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Archive for January, 2014
Keystone pipeline review looming, likely to show little climate risk
Posted by Reuters: Lesley Wroughton and Jeff Mason on January 31st, 2014
Reuters: The U.S. State Department is poised to issue an environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline that will likely say the project will not appreciably increase carbon emissions, sources said late Thursday, forcing President Barack Obama closer to a tough decision.
Rumors swept through Washington late Thursday that the long-delayed review of the 1,179-mile (1,900-km) pipeline to bring oil from Canada to Nebraska would finally be released as soon as Friday.
"The Environmental Impact...
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In The American West, A Battle Unfolds Over Bugs, Climate Change And The Fate Of An Iconic Species
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 31st, 2014
Huffington Post: On a cold, overcast day last fall, Jesse Logan and Wally McFarlane hiked up Packsaddle Peak near Emigrant, Mont., not far from Yellowstone National Park. They had to climb high into the forest, at least 8,500 feet above sea level, to find the trees: tall, majestic whitebark pines, which grow slowly and can live more than a thousand years. A light snow started falling halfway up the mountain, the flakes getting heavier and wetter as they climbed. "You gotta want it to get up in here," said McFarlane,...
Australia: Death by sludge, coal and climate change for Great Barrier Reef?
Posted by Guardian: Graham Readfearn on January 31st, 2014
Guardian: There's a phrase environmental scientists and campaigners like to use to talk about the slow and relentless degradation and destruction of habitats and natural wonders. "Death by a thousand cuts", they call it, as small chunks of habitat are lost and environmental laws are eased or repealed. A bit of bush here for a tourism development, a stand of mangroves there for a beachside resort. An entire nature reserve for a coal mine. Sometimes, the threats come like pincer movements with all angles covered....
Keystone XL Report Said Likely to Disappoint Pipeline Opponents
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 31st, 2014
Bloomberg: The U.S. State Department is preparing a report that will probably disappoint environmental groups and opponents of the Keystone pipeline, according to people who have been briefed on the draft of the document.
While the report will deviate from a March draft in some ways to the liking of environmentalists, the changes won’t be as sweeping as they had sought, several people familiar with the government’s deliberations over the review told Bloomberg News. Changes could still be made to the report...
Iraq: Its Great Lake Shriveled, Iran Confronts Crisis of Water Supply
Posted by New York Times: Thomas Erdbrink on January 31st, 2014
New York Times: After driving for 15 minutes over the bottom of what was once Iran’s largest lake, a local environmental official stepped out of his truck, pushed his hands deep into his pockets and silently wandered into the great dry plain, as if searching for water he knew he would never find. Just an hour earlier, on a cold winter day here in western Iran, the official, Hamid Ranaghadr, had recalled how as recently as a decade ago, cruise ships filled with tourists plied the lake’s waters in search of flocks...
Is Fracking About to Arrive Your Doorstep?
Posted by Mother Jones: Ellen Cantarow on January 31st, 2014
Mother Jones: For the past several years, I've been writing about what happens when big oil and gas corporations drill where people live. "Fracking"-- high-volume hydraulic fracturing, which extracts oil and methane from deep shale--has become my beat. My interviewees live in Pennsylvania's shale-gas fields; among Wisconsin's hills, where corporations have been mining silica, an essential fracking ingredient; and in New York, where one of the most powerful grassroots movements in the state's long history of dissent...
US Senate will hear testimony on West Virginia chemical leak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2014
Associated Press: A US Senate subcommittee will hear testimony on the West Virginia chemical spill in Washington next week.
The committee on environment and public works' water and wildlife subcommittee will convene on Tuesday to discuss the spill that left 300,000 people without clean water for days.
Scheduled to testify are the West Virginia secretary of state, Natalie Tennant, the West Virginia department of environmental protection secretary, Randy Huffman, Natural Resources Defense Council official Erik...
United Kingdom: Military on standby as forecasters warn Somerset to prepare for more flooding
Posted by Guardian: Steven Morris on January 30th, 2014
Guardian: Scores of soldiers, Royal Marines and emergency services personnel will be on standby on Friday as the people of the flooded Somerset Levels brace themselves again for more rain, gales and a tidal surge.
For the first time since the Levels went under water at the start of the month, military engineers and troops were on the ground on Thursday helping civilian staff plan the response to this weekend's predicted storms.
Military vehicles, including Royal Marine amphibious vessels, were made available...
California governor calls for water conservation as drought continues
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2014
Associated Press: Governor Jerry Brown provided some very practical guidance for Californians amid a deepening drought: take shorter showers, turn off the water while brushing teeth, and "don't flush more than you need to."
"Make no mistake, this drought is a big wakeup call," Brown said Thursday in downtown Los Angeles before meeting with local water district officials. "Hopefully it's going to rain. If it doesn't, we're going to have to act in a very strenuous way in every part of the state to get through." ...
Slowing down the floodwaters
Posted by Environmental News Network: Robin Blackstone on January 30th, 2014
Environmental News Network: Putting something called "Natural Engineering" to work in a five-year research project, Newcastle University in cooperation with the Environment Agency are discovering the benefits utilizing the land’s natural defenses to slow river flow downstream and prevent flooding. Slowing down water in anticipation of flooding events is being tested all over the world. Strategies include use of retention basins; wetlands development; levee systems and flood-walls but Newcastle University researchers directed...