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Archive for August, 2013
East Antarctic ice sheet ‘vulnerable’ to temperature changes
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on August 30th, 2013
BBC: The world's thickest ice sheet may be at greater risk from variations in the climate than previously believed.
Scientists found that glaciers on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) advance and retreat in synch with changes in temperature.
Since it contains enough water to raise global sea levels by over 50m, there is an urgent need to study the threat the researchers said.
The research has been published in the journal Nature.
Scientists have long been worried about the threat to sea...
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United Kingdom: Fracking debate brings climate change closer to home
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2013
Guardian: Many of those who deny that climate change is taking place reached that position as a result of their opposition to windfarms. This, for example, was the route taken by David Bellamy, who stumbled disastrously into the debate a decade ago. During one of our discussions, he set me the following challenge: "Why are the so-called greens backing a cartel of multinational companies which are hell bent on covering some of the best of our countryside with so-called windfarms, which can neither provide...
United Kingdom: Green groups signal willingness to defy campaigning crackdown
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on August 30th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Some of the UK's green NGOs could be willing to break the law if the government passes its controversial Lobbying Bill in its current form. Fears are mounting across the NGO and think tank sector that the new legislation, which receives its second parliamentary reading next week, will place draconian restrictions on their activities in the year before an election. The proposed regulations were originally designed to require corporate lobbyists to sign up to a public register, but they were subsequently...
Heat waves tied to flare-ups of digestive illness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2013
Reuters: Flare-ups of inflammatory bowel disease and "stomach bugs" may be more common during and immediately after heat waves, a new study suggests.
Swiss researchers looked at five years of records from one hospital and found more admissions related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during long stretches of hot days.
Hospitalizations for so-called infectious gastroenteritis, marked by vomiting and watery diarrhea, also increased, lagging behind IBD admissions by about a week.
The study "shows...
Report: Keystone XL Will Drive Oil Sands Growth, Boost Emissions
Posted by Hill: Zack Colman on August 30th, 2013
Hill: The Keystone XL pipeline will expand oil sands production in Canada by 36 percent, and therefore, ramp up carbon emissions, according to a report released Thursday by environmental groups. The groups said the report gives President Obama “all of the information he needs to reject” Keystone, as the president said in June he’d oppose the Canada-to-Texas pipeline if it “significantly exacerbates” carbon pollution. “The answer to the president’s Keystone XL climate challenge is clear: the Keystone...
Deep Ice Canyon Found Far Below Greenland Surface
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on August 30th, 2013
Environment News Service: Using ice-penetrating radar, scientists have discovered a long, deep canyon that exists a mile beneath the Greenland ice sheet, data from a NASA airborne science mission and an international research team reveals.
The scientific team identified a continuous bedrock canyon that extends from almost the center of the island and ends at its northern extremity in a deep fjord connecting to the Arctic ocean.
The canyon looks like a winding river channel at least 460 miles (750 kilometers) long, making...
Yosemite wildfire still raging, keeps tourists away
Posted by Reuters: Laila Kearney on August 30th, 2013
Reuters: Fire crews battling to outflank a monster wildfire inside Yosemite National Park made headway on Friday in confining flames to wilderness areas but were powerless to salvage the region's sputtering tourist economy at the end of its peak summer tourist season.
By morning, the tally of charred landscape from the so-called Rim Fire surpassed 200,000 acres, or nearly 315 square miles, three-quarters of that in the Stanislaus National Forest west of the park, fire officials said.
But a second straight...
Kalamazoo pipeline protester could get two years in jail
Posted by Grist: John Upton on August 30th, 2013
Grist: One oil spill in his community was more than enough for Kalamazoo resident Christopher Wahmhoff. To protest Enbridge’s replacement of the pipeline that burst along a Michigan riverbank in 2010, Wahmhoff spent 10 hours of his 35th birthday inside the new pipe, slowing construction for a single day in June. Now Wahmhoff, a member of the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, has been charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor, charges that could see him put behind bars for more than two years. “It...
Keystone XL Pipeline “Flunks Climate Test,” New Report
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on August 29th, 2013
Environment News Service: Environmental advocates delivered a report on the climate effects of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to President Barack Obama today, with the intention of giving the President all the information he needs to reject the pipeline.
Sierra Club and Oil Change International compiled the report, which finds that the bitumen produced from the oil sands of northern Alberta would push climate change into overdrive. The report concludes that the Keystone XL pipeline is the "linchpin" of further tar...
Greens use Keystone XL backers’ words to undermine pipeline
Posted by Reuters: Valerie Volcovici on August 29th, 2013
Reuters: Environmental groups on Thursday used statements by supporters of the proposed Canada-U.S. Keystone XL pipeline to undermine the argument that Canada's tar sands will be developed without the project, so the impact on greenhouse gases will be the same.
A report put together by more than a dozen green groups compiles statements by industry and government officials, financial analysts and green groups to argue that the 830,000 b/d oil pipeline is essential for the development of the tar sands, and...