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Archive for November 15th, 2013
California fracking law offers groundwater protection: regulator
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2013
Reuters: California regulators said on Friday an enhanced monitoring regime for oil and gas production that is part of the state's new fracking regulations would shore up groundwater protection, a top concern in the growing state.
The law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown in September, introduces stringent regulations of hydraulic fracturing as well as of acid injection in anticipation of greater industry efforts to develop the state's vast Monterey shale.
The law will require testing of groundwater around...
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Safeguarding World’s Most Irreplaceable Protected Areas
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on November 15th, 2013
Environment News Service: The world`s most irreplaceable site for threatened species is Colombia`s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Natural National Park, a fact that has emerged from new research identifying the protected areas most critical to preventing extinctions.
The Santa Marta woodstar, a hummingbird endemic to Colombia`s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Natural National Park (Photo by L.E. Urueña / Birds of Colombia)
Of the world`s 3,057 endangered species, 44 are found in this park near Colombia`s mountainous northern...
Anti-fracking activists celebrate victory in a fourth Colorado city
Posted by Grist: John Upton on November 15th, 2013
Grist: It turns out that it was a clean sweep for opponents of fracking during last week`s elections in Colorado.
Voters in the city of Broomfield narrowly approved a five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The initial vote tally indicated that the ballot measure had failed by 13 votes, but by the end of an exhaustive recount on Thursday it was revealed it had actually succeeded by 17 votes. The result is expected to be legally certified today, but because the vote was so close there may still...
Tiny algae signal big changes for warming Arctic lakes
Posted by Mongabay: Molly Sharlach on November 15th, 2013
Mongabay: The mighty polar bear has long been the poster child for the effects of global warming in the Arctic, but the microscopic diatom tells an equally powerful story.
Diatoms are a type of algae that form the base of the food chain in watery habitats the world over. Disturbances among lake diatoms have exposed the impacts of rapid warming in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of eastern Canada, researchers reported Oct. 9 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
View of Hudson Bay from space. Red dot indicates...
Canada’s great inland delta: A precarious future looms
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Ed Struzik on November 15th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: Along the banks of the Quatre Fourches River, 125 miles downstream of Alberta’s massive tar sands development, Joe Wandering Spirit once lived in a single-room cabin with a crazy cat and a team of sled dogs that he kept tied up outside year-round.
As Wandering Spirit knows, living in the heart of the Peace-Athabasca Delta -- one of the world’s largest inland freshwater deltas -- has never been secure. In this 2,200-square-mile expanse of waterways and wetlands, seasonally meandering rivers and...
IEA: Tar sands export pipelines needed for Canada’s oil to boom
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on November 15th, 2013
InsideClimate: Growth in the Canadian oil sands industry will depend on the construction of major new pipelines, including the disputed Keystone XL across the United States, according to a report by a prominent energy institute. The faster new pipelines are approved, the more rapid the increase in tar sands production over the next two decades, the International Energy Agency said in its annual World Energy Outlook [3], released on Nov. 12. Accelerated growth would mean a surge in global greenhouse gas emissions,...
Cleaning Up: China Reform Plan Tackles Pollution
Posted by Wall Street Journal: Wayne Ma and Brian Spegele on November 15th, 2013
Wall Street Journal: A number of episodes in recent months have added to growing public concern over the environment in China, including severe air pollution in January in Beijing and several other places, as well as the discovery of cadmium-tainted rice in supplies in the southern province of Guangdong. Environmental degradation is now seen as a threat to China's social instability and a key component in economic reform.
In the economic and political roadmap released Friday, China said it wants to introduce a system...
Canada: Quebec Government to Review Enbridge’s Line 9B Pipeline-Reversal Proposal
Posted by Gazette: Monique Beaudin on November 15th, 2013
Gazette: Nearly a year after it first promised to study the project, Quebec says it will hold public consultations on Enbridge's controversial Line 9B pipeline project.
A parliamentary commission will hold public hearings from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5, with a report to be submitted to the National Assembly by Dec. 6, Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday.
Blanchet's announcement came just hours after the Ontario government said it planned to do its own study of another proposed pipeline...