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Archive for January, 2014
Australia: Inquiry into Gladstone dredging won’t stop new coal project, Greg Hunt says
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says the federal government's launch of an inquiry into dredging and dumping near the reef will not prompt it to delay its decision on whether to allow 3m cubic metres of sediment to be deposited within its world heritage area in a new coal port project.
Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, is to ask an independent commission to investigate the Gladstone harbour dredging project.
The inquiry will look at whether there was a critical breakdown...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Australia: Inquiry into Gladstone dredging won’t stop new coal project, Greg Hunt saysDrought Emergency Declared In California Gov. Brown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2014
National Public Radio: Jerry Brown says the state is facing possibly the worst drought it has ever seen since record keeping began about 100 years. For more on the drought and its impact, Renee Montagne talks to Michael Hanemann, professor of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley.
Australia: Murray-Darling basin water sell-off — what you need to know
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The Murray-Darling basin is an enormous river catchment area centred on the Murray river, which runs along the Victoria-New South Wales border and ends in South Australia, and the adjoining Darling river, which stretches into NSW.
Covering around 1.06m square km, the basin encompasses around a seventh of Australia's landmass and is its most important agricultural region, containing nearly half of the nation's farms.
Fruit, vegetables, wool, dairy produce, wheat and livestock are produced in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Murray-Darling basin water sell-off — what you need to knowWater cycle amplifies abrupt climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2014
ScienceDaily: During the abrupt cooling at the onset of the so-called Younger Dryas period 12680 years ago changes in the water cycle were the main drivers of widespread environmental change in western Europe. Thus, the regional impacts of future climate changes can be largely driven by hydrological changes, not only in the monsoonal areas of the world, but also in temperate areas.
The role of the hydrological cycle during abrupt temperature changes is of prime importance for the actual impact of climate change...
Murray-Darling water sell-off scheme announced
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The government is to sell off water allocations to farmers who operate alongside the Murray-Darling river system for the first time since a deal that aims to end two decades of arguments on how to manage the resource.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, which manages the government's water licences, said up to 10 gigalitres of water allocation would be available for sale in the Gwydir valley, a region of New South Wales which forms part of the Murray-Darling basin.
The government owns...
United Kingdom: Round one went to the anti-frackers. But now round two begins
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2014
Telegraph: Countryside campaigners are to try to bridge the ever-growing gap between fracking firms and protestors by providing neutral forums to debate the issues involved in exploiting shale gas and oil. The Council for the Protection of Rural England, which has been careful not to come out against the industry, says it will take the initiative so long as it can find a prominent partner, like the Royal Society, and so long as it is not financed, even partially, by the oil and gas industry.
The move comes...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Round one went to the anti-frackers. But now round two beginsTrading away sustainable water is a blow to rural Australia
Posted by Guardian: Lee Rhiannon on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: Water trading cannot deal with the enormity of the problems confronting the Murray-Darling Basin. The current heatwave moving across inland Australia, the severe impacts of climate change and the years of over allocation of water for unsustainable agricultural practices add up to a massive burden that needs a planned sustainable response, not a market trading policy, which is why the Coalition's planned water sell off for the Murray-Darling Basin is a blow to rural Australia. This move will mean...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Trading away sustainable water is a blow to rural AustraliaAustralia: Murray-Darling basin water sell-back plan welcomed by irrigators
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: Irrigators have welcomed a plan by the federal government to sell back environmental water entitlements to farmers in the Murray-Darling basin.
The move comes as a large part of the basin experiences a drying-out phase brought on by extreme hot weather and below average rain during spring and summer.
The National Irrigators Council says water can and should be sold and put to agricultural use without compromising the environment.
"We've had some hot weather which has spiked the water use,"...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Murray-Darling basin water sell-back plan welcomed by irrigatorsWildfire in hills near Los Angeles is largely contained
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2014
Reuters: A wildfire in the hills near Los Angeles was more than 75 percent contained on Sunday, after blackening some 1,900 acres of drought-parched shrubland and destroying five homes, officials said.
The so-called Colby Fire, which officials said started from a campfire, was expected to be fully contained by Tuesday, said Nathan Judy, a spokesman for the Angeles National Forest & Fire Department.
The blaze, centered in the San Gabriel Mountains on territory that is part of the Angeles National Forest,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wildfire in hills near Los Angeles is largely containedRed toad discovered in Peruvian mountains
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2014
Mongabay: Scientists have described a previously unknown species of dead-leaf toad in the Peruvian Andes.
The species, which is a master of camouflage, is named Rhinella yunga after the Yungas, the montane forest ecoregion it inhabits. It lives in leaf litter, where it blends in with its cryptic coloration and leaf-like body shape.
Until its description in the journal ZooKeys, Rhinella yunga was classified in the Rhinella margaritifera group. While Rhinella margaritifera is applied to dead-leaf patterned...