria rejects underground storage dump
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Guardian: Government plans to undertake preliminary work on an underground storage dump for nuclear waste were rejected by Cumbria county council on Wednesday, adding a major roadblock to plans for a long term solution to the problem of nuclear waste.
The county and its western district councils Allerdale and Copeland which make up the "nuclear coast" opposite the Isle of Man were the only local authorities in the UK still involved in feasibility studies for the £12bn disposal facility.
Cumbria's cabinet...
Greenland research station to monitor climate change
Posted by Copenhagen Post: Christian Wenande on January 30th, 2013
Copenhagen Post: Aarhus University has begun the construction of a modern research station in northern Greenland that will monitor how climate change is affecting the region.
The station, which will be a vast upgrade from the little shack that currently houses climate research in the area, will study how the shifting climate alters the air, ocean, geology as well as the plants and animals in the region.
Warmer climate in recent times has led to the Arctic ice cap melting to half of what it was just 30 years...