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Archive for September 21st, 2013
New ad challenges economic benefits of Keystone pipeline
Posted by USA Today: Fredreka Schouten on September 21st, 2013
USA Today: In a television commercial set to air today, billionaire climate-change activist Tom Steyer is launching a fresh line of attack against the Keystone XL pipeline by questioning its economic benefits.
The 90-second ad, provided to USA TODAY in advance of its first airing, is the third in a series of four commercials Steyer has funded as part of his effort to kill the pipeline. The 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry heavy crude oil from the tar sands in Canada to Texas refineries, awaits approval...
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Horizontal drilling, fracking begins in old, shallow oil and gas fields
Posted by Post-Gazette: Anya Litvak on September 21st, 2013
Post-Gazette: If we could take a tiny glass elevator down the trajectory of a Marcellus Shale well, we would see slabs of coal, sandstone, shale and siltstone alternating and colliding with one another for thousands of feet until we finally reach the target rock.
Today, half a dozen local oil and gas companies are forgoing the full ride. They're getting off the elevator halfway down, before the Elk Sandstone formation that separates the conventional oil and gas reservoirs from the deeper, unconventional plays...
Climate change: IPCC issues stark warning over global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2013
Guardian: Scientists will this week issue their starkest warning yet about the mounting dangers of global warming. In a report to be handed to political leaders in Stockholm on Monday, they will say that the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation have now led to a warming of the entire globe, including land surfaces, oceans and the atmosphere. Extreme weather events, including heatwaves and storms, have increased in many regions while ice sheets are dwindling at an alarming rate. In addition, sea levels...
Hundreds Events “Draw the Line” Against Keystone XL & Tar Sands
Posted by Huffington Post: Jamie Henn on September 21st, 2013
Huffington Post: At over 200 events today -- from Alaska to Nebraska -- people are "Drawing the Line" against the Keystone XL pipeline, tar sands and other dirty energy projects. The day's events are being coordinated by the climate campaign 350.org with help from scores of partners. The demonstrations are a sign that while President Obama considers Keystone XL's fate, opposition to the pipeline has continued to grow. Over 1,500 people have already been arrested to stop Keystone XL, and on February 17 over 40,000...
Worsening Water Scarcity to Affect 2 Billion Globally
Posted by Climate News Network: Kieran Cooke on September 21st, 2013
Climate News Network: Water scarcity is a fact of life in many parts of the world, particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. A new study says the situation could get a lot worse, with climate change resulting in less rain and more evaporation in many areas.
Warming will expose 668 million people worldwide to new or aggravated water scarcity -- that's in addition to the 1.3 billion people already at present living in water-scarce regions. Credit: Nourishing the Planet
The study, led by researchers at the...
Climate change ‘hiatus’: scientists seek to qualify evidence of apparent global warming slowdown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2013
Independent: Authors of a landmark UN report on climate change remain adamant that humans are heating up the planet by burning fossil fuels and cutting down CO2-absorbing forests, despite data from the report suggesting a purported slowdown in global warming over the past 15 years.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) full 127-page document - due for release in Stockholm next week - is expected to suggest the link between human activity and global warming is clearer than ever, regardless...
Super typhoon cuts power, unleashes landslides in northern Philippines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2013
Reuters: The year's most powerful typhoon slammed into the Philippines' northernmost islands on Saturday, cutting communication and power lines, triggering landslides and inundating rice fields, officials said.
Packing winds of 185 kph (114 mph) near the center and gusts of up to 220 kph, Typhoon Usagi weakened after hitting the Batanes island group, and is moving slowly west-northwest at 19 kph towards southern China, the weather bureau said.
Usagi, which has been labeled a super typhoon, made landfall...
Mexico scours for dozens missing amid floods as storms abate
Posted by Reuters: Tomas Bravo on September 21st, 2013
Reuters: Rescuers cleared mud from shattered houses on Friday, searching for dozens of people missing after a mudslide flattened their village in southwest Mexico as some of the most destructive storms to hit the country in decades abated.
Dozens of homes in La Pintada, a village about 60 miles from the beach resort of Acapulco, were swallowed up by a mudslide touched off by heavy rain and flooding at the weekend that has killed at least 100 people across Mexico and forced thousands of people to abandon...