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Archive for July 22nd, 2013
Fracking controls ‘removed in dash for unconventional energy resources’
Posted by Independent: Jonathan Brown on July 22nd, 2013
Independent: Local communities are set to lose control over key environmental decisions affecting whether fracking can go ahead within their midst, it is claimed.
Campaigners opposing the industrial-scale exploitation of shale gas reserves in the British countryside said the Government has removed key democratic controls in its dash to bring unconventional energy resources on stream.
Under planning guidelines published last week, councils will no longer be able to investigate issues such as seismic activity,...
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Millions Against Monsanto: On the Road to Victory
Posted by EcoWatch: Ronnie Cummins on July 22nd, 2013
EcoWatch: “The harder they come the harder they fall, one and all.” -- Jimmy Cliff, reggae classic.
After enjoying a year of maximum profits, record stock prices, the defeat of a major GMO [genetically modified organisms] labeling campaign in California, pro-industry court decisions and a formidable display of political power in Washington, D.C.--including slipping the controversial Monsanto Protection Act into the Federal Appropriations bill in March--the "Biotech Bully" from St. Louis now finds itself...
Landowners vs. Keystone XL in Eminent Domain Lawsuit
Posted by Bold Nebraska: Mark Hefflinger on July 22nd, 2013
Bold Nebraska: Three Nebraska landowners will finally see their day in court as the lawsuit they filed against the state is finally moving forward. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the LB 1161 the law used by the state legislature and Gov. Heineman (R-NE) for approving eminent domain and the Keystone XL pipeline route in Nebraska. The State Department must put on hold any review of the pipeline.
After multiple attempts at delay by state officials, Nebraska Judge Stacy announced today that the lawsuit...
Vulnerable Maryland weighs threat of sea-level rise
Posted by Washington Post: Darryl Fears on July 22nd, 2013
Washington Post: It was scary enough that a team of experts on sea-level rise projected that Maryland's coastal waters could rise to six feet in this century. But to hammer home the findings of a new report, they included a link to a Web tool that allows readers to make like a god, sliding a scale over pictures of state landmarks until a creeping tide washes them away.
Maryland, with 3,100 miles of tidal shore along the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, is one of several states, including Virginia, Delaware,...
Heat wave almost turns suburban lakes into ‘bathwater.’
Posted by Daily Herald: Matt Arado on July 22nd, 2013
Daily Herald: During heat waves like the one now baking the suburbs, hundreds of people flock to local lakes for a bit of cooling refreshment.
But can the water get too hot for comfort?
The blistering temperatures of the past week have boosted temperatures in suburban lakes, too. In McHenry County, water temperatures in some lakes have pushed well into the 80s, officials said.
"It can feel almost like bath water now," said Gail Weber, laboratory coordinator for the McHenry County Health Department. "When...
Japan’s Fukushima operator acknowledges contaminated water flowing into sea
Posted by Reuters: Kiyoshi Takenaka on July 22nd, 2013
Reuters: The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Monday that contaminated ground water had likely been flowing into the sea, acknowledging such a leakage for the first time.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, made the announcement a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner scored a decisive victory in elections to the upper house, cementing his grip on power.
The head of Japan's new Nuclear Regulation...
Study Highlights Damages of Climate Change on Volta River
Posted by Voice of America: Kim Lewis on July 22nd, 2013
Voice of America: A new report highlighting the damaging effects of climate change on West Africa’s Volta River basin was released at the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week in Accra, Ghana. The study was performed by the Ghana based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’s (CGIAR) Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). It examined the effects of climate change on water storage in Africa and detailed how...
InsideClimate News, Arkansas Times Reach Funding Goal to Conduct Oil Spill Investigation
Posted by InsideClimate: Stacy Feldman on July 22nd, 2013
InsideClimate: InsideClimate News and the Arkansas Times reached the fundraising target for their innovative reporting collaboration after a three-week campaign. Two reporters will soon be on the ground to investigate the causes and consequences of the Exxon pipeline spill in Mayflower, Ark. that occurred last Mar. 29.
The online fundraising effort that raised $26,790 was run on ioby.org, a non-profit crowdfunding platform. About 260 people contributed to the campaign with an average donation of approximately...
Fracking Chemicals Didn’t Contaminate Water, Study Finds
Posted by Associated Press: Kevin Begos on July 22nd, 2013
Associated Press: A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site, the Department of Energy told The Associated Press.
After a year of monitoring, the researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas trapped deep below the surface stayed thousands of feet below the shallower areas that supply drinking water, geologist Richard...
Climate change is making poison ivy grow bigger and badder
Posted by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: David Templeton on July 22nd, 2013
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Poison ivy's shiny green leaves are gourmet cuisine for deer, bear and other animals. Birds like its white berries and spread the seeds by unmentionable means. But the leaves, berries and vine are the bane of humankind and primates. In the hours after the lacquer-like oil, urushiol, gets transferred at the slightest contact, mad scratching begins.
Enough urushiol to fit on the head of a pin can cause misery for 500 people. Even a billionth of a gram of urushiol on the skin is said to cause agony....