RSS Feed
Archive for February 1st, 2013
Australia: Hottest year start keeps climate change in spotlight
Posted by Environment Health: None Given on February 1st, 2013
Environment Health: For Australia, 2013 looks like being a "year of living extremely" if January is anything to go by.
The Bureau of Meteorology said last month was the country's hottest month in just over a century of records.
Nationwide, the January average maximum temperature was 36.92 degrees. The anomaly was 2.28 degrees, "a substantial increase" on the previous record of 2.17 degrees set in 1932, the bureau said.
Thanks to the massive heatwave that dominated the first half of January, all states and territories...
Posted in 
United Kingdom: Chainsaw massacre: felled trees after Combe Haven road protest eviction – big picture
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Guardian: Campaigners spent weeks camped out at three sites in East Sussex to protest against a new 5.6km link road between Bexhill and Hastings. The Combe Haven Defenders group say that the case has national significance because it is one of more than a hundred major new roads planned across the country. On 30 January, the last protesters were evicted by police and bailiffs from the third and final remaining camp, many of whom were tens of feet high in trees. On the same day, the trees were felled by chainsaw...
Is this the point of no return?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Ecologist: Greenpeace launched an important new report last week -- The Point Of No Return -- which states that if the corporations behind 14 of the world's most climate-threatening energy projects continue to plough-ahead, despite growing evidence of their life-threatening impacts, then we will reach the point of no return for the climate and the possibility of retaining a life-sustaining planet. Greenpeace are spearheading an 'Energy Revolution' Initiative based on the sobering fact that if global corporations...
United Kingdom: Flood protection measures: government criticised for dragging feet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Press Association: The government has been too slow in bringing in measures to protect homes and businesses from the "shattering" impact of flooding, MPs said on Friday.
The Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee said the draft water bill would help increase competition in the provision of water supplies, but that ministers were not showing enough urgency in implementing measures to improve the country's resilience to flooding and drought.
A report from the committee criticised the failure to create...
Saudi Arabia Completes Its Biggest Solar Power Plant
Posted by Bloomberg: Stefan Nicola on February 1st, 2013
Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia completed its biggest ground-mounted photovoltaic plant as the world’s largest crude oil exporter seeks to generate a third of its electricity with energy from the sun by 2032.
Germany’s Phoenix Solar AG (PS4) developed the 3.5-megawatt plant in Riyadh that uses 12,684 panels from China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) and inverters from SMA Solar Technology AG (S92), Phoenix Solar said in an e-mailed statement.
“This project represents an important milestone in the development...
Mekong Delta: No common voice found yet in adapting to climate change
Posted by VietNamNet: None Given on February 1st, 2013
VietNamNet: Big challenges Vietnam is an agriculture economy with 70 percent of its territory in urban area and 75 percent of population earning their living on rice fields. The agriculture production makes up tens of billions of dollars to the export turnover. However, the production has been threatened by the climate change. Kosei Hashiguchi from JICA (the Japan International Cooperation Agency) said at a workshop on the response to the climate change in late January 2013 that the seven coastal provinces...
Canada: Alberta Picks Former Oil Lobby Head as Washington Envoy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Reuters: Alberta on Friday appointed energy executive David Manning, a former head of Canada's most powerful oil lobby group, as its envoy to Washington as it looks for a favorable decision from the Obama administration on the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project.
Manning is a senior vice-president and head of the energy practice at Vanasse Hangen Brustline Inc, a Boston engineering firm, and a director at consulting firm M.J. Bradley & Associates.
A former deputy energy minister in Alberta, Manning...
Natural gas a clean transition to renewables
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: Seven years ago, I was hired by the Environmental Defense Fund to fight against more than 100 new coal-fired power plants proposed across the United States. Today, these plants are dead. New coal construction has ground to a halt, and our focus has shifted from fighting new coal plants to pressuring existing coal plants to close. Big progress in the fight against air pollution and global warming? You bet. Tireless advocacy by many made it happen. But I must confess that our fight was made easier...
CN’s Crude Oil-By-Rail Plan Increases Risk of Spills, Fatalities, Say Opponents
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Canadian Press: Opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline are threatening to turn their sights on CN Rail, as at least one Alberta oil company explores the possibility of transporting oilsands crude to the B.C. coast by rail car.
Sixteen environmental groups signed a letter sent to Canadian National CEO Claude Mongeau this week to express opposition to any plans to ship product from the Alberta oilsands west by rail.
"Unfortunately, ... there are far greater fatality, injury and environmental risks when transporting...
Are Human-Caused and Natural Global Warming Different? Study Says Yes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2013
Christian Science Monitor: Human-triggered climate warming appears to leave a unique fingerprint on global rainfall rates compared with natural warming, according to a new study.
While rainfall rates increase whether the long-term warming trend is natural or not, the rate of increase appears to be higher during natural warming trends.
The result might help resolve a long-standing discrepancy between changes in rainfall projected in global climate models and changes projected by studying the historical record, researchers...