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Archive for January 9th, 2014
Switch to Natural Gas Slashes Power Plant Pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2014
Daily Climate: Natural gas plants emit a tiny fraction of the smog-causing gases and slightly more than half of the greenhouse gases emitted by their coal-burning counterparts, according to a soon-to-be published study.
The assessment builds upon earlier reports that substituting natural gas for coal has sharply reduced air pollutants from power generation in the United States.
"Since more and more of our electricity is coming from these cleaner power plants, emissions from the power sector are lower by 20,...
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Natural Gas Boom Cuts Into Pennsylvania’s State Forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2014
National Public Radio: On the side of a mountain road in Pennsylvania's Tiadaghton State Forest, I'm trying to avoid a steady stream of heavy truck traffic. Acres of freshly cut tree stumps stretch out in front of me.
Kevin Heatley lives in the area and has come to these woods for years to hike. He's an ecologist by trade and he's concerned about what he's seeing.
"Everything from the noise and the traffic to the lighting, to the pad placements, to the pipeline construction to the road expansion - this is all industrial...
Australia 2014 Heat Wave Picks Up Where 2013 Left Off
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on January 9th, 2014
Climate Central: The U.S. may just be climbing out of the freezer, but Australia has been sweating through a major heat wave to start the year. Heat records fell across a large part of the country in the first week of the New Year. The warm weather is currently centered over sparsely populated Western Australia, but it could hit major population centers along the east coast by late next week.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology released a special statement to chronicle the extent of the heat wave and its movement....
United Kingdom: Who will David Cameron listen to on building in the countryside?
Posted by Telegraph: Isabel Hardman on January 9th, 2014
Telegraph: A Conservative MP complaining about the Government's planning reforms is hardly as rare as hen's teeth these days. Grumbles about what many MPs fear is a free-for-all that favours developers form a low-level backing track to Tory party life. But it was still remarkable when Nadhim Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, decided to attack the National Planning Policy Framework this week. Mr Zahawi was simply repeating what many colleagues feel when he said the reforms were causing "physical harm'...
Protesters are super-gluing themselves to fracking sites now
Posted by Grist: Holly Richmond on January 9th, 2014
Grist: In the past week, three women super-glued themselves to objects at fracking test site Barton Moss to protest the announcement. One of them even dressed up like Where’s Waldo (although, fun fact, they call him Wally over there):
Last Thursday, this 21-year-old glued herself to the gate at Barton Moss. She managed to delay fracking trucks’ departure for two hours, after which she was arrested and other protesters marched by the trucks as they left. Unfortunately she also, uh, ate some of the glue...
Texas Supreme Court Favors Landowner Over TransCanada in Keystone XL Eminent Domain Case
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 9th, 2014
EcoWatch: The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of landowner Julia Trigg Crawford, ordering TransCanada to submit information by Feb. 6 as the justices weigh arguments to hear the case regarding eminent domain abuse.
Texas’s highest court delivered a clear victory for pipeline opponents and landowners fighting TransCanada’s overreach on property rights. At the heart of Crawford’s case is the ability of TransCanada, a foreign corporation, to use eminent domain under the state’s “common carrier” clause since...
Scientists to study climate change impact in Sunderbans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2014
Indo-Asian News Service: Researchers from India, Britain and Bangladesh are studying the impact of climate change on livelihoods of those living in Sunderbans mangroves, the world's largest mangrove forests. More than two-thirds of the forest lies in Bangladesh, the focus of the study, and the rest in West Bengal. Under the ongoing Ecosystem Services For Poverty Alleviation (Deltas) project, as many as 50 experts from the three countries are investigating the impact of climate change on ecosystem services (benefits derived...
United Kingdom: Storms’ link to climate change uncertain – Met Office
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2014
BBC: The recent storms that have brought heavy rain and floods to much of the UK cannot definitely be linked to climate change, the Met Office has said.
A spokesman said that was "a research project which hasn't been done".
On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron said he "very much" suspected that an increase in abnormal weather events was linked to climate change.
Almost 100 flood warnings are still in place in England, along with one in Wales, but none remain in Scotland.
Eight people...
EPA to require S. Calif. offshore fracking reports
Posted by Associated Press: Jason Dearen and Alicia Chang on January 9th, 2014
Associated Press: Oil and gas companies that are fracking off the Southern California coast must report chemicals discharged into the ocean under a new rule released Thursday by federal environmental regulators.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the requirement in the Federal Register, and it will become effective March 1.
The move comes after a series of stories by The Associated Press last year revealed at least a dozen offshore frack jobs in the Santa Barbara Channel, and more than 200 in...
Indonesian indigenous groups fight climate change with GPS mapping
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2014
IRIN: Indigenous communities in Indonesia are using GPS technology to demarcate the boundaries of their ancestral lands, a move many believe could also help mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
"Community mapmaking has been a successful tool to show the government that we are here, and that we want to protect our lands," says Rukka Sombolinggi, a spokeswoman for the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (Aman), a Jakarta-based secretariat representing more than 2,000 communities....