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Archive for January 3rd, 2014
Major Victory for Clean Water in Coal Export Battle
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington denied a motion to dismiss, allowing the Clean Water Act case to proceed against BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) for coal contamination of U.S. waterways. The Sierra Club, Puget Soundkeeper, Columbia Riverkeeper, Spokane Riverkeeper, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Friends of the Columbia Gorge filed the lawsuit on July 24, 2013, after finding substantial amounts of coal in and along several...
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Tar-sands mining in Canada is unleashing mercury pollution
Posted by Grist: John Upton on January 3rd, 2014
Grist: Drilling for tar-sands oil in Alberta has long been recognized as a driver of climate change, helping to nudge the mercury up in thermometers around the world. Now, it appears that it`s also dousing the Canadian province with straight-up mercury pollution.
Canadian government researchers have discovered that oil-sands operations have puffed out mercury over 4.7 million acres of northeast Alberta, boosting levels to as much as 16 times higher than background levels. Mercury is a potent poison that`s...
Exxon to Face Criminal Charges for 50,000+ Gallon Fracking Wastewater Spill
Posted by EcoWatch: Emily Atkin on January 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of fracking waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge’s ruling on Thursday.
Following a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James G. Carn decided that all eight charges against Exxon--including violations of both the state Clean Streams Law and the Solid Waste Management Act--will be “held for court,” meaning there is...
Solar Beats Natural Gas in Game-Changing Court Ruling
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: Solar energy faced off against natural gas in a courtroom this week, and the greener of the two came out on top.
Minnesota administrative law judge Eric Lipman recommended a solar project to help Xcel Energy, one of the state`s largest utility, provide 550 megawatts (MW) of new electricity generation by 2020. Lipman could have selected one of five natural gas projects instead, but he realized Geronimo Energy’s Aurora Solar Project was the better deal.
“It’s the first time that solar’s gone...
Mark Ruffalo Wants You to Imagine 100 Percent Clean Energy Future
Posted by Climate Desk: Indre Viskontas and Chris Mooney on January 3rd, 2014
Climate Desk: For Mark Ruffalo, environmental activism started out with something to oppose, to be against: Fracking. It all began when the actor, perhaps best known for his role as Bruce Banner (The Hulk) in Marvel`s The Avengers, was raising his three small children in the town of Callicoon, in upstate New York. At that time the Marcellus Shale fracking boom was coming on strong and was poised to expand into New York, even as the area also saw a series of staggering floods, each one seemingly more unprecedented...
Weather warnings: avoid coastal or riverside paths, say agencies
Posted by Guardian: James Meikle, Henry McDonald, Owen Duffy on January 3rd, 2014
Guardian: People are being strongly advised not to walk on coastal paths and promenades or near floodwater as high winds continued to batter southern and western parts of the United Kingdom.
The rivers Stour in Dorset and Severn in Gloucestershire burst their banks, sandbag defences were set up near Belfast docks and Scotland is bracing itself for blasts of up to 80mph later in the day as storm surges that flooded towns and villages in England moved northwards.
Another bout of severe weather was expected...
Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier Vulnerable to La Niña Events, Researchers Find
Posted by Nature World: None Given on January 3rd, 2014
Nature World: Pine Island Glacier melting is more vulnerable to climatic variations caused by La Niña events than previously assumed, a new study reported.
The present study was conducted by researchers at British Antarctic Survey along with their colleagues at University of Washington and other institutions. The team found that the melting of the ice-shelf decreased by 50 percent between the years 2010 and 2012.
La Nina might have led to this decrease in melting, according to the researchers. La Niña is...
Australia swelters under a sham climate change policy after hottest year on record
Posted by Guardian: Alexander White on January 3rd, 2014
Guardian: Australia's temperatures have warmed by "about 1° C since 1910" according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and 2013 was the hottest year since records began in 1910. In the last 11 months leading to November 2013 average temperatures "were 1.25°C above average" and 2013 saw maximum temperatures 1.45°C above the average. The full update is available from the BOM here. It bears repeating: 2013 was Australia's hottest year on record and globally the seventh hottest year on record. Most of Australia...
Britain braces for floods, ‘exceptional weather’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 3rd, 2014
USA Today: Areas of Britain on Friday were bracing for severe flooding and what Environment Secretary Owen Paterson called "exceptional weather" that may last through the weekend.
The Environment Agency issued nearly two dozen severe flood warnings as strong winds and heavy rain combined with higher than normal tides to present what the government agency says is a "danger to life" in parts of the southwest and Wales.
Hundreds of lower-level warnings are also in place across the United Kingdom, with the...
2013 confirmed as Australia’s hottest year on record
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on January 3rd, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia smashed its previous annual heat record in 2013, with a summer heatwave and spring hot spell among the outstanding periods of unusual warmth.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Friday confirmed that last year was the hottest nationwide in more than a century of standardised records, with mean temperatures 1.2 degrees above the 1961-90 average.
This event could not have happened without increasing greenhouse gases, without climate change
The 12 months easily eclipsed the previous annual...