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Archive for April 24th, 2013
Slow Start on Environment in Obama’s 2nd Term
Posted by New York Times: John Broder on April 24th, 2013
New York Times: SHORTLY after winning re-election in November, President Obama promised assertive leadership on climate change and energy. In his State of the Union address in February, he vowed that if the assembled lawmakers failed to pass broad climate legislation, he would act unilaterally. And yet in the ensuing months, little more has been heard from the president or his cabinet on the matter. Agreement is broad on near-term executive actions to address climate change, including imposing strict caps on greenhouse-gas...
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Mountain-Top Removal Mining: Now Threatening Wisconsin!
Posted by on April 24th, 2013
Deep Green Resistance: A proposed iron mining effort would create the largest open pit mine in the world in northern Wisconsin.The 22,000 acres of mountain-top removal-style strip mining would potentially dump millions of tons of waste rock into the headwaters of the Bad River, polluting everything downstream including beautiful Copper Falls State Park, the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation, crucial wetland Kakagon Sloughs, and Lake Superior.
Many local residents fear that the huge mine will eat into nearby sulfide-mineral...
Overcrowding on farms behind mystery of China’s floating pigs
Posted by Reuters: Adam Jourdan on April 24th, 2013
Reuters: Overcrowding on farms around Shanghai was the underlying factor that led to 16,000 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu river into China's affluent financial centre, according to an analysis of official documents and interviews with farmers in the region.
The appearance last month of carcasses of rotting hogs in a river that supplies tap water to the eastern Chinese city was a morbid reminder of the pressures facing China's mostly small-scale farmers as the country grapples with food safety scares,...
Are People Living Near Fracking Sites Getting Sick?
Posted by EcoWatch: Gary Wockner on April 24th, 2013
EcoWatch: On April 11,Colorado State Rep. Joann Ginal`s (D-Fort Collins) House Bill 1275 was heard, and died, in committee in the Colorado State Legislature. Rep Ginal`s bill asked and proposed to answer a very honest and simple question, "Are people living near oil and gas drilling and fracking getting sicker than people who don`t?" And, the bill would have provided that information to the public in a short timeframe.
Clean Water Action has a door-to-door campaign in the Denver metro area and across the...
Burned rainforest vulnerable to grass invasion
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 24th, 2013
Mongabay: Rainforests that have been affected by even low-intensity fires are far more vulnerable to invasion by grasses, finds a new study published in special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The findings are significant because they suggest that burned forests may be more susceptible to subsequent fires which may burn more intensely due to increased fuel loads.
The research is based on an eight-year study involving experimental burning of three 50-hectare plots...
Study of climate change amended, moves ahead
Posted by World-Herald: None Given on April 24th, 2013
World-Herald: A debate in the Legislature over global warming Tuesday didn't raise the temperature as high as expected. Lawmakers voted 35-0 to advance a bill that would spend up to $40,000 to create a report on the long-term impact of climate change on Nebraska's water and agricultural resources. “Climate change needs to be studied so that Nebraska's ag industry is not brought to its knees,” said State Sen. Ken Haar of Lincoln, who sponsored Legislative Bill 583. But the vote to advance the bill didn't come...
New Zealand: Call for caution on grape land claims
Posted by Stuff: Gerald Piddock on April 24th, 2013
Stuff: Suggestions in a new study that climate change could cause a substantial increase in land available for viticulture in some parts of New Zealand has been treated with caution by a wine industry specialist.
The onset of climate change meant more extreme weather events could be possible, said Glen Creasy, Lincoln University senior lecturer in viticulture.
Cool easterly winds, late season frosts and possible hail storms could also damage grapes.
Landowners thinking of going into viticulture...
Keystone XL: EPA finds State Dept.’s latest review ‘insufficient.’
Posted by ClimateWire: Nick Juliano on April 24th, 2013
ClimateWire: U.S. EPA says the State Department's latest review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline contains "insufficient information" on several fronts, including greenhouse gas emissions, alternative routes and the consequences of a potential spill of diluted bitumen, which the pipeline would carry.
EPA's assessment was made public yesterday, the deadline for public comment on the State Department's ongoing review of the project.
Environmental groups questioned many of the key assertions in the...
Fort Collins Again Postpones Decision on Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on April 24th, 2013
EcoWatch: Last night the Fort Collins City Council voted unanimously to postpone their decision until their May 21 meeting about whether to terminate the moratorium on fracking. The city council passed a ban in March, but that ban allowed one drilling operation to continue fracking in North Fort Collins. However, three weeks later, the council passed an "agreement" allowing the drilling company to open up two new square miles of land for drilling and fracking.
The council`s postponement comes after it received...
GM salmon’s global HQ – 1,500m high in the Panamanian rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 24th, 2013
Guardian: It is hard to think of a more unlikely setting for genetic experimentation or for raising salmon: a rundown shed at a secretive location in the Panamanian rainforest miles inland and 1,500m above sea level.
But the facility, which is owned by an American company AquaBounty Technologies, stands on the verge of delivering the first genetically modified food animal – a fast-growing salmon – to supermarkets and dinner tables.
The US government this week enters the final stages of its deliberations...