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Archive for September, 2013
Is Living With Extreme Wildfires The New Normal?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
National Public Radio: It has been a deadly year for the people who fight wildfires. In total, 32 people have lost their lives fighting fires in 2013; the highest number in nearly 20 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Just one incident accounts for most of those deaths, the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona. In June, the blaze blasted through a firefighting crew known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots; 19 of the 20 men died.
As people move farther into wildland areas and climate change turns landscapes...
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Energy Secretary: United Nations IPCC Climate Report a Watershed
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on September 29th, 2013
Hill: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said the new United Nations climate report, which finds with 95 percent certainty that humans are the main driver of global warming, bolsters the case for President Obama’s climate plan.
“The report is a watershed report,” Moniz said of the UN science panel’s summary report released Friday, noting it “highlights the importance of moving now on this issue.”
“Clearly the statement about the extreme confidence of the scientists in terms of not only warming, but of...
BP Trial, in 2nd Phase, to Set Amount of Oil Spilled
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
New York Times: With billions of dollars in penalties at stake, the civil trial of the British oil company BP begins its second phase on Monday, which will set the amount of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 workers and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches. The government will argue that a total 4.2 million barrels of oil was discharged into the sea over 87 days, the equivalent of nearly one-quarter of all the oil that is consumed in the United...
Worst rhino poaching year on record for South Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
Mongabay: At least 688 rhinos have been poached in South Africa this year, surpassing last year's record of 668 with more than three months remaining in 2013, reports the country's top environmental official. In a speech given September 21 - the day before World Rhino Day - Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa presented statistics showing a sharp rise in rhino poaching over the past four years. Her data also revealed a decline in the number of rhino-related arrests, suggesting increased...
BP returns to court over Deepwater Horizon spill as £11bn in fines loom
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
Guardian: BP's lawyers will fight attempts to fine the oil giant up to $18bn (£11.1bn) over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, when a new trial opens in New Orleans on Monday.
The latest legal battle revolves around the company's efforts to cap its runaway well, and the amount of oil that entered the Gulf of Mexico during the 87-day spill.
The trial, expected to last a month, could add up to $18bn in financial penalties to BP's bill for the disaster – five times the $3.5bn originally set aside for...
1000s Romanians protest Canadian gold mine project
Posted by Press TV: None Given on September 29th, 2013
Press TV: Thousands of Romanians have staged demonstrations against a controversial Canadian project that would open Europe’s largest gold mine in the country.
On Sunday, approximately 4,000 people, who were carrying Romanian flags, marched in the capital Bucharest to show their opposition to the project, chanting "United we can save Rosia Montana."
Demonstrators are against the plans by Canadian company Gabriel Resources to mine in the village of Rosia Montana in the region of Transylvania.
"I am...
History Shows Weather Patterns May Head North
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on September 29th, 2013
Climate News Network: As the world warms, weather patterns will change. The already arid Middle East and American West will get even drier, and so will the well-watered Amazon region. Monsoon Asia and equatorial Africa, wet already, will get even rainier, according to new research from Columbia University in the U.S.
The oceanographer Wallace Broecker and his colleague Aaron Putnam of the university's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory warn in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that such things happened...
In Victoria, Australia, fracking a headache
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
Age: The Napthine government is headed for a pre-election showdown with farmers, miners and environmentalists as it decides whether to lift a moratorium on the controversial practice of fracking.
The government is expected to receive high-level advice recommending expansion of coal seam gas (CSG) in some of its most politically sensitive areas, a move that could cause a split within Coalition ranks.
Well-placed sources believe a review by former federal minister Peter Reith will strongly endorse...
Gas boom has its own climate questions
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on September 29th, 2013
Gazette-Mail: Earlier this month, when business boosters, community organizers and labor advocates gathered to brainstorm about diversifying the economy in West Virginia's coalfields, one alternative was mentioned over and over: The boom in natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale region of the state.
Over the past decade, West Virginia's natural gas production has more than doubled. Jobs in the industry have jumped by 55 percent.
The natural gas boom here and across the nation has brought climate change...
Frackers guzzle water as Texas goes thirsty
Posted by Time: Hilary Hylton on September 29th, 2013
Time: In summer, the bison on Thunderheart Ranch opt for the feathery shade of a mesquite tree as temperatures reach 100. This land, just a handful of miles from the Mexican border, was once known as The Wild Horse Desert, lawless, rough brush country where, in a good year, 21 inches of rain fell and in a bad year, less than a dozen descended from the clouds. "My grandfather used to say we get two 10-inch rains and never get the other inch," says Hugh Fitzsimmons, owner of the 13,000-acre ranch. Fitzsimmons...