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Archive for February 4th, 2013
Climate change creating a new world
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Carolyn Lochhhead and John Burgeson on February 4th, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: In his inaugural address, President Obama made climate change a priority of his second term. It may be too late.
Within the lifetimes of today's children, scientists say, the climate could reach a state unknown in civilization.
In that time, global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are on track to exceed the limits that scientists believe could prevent catastrophic warming. CO2 levels are higher than they have been in 15 million years.
The Arctic, melting rapidly and probably...
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State claims a wild card in BP civil deal on Macondo oil spill
Posted by Reuters: Kathy Finn and Braden Reddall on February 4th, 2013
Reuters: It is a question that has lawyers and many others on the U.S. Gulf coast buzzing: Will BP strike a massive deal to settle the remaining claims over the Gulf of Mexico well blowout?
BP could be nearing a settlement of federal claims with the U.S. Department of Justice, but people tracking the case closely say the company and coastal states, especially Louisiana, might still be far apart.
So unless the talks with the states quicken or the judge delays the process in the hope a far-reaching deal...
Why the Southern Leg of Keystone XL Must Be Stopped
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Weis on February 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: With President Obama’s blessing, TransCanada has been laying pipe for the 485-mile southern (OK-TX) leg of Keystone XL in the face of persistent nonviolent direct action by determined landowners and Tar Sands Blockade.
Look at the map below. If the southern leg of TransCanada’s pipeline is allowed to be completed, the fuse to the tar sands "carbon bomb" will be lit.
Connecting the southern leg of Keystone XL to the already built Keystone I (the orange line on the map) would open the floodgates...
Hundreds Rally Telling Gov. Cuomo: ‘Not One Fracking Well’
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: Hundreds of New Yorkers packed the legislative budget hearing on the environment as Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Martens testified. The opponents of fracking packed the hearing room with a sea of blue and with a long line out the door. After the hearing, opponents gathered in the Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase to tell Governor Cuomo and Commissioner Martens not to go forward with fracking. The crowd was emboldened by a new statewide poll showing public opinion evenly...
Murkowski Says Gas Boom Should Back Clean-Energy Options
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on February 4th, 2013
Bloomberg: Senator Lisa Murkowski, citing a need for policies to deal with abundant energy supplies after years of scarcity, offered proposals that include expanding oil and gas development to help underwrite clean-energy research.
“What we are trying to establish here is a new direction,” Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said today at a news conference in Washington. “We want to change the conversation.”
Murkowski, top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said combating climate...
Climate change’s impact on wildfires before Utah House Committee Monday
Posted by Salt Lake Tribune: Judy Fahys on February 4th, 2013
Salt Lake Tribune: A House committee is set to discuss on Monday afternoon how to manage the impacts of climate change in Utah’s wildlands.
The premise of HB 77, sponsored by Heber City Republican Kraig Powell, is that the changing climate is already causing bigger and more hazardous wildfires in Utah. That means it is important to give land managers the proper tools to prepare, the thinking goes.
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Supporters of the bill include academics and a group of students who say state...
Groups Continue to Push for Transparency in Testing for Water Contamination from Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: Questions and concerns continue to surround Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) water testing and reporting policies related to suspected impacts from Marcellus Shale natural gas operations. These issues were originally revealed in the Kiskadden vs. PADEP deposition of Taru Upadhyay, technical director of DEP’s Bureau of Laboratories--and described widely in subsequent news stories regarding the use of suite codes, which result in only partial test results being sent to homeowners....
Arizona Mining Project Wins a Key Permit
Posted by New York Times: Leslie Macmillan on February 4th, 2013
New York Times: A Canadian mining company has come one step closer to building a mile-wide, half-mile-deep open-pit copper mine on public land 30 miles south of Tucson. On Thursday, Arizona`s Department of Environmental Quality granted Rosemont Copper, a subsidiary of Augusta Resource of Vancouver, a crucial air quality permit, saying emissions from the proposed mine would not violate federal standards for carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, or fine and large particles.
As I reported here last month,...
Mexico mining: ‘When injustice is law, resistance is duty’ – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2013
Guardian: In January, nearly 500 activists from across Mexico and Central America gathered in the Mexican mountain town of Capulálpam de Méndez, Oaxaca, to co-ordinate growing local resistance to the human and environmental costs of mining on the region's communities. The event was called Si la vida! No la minera! (Yes to life! No to mining!)
Online tools ‘decentralising disaster relief efforts’
Posted by SciDevNet: Eva Aguilar on February 4th, 2013
SciDevNet: Disaster response and relief efforts are becoming more dynamic and decentralised with the development of web-based geospatial technologies, says a study. Researchers writing in Disasters evaluated the experiences of Harvard University's Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) during the Sichuan and Haiti earthquake responses in 2008 and 2010, respectively. SPEED READ Web-mapping technology allowed a more decentralised response to Haiti's 2010 earthquake Maps and images were added to the site to assist...