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Archive for February, 2013
Jakarta faces up to a high flood-risk future
Posted by Guardian: Bruno Philip on February 5th, 2013
Guardian: On 17 January water flooded into several Jakarta neighbourhoods, claiming more than a dozen lives and causing the evacuation of 18,000 residents. Even the city centre was affected. The papers featured pictures of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono paddling in the garden of his official residence, his trousers rolled up to the knee.
"I have sent a letter to the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to move the clouds to the north [the sea]," city governor Joko Widodo told reporters...
How Fracking Impacts Local Food
Posted by EcoWatch: Mark Izeman, Natural Resources Defense Council on February 5th, 2013
EcoWatch: By now the horrific stories of cows mysteriously losing tails, birthing stillborn calves and even dropping dead have made their rounds. I’ve blogged about the dangers that fracking poses to our food supply before, as has my colleague Amy Mall.
Late last year, Elizabeth Royte also wrote an excellent piece for The Nation, Fracking Our Food Supply, that explored the potential for drilling operations to contaminate our food. Supported by dozens of anecdotes of sick livestock from Pennsylvania to North...
Safety Compromised by Missing Rules on Oil and Gas Pipelines, GAO Says
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song on February 5th, 2013
InsideClimate: Oil and gas pipelines could be made safer if pipeline operators had clear guidelines for how quickly they must respond to accidents—but federal regulators don't have the data they need to establish those rules, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent arm of Congress. The first few minutes and hours after a pipeline accident are considered crucial for effective cleanup and damage prevention. But the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration...
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Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2013
Guardian: The idea of linking India's rivers to put an end to droughts and floods has exercised a mesmerising grip on the nation's mind for decades. That grip has become even stronger since neighbouring China embarked upon various water diversion projects, and pushed ahead with its own gargantuan engineering projects.
So it came as no surprise when in December 2012 India announced progress on plans to connect 37 rivers across the nation through 31 links with 9,000 km of canals, saying such a project was...
India: Birds affected by climate change, says international study
Posted by Times of India: Vijay Singh on February 5th, 2013
Times of India: Researchers from UK-based BirdLife International (of which Bombay Natural History Society is the India Partner) and Durham University have come up with new findings about the impact of climate change on birds in Asia, including India.
The research highlights the need to conserve not just the protected areas, but also the other habitats, which are crucial for their survival, particularly in the climate change scenario.
Climate change has been the alarming reality for some time now and humans...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India: Birds affected by climate change, says international studyMillions of trees improve life in Haiti
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2013
Ecologist: Haiti seems to have more than its fair share of environmental disasters, with a massive earthquake and severe hurricanes affecting the country in the last three years alone. International relief efforts are welcomed and effective in the aftermath of these extreme events, but once the television cameras and aid agencies are gone, Haiti continues only slowly to rebuild. Amongst the stories of catastrophe and struggle there are many shining lights, not least is Haiti’s Smallholder Farmer Alliance...
Climate change No Dash for Gas – the new, chimney-climbing face of climate direct action
Posted by Guardian: Susanna Rustin on February 5th, 2013
Guardian: Last November, members of the newly formed direct action group No Dash For Gas were feeling pretty good. They had just completed a week-long occupation of West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, forced French owners EDF to switch the power off and prevented the emission of 19,117 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
In a cafe in London where she met me after work a couple of days after climbing down the 91m concrete chimney where activists had camped for a week, Ewa Jasiewicz said the group felt "really...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change No Dash for Gas – the new, chimney-climbing face of climate direct actionStudy: Global Warming Can Be Slowed By Working Less
Posted by U.S. News and World Report: Jason Koebler on February 5th, 2013
U.S. News and World Report: Want to reduce the effects of global warming? Stop working so hard. Working fewer hours might help slow global warming, according to a new study released Monday by the Center for Economic Policy and Research.
A worldwide switch to a "more European" work schedule, which includes working fewer hours and more vacation time, could prevent as much as half of the expected global temperature rise by 2100, according to the analysis, which used a 2012 study that found shorter work hours could be associated...
B.C.’s Coastal First Nations Walk Away from Northern Gateway Review Process
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2013
Canadian Press: Coastal First Nations have left the federal review of the Northern Gateway pipeline plan, saying they've run out of money and patience.
Executive director Art Sterritt has told the panel the group representing nine aboriginal bands from the B.C. coast and Haida Gwaii has spent more than three times the amount of funding allotted by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency four years ago.
Sterritt said the approximately $280,000 they had cannot compare to the $250 million Enbridge (TSX:ENB)...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on B.C.’s Coastal First Nations Walk Away from Northern Gateway Review ProcessAlberta may offer more to smooth way for Keystone: envoy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2013
Reuters: Alberta could offer up new environmental initiatives for oil sands development to show the Obama administration that approving a $5.3 billion pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries will not increase pollution, the Canadian province's new envoy in Washington said on Monday.
Alberta, anxious to tap new markets in the United States for its growing volumes of oil, has already boosted monitoring of the impacts of tar sands projects on northern waterways. It also has established a land-use plan for...
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