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Archive for January 11th, 2014
West Virginians Enter Third Day of Widespread Water Supply Contamination
Posted by Nature World: None Given on January 11th, 2014
Nature World: Two nights since a chemical spill in a West Virginia river left residents and businesses in nine counties unable to use their tap water for anything other than flushing the toilet, hundreds of thousands remain affected and several have been hospitalized after complaining of symptoms like nausea and vomiting.
Saturday began the third day since about 300,000 people were told not to use their tap water for drinking, bathing, cooking or washing clothes or dishes after a chemical foaming agent seeped...
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Texas club says auction of right to kill black rhino will fund conservation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 11th, 2014
Associated Press: Hunt the black rhino to save the black rhino.
That's the Dallas Safari Club's approach to a fundraiser for efforts to protect the endangered species. The group hopes to raise more than $200,000 on Saturday by auctioning off the right to shoot and kill a black rhinoceros in the African nation of Namibia.
But the auction has drawn howls from environmental protection groups and protesters, and the FBI earlier this week said it was investigating death threats against members of the club.
Ben...
Hundreds with symptoms of chemical exposure and 300,000 without water after West Virginia spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 11th, 2014
Independent: More than 700 people in West Virginia may be suffering from exposure to a toxic chemical that contaminated drinking water.
Several people went to hospital emergency departments with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhoea and rashes, and some were admitted for treatment, according to the West Virginia Poison Center.
It had fielded 737 calls from people reporting symptoms of exposure to 4-methylcyclohexane methanol - an industrial chemical.
As much as 19,0000litres leaked...
Four people hospitalised after West Virginia chemical spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 11th, 2014
Associated Press: Four people have been hospitalised and several hundred thousand remain without water after a chemical leaked from a storage tank in West Virginia's capital city into the public water treatment system, state authorities said Saturday.
On Saturday, about 300,000 people in nine counties entered their third day without being able to drink, bathe in, or wash dishes or clothes with their tap water, after a foaming agent escaped the Freedom Industries plant in Charleston and seeped into the Elk River....
Climate Change Threatens East Africa’s Food Security
Posted by Climate News Network: Kieran Cooke on January 11th, 2014
Climate News Network: The report, East African Agriculture and Climate Change, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), looks at threats to food supplies in 11 countries in East and Central Africa -- Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Agriculture dominates the economies of countries in East Africa: if plans aren't made to adapt to climate change the region's rapidly expanding population...
Northern Europe continues to be battered and frozen by meandering polar storms
Posted by ClimateWire: Christina Reed on January 11th, 2014
ClimateWire: Though the remnants of the polar storm that froze much of the United States have mellowed while traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, the system is now expected to bring freezing temperatures and snow to England. This follows several spells of pounding storm surges and drenching rains.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron echoed the warnings of the government's climate change representative, Sir David King, when he answered a question on carbon reduction targets by agreeing that an increase...
Scientists back David Cameron on weather link to global warming
Posted by Financial Times: Clive Cookson on January 11th, 2014
Financial Times: Climate scientists have backed David Cameron’s statement that he “very much suspects” the recent extreme weather events Britain has suffered are linked to climate change.
The prime minister’s words in the House of Commons this week annoyed some Conservative MPs who are sceptical about man-made climate change. But leading climate scientists told a press briefing in London on Friday that abnormal weather, such as the succession of storms that made December one of the UK’s wettest and windiest on...
Pakistan moves to introduce flood-tolerant rice varieties
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on January 11th, 2014
Reuters: For the first time in years, Pakistani farmer Zulfiqar Ali cannot afford to sow winter wheat. Damage to his standing rice crop from heavy monsoon rains has left him penniless.
"My rice crop on 18 hectares was flattened by lashing rains in July,' said Ali, standing next to his paddy field in Sialkot district, some 190 km (120 miles) from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. "I have already landed in a debt trap, and my children have been hungry for many days.'
Although Pakistan produces enough rice...