RSS Feed
Archive for May 8th, 2013
India: From Arunachal Pradesh, a tribe offers lessons in ecology
Posted by New York Times: Brian Orland on May 8th, 2013
New York Times: The end of April is planting time for the women of the Apa Tani tribe. Their 50-square-kilometer valley is a meticulously groomed jewel of green conservation, compared to the flood-beset Assam plains below or the slash-and-burn plots that neighboring tribes cultivate in the shrinking forests of the surrounding hills.
Here in Ziro Valley, teams of rice planters have already finished the annual refurbishment of the intricate network of interlinked irrigation channels. Now women laboriously transplant...
Posted in 
Cutthroat trout face upstream swim against climate change
Posted by Summit Daily: Breeana Laughlin on May 8th, 2013
Summit Daily: Colorado's cutthroat trout live life on the edges, at high elevations and in isolated pockets other trout haven't been able to reach. It appears to have toughened them up, according to a recent study looking at climate change's impact on the species.
Rising water temperatures, the Colorado State University study concludes, aren't impacting the indigenous fish like some of its non-native brothers.
Results of the study, which included six streams in Summit County, indicate that the hardy fish...
Kevin McCloud: ‘I am a big fan of composting toilets’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
Guardian: You can cover a lot of ground in 40 minutes with Kevin McCloud, the presenter of the Grand Designs TV show. We get through his expanding bellows trousers, retail therapy as the thrill of the caveman's kill and why he loves long-drop toilets. I also ask him for his favourite Grand Design projects ever: small is beautiful, it seems.
But I start by asking him what has got him excited today? "I have just got my delivery of Sugru," he says. This turns out to be a kind of putty. "It comes in different...
A Call for Quid Pro Quo on Keystone Pipeline Approval
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
New York Times: President Obama’s first major environmental decision of his second term could be to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, profoundly disappointing environmental advocates who have made the project a symbolic test of the president’s seriousness on climate change. But could some kind of deal be in the offing, a major climate policy announcement on, for example, power plant regulation or renewable energy incentives, to ease the sting of the pipeline approval? White House and State Department officials...
The giants of the green world that profit from the planet’s destruction
Posted by Guardian: Naomi Klein on May 8th, 2013
Guardian: The movement demanding that public interest institutions divest their holdings from fossil fuels is on a serious roll. Chapters have opened up in more than 100 US cities and states as well as on more than 300 campuses, where students are holding protests, debates and sit-ins to pressure their to rid their endowments of oil, gas and coal holdings. And under the "Fossil Free UK" banner, the movement is now crossing the Atlantic, with a major push planned by People & Planet for this summer. Some schools,...
Arkansas Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill Are on Their Own
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song on May 8th, 2013
InsideClimate: For more than a month, residents of Mayflower, Ark. have been told not to worry about lingering fumes from a March 29 oil spill that shut down a neighborhood and forced the evacuation of 22 homes. "Overall, air emissions in the community continue to be below levels likely to cause health effects for the general population," Arkansas regulators wrote on a state-operated website [3] that tracks Mayflower's air monitoring data. Despite these reassurances, residents have suffered headaches, nausea...
EU embraces green infrastructure package
Posted by EurActiv: None Given on May 8th, 2013
EurActiv: The European Union adopted a new strategy yesterday (6 May) aimed at promoting green infrastructure, and putting natural processes at the heart of its spatial planning.
EU money will now encourage green solutions to infrastructure problems, such as allowing natural wetlands to absorb excess water from heavy rain, instead of building concrete flood protection infrastructure.
In what green campaigners in Brussels view as a 'Eureka moment', the package will allow stone beaches to receive preferential...
Enbridge Shuts N. Dakota Oil Line After Another Leak Found
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
Reuters: Enbridge Inc, Canada's largest pipeline operator, said it shut its 210,000 barrel-per-day North Dakota pipeline for the second time in less than a week after finding contaminated soil during integrity checks. Graham White, a spokesman for the company, said in an email the line was shut on Monday after the discovery. The company does not yet know when it will restart. Enbridge estimates 2 barrels of oil leaked from the line.