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Archive for October 25th, 2013
Toxic Algal Blooms Connected to Climate Change and Industrial Agriculture
Posted by EcoWatch: Oregon State University on October 25th, 2013
EcoWatch: Nutrient enrichment and climate change are posing yet another concern of growing importance--an apparent increase in the toxicity of some algal blooms in freshwater lakes and estuaries around the world, which threatens aquatic organisms, ecosystem health and human drinking water safety.
As this nutrient enrichment, or “eutrophication” increases, so will the proportion of toxin-producing strains of cyanobacteria in harmful algal blooms, scientists said.
Toxic microcystin bacteria float, along...
Posted in 
Australia: More frequent bushfires? Fears are being realised, says emergency council
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: Predictions that climate change would lead to a greater frequency of bushfires and a higher average intensity of bushfires are being realised, according to the peak government and private sector body for fire and land management and emergency service authorities in Australia and New Zealand.
The statement runs counter to the view of the prime minister, Tony Abbott, who insists any link between climate change and bushfires is "complete hogwash'.
In a submission to a 2013 Senate committee inquiry...
Clive Palmer’s $6bn China First coalmine faces last two hurdles
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: The future of Clive Palmer's $6bn China First coalmine now rests on two separate environmental decisions by the federal minister Greg Hunt, as the mining magnate prepares to wield his powerful four-senator balance of power voting bloc from next July.
On Friday, the Department of Environment posted a determination on its website that the mine would have to comply with new laws requiring a cumulative assessment of the impact it -- and other coal mega-mines in the Galilee Basin -- would have on water...
A week is long time in Australian climate change politics
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: It was the week where climate change roared back to the top of the national agenda, but not quite in the manner that advocates for rapid action to reduce emissions would have preferred.
Tony Abbott and his environment minister, Greg Hunt, made strenuous efforts to downplay any connection between climate change and the New South Wales bushfires, only for the UN climate change chief, a former US vice-president, and even the government's own scientists to express their dissent.
Here's a look back...
Australia PM: Climate Change Not Causing Wildfires
Posted by Associated Press: Rod McGuirk on October 25th, 2013
Associated Press: The government staunchly rejected arguments that climate change is causing the wildfires ravaging parts of eastern Australia following a record hot start to the spring season.
"That is complete hogwash," Prime Minister Tony Abbott told News Corp. Australian newspapers in an interview published on Friday.
"They are desperate to find anything that they think might pass as ammunition for their cause," he said, referring to people who link the fires to global warming and who criticize his government's...
Canada: Keystone XL and Canadian tar sands are incompatible with solving climate change
Posted by Guardian: John Abraham and Danny Harvey on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: The exploitation of the tar sands in Alberta, Canada - which may contain more oil than the entire world has consumed to date – has attracted considerable controversy lately. Massive expansion of tar sands operations are planned, but this cannot happen if many new pipelines out of landlocked Alberta are not built. Two such pipelines – Enbridge Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan Transmountain – would cross through British Columbia and have ignited such fierce opposition that they have little prospect...
Australia: Climate change linked to bushfire risk says Environment Department website
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: Tony Abbott's insistence that any link between climate change and bushfires is "complete hogwash' is contradicted by information published on the Department of Environment's own website, it has emerged.
In an interview with News Corporation columnist Andrew Bolt, Abbott rubbished claims that climate change was influencing the New South Wales bushfires, adding that people who make such claims are "desperate to find anything that they think might pass as ammunition for their cause'.
Earlier this...
Al Gore Says Keystone XL ‘Ridiculous’
Posted by Huffington Post: Kate Sheppard on October 25th, 2013
Huffington Post: The proposed Keystone XL pipeline is "ridiculous" and "an atrocity," said former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday. Speaking at an event honoring the 10th anniversary of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, Gore praised President Barack Obama's efforts on climate change, stating that he thinks the president is sincere and that it will be a legacy issue for him. But on Keystone XL, which is waiting to hear its fate from the Obama administration, Gore was unequivocal. "I hope...
Canada: Environmental NGOs Launch B.C. Oil-Spill Study
Posted by Globe and Mail: Andrea Woo on October 25th, 2013
Globe and Mail: In coming weeks, more than a thousand small, yellow cards will traverse the waters around Vancouver and the Gulf and San Juan islands, washing up along the shores of the Salish Sea. Those who stop to pick them up will see a simple message: "This could be oil."
The cards are part of an oil-spill study launched Thursday by members of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Georgia Strait Alliance.
By dropping hundreds of the small pieces of bright yellow marine plywood from boats into...
A Keystone Pipeline That’s Ready to Roll
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2013
Bloomberg: A few times each month since August 2012, a helicopter or small plane has flown over sections of a 485-mile-long strip of land connecting Cushing, Okla., with Nederland, Tex., about 90 miles east of Houston. The pilots are usually accompanied by a photographer snapping pictures of construction work: dump trucks and backhoes mostly, and pieces of pipe lying along a trench. The idea is to track the progress of the southern leg of TransCanada’s (TRP) Keystone XL pipeline, dubbed the Keystone Gulf Coast....