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Archive for January 22nd, 2014
Greenland eyes mines as melting ice cap unlocks mineral riches
Posted by Reuters: Balazs Koranyi on January 22nd, 2014
Reuters: Greenland will push ahead with a uranium and rare earths mine despite the objections of its former colonial ruler and main benefactor as the melting of the polar ice cap unlocks the country's natural resources, its prime minister said. Arctic Greenland, with the lowest population density in the world, could open its first big iron ore mine in five years and award the first rare earths exploitation licence by 2017, hoping for riches that could attract thousands of workers and leave the locals in...
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Believe it: Global warming can produce more intense snows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 22nd, 2014
Mother Jones: We all remember "Snowmageddon" in February of 2010. Even as Washington, D.C., saw 32 inches of snowfall for the month of February--more than it has seen in any February since 1899--conservatives decided to use the weather to mock global warming. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe and his family even built an igloo on Capitol Hill and called it "Al Gore's New Home." Har har.
Yet at the same time, scientific voices were pointing out something seemingly counterintuitive, but in fact fairly simple to understand:...
A big fracking lie
Posted by Politico: BILL MCKIBBEN and MIKE TIDWELL on January 22nd, 2014
Politico: There, right on the Chesapeake Bay, the Obama administration wants to give fast-track approval to a $3.8 billion facility (12 times the cost of the NFL Ravens stadium) to liquefy gas from all across Appalachia. The new plant, proposed by Virginia-based Dominion Resources, would somehow be built right between a coveted state park and a stretch of sleepy beach communities, with a smattering of Little League baseball fields just down the road. Along the Chesapeake itself, endangered tiger beetles cling...
Australia should probably get used to these devastating heat waves
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 22nd, 2014
Atlantic: In the late 1990s, a particularly strong El Niño oscillation scourged the world with droughts, floods, and disruptions to the food supply. Carrying the energy equivalent of a million Hiroshima bombs, the titanic climate event was ultimately responsible for 23,000 deaths and at least $35 billion in damages.
In a scenario of unimpeded climate change, this kind of large-scale mayhem could become routine, according to distressing new research. Whereas the planet now receives an especially potent El...
Our national drought of climate change coverage
Posted by Nation: Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson on January 22nd, 2014
Nation: ncreasingly, it has become an article of faith among political leaders on the right that anthropogenic climate change is a “hoax” perpetrated on gullible Americans. To conservatives like Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, greedy scientists are spreading a phony tale of impending climatic disaster as part of some socialist takeover plot, all of it propelled along by a complicit “liberal media.” There are various reasons why this conspiracy theory is patently false; most notable among them is the overwhelming...
United Kingdom: Climate change not main cause of floods, scientists suggest
Posted by Telegraph: James Edgar on January 22nd, 2014
Telegraph: Climate change is not the main cause of floods, scientists have suggested.
The debate on whether recent floods were caused by global warming is a distraction from "the things we already know for certain', according to research.
Any links between climate change and flooding are "highly complex' and experts have struggled to make a case for the theory, a study has said, whereas human activity such as building on floodplains is known to make flooding worse.
The Prime Minister told MPs in the...
Keystone builder’s 2013 U.S. lobbying topped $1 million
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on January 22nd, 2014
Bloomberg: TransCanada Corp. (TRP), the Calgary-based company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, spent $1.05 million to lobby Congress and the administration last year, about 24 percent more than it spent in 2012, records filed with the U.S. Senate show. The $5.4 billion proposed link between Canada’s oil sands and refineries along the Gulf Coast is under review at the U.S. State Department because it crosses an international border. The project has inflamed environmental groups including the Sierra Club that...