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Archive for September, 2013
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...
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Comments Off on Environmentalists, tribe seek to halt General Electric megaloadsGrandparents 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Grandparents Tell Gov. Hickenlooper Not to Frack Their Grandchildren’s FutureWest 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on West Nile Virus Season to Last Longer as Climate ChangesFukushima plant operator names U.S. adviser to aid clean-up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
Reuters: Tokyo Electric Power Co, the beleaguered operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said it appointed a former U.S. nuclear regulatory official as an adviser - a sign that it is prepared to reach out for foreign expertise in the face of criticism over its handling of the March 2011 disaster.
Tokyo Electric (Tepco) said in a statement that Lake Barrett, an independent energy consultant and former head of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Nuclear Waste Management, will advise...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fukushima plant operator names U.S. adviser to aid clean-upAs West Warms, Wildfires Expected to Double by 2050
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on September 10th, 2013
LiveScience: Yosemite National Park's Rim Fire dashed the plans of many campers over Labor Day weekend. The iconic views of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley's sheer granite walls disappeared behind a sudden influx of thick smoke the night of Aug. 30, just before most visitors arrived for the holiday. The air quality was deemed to be unhealthy for outdoor activities, according to California air quality officials. Smoke from the still-burning fire continues to cause unhealthy air quality levels for sensitive people...
Glacier National Park Prepares for Ice-Free Future
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
National Geographic: Our hike up to Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park winds through alpine meadows, along the edge of ice-cut cliffs, up a waterfall staircase, and around a stubborn ram. The views are breathtaking in the most literal sense of that word.
The three lakes filling the valley below us are an impossible blue. As the trail cuts back and forth, we catch glimpses of Grinnell’s steel white face. And then finally, we’re there, standing at the edge of a giant ice bath as two young boys skip rocks across...
House destroyed as firefighters battle bushfires in western Sydney
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
AAP: Bushfires in New South Wales have destroyed at least two houses and injured two firefighters.
The NSW rural fire service (RFS) said one house had been destroyed in Hawkesbury Road at Winmalee, in the Blue Mountains, and two firefighters battling the blaze there suffered minor burns.
A second house was lost in Marsden Park in the Blacktown area, in Sydney's west.
Five firefighters had been treated for smoke inhalation.
Briefing parliament on Tuesday, the NSW premier, Barry O'Farrell, said...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on House destroyed as firefighters battle bushfires in western SydneyReturn of bogs in Britain?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
Telegraph: Experts are calling for a third of the country's peatlands, covering a million hectares or almost 2.5 million acres, to be in good condition or under restoration schemes by 2020.
A failure to preserve the UK's peat areas, which occur both in uplands and in low-lying wetlands, could see billions of tonnes of carbon they store being lost to the atmosphere, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) UK peatland programme's experts warned.
Peatlands store twice as much carbon as...
Canada: TransCanada: Energy East Oil Pipeline to Create 2,000 Jobs
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on September 10th, 2013
Globe and Mail: TransCanada Corp. is promoting its Energy East pipeline project to Canadians with a promise that it will create thousands of jobs across the country and pour billions of dollars into government coffers.
On Tuesday, the company released a Deloitte & Touche LLP study on the economic impact of the $12-billion pipeline, which would bring about 1.1 million barrels a day of Western Canadian crude to refineries and export terminals in Quebec and New Brunswick. As part of its effort to woo those in the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: TransCanada: Energy East Oil Pipeline to Create 2,000 JobsLarge-scale opposition among Borneo villagers to deforestation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 10th, 2013
Mongabay: Nearly two-thirds of villagers surveyed across rainforests in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo are against large-scale deforestation due to the adverse impacts on livelihoods and the environment, finds a comprehensive new study across 185 communities. The research, conducted over a one-year period by an international team of scientists, is published in this week's issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
The study found that people who live near forests place the greatest value on the benefits they afford,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Large-scale opposition among Borneo villagers to deforestation