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Archive for September 6th, 2013
United Kingdom: Save our voles: Water vole numbers down a fifth in just three years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
Independent: Water vole numbers across the UK have dropped by more than 20 per cent in just a few years, crushing the hopes of a comeback that followed positive numbers in 2010, according to experts.
The stubby-nosed creatures used to be widespread throughout the country’s waterways, but a number of factors have seen populations plummet by as much as 95 per cent in the past four decades.
Information from the water vole database shows that in the face of habitat loss, weather extremes and the deadly and...
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Summer 2012’s Extreme Heat Expected To Repeat Due To Greenhouse Gas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
RedOrbit: Last July was the hottest month in the history of US weather record keeping, but it may not hold that title for long, researchers from Stanford University claim in a recently-published report.
According to Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor of environmental Earth system science at the California institution, and research assistant Martin Scherer, extreme weather is more than four times more likely to occur now than it was during the pre-industrial era.
In research that was part of a larger...
Africa’s mines ditch polluting practices to produce its first Fairtrade gold
Posted by Guardian: David Derbyshire on September 6th, 2013
Guardian: In a bustling area of Nyarugusu, in the heart of Tanzania's gold lands, a stocky man is fanning a dustbin lid of smouldering charcoal, gold ore and mercury on the pavement. Each waft sends a cloud of toxic vapour into the faces of children and adults as they gather to watch.
The burning of mercury is a common sight in the streets, homes and cottage-industry mines throughout east Africa. The liquid metal is used to extract the gold and then vaporised to leave behind flakes of the precious metal....
How cloud technology can bring clean drinking water to India
Posted by BusinessGreen: Kristine A. Wong, GreenBiz.com on September 6th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Imagine not having access to clean drinking water because you refused to vote for a particular politician, or didn't pay bribes to the driver delivering your supply. Even after doing both these things, you're still not sure just exactly when the next delivery will arrive.
This is the case in India, where access to drinking water is not universal. As India increasingly urbanizes and water becomes even more scarce, solutions that raise access will be more important in the coming decades.
That's...
United Kingdom: DECC won’t back Cameron’s fracking price promise
Posted by Ecologist: Alex Stevenson on September 6th, 2013
Ecologist: The Prime Minister's argument that fracking will reduce UK energy bills is grounded in "baseless economics".
David Cameron faces increasing isolation within his own government over fracking after it emerged the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is avoiding backing his claim that gas prices will fall as a result of shale gas development.
Internal DECC memos - seen by the Ecologist - reveal unwillingness within the department to reinforce the Prime Minister's appeal to energy consumers...
South Korea extends Japan fisheries ban as Fukushima concerns grow
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
Reuters: South Korea on Friday extended a ban on Japanese fishery imports to a larger area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant due to growing concerns over radiation contamination.
Further fuelling those concerns, the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, said it was "very concerned" that radioactive water could flow towards a bypass it is digging to divert clean groundwater around the damaged reactors and into the sea.
The bypass is a key element of the company's attempts to contain...
Harper sent Obama climate change offer to win Keystone
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
Reuters: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, trying to win U.S. backing for the Keystone XL pipeline, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama proposing joint action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector, CBC News said on Friday.
The White House has not responded to the letter, which was sent in late August, CBC said, although Harper met Obama briefly during the just-ended G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Obama has the final say over whether to let the pipeline cross...
Scientists Look Into Reasons For 2012’s Dramatic Weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
National Public Radio: Scientists looking back on last year's extreme weather events conclude that human-induced climate change didn't cause any of the events, but appears to have made some of them worse. The results are published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Experts urge Caribbean nations to prepare for climate change or risk fresh water scarcity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
Associated Press: Experts are sounding a new alarm about the effects of climate change for parts of the Caribbean -- the depletion of already strained drinking water throughout much of the region.
Rising sea levels could contaminate supplies of fresh water and changing climate patterns could result in less rain to supply reservoirs in the coming decades, scientists and officials warned at a conference in St. Lucia this week.
"Inaction is not an option,' said Lystra Fletcher-Paul, Caribbean land and water officer...
Green groups may be more damage than climate change deniers
Posted by Salon: Jason Mark on September 6th, 2013
Salon: Canadian author Naomi Klein is so well known for her blade-sharp commentary that it’s easy to forget that she is, above all, a first-rate reporter. I got a glimpse into her priorities as I was working on this interview. Klein told me she was worried that some of the things she had said would make it hard for her to land an interview with a president of the one of the Big Green groups (read below and you’ll see why). She was more interested in nabbing the story than being the story; her reporting...