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Archive for May 2nd, 2013
Low-key US plan for each nation to set climate goals wins ground
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 2nd, 2013
Reuters: A U.S.-led plan to let all countries set their own goals for fighting climate change is gaining grudging support at U.N. talks, even though the current level of pledges is far too low to limit rising temperatures substantially.
The approach, being discussed this week at 160-nation talks in Bonn, Germany, would mean abandoning the blueprint of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set central goals for industrialized countries to cut emissions by 2012 and then let each work out national implementation....
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Why Sewage Plants Are Especially Vulnerable to Climate Change
Posted by Atlantic Cities: None Given on May 2nd, 2013
Atlantic Cities: f the subway disruption, and the housing damage and residential displacement, and the general psychological toll of Superstorm Sandy weren't enough, there's also the sewage.
Approximately 11 billion gallons of untreated (or only semi-treated) waste spilled into waterways after Sandy, according to a new report from the environmental group Climate Central. The vast majority of that overflow occurred in the rivers and bays surrounding New York and New Jersey. Forgive us if we order sparkling the...
Protestors dislike Mark Zuckerberg’s support of Keystone XL pipeline
Posted by Mother Nature Network: None Given on May 2nd, 2013
Mother Nature Network: Dozens of protestors rallied outside Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters on Wednesday after FWD.US, the social welfare organization co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, funded television ads in support of the Keystone XL pipeline and other oil drilling positions. "Facebook, dislike, Keystone take a hike," the protestors chanted, according to a report from the Mercury Daily News. When it was first announced, Zuckerberg and other FWD.US founders said the organization would focus mostly on immigration...
Bakken shale: Prosperous play’s new oil estimates could influence pipeline plans
Posted by EnergyWire: Nathanial Gronewold on May 2nd, 2013
EnergyWire: The resource potential of the booming Bakken Shale oil and gas zone is much bigger than previously thought, U.S. government geologists announced yesterday.
A new assessment of oil and gas reserves in that region by the U.S. Geological Survey concludes that industry could have access to almost double the amount of hydrocarbons previously calculated in parts of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. That rapid increase in the reserve estimate comes mainly from a first-time assessment of the Bakken...
Report: Illinois coal enjoyed record exports in 2012
Posted by Associated Press: Jim Suhr on May 2nd, 2013
Associated Press: Illinois' abundant high-sulfur coal once shunned as a pollution source by U.S. utilities saw record demand oversees last year even as domestic coal providers broadly curtailed production as cheaper, competing natural gas crimped their sales, according to new report Wednesday.
Energy Ventures Analysis Inc.'s study, commissioned by the Illinois Office of Coal Development, found that 13 million tons of Illinois coal was exported last year, up from the 2.5 million tons in 2010 and the 5.5 million...
With Arctic sea ice vulnerable, summer melt season begins briskly
Posted by Christian Scienc Monitor: None Given on May 2nd, 2013
Christian Scienc Monitor: After a record loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean last year, the 2013 melt season has begun at the top of the world, with ice vanishing in April at a faster pace than it did this time last year.
Summer sea ice – a key player in Earth's climate system and one whose decline is widely taken as a prominent sign of global warming – has been shrinking in extent since satellites first started to build a consistent record of the ice in late 1978. Ice losses in 2007 set a melt-season record, only...
Canada: No shortage of green solutions for a better kind of oilsands
Posted by Edmonton Journal: Jennifer Grant on May 2nd, 2013
Edmonton Journal: While last week was the one-year anniversary of the Redford government, it was also an anniversary of sorts for the Pembina Institute.
Two years ago, we released a road map toward responsible oilsands development that identified 19 key areas where environmental rules and management practices need to be strengthened. Many of the recommendations in the report, Solving the Puzzle, mirror existing government commitments to improve on oilsands management.
Early in her mandate, Alison Redford committed...
Indian city tries to thwart silent killer as summer temperatures soar
Posted by ClimateWire: Nayantara Narayanan on May 2nd, 2013
ClimateWire: A new kind of billboard is going up in the Indian city Ahmedabad these days. Amid the larger-than-life pictures of politicians, film stars and consumer goods are signs that proclaim "Heat Alert," instruct you to "Drink More Water" and counsel you to "Save Yourself From Heat," both in English and the local language, Gujarati.
The billboards are part of a heat action plan that was launched earlier this month, the first plan of its kind in a South Asian city. Ahmedabad, with its 7.2 million residents,...
Airborne laboratory used to measure California’s snowpack
Posted by LA Times: Bettina Boxall on May 2nd, 2013
LA Times: Teams will fan out across the Sierra Nevada on Thursday to perform their final snow survey of the season, a closely watched rite of spring that helps determine how much water will flow to farms and cities in coming months.
But 18,000 feet above the Sierra slopes, an airborne experiment is underway that could revolutionize that ritual.
Starting in early April, researchers have made weekly flights over the upper Tuolumne River basin, taking sophisticated instrument readings of the snow depth...
Earth’s greenhouse gas levels approach 400 ppm milestone
Posted by LA Times: Geoffrey Mohan on May 2nd, 2013
LA Times: The ratio of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is flirting with 400 parts per million, a level last seen about 2.5 million to 5 million years ago, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
The Institution this week launched a daily Keeling curve update, showing the saw-toothed upward diagonal of rising carbon dioxide levels since the late 1950s.
Isolated measurements have peaked at above 400 parts per million in the Arctic, but scientists are more alarmed at steady...