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Archive for September 10th, 2013
Kenya water discovery brings hope for drought relief in rural north
Posted by Guardian: Martin Plaut on September 10th, 2013
Guardian: Two vast underground aquifers, storing billions of litres of water, have been discovered in the poorest and least developed area of Kenya.
The finds, in Turkana county in the north west, were uncovered using new technology to interpret ground-penetrating radar from satellites. Professor Judy Wakhungu, appointed minister of environment, water and natural resources in April, described the find as extremely significant. "It is not too deep and ought not to be not too expensive to develop," she added....
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U.S. decision on Keystone XL pipeline likely to slip into 2014
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
Reuters: As the State Department drags out the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, it is more likely President Barack Obama's final decision on the project to help link Canada's oil sands to U.S. refineries will slip into 2014, experts said.
The department has yet to finalize a controversial environmental review of more than 2,000 pages it issued on March 1 that it had been expected to complete by mid-summer. Instead, the department is reviewing and publishing in batches the more than 1.5 million public...
Dust Bowl Worries Swirl Up As Shelterbelt Buckles
Posted by National Public Radio: Joe Wertz on September 10th, 2013
National Public Radio: In the 1930s, the Dust Bowl ravaged crops and helped plunge the U.S. into an environmental and economic depression. Farmland in parts of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas disappeared.
After the howling winds passed and the dust settled, federal foresters planted 100 million trees across the Great Plains, forming a giant windbreak - known as a shelterbelt - that stretched from Texas to Canada.
Now, those trees are dying from drought, leaving some to worry whether another Dust Bowl might...
Rim Fire Suppression Costs Exceed $100 million
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on September 10th, 2013
Environment News Service: The cost for battling a three-week old wildfire both within and outside Yosemite National Park has reached $100.4 million. Although fire officials say the Rim Fire is 80 percent contained, the fire has burned 254,000 acres, or 398 square miles, and is still intensifing within the containment area.
Hot and extremely dry conditions combined with shifting winds and low humidity continue to plague firefighters. U.S. Forest Service officials say more than 3,500 personnel continue to patrol, mop-up,...
How Drought Helped Spark Syria’s Civil War—Is it One of Many Climate Wars to Come?
Posted by EcoWatch: John Light on September 10th, 2013
EcoWatch: Climate change is already hurting the world’s most vulnerable populations. Those who live in areas hit hard by drought, severe storms or rising seas and can’t relocate because of economic or social factors bear the brunt of our planet’s increasing volatility.
One way the changing climate has already made itself known is through a devastating drought--and ensuing food shortage--in Syria; it created a powder keg, and played a significant role in sparking the country’s civil war. We can expect to...
How Climate Change Threatens A Double Blow To The Caribbean’s Drinking Water
Posted by ClimateProgress: Jeff Spross on September 10th, 2013
ClimateProgress: According to experts, the island nations of the Caribbean could see a double blow to their freshwater supplies thanks to climate change. Shifting rainfall patterns may not replenish the countries` underground water reservoirs as in the past, and rising sea levels threaten to contaminate those same supplies with salt water.
Scientists and officials gathered at the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia this past week for a conference entitled "Climate Change, Tourism and Agriculture -- Strategies and innovations...
Oil lobbyists seek environmental exemption ahead of California frack bill vote
Posted by EnergyWire: Anne C. Mulkern on September 10th, 2013
EnergyWire: Oil industry lobbyists sought to gain an exemption from the leading California environmental law as they pushed back against legislation mandating oversight of hydraulic fracturing, multiple people familiar with the activities said.
The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) last week offered language that would have given oil companies conducting fracking on wells a release from requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, legislative aides and green groups said.
The...
Environmentalists, tribe seek to halt General Electric megaloads
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
Associated Press: Environmentalists and the Nez Perce Tribe told a federal judge Monday he was their last hope in stopping further shipments of giant oil-field equipment from winding down an Idaho mountain highway toward Canada's tar sands.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for a General Electric Co. subsidiary told U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill that the courts had no authority to interfere with the company's second 225-foot-long, 640,000-pound water evaporator, slated to travel on U.S. Highway 12 on Sept. 18.
Its first...
Grandparents Tell Gov. Hickenlooper Not to Frack Their Grandchildren’s Future
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 10th, 2013
EcoWatch: Concerned grandparents from across Colorado delivered a letter yesterday to tell Gov. Hickenlooper (D-CO) and other governors from across the country to say no to fracking and yes to a renewable energy future in celebration of National Grandparents’ Day. The delivery took place before Gov. Hickenlooper’s keynote address to the Western Governor’s Association Policy Forum on Shale Energy Development in Broomfield.
Kaye Fissinger of Longmont, Joan Muranata of Broomfield, Merrily Mazza of Lafayette...
West Nile Virus Season to Last Longer as Climate Changes
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on September 10th, 2013
Climate Central: Warm weather brings ice cream, beach days, and other joys of summer but it also brings the incessant buzz of mosquitoes. While a number of mosquitoes will bite and leave little more than a red welt, others, especially in the southern half of the U.S., can transmit West Nile virus, which can cause potentially lethal West Nile fever, encephalitis and meningitis. New research provides doses of good and bad news about how a changing climate will affect the southern house mosquito, which is the main mosquito...