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Archive for April 27th, 2013
EPA finds Keystone environmental impact statement “insufficient”
Posted by LOE: None Given on April 27th, 2013
LOE: The EPA has written to the State Department, criticizing its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. UCLA law professor Ann Carlson joins host Steve Curwood to discuss the criticisms in detail and explain how this might impact the Keystone decision.
Transcript
CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Boston, this is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood. Some say the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to bring tar sands crude from Canada would unleash climate...
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Land o’ lakes: Melting glaciers transform Alpine landscape
Posted by Spiegel: Axel Bojanowski on April 27th, 2013
Spiegel: Climate change is dramatically altering the Swiss Alps, where hundreds of bodies of water are being created by melting glaciers. Though the lakes can attract tourists and even generate electricity, local residents also fear catastrophic tidal waves.
In the 1990s, the first cracks began to appear in the mighty tongue of the Trift Glacier in the central Swiss canton of Bern. In 2002, the peak of the ice mass burst into thousands of pieces. Since it lay in a hollow, the water swelled into a lake...
Climate change scientist calls Conservatives ‘Neanderthal’
Posted by CBC: None Given on April 27th, 2013
CBC: The former NASA scientist criticized by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver earlier this week for his views on the Keystone XL pipeline is responding by calling the Conservatives a desperate and "Neanderthal" government.
In an interview with Evan Solomon airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, James Hansen defended his position that approving the proposed pipeline would be disastrous for the environment.
During a stop in Washington, D.C., to shore up support for Keystone XL, Oliver said...
Greeks Fight Canadian Gold-Diggers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Any sense of tranquility that hangs around the mountain of Skouries in northern Greece, 80 km east of Greece's second largest city Thessaloniki, is a façade. Home to some of the oldest forests in Greece, the pristine region is now a battleground, as the local population takes on the Canadian mining giant Eldorado Gold Corporation and its local subsidiary, Hellas Gold.
At the intersection between the road that leads to the village of Ierissos and another going up to the only operational mine in...
Keystone XL: Oil Sands Health Concerns Rise Downstream Of Expanding Extraction
Posted by Huffington Post: Lynne Peeples on April 27th, 2013
Huffington Post: Raymond Ladouceur remembers when he could dip a cup into the Athabasca River for a drink. He remembers when the trout and muskrats were plentiful -- and when his community was healthy.
Despite recent heart surgery, Ladouceur, 72, still fishes and traps, as he has his whole life at Big Point in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. He snared his first fox at age 6 and recalled waddling home with the animal around his neck, its body dragging between his legs.
But times have changed, said Ladouceur, an elder...
Alaska mine would damage streams and wetlands: EPA report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2013
Reuters: Digging a large mine in southwest Alaska would inflict widespread ecological damage, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report on Friday that could hurt the chances of a proposed project in that region winning regulatory approval.
A large scale open-pit mine in Alaska's unspoiled Bristol Bay region would destroy up to 90 miles of salmon and trout spawning streams, harm thousands of acres of wetlands that support fish and subject local waters to chemical spills and releases of untreated...
United Kingdom: New grass ‘flood reduction hope’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 27th, 2013
BBC: A hybrid farmland grass, developed by a team of UK researchers, could help reduce flooding, a study has shown.
A team of plant and soil scientists said tests showed the new cultivar reduced run-off by 51%, compared with a variety widely used to feed livestock.
They added that rapid growth and well developed root systems meant that more moisture was retained within the soil rather than running into river systems.
The findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports.
The novel grass is...