RSS Feed
Archive for June 21st, 2013
India Flooding, Landslides Cause 600 Deaths as Stranded Begin to Starve
Posted by Nature World News: James A. Foley on June 21st, 2013
Nature World News: Flooding and landslides in northern India have claimed the lives of at nearly 600 people as the death toll continued to rise throughout the week.
Early and abnormally heavy monsoon rains caused the Ganges Rivers and some of its tributaries to flood, triggering landslides that killed or trapped hundreds, while tens of thousands have been left stranded.
The Himalayan state of Uttrakhand was among the worst affected regions. People in scores of towns and villages have been stranded by flooding...
Posted in 
Canadian floods prompt evacuation of entire downtown Calgary area
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2013
Associated Press: Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of the entire downtown area on Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city's hockey arena.
About 230,000 people work downtown on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work on Friday.
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated population of 75,000, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a...
EPA Pushes Back Fracking Impact Study to 2016
Posted by EcoWatch: Trisha Marczak on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving back its timeline for release of its study on the impact of hydraulic fracturing from 2014 to 2016, the agency announced this week at the Shale Gas: Promises and Challenges conference in Cleveland, OH.
The study, aimed at assessing the threats fracking poses to groundwater supplies and air quality, began in 2010 under the direction of Congress. The intent was to create a thorough assessment of the drilling method so states could make informed...
EPA abandons investigation into fracking pollution
Posted by Grist: John Upton on June 21st, 2013
Grist: The EPA is dropping its only investigation that has found evidence of water contamination from fracking.
Following a three-year study of groundwater pollution around Pavilion, Wyo., the EPA concluded in a draft report in 2011 that fracking chemicals were a likely cause. The finding was obviously controversial -- frackers would like us to believe that injecting poisonous chemicals into the ground couldn’t possibly poison water. Critics of the research found fault with the EPA’s methodology and...
Obama administration cuts back oil shale development
Posted by Fox News: Kelly David Burke on June 21st, 2013
Fox News: Controversy is heating up over an administration plan to drastically reduce the amount of federal lands available for oil shale development in the American West. The Bush administration had set aside 1.3 million acres for oil shale and tar sands development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The new Bureau of Land Management plan cuts that amount by two-thirds, down to 700,000 acres, a decision that has prompted industry outrage. "What they basically did was make it so that nobody is going to want...
During Record Drought, Frackers Outcompete Farmers for Water Supplies
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: The impacts of 2013's severe drought are apparent across the nation in forests, on farms and on once snowy peaks. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry is demanding unprecedented amounts of water for hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.
Fourth-generation Colorado farmer Kent Peppler told the Associated Press (AP) that he is fallowing some of his corn fields this year because he can’t afford to irrigate the land for the full growing season, in part because deep-pocketed energy companies...
Pennsylvanians Demand Clean Water and Moratorium on Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: Kati Lawson on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: Clean water activists and representatives from Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Berks Gas Truth gathered in the Capitol Wednesday to call on Gov. Corbett (R-PA) to speak publicly on the extent of water contamination from fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Director of Clean Water Action, Myron Arnowitt, said the rally was being held because many activists know that Pennsylvania will end up with dirty water if gas companies continue to work...
Warming oceans could kill ‘Hoff,’ the David Hasselhoff crab
Posted by LA Times: Deborah Netburn on June 21st, 2013
LA Times: The hairy-chested Yeti crab, which survives in an environment of no light, little oxygen, extreme temperatures and tremendous pressure, may not be able to survive a warming ocean, scientists say. The alien-like crab -- nicknamed the "Hoff" in honor of David Hasselhoff's similarly hairy torso -- was discovered in 2009, living on the perimeter of hydrothermal vents thousands of feet beneath the Indian and Arctic oceans. The area around the hydrothermal vents is beyond extreme. The vents heat the...
Australia: Climate change means tough time for Northern Rivers farmers
Posted by Northern Star: None Given on June 21st, 2013
Northern Star: FARMERS across the Northern Rivers are facing a future of higher temperatures, more pests and less ground water, warns a report released this week by the Australian Climate Commission. And these are only some of the risks facing the agricultural sector detailed in the report Critical Decade 2013. Some main points from the report The nation's highly respected Climate Commissioner Professor Will Steffen described the risks to the farming sector as "substantial". "Farmers are on the frontline of...
Why the city of Miami is doomed to drown
Posted by Rolling Stone: None Given on June 21st, 2013
Rolling Stone: When the water receded after Hurricane Milo of 2030, there was a foot of sand covering the famous bow-tie floor in the lobby of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. A dead manatee floated in the pool where Elvis had once swum. Most of the damage occurred not from the hurricane's 175-mph winds, but from the 24-foot storm surge that overwhelmed the low-lying city. In South Beach, the old art-deco buildings were swept off their foundations. Mansions on Star Island were flooded up to their cut-glass...