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Archive for March 22nd, 2013
Are land grabs really water grabs?
Posted by CNN: Jennifer C Franco, Lyla Mehta and Gert Jan Veldwisch on March 22nd, 2013
CNN: Millions of hectares of land have been acquired in the past few years across Africa by investors who are moving into large-scale agriculture to take advantage of potential windfall gains. Popularly these deals have become known as "land grabbing," but they could just as well have been framed as "water grabs." The current global rush for agricultural land grew partly in response to increased global food prices since 2007. Global capital is finding its way to agricultural investments on the basis...
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Roads could help protect the environment rather than destroy it, argues Nature paper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Mongabay: Rapidly expanding road networks are causing large-scale damage to forests but proper infrastructure planning and implementation could actually turn them into a net positive for the environment, argue researchers writing in the journal Science.
William Laurance and Andrew Balmford highlight the severe environmental impacts of roads in wilderness areas, including fostering illegal logging, poaching, colonization, and land speculation.
"More than 95% of deforestation, fires and atmospheric carbon...
Population growth greatly affecting access to safe water in Uganda
Posted by New Vision: Gilbert Kidimu on March 22nd, 2013
New Vision: Eight months ago, Uganda's population was estimated at 34.1 million people. Out of this, 5.01 million live in urban areas while 29.9 million, which is 85.3%, reside in rural areas. Which means more than three quarters of Ugandans live in rural areas. According to Water Aid Uganda, 9.3 million people in Uganda do not have access to safe water. Around 26,000 children die every year from diarrhoea which is caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation in Uganda. Without access to water, many farmers...
Working together, we’re saving Tampa Bay
Posted by Tampa Bay Times: Holly Greening on March 22nd, 2013
Tampa Bay Times: In 1990, Tampa Bay was designated an Estuary of National Significance by Congress, joining a small group of the nation's most beloved -- and troubled -- waterways. Like its sister estuaries of New York Harbor, Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay, Tampa Bay had been pummeled by decades of dredging, development and disregard. The bay was so polluted that it was the subject of a 60 Minutes expose.
At the time it entered the National Estuary Program, Tampa Bay already had a dedicated corps of scientists,...
Sierra Club blasts plan to improve fracking in the Northeast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Associated Press: The Sierra Club and some other environmental groups are harshly criticizing a new partnership that aims to create tough new standards for fracking.
The criticism Thursday came a day after two of the nation's biggest oil and gas companies made peace with some national and regional environmental groups, agreeing to go through an independent review of their shale oil and gas drilling operations in the Northeast.
If Shell Oil, Chevron Appalachia and other companies are found to be abiding by a...
Company: Utah Tar Sands Poised to Yield Oil
Posted by Salt Lake Tribune: Brian Maffly on March 22nd, 2013
Salt Lake Tribune: For years, industry has mined paving material from the aptly named Asphalt Ridge southeast of Vernal. Soon it could also yield the state’s first commercial volumes of oil from tar sands under a California company’s plans to process mined ore at the site near the Colorado state line. Join the Discussion Post a Comment MCW Energy Group executives say they expect to produce 250 barrels a day at the site later this year under an agreement with Temple Mountain Energy Inc., which will supply the ore....
Shell’s CEO Says Gas Will Lead Way
Posted by Boston Globe: Erin Ailworth on March 22nd, 2013
Boston Globe: Peter Voser, chief executive of the global energy company Royal Dutch Shell, said Thursday that the United States and the world need to increase the use of solar panels, wind turbines, and other renewable energy-generating sources to meet the growing demand for power, but abundant natural gas supplies present the most straightforward way to a cleaner future.
Natural gas has had a major resurgence in the United States, where a controversial and water-intensive drilling technique known as hydraulic...
Snow forecast for much of Britain as onset of spring fails to shift bad weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Press Association: There will be no let-up in the bad weather over the weekend, with snow across much of Britain and flooding expected in the south-west.
On Thursday night emergency services responded to a surge in weather-related call-outs as heavy rainfall continued to blight communities.
The Environment Agency said it was monitoring river levels and was expecting to issue flood alerts and possibly more serious flood warnings for the south-west.
Cornwall council set up a designated control room to handle...
Climate Change Now Seen as Security Threat Worldwide
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Inter Press Service: Defence establishments around the world increasingly see climate change as posing potentially serious threats to national and international security, according to a review of high-level statements by the world's governments released here Thursday.
The review, "The Global Security Defense Index on Climate Change: Preliminary Results," found that nearly three out of four governments for which relevant information is available view the possible effects of climate change as a serious national security...