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Archive for September 24th, 2013
Tallying the Benefits of Climate Action
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2013
Inter Press Service: More than a half-dozen governments on Tuesday launched a yearlong collaborative investigation into the economic benefits of taking broad action to combat global climate action.
The nine-million-dollar initiative, dubbed the New Climate Economy project, is being spearheaded by a commission chaired by former Mexican president Felipe Calderon and is backed by the governments of Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Korea, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The research will be carried out by institutes...
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Climate change report will point a finger at humans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2013
USA Today: A landmark report from the world's top climate scientists this week is likely to say with heightened certainty that humans are behind the planet's rising temperatures, but also that surface temperatures are not the only indicators of climate change.
Senior scientist Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was a review editor on the new report, says other signs that bear witness to changes include shrinking Arctic sea ice, melting Greenland ice, warming...
CEOs: environmental and social data helps companies make better decisions
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on September 24th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Chief executives acknowledge businesses will make better long term decisions if they consider their company's environmental and social footprints alongside financial impacts, but very few are using data about their total impact for this purpose. That is the conclusion of a survey of 187 chief executives from companies with turnovers larger than $100m conducted by financial services company PwC, which suggests companies are increasingly looking beyond "narrow notions of input, output and profit"...
Effort to ship Bakken oil through Great Lakes hits wall
Posted by Grist: John Upton on September 24th, 2013
Grist: The Great Lakes have been spared the ignominy of becoming a conveyor for crude oil fracked at North Dakota`s Bakken fields.
At least for now.
Plans to build a crude shipping terminal at Duluth, Minn., on the western shore of Lake Superior, have been shelved because of a lack of refining capacity on the East Coast. From Wisconsin Public Radio:
The oil terminal would have shipped crude from the ever-expanding Bakken oil fields in North Dakota, where production has tripled over the past five...
Canadian Natural told to drain Alberta lake due to oil sands leak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2013
Reuters: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd has been ordered to drain a lake on the site of its northern Alberta oil sands project so that contamination on the lake's bottom, from a leak that has been spilling tar-like bitumen for months, can be cleaned up.
The province of Alberta's environment department issued an environmental protection order on Tuesday that compels the company to drain a two-thirds of the 53-hectare (131-acre) lake on its Primrose East thermal oil sands site before the onset of winter...
Fracking and Flooding in Colorado: The More We Know the Worse It Gets
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 24th, 2013
EcoWatch: The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) reported three new spills today from damaged oil and gas wells caused by the torrential rains and subsequent flooding that continues to batter the state of Colorado.
Oil workers try to lift a storage tank for condensate that was knocked over by floodwaters from the Platte River at an oil well site near LaSalle, CO, on Friday, Sept. 20. Condensate is the mix of oil and water that is pumped out of the ground. The tank was intact and had not...
Global Warming to Cause Increase in US Severe Storms, Researchers Report
Posted by Nature World News: James A. Foley on September 24th, 2013
Nature World News: A new climate analysis led by scientists at Stanford University suggests that severe thunderstorms in the United States are likely to increase over the next century as a result of global warming.
According the the researchers, severe thunderstorms are one of the primary causes of catastrophic losses in the US, with damage from destructive rainfall, hail and tornadoes resulting in billions of dollars in damages. Last year alone, 11 weather-related events in the US exceeded the $1 billion threshold...
Court to EPA on Gulf dead-zone rules: Make up your freakin’ mind
Posted by Grist: John Upton on September 24th, 2013
Grist: Is it time for the federal government to drop the hammer on the farmers whose fertilizer gushes into the Mississippi River, fueling sweeping dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico? The Environmental Protection Agency now has six months to decide.
The deadline comes via a federal judge in New Orleans in response to a lawsuit from the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups. The enviros argue that states aren`t doing enough to tackle the problem, and have petitioned the feds to...
Toxic Algae Plagues U.S
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 24th, 2013
EcoWatch: Summer should be a time for fishing, boating and swimming with family on our nation’s lakes. Yet instead of fresh clear waters, many are encountering mats of thick blue-green harmful algal blooms (HABs)--also known as toxic algae.
A new, first-of-its-kind national online map by the communications firm Resource Media shows that 21 states across the U.S. have issued health advisories and warnings related to harmful algal blooms at 147 different locations on lakes, rivers and ponds this summer. ...
Report Exposes Social Costs of Fracking on Rural America
Posted by EcoWatch: Sharon Kelly on September 24th, 2013
EcoWatch: What’s it like living in a small town that’s gone from rust belt farmland to fracking boomtown?
First, residents often say, there’s the traffic. Communities have been unexpectedly flooded with heavy tractor trailers that locals say turn 10 minute commutes into hour-long ordeals, choke back roads and decimate pavement so badly that in some areas, drilling companies are barred from entering until they agree to pay for road repairs. “The traffic here is horrendous,” Towanda, PA, resident Joe Benjamin...