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Archive for December, 2013
Raise water spending, get $1.0 trillion benefits: U.N
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 4th, 2013
Reuters: Sharply higher spending on water supplies, twinned with a crackdown on corruption, would yield more than a trillion dollars a year in economic, health and environmental benefits, a U.N.-backed study said on Wednesday.
"Corruption is the elephant in the room" for improved water supplies, said Zafar Adeel, director of the U.N. University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, which was a co-producer of the report.
The study said investments of $840 billion to $1.8 trillion a year, or...
Native American groups increasingly at center of fights over oil and gas
Posted by Grist: None Given on December 4th, 2013
Grist: In the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, European settlers stole a lot of land from Native Americans. They killed them, they cheated them, and they robbed them of most of the continent. But they made one mistake. Back then good land was fertile land for growing crops. The Great Plains and interior West - dry, dusty, freezing cold in winter and broiling hot in summer - had little to offer.
Now, however, the Europeans and their descendants lust for oil and gas to provide electricity, heat, and...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Native American groups increasingly at center of fights over oil and gasAustralia’s spring was the warmest on record, climate records show
Posted by Guardian: Blair Trewin on December 4th, 2013
Guardian: The spring of 2013 has been Australia's warmest on record. Mean temperatures for the season were 1.57C above the 1961-1990 average, surpassing the previous record of 1.43C (set in 2006) by 0.14C. Daytime maximum temperatures were also the highest on record, coming in 2.07C above average and 0.24C above the previous record (also set in 2006), while overnight minimum temperatures were the fourth-warmest on record.
The warmth was most dramatic in September, which saw a mean temperature anomaly of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia’s spring was the warmest on record, climate records showPanel Says Global Warming Risks Sudden, Deep Changes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 4th, 2013
New York Times: Continued global warming poses a risk of rapid, drastic changes in some human and natural systems, a scientific panel warned Tuesday, citing the possible collapse of polar sea ice, the potential for a mass extinction of plant and animal life and the threat of immense dead zones in the ocean.
At the same time, some worst-case fears about climate change that have entered the popular imagination can be ruled out as unlikely, at least over the next century, the panel found. These include a sudden...
WTO Urged Not to Treat Water Like Widgets
Posted by Inter Press Service: Carey L. Biron on December 4th, 2013
Inter Press Service: As government representatives gather Tuesday in Indonesia for what could be final negotiations towards a global trade agreement under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), environmentalists and social justice campaigners are urging them to specify that water resources cannot be treated as commodities.
Critics of the privatisation and "financialisation" of natural resources are pointing to mounting interest by multinational investors in viewing common water resources as tradable, a change that development...
Scientists want global monitoring to warn of climate change impacts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 4th, 2013
Denver Post: Government-backed U.S. scientists on Tuesday urged for the creation of a warning system to help people anticipate the impact of climate change on food, water and cities. Early warnings would give more time to adapt, but they will require much closer monitoring of warming oceans, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and extinctions of plants and animals, according to the scientists and a report unveiled by a National Research Council committee. There are too many blind spots to be able to anticipate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists want global monitoring to warn of climate change impactsCanada panel urges better response plan for oil spills
Posted by Reuters: Julie Gordon on December 3rd, 2013
Reuters: Canada must be better prepared to respond to major oil spills if more crude starts to flow in pipelines to the country's Pacific Coast, a government panel said on Tuesday, as fears of a major marine disaster grow.
The report, by the federal transport department, makes 45 recommendations, including ensuring companies are prepared for a worst-case scenario and new guarantees that taxpayers will not be liable for costs related to spills in Canadian waters.
Regulators are currently weighing separate...
Study Rebuts IPCC, Calls For More Severe Emissions Cuts
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on December 3rd, 2013
Climate Central: The globally agreed upon political goal of limiting global warming to 3.6°F (2°C) above preindustrial levels would bring "potentially disastrous impacts,' and a far more ambitious plan to slash emissions of global warming gases is needed, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary group of scientists and economists.
The study, published Tuesday in PLOS One, amounts to a rebuttal of a key finding from a recent U.N. climate report, that laid out a cumulative "carbon budget' for the world to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study Rebuts IPCC, Calls For More Severe Emissions CutsReady — Or Not. Quick Climate Changes Worry Scientists Most
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
National Public Radio: An expert panel at the National Academy of Sciences is calling for an early warning system to alert us to abrupt and potentially catastrophic events triggered by climate change.
The committee says science can anticipate some major changes to the Earth that could affect everything from agriculture to sea level. But we aren't doing enough to look for those changes and anticipate their impacts.
And this is not a matter for some distant future. The Earth is already experiencing both gradual and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ready — Or Not. Quick Climate Changes Worry Scientists MostEPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leader
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
Reuters: America's largest business lobby group warned the Obama administration on Tuesday against snuffing out the country's energy boom with regulations on new oil and natural gas drilling technologies.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study due next year could be used to justify clamping down on drilling techniques that have sparked a surge in U.S. oil and natural gas output.
"This could short-circuit America's absolute explosion in energy...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leader