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Archive for May, 2013
Doubt cast on study of lead in rice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 9th, 2013
BBC: Tests indicating that rice imported to the US contained high levels of lead have been cast into doubt.
At a conference in April, researchers reported that commercially available rice contained many times more lead than US food authorities deemed safe.
The findings sparked international concern over imported rice.
But preliminary independent checks on the findings have failed to replicate the results, and tests suggest the equipment used may have been to blame.
The initial findings, revealed...
Rep. Griffin Wants Exxon Pipeline Relocated, but Keystone Is a ‘No-Brainer’
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song on May 9th, 2013
InsideClimate: Rep. Tim Griffin, a staunch supporter of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, recently asked ExxonMobil to move another, smaller oil pipeline away from a major water source in his home state of Arkansas.
It's a contradiction that grates on opponents of the Keystone, which would run through a critically important aquifer that supplies irrigation and drinking water to Nebraska and seven other states.
"What's good for Arkansas is good for Nebraska," anti-Keystone activist Jane Kleeb said in an email....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Rep. Griffin Wants Exxon Pipeline Relocated, but Keystone Is a ‘No-Brainer’Marshall Islands: Action to halt global warming will save my nation
Posted by Reuters: Tony de Brum on May 9th, 2013
Reuters: Minister Tony de Brum of the Republic of the Marshall Islands describes the clear and present danger posed by climate change to his nation, and urges the world to act against this threat.
My country needs a precious gift from the world's people -- the vision to take bold, urgent action on climate change, and the will to follow it through. Only concerted action can protect us from the rising seas and lack of fresh water that now threaten my nation's very existence.
I am from the Republic of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Marshall Islands: Action to halt global warming will save my nationUK public asked to spot biggest threats to tree health
Posted by Guardian: Jessica Aldred on May 9th, 2013
Guardian: Members of the public are being asked to spot the "six most unwanted" pests and diseases threatening UK trees, as part of a citizen science survey starting on Thursday.
Recent outbreaks of the oak processionary moth and ash dieback disease have added to the increasing number of pests and diseases that have been attacking trees in the past few years, leading to a decline in tree health and in some cases tree loss.
In order to manage the threat, Open Air Laboratories (Opal) researchers, together...
Joe Biden kinda sorta maybe opposes Keystone XL pipeline
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 8th, 2013
Grist: Vice President Joe Biden told an activist on Friday that he doesn`t support the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, according to a post on the Sierra Club website.
While the veep was working the crowd at an event in South Carolina, Elaine Cooper got a moment with him:
I asked him about the administration’s commitment to making progress on climate and whether the president would reject the pipeline. He looked at the Sierra Club hat on my head, and he said “yes, I do - I share your views - but I am...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Joe Biden kinda sorta maybe opposes Keystone XL pipelineNew Yorkers Call on Gov. Cuomo to Protect Thriving Tourism Industry from Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: New Yorkers Against Fracking on May 8th, 2013
EcoWatch: Outside the summit, New York state residents handed out literature to participants.
On the day of Governor Cuomo’s tourism summit, New York bed-and-breakfasts, wineries and other tourism-related businesses highlighted fracking’s incompatibility with upstate tourism and called on the governor to protect the state’s tourism industry by banning fracking. New Yorkers Against Fracking also announced a radio ad running in Albany, emphasizing the risks that fracking poses to the state’s rural tourism...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Yorkers Call on Gov. Cuomo to Protect Thriving Tourism Industry from FrackingCriteria for ‘Red List’ of Endangered Ecosystems Released
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on May 8th, 2013
LiveScience: With many of the world's ecosystems threatened or endangered by human activities like logging and urbanization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its criteria for a new "Red List" of endangered ecosystems today (May 8) in the journal PLOS ONE.
The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be similar to the group's authoritative Red List of Endangered Species, which created internationally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.
"The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Criteria for ‘Red List’ of Endangered Ecosystems ReleasedGreenland’s Ice Loss Slows, But Still Won’t Save Coasts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
Climate Central: The flow of Greenland's glaciers toward the sea may have increased significantly in the past decade, but a new report in Nature finds that rate of increase is unlikely to continue. "The loss of ice has doubled in the past 10 years, but it's not going to double again,' said lead author Faezeh Nick, a glaciologist at the University Centre in Svalbard, in Longyearbyen, Norway, in an interview.
That conclusion, based on a new, sophisticated computer model, makes the worst-case scenario of sea level...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenland’s Ice Loss Slows, But Still Won’t Save CoastsNuclear plant spills radiation into Lake Michigan
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 8th, 2013
Grist: Last summer, a leaky tank led to the shutdown of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. So plant owner Entergy patched up the leak, fired back up the reactor, and hoped for the best.
Unfortunately, the best did not materialize.
The tank began leaking again. But no worries, thought the Einsteins at Entergy, it was only leaking a gallon a day. That was OK, they figured, because the NRC had allowed it to leak up to 38 gallons a day. As of Friday, they were still doing that whole "hoping...
Interior Secretary: Fracking Regulations Will Be Based on Best Science
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
Reuters: The Obama administration's second attempt at writing regulations for hydraulic fracturing on public lands is not intended to appease either environmentalists or oil and gas drillers, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said on Tuesday.
Jewell told lawmakers at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the department was "very close" to unveiling the rules and reiterated a recent comment that the rules would be out in "weeks, not months."
Jewell was also pressed about the department's plans...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Interior Secretary: Fracking Regulations Will Be Based on Best Science