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Archive for October 9th, 2013
Japan: Fukushima Workers Doused by Contaminated Water Leak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
BBC: Six workers at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have been doused in radioactive water, its operator says.
The incident happened after a worker removed a pipe connected to a water treatment system at the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said.
A senior official from Japan's nuclear watchdog said he did not believe the workers had received a "seriously troubling" dosage of radiation.
Fukushima has been hit by a series of toxic water leaks in recent months.
The plant was badly damaged...
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Canada: Kingston Raises Concerns over Enbridge’s Canadian Pipeline Plans
Posted by CBC: None Given on October 9th, 2013
CBC: Kingston residents and elected officials say they have concerns about Enbridge Inc.'s plan to change how oil flows through a pipeline that runs through their community.
Enbridge's Line 9 has carried foreign crude oil from Montreal to Sarnia, Ont., along a path that closely follows Highway 401 in eastern Ontario, cutting through communities such as Cornwall, Brockville and Kingston.
With oil from Alberta now less expensive than imported oil, the Calgary-base energy company is seeking approval...
Shale Drillers Offered Water Cheaper Than U.K. Residents
Posted by Bloomberg: Sally Bakewell on October 9th, 2013
Bloomberg: Britain’s water utilities, which coped with at least three separate periods of drought in the last decade, are ready to offer discounts for drillers needing supplies for fracking oil and natural gas wells.
A reduction would help make the technique to extract hydrocarbon reserves more profitable in Britain, where municipal water rates often are two-thirds higher than in the U.S., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hydraulic fracturing uses high volumes of pressurized water mixed with chemicals...
Australia: Competing visions for future of the Great Barrier Reef up for debate
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on October 9th, 2013
Guardian: Environmentalists and the mining industry have set out competing visions for the future of the Great Barrier Reef ahead of a summit that will aim to set Queensland's priorities for the next 30 years.
The Queensland Plan, an initiative of the state government, will be finalised at a two-day meeting in Brisbane starting on Wednesday. More than 600 delegates from a range of community and business groups are attending the gathering.
The plan, which the government said would help "define a long-term...
U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes
Posted by Reuters: Michelle Conlin and Brian Grow on October 9th, 2013
Reuters: Robert and Julie Davidson fell hard for the gleaming new house at the Valencia Golf and Country Club in Naples, Florida. They loved the way the palm-fringed, Spanish-style home backed up to the fifth-hole fairway. And they were taken with the three-bedroom's high ceilings and open plan. Plus the neighbourhood - with its power-washed driveways, blooming hibiscus and guarded gatehouse - seemed all "dressed up."
But when the Davidsons paid $255,385 in 2011 for the house on Birdie Drive, they didn't...
Arctic’s Hudson Bay Warming Rapidly, at Tipping Point
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
National Geographic: The Arctic has experienced some of Earth's first and greatest effects of climate change, but the icy lowlands around Hudson Bay have remained remarkably resistant to warming-until recently. A new study reports that, since the mid-1990s, aquatic ecosystems in one of the Arctic's last refugia have undergone dramatic climate-driven changes and appear to have reached an ecological tipping point.
While local temperatures had remained relatively steady before the last two decades, they've risen since...