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Archive for March 9th, 2013
No state money for fracking bans
Posted by Denver Post: Editorial on March 9th, 2013
Denver Post: The governor seems to think there's a role for the state to play in helping compensate mineral rights owners who are denied royalties due to local fracking bans.
We disagree, and strenuously so. It's a bad idea from both practical and philosophical standpoints.
Last week, just after the Fort Collins City Council voted to ban fracking, Gov. John Hickenlooper visited with the city's newspaper, The Coloradoan.
He acknowledged the oil and gas extraction technique known as fracking was troubling...
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Fairbanks scientist plans epic Arctic climate change study by snowmachine, kite-skis
Posted by Alaska Dispatch: None Given on March 9th, 2013
Alaska Dispatch: Kenji Yoshikawa will soon sleep on brilliant, blue-white landscape that has never felt the imprint of his boots. Beginning on spring equinox, the permafrost scientist and a partner will attempt to drive snowmachines from Prudhoe Bay to Canada’s Baffin Island.
While traveling a distance equal to Seattle to Tokyo to Seattle over land and sea ice, Yoshikawa will camp outside villages in an Arctic Oven tent. Along the way, he’ll stop at village schools in Canada’s far north, drill holes in the ground...
No to Keystone. Yes to Crazy
Posted by New York Times: Thomas L. Friedman on March 9th, 2013
New York Times: I HOPE the president turns down the Keystone XL oil pipeline. (Who wants the U.S. to facilitate the dirtiest extraction of the dirtiest crude from tar sands in Canada’s far north?) But I don’t think he will. So I hope that Bill McKibben and his 350.org coalition go crazy. I’m talking chain-themselves-to-the-White-House-fence-stop-traffic-at-the-Capitol kind of crazy, because I think if we all make enough noise about this, we might be able to trade a lousy Keystone pipeline for some really good systemic...
Dams may unleash torrent of ill will
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Joel Brinkley on March 9th, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: Here come those dastardly dams! In Asia, Africa and the Middle East, nations are aggressively building hydroelectric dams, seemingly heedless of the potentially disastrous effects on the countries downstream.
As examples, Laos broke ground on a Mekong River dam that's causing concern bordering on fury in Cambodia and Vietnam. India is enraged about a new Chinese dam going up on the Brahmaputra River. And Ethiopia's new dam on the Nile is angering Sudan, while Egypt has threatened war.
What's...
No, Minister Oliver, the oil sands have not become ‘green’
Posted by Globe and Mail: Tzeporah Berman on March 9th, 2013
Globe and Mail: Many Canadians must have wondered if George Orwell was alive and well this week as they read that the Alberta oil sands were being pitched to U.S. officials as "green" by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
"Canada is the environmentally responsible choice for the U.S. to meet its energy needs in oil for years to come," the minister told an audience in Chicago - a message he repeated over and over in his U.S. tour, part of a calculated mission to associate Alberta bitumen with ecological...
Cold-weather lizards facing climate crunch
Posted by Summit Voice: Bob Berwyn on March 9th, 2013
Summit Voice: Lizards that give birth to live young may be headed for a climatic cul-de-sac in the next 50 years, according to a new study by scientists with the University of Exeter and the University of Lincoln.
“Climate change must not be underestimated as a threat to modern patterns of biodiversity," said University of Exeter biologist Dr. Dave Hodgson. "Our work shows that lizard species which birth live young instead of laying eggs are restricted to cold climates in South America ... high in the Andes...
Food forecast may have China worried over global warming
Posted by Columbus Dispatch: None Given on March 9th, 2013
Columbus Dispatch: Last week’s announcement by China’s Ministry of Finance that the country will introduce a carbon tax, probably in the next two years, did not dominate the international headlines. It was too vague about the timetable and the rate at which the tax would be levied, and fossil-fuel lobbyists were quick to portray it as meaningless. But the Chinese are deadly serious about fighting global warming, because they are really scared.
A carbon tax, though deeply unpopular with the fossil-fuel industries,...
Shrinking ice worries Great Lakes scientists
Posted by Lansing State Journal: None Given on March 9th, 2013
Lansing State Journal: The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bristol Bay has battled pretty much everything the Great Lakes can think up.
They’ve battled 14-foot swells that left even experienced guardsmen heaving in the head. They’ve rescued stranded animals that floated out too far and barges stuck in shallow shores.
The one thing they don’t see as much of — at least not anymore — is ice.
One of the Detroit crew’s primary responsibilities is icebreaking during the winter — clearing Great Lakes waterways of...
An Australian summer that refuses to throw in the towel
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on March 9th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: This summer has been called everything from "extreme" to "angry" and for large swathes of the country those adjectives still apply.
Cities such as Melbourne and Adelaide are midway through long heatwaves with no relief expected until Thursday. Nationally, summer was the hottest since consistent records began in 1910.
The big dry now extends across much of southern Australia and even the Top End is looking at its driest "wet" season in two decades.
Along the east coast, communities from the...
Obama hosts climate and energy planning session at White House
Posted by Washington Post: Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin on March 9th, 2013
Washington Post: President Obama solicited ideas on a wide variety of energy and climate issues in a meeting Thursday with more than a dozen outside experts and business executives, with an eye toward what he might accomplish in his second term through executive action and public-private partnerships, according to participants.
Topics included steps to promote energy efficiency, how to modernize the nation's electrical grid to make it more resilient and "green,' as well as the need for more information about leakage...