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Archive for March 12th, 2013
Australia’s heatwaves to hit wildlife hard
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Jacqui Hayes on March 12th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: IN EARLY JANUARY 2010 golfers in Hopetoun, WA ventured out from the cool of the clubhouse to tee off. The day was oppressively hot: 47° was predicted. Only the keenest golfers were having a hit. But rather than golf-balls on the fairway, the golfers found dead and dying birds scattered.
The Department of Environment recorded the death of several hundred birds, including the devastating loss of 208 endangered Carnaby's black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris). At one site, this amounted to...
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Australia toughens environmental hurdles on coal and coal seam gas mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2013
Reuters: Australia will impose tougher environmental hurdles on coal and coal seam gas mining, responding to mounting public concern about protection of fragile water resources from the impact of extraction, Environment Minister Tony Burke said on Tuesday.
The government would amend national environment laws to force coal seam gas and large coal mining developments to now receive national government approval and assessment of their impact on water, Burke said.
Australia has a booming coal seam gas industry...
Fracking: What’s That Smell?
Posted by EcoWatch: Michael Brune on March 12th, 2013
EcoWatch: You know what natural gas smells like. Or do you? Natural gas is actually odorless. That rotten-egg smell is added for safety reasons. Otherwise, you might not notice a potentially deadly gas leak.
If only we could add a similar smell to the natural gas industry. Too many people--especially politicians--aren`t paying attention to the dangers of the current "boom" in natural gas development. Here are three big reasons why we should stop new gas drilling before it starts and replace fossil fuels...
Sri Lanka: Changing Weather, Changing Fortunes
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on March 12th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Sri Lanka has paused for breath after the extreme weather conditions last year that many associate with climate change.
The reservoirs had hit new lows after a dry spell. That has now changed. "Thank god the weather has helped, all the reservoirs are at spill level," finance secretary P. B. Jayasundera announced last month. "It is a kind of a bonus."
During the first ten months of the year, regions ranging from the north through the east to the south and south-west suffered a serious drought....
Keystone Report Skirts Central Question Posed Under NEPA, Lawyers Say
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on March 12th, 2013
InsideClimate: The surprising message of the State Department's latest Keystone review—that the decision whether to approve the disputed pipeline won't have much effect on the environment—can be traced to the way the agency framed the report. The study presents an analysis of how markets will adjust if the pipeline isn't built. But lawyers and pipeline opponents say that approach allowed the State Department to dodge the central question that the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, presents about major...
Australia: March heat has forecasters wondering ‘who stole autumn’?
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on March 12th, 2013
Age: Melbourne's March is already deep into record heat territory. With today's 30-plus maximum reached, the city has notched nine such days in a row, breaking the record for heatwave duration of eight days. All four previous events over the past 156 years happened in January or February, and the last one 52 years ago.
Where's autumn?
Weatherzone senior meteorologist Brett Dutschke said warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures and a southerly shift in the jetstream meant there was little sign of autumn...
Study predicts lag in summer rains over parts of US and Mexico
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2013
ScienceDaily: A delay in the summer monsoon rains that fall over the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico is expected in the coming decades according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The North American monsoon delivers as much as 70 percent of the region's annual rainfall, watering crops and rangelands for an estimated 20 million people.
"We hope this information can be used with other studies to build realistic expectations for water resource availability in the future,"...