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Archive for January, 2014
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...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Scientists to study climate change impact in SunderbansUnited 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Storms’ link to climate change uncertain – Met OfficeEPA 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....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indonesian indigenous groups fight climate change with GPS mappingCelebrating Deep Freeze, Insect Experts See a Chance to Kill Off Invasive Species
Posted by New York Times: Lisa W. Foderaro on January 9th, 2014
New York Times: While some people were cursing a canceled flight or wishing they had donned an extra layer on Tuesday, when temperatures in the region took a deep dive, entomologists, foresters and naturalists were rooting for the mercury to drop even lower. That is because the extreme cold has the potential to beat back some of the invasive insects threatening treasured local tree and plant species. “You do think, ‘Oh great, maybe some of those nasty insects are going to get zapped today,’ ” said Mark Fisher,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Celebrating Deep Freeze, Insect Experts See a Chance to Kill Off Invasive SpeciesStormy weather batters Europe’s Atlantic coast – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2014
Guardian: It's not just the UK and US that have been having extreme weather, as these spectacular images from Portugal to Ireland attest
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Stormy weather batters Europe’s Atlantic coast – in picturesAs ‘frack hits’ grew in Alberta, regulators stepped in
Posted by EnergyWire: Gayathri Vaidyanathan on January 8th, 2014
EnergyWire: The hiss of gas escaping was the first indication something was wrong in an oil field near the town of Drayton Valley, an hour as the crow flies from Edmonton, Alberta. A landowner whose cows graze there in springtime came across the well spewing oil and gas one evening in September 2011. The wind, blowing at about 2 miles per hour, fanned crude oil and chemicals onto the surrounding hay fields. The landowner telephoned Patrick Sheve, the field operator of Sword Energy Inc. (currently called Journey...
Train derailment: Oil train catches fire in Canada
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2014
Christian Science Monitor: Tuesday's train derailment is the latest in a series of oil-train accidents that have fueled a debate over how to safely transport crude oil and refined petroleum products. North American oil and gas production is rising faster than pipeline capacity, forcing bottlenecks at key energy transit points.
Companies have turned increasingly to rail to move oil from shale-rock formations in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, to markets at home and abroad.
The latest train derailment involved...
Thanks To Fracking, Natural Gas Supplies (Barely) Withstand ‘Polar Vortex’ Assault
Posted by Forbes: None Given on January 8th, 2014
Forbes: The polar vortex gripping the nation has brought a crazy week for natural gas. On Monday the demand for gas nationwide hit a record 125 billion cubic feet as homeowners and power generators sought to burn as much of it as they could get to keep the cold at bay. In a normal early-January week the draw on natural gas inventories is about 170 billion cubic feet. This week, according to market watcher Bentek, the drawdown is expected to be on the order of 310 bcf — the most ever. The record demand stretched...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thanks To Fracking, Natural Gas Supplies (Barely) Withstand ‘Polar Vortex’ AssaultKenyan families flee Embobut forest to avoid forced evictions by police
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 7th, 2014
Guardian: Families in Kenya were reportedly fleeing their homes and taking what possessions they could on Tuesday after police gathered near the Embobut forest to evict thousands of indigenous Sengwer people and others said to be threatening urban water supplies.
The forest, in the Cherangani hills near the town of Eldoret in western Kenya, has been the ancestral home of marginalised hunter-gatherer Sengwer communities for centuries, but the area has been invaded in the past 20 years by many thousands of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kenyan families flee Embobut forest to avoid forced evictions by police