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Archive for January, 2014
No Keystone answer yet, John Kerry tells John Baird
Posted by CBC: None Given on January 17th, 2014
CBC: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he still doesn't have an answer on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline extension, and suggests it won't be coming any time soon.
Kerry, as well as Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade, took questions from reporters Friday morning in Washington, with Kerry's opening remarks stressing the "unity" among the three countries.
Kerry says TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline application is making...
United Kingdom: Government admits flood spending drop
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2014
Guardian: The government has been forced to backtrack on its claims about flood defence spending, admitting the figure has gone down rather than up.
The environment minister Dan Rogerson conceded on Thursday night that spending had fallen to £2.34bn in the current four years compared with £2.37bn previously. The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, had previously claimed the Tory-led coalition was spending "more on flood defences than any previous government".
The Environment Department had also said...
Vegetable growers can prosper in Australia’s sweltering heat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2014
Guardian: After 20 years of trying to keep a vegetable garden, I have given up.
The lettuce always gets bitter and eaten out by slugs, the coriander shoots to seed within weeks and the tomatoes spread and end up sitting on the ground, a big red target for insects and worms. Never, in my horrible history, have I delivered a fully-formed corn cob to the pot. And the melons? Well they never even make it to fertilisation.
I have failed Earth Mother 101. Were I to rely on my own brown-fingered resources,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Vegetable growers can prosper in Australia’s sweltering heatScientists seek cause catastrophic fish kill in Nevada lake
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on January 17th, 2014
Reuters: Biologists scrambled on Thursday to unravel the mystery behind a massive fish kill in a popular manmade lake in Nevada that draws thousands of anglers each winter for prized game fish such as trout.
More than 100,000 stocked fish such as bass and catfish are estimated to have perished in the lake in the northern city of Sparks in recent weeks in an unprecedented die-off that has destroyed the entire fishery, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the state Department of Wildlife.
Testing of water...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists seek cause catastrophic fish kill in Nevada lakeCalifornia Drought Expands, Fueling Heat and Fire
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on January 16th, 2014
Climate Central: A wildfire exploded outside Los Angeles Thursday as record temperatures spread across California, where drought conditions are escalating as the state comes off its driest year on record.
A new update to the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that severe drought, the second-worst drought category, has spread across 62.7 percent of the California as of Tuesday. The previous week, severe drought was only affecting 27.6 percent of the state.
California recorded only 7.38 inches of precipitation statewide...
3 Arrested in Los Angeles Wildfire, Police Say
Posted by New York Times: Ian Lovett on January 16th, 2014
New York Times: A fast-moving brush fire that erupted Thursday morning quickly burned at least 1,700 acres northeast of downtown Los Angeles, county fire officials said. The police in Glendora said three men had been arrested in connection with the Colby Fire, which broke out just before 6 a.m. in the Angeles National Forest, about 25 miles northeast of downtown. The chief of Glendora police, Tim Staab, said at a news conference that the three men had reportedly been camping in the forest, and that at least one...
Wildfire Near LA Destroys Homes, Forces Evacuations
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on January 16th, 2014
Nature World: A wildfire that broke out Thursday morning in a national forest roughly 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles has destroyed more than 1,700 homes and forced the evacuation of dozens of residents.
Three people have been arrested in connection to the fire that ignited in the Angeles National Forest, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to the Times, arson investigators were at the scene of the blaze, which had already destroyed at least two homes by 11 a.m. - roughly five hours after...
Increased Mercury Levels In Arctic Ice Found Pushing Into Sea Water
Posted by RedOrbit: Gerard LeBlond on January 16th, 2014
RedOrbit: Researchers Dr. Chris Moore and Dr. Daniel Obrist, from Nevada`s Desert Research Institute, have recently discovered an increased level of mercury in Arctic sea ice. The study, published in the journal Nature, also found that the element is contaminating sea water below.
The researchers claim that the air above large cracks found in the ice of the Arctic is mixing vigorously pushing mercury down to the exposed seawater. This process causes an increase in toxic levels, which can in turn enter into...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Increased Mercury Levels In Arctic Ice Found Pushing Into Sea WaterResidents evacuated as wildfire burns in forest east of Los Angeles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2014
Reuters: A fast-moving California wildfire, started accidentally by three campers, roared out of control in foothills above Los Angeles on Thursday, destroying at least two homes and forcing more than 1,000 residents to flee, fire and law enforcement officials said.
The wind-whipped blaze erupted before dawn in the Angeles National Forest north of Glendora, about 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
By mid-morning, the so-called Colby Fire had blackened...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Residents evacuated as wildfire burns in forest east of Los AngelesGroups Seek to Stop Illegal Swine Waste Pollution in North Carolina
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 16th, 2014
EcoWatch: The Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation and Waterkeeper Alliance issued a Notice of Intent to sue the current and former owners and operators of the Stilley swine feeding operation this week to stop illegal discharges of swine waste into groundwater, wetlands and streams that flow to the Trent River.
The Stilley Facility, which confines more than 11,000 swine near Trenton, NC facility for Murphy Brown, LLC--a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc.--has a long history of illegal discharges and waste management...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Groups Seek to Stop Illegal Swine Waste Pollution in North Carolina