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Archive for November, 2013
U.N. calls for urgent help for Philippine farmers after typhoon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2013
Reuters: Philippine farmers need urgent assistance to avoid a "double tragedy" befalling rural survivors of the typhoon that hit the country earlier this month, the United Nations' food agency said on Wednesday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said more than $11 million is needed to help clean and clear agricultural land and de-silt irrigation canals in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 3,900 people when it struck on November 8. That is in addition to the $20 million already...
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Putting a price on nature would be disastrous | Nick Dearden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2013
Guardian: As UN climate negotiations rumbled on in Warsaw, big business came together with conservation groups in Edinburgh last week at the inaugural World Forum on Natural Capital to put a price on nature.
The idea goes back to the Rio+20 conference in 2012, when a group of investors drafted the natural capital declaration. It argues that if we price everything nature gives us (wildlife, plants, forests, waterways, pollination, you name it), companies would think twice before destroying them.
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EPA Names New Scientific Integrity Chief
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2013
LA Times: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday appointed Francesca Grifo as the agency's official in charge of scientific integrity.
In addition to overseeing the scientific integrity program, Grifo will chair an internal committee that deals with issues of standards, transparency and scientific freedom.
In 2009 President Obama issued a directive that ordered federal agencies to refocus on science and remove political pressure from science policy.
Also Naturalists take a lizard safari...
Focusing On Jobs, Quebec Leans in Favour of Enbridge’s Pipeline Plan
Posted by Globe and Mail: RHÉAL SÉGUIN on November 27th, 2013
Globe and Mail: The Quebec government contends the economic impact of reversing the flow of Enbridge's 9B oil pipeline cannot be overlooked as it moves to support the controversial project.
Quebec Minister of the Environment Yves-François Blanchet said a final decision won't be made until after a National Assembly committee completes its hearings, but indicated he was leaning in favour of the project.
"I hope the positive aspects of this project can outweigh the negative ones, because there are 4,000 jobs...
U.S. May Be Producing 50% More Methane Than EPA Thinks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2013
National Public Radio: Methane is the source of the gas we burn in stoves. You can also use it to make plastics, antifreeze or fertilizer. It comes out of underground deposits, but it also seeps up from swamps, landfills, even the stomachs of cows.
And while methane is valuable, a lot of it gets up into the atmosphere, where it becomes a very damaging greenhouse gas.
Scientists have been trying to find out, with varying success, exactly how much of this climate-warming gas gets into the atmosphere. A study published...
U.S. trial ends over Ecuador pollution judgment against Chevron
Posted by Reuters: Joseph Ax on November 26th, 2013
Reuters: An attorney for Chevron Corp on Tuesday accused U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger of orchestrating an international criminal conspiracy by using bribery and fraud in Ecuador to secure a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against the oil company.
"It was a scheme so audacious, so bold, that it would make even a Mafia boss blush," lawyer Randy Mastro said during his closing argument before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the non-jury trial.
Lawyers for the defense said Chevron...
Colo. Fracking Votes Put Pressure On Energy Companies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 26th, 2013
National Public Radio: The 2013 election marked a victory for foes of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Colorado. Voters in three Front Range communities decided to put limits on the practice.
Next week, the north Denver suburb of Broomfield will launch a closely watched vote recount on a proposed moratorium there.
Oil and gas companies say the measures create an uncertain business environment.
During its original vote count, Broomfield felt more like Miami-Dade County circa 2000 than a sleepy Denver suburb....
Greenland Ice Sheet Was Smallest When Ocean Was Warm
Posted by LiveScience: Tia Ghose on November 26th, 2013
LiveScience: In the last 10,000 years, the Greenland Ice Sheet shrank to its smallest size around 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, when ocean temperatures were also quite high, a new study suggests.
The finding, published Nov. 22 in the journal Geology, suggests that ocean temperatures, not atmospheric temperatures, could be a critical factor in melting ice sheets in current global warming scenarios. Understanding the reaction ice sheets like the ones covering Greenland and Antarctica will have to climate change...
US Methane Levels Higher Than Thought
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on November 26th, 2013
LiveScience: Thanks in large part to gas wells and cow farms, the United States is spewing 50 percent more methane, a potent greenhouse gas, than previous estimates have measured, according to a new study. For the study, published Monday (Nov. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from universities and government labs fanned out across the United States in 2007 and 2008 and measured levels of methane gas in the air. Though methane breaks down in the atmosphere after...
Over 350 species added IUCN Red List’s threatened categories in the last six months
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 26th, 2013
Mongabay: The number of threatened species on the IUCN Red List has grown by 352 since this summer, according to an update released today. Currently, 21,286 species are now listed as threatened with extinction out of the 71,576 that have been evaluated. The new update comes with both good and bad news for a number of high-profile imperiled species, but only covers about 4 percent of the world's described species.
The condition of the shy and elusive okapi-the only living relative of the giraffe-has degraded....