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Archive for October 3rd, 2013
A development data revolution needs to go beyond the geeks and bean-counters
Posted by Guardian: Jonathan Glennie on October 3rd, 2013
Guardian: One buzz phrase the high-level panel's report on the post-2015 objectives has added to the development lexicon is "data revolution". Expect every report with numbers in it published over the next couple of years to be sold as part of this so-called revolution.
But as with all big new ideas, especially revolutions, the appropriate response is one of optimism balanced with a dose of caution. The history of development is littered with big ideas that have failed to live up to their billing.
Will...
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Scientists call more controlled burns in West’s forests
Posted by LA Times: Bettina Boxall on October 3rd, 2013
LA Times: Some of the West's leading fire scientists are calling for the increased use of managed burns to reduce fuel levels in the region's forests, warning that climate change is leaving them more vulnerable to large, high-severity wildfires.
In a paper published Friday in the journal Science, seven fire and forest ecologists say the rate of fuel reduction and restoration treatments is far below what is needed to help sustain forest landscapes in an era of rising temperatures and increased drought. ...
Nobel Laureates Press EU Leaders to Classify Tar Sands as High Carbon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 3rd, 2013
Reuters: Twenty-one Nobel laureates including South African anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu have written to European Union leaders urging them to implement a law that would label oil from tar sands as dirtier than other crudes.
The EU tar sands proposal has incensed the government of Canada, whose economy is highly dependent on its vast reserves of unconventional oil and it has overshadowed protracted talks on a trade treaty with the EU.
The Nobel laureates say the EU law is necessary because...
Overflowing Tank Cause of New Leak at Fukushima
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 3rd, 2013
Associated Press: Another day, another radioactive-water spill. The operator of the meltdown-plagued Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant says at least 430 liters (110 gallons) spilled when workers overfilled a storage tank without a gauge that could have warned them of the danger.
The amount is tiny compared to the untold thousands of tons of radioactive water that have leaked, much of it into the Pacific Ocean, since a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant in 2011. But the error is one of many the operator...
Climate ‘refugee’ seeks asylum in New Zealand
Posted by MNN: Russell McLendon on October 3rd, 2013
MNN: Kiribati is on the front lines of climate change. If global sea levels rise 3 feet by 2100 as scientists expect, most of the low-lying island nation would disappear into the Pacific. Yet even as the effects of global warming gnaw at Kiribati's 32 tiny atolls, an early skirmish over the country's predicament — and perhaps that of many coastal communities around the world — is unfolding hundreds of miles away in New Zealand. There, a man from Kiribati is seeking asylum as a climate change "refugee,"...