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Archive for May, 2013
Academics warn Canada against further tar sands production
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 8th, 2013
Guardian: The Canadian government's promotion of the tar sands industry is setting the world on a course of catastrophic climate change, a group of climate scientists and economists have warned.
In a letter made available to the Guardian, the academics urged Canada's natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, to consider the consequences of his support for expanding Alberta's tar sands production.
Oliver has in recent months emerged as the main proponent for the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington and other...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Academics warn Canada against further tar sands production5 things that probably aren’t killing honeybees – and 1 thing that definitely is
Posted by Mother Nature Network: None Given on May 8th, 2013
Mother Nature Network: You’ve probably heard that honeybees in America had a particularly difficult time this winter, with hive losses surpassing 50 percent in some areas. Colony collapse disorder or CCD is blamed for doubling or tripling the usual rate of winter hive die-offs, and years into the epidemic, scientists are still scrambling to understand the cause or causes. Linkages have been found between CCD and a number of factors, but a single, smoking, bee-killing gun remains elusive. Let’s take a look at some of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 5 things that probably aren’t killing honeybees – and 1 thing that definitely isConservative newspaper declares love for Obama’s fracker-friendly ways
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 8th, 2013
Grist: Uber-conservative Beltway newspaper The Washington Examiner has revealed its secret crush on Barack Obama and his administration`s fracker-friendly ways.
It`s not often that the newspaper says anything nice about the president. The Examiner is owned by Philip Anschutz, an oil-drilling magnate, and the newspaper sometimes seems to exist only to beam its owner`s conservative views into the brains of D.C. insiders.
In March, for example, the paper`s editorial writers likened the president to "a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Conservative newspaper declares love for Obama’s fracker-friendly waysSandy Eco-Restoration Gets $1 Billion+ in Federal Grants
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on May 8th, 2013
Environment News Service: The Department of the Interior is releasing $475.25 million in emergency Hurricane Sandy disaster relief appropriations to 234 projects that will repair and rebuild parks, refuges and other Interior assets damaged by the storm.
Sandy struck the U.S. Atlantic coast on October 29, 2012, and affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin, with severe damage in New Jersey and New York. In New York...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Sandy Eco-Restoration Gets $1 Billion+ in Federal GrantsIndia: 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 Water Conservation Comments Off on India: From Arunachal Pradesh, a tribe offers lessons in ecologyCutthroat 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Cutthroat trout face upstream swim against climate changeKevin 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,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The giants of the green world that profit from the planet’s destructionArkansas 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arkansas Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill Are on Their Own