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Archive for August 27th, 2013
Hold the water: Some firms fracking without it
Posted by Houston Chronicle: None Given on August 27th, 2013
Houston Chronicle: The use of one precious fluid - water - to recover another - oil - chafes in dry country. Rivers and groundwater are receding in Texas for lack of rain and over-pumping just when the demand for water in new oil and gas fields is growing.
Now one exploration and production company in San Antonio is fracturing its wells mostly without water, using gas liquids instead, in a practice that`s beginning to spread.
Fracturing, or fracking, refers to using fluid under pressure to create fissures held...
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Japan: TEPCO Handling Fukushima Water Leaks ‘Like Whack-a-Mole’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: TEPCO's handling of radioactive water at Fukushima has been like "whack-a-mole", a minister said Monday after visiting the battered plant, pledging Japan's government would step up its involvement at the site.
The colourful comments come after 300 tonnes of toxic liquid was found to have leaked from one of the hundreds of tanks storing heavily polluted water used to cool broken reactors at the plant.
"With regard to TEPCO's handling of contaminated water, it has been just like whack-a-mole,"...
Anti Fracking Special Report: UK
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2013
Ecologist: Post-Balcombe what will the fracking landscape look like? Now that the stage has been set with community resistance and national support will the fracking prospectors be running scared or is the prize too great? Investors think it is; their opponents disagree and there is no meeting of minds which is why communities may hold the key in this protracted battle for our energy future. It won't be a case of what David Cameron says but instead what the people say when the drill arrives.
Cuadrilla has...
United Kingdom: Killer shrimps threatening pond life
Posted by Telegraph: Olivia Goldhill on August 27th, 2013
Telegraph: The shrimp, which can grow up to 3cm and are voracious predators, are thought to have been introduced to Britain through shipping.
Two species are involved, according to Dr Belinda Gallardo of the University of Cambridge, who estimates that the species could thrive in up to 60 per cent of the country's stillwater sites, according to The Times.
The shrimps are known as the killer shrimp and the demon shrimp, or Dikerogammarus villosus and Dikerogammarus haemobaphes respectively.
More than...
Wildfire expected to burn deeper into Yosemite National Park
Posted by Reuters: Laila Kearney on August 27th, 2013
Reuters: A wildfire raging in the northwest part of Yosemite National Park was expected to advance farther into the park on Tuesday and continue to threaten a reservoir that supplies most of San Francisco's water.
The so-called Rim Fire has charred more than 160,000 acres, which is larger than Chicago, most of that in the Stanislaus National Forest west of Yosemite.
But the blaze was expected to move east overnight and push deeper into Yosemite, as well as in areas to the north, said U.S. Forest Service...
Africa: Desert Plantations Could Help Capture Carbon
Posted by SciDevNet: Nehal Lasheen and Imogen Mathers on August 27th, 2013
SciDevNet: Planting trees in coastal deserts could capture carbon dioxide, reduce harsh desert temperatures, boost rainfall, revitalise soils and produce cheap biofuels, say scientists. Large-scale plantations of the hardy jatropha tree, Jatropha curcas, could help sequester carbon dioxide through a process known as 'carbon farming', according to a study based on data gathered in Mexico and Oman that was published in Earth System Dynamics last month (31 July). Each hectare of the tree could soak up 17-25...
Turning Off The Spigot In Western Kansas Farmland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2013
National Public Radio: Across the high plains, many farmers depend on underground stores of water, and they worry about wells going dry. A new scientific study of western Kansas lays out a predicted timeline for those fears to become reality. But it also shows an alternative path for farming in Kansas: The moment of reckoning can be delayed, and the impact softened, if farmers start conserving water now.
David Steward, a water expert at Kansas State University, says that he and his colleagues started this research project...
How Anti-Keystone Activists Plan to Solve Climate Change
Posted by Tyee: Geoff Dembicki on August 27th, 2013
Tyee: North America's vast carbon emissions -- and the pressing need to limit them -- are invigorating a cultural debate among those who advocate urgent change. At its heart are profound disagreements over efforts to block the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last week The Tyee reported on those who worry the anti-pipeline fight led by author and activist Bill McKibben is polarizing, distracting and ultimately unhelpful as a climate change solution.
After that story ran, The Tyee spoke at length with Phil Aroneanu,...
On fracking rules, it’s states vs. feds
Posted by National Journal: Amy Harder on August 27th, 2013
National Journal: How can you be in a relationship with someone who doesn't want to be in a relationship with you? That's the challenge facing Interior Secretary Sally Jewell when she recently visited with oil executives here and sought to explain why the federal government thinks it's necessary to regulate drilling operations.
"I appreciate what's happening in the Bakken," Jewell told reporters after touring a Continental Resources drilling rig on the Bakken rock-shale formation deep below Williston earlier this...
EPA chief warns against climate change on visit to Alaska glacier
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Sean Cockerham on August 27th, 2013
Sacramento Bee: As she marveled at the site of a shrinking Alaska glacier, the newly installed leader of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that the president told her that fighting climate change should be her primary focus.
"The president's main priority for me was to recognize when I was coming in here that this is going to be a significant challenge and one in which the administration was going to begin to tackle," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
While the Portage Glacier has been in...