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Archive for February 1st, 2014
Flooding: too little defence, too late, as the waters rise
Posted by Guardian: Tracy McVeigh on February 1st, 2014
Guardian: Like the lines drawn by parents measuring the height of their growing children, there are chalked marks on the walls of the houses piled in a picturesque jumble along the lower streets of Yalding. They have been drawn by residents scoring the progress of floodwaters through their homes over what has been the wettest month since records began and is heading towards being the wettest winter Britain has seen in 100 years.
On Christmas Eve, this Domesday Book Kent village was deluged by riverwater...
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UK flooding: Environment Agency boss Lord Smith engulfed in crisis over his 11 jobs
Posted by Telegraph: Robert Mendick on February 1st, 2014
Telegraph: Lord Smith's leadership of the Environment Agency is in crisis following the flooding gripping parts of Britain.
Sources have accused Lord Smith, a Cabinet minister in Tony Blair's Labour government, of "keeping his head down' despite parts of the country being submerged for weeks.
Allegations that he is "too distracted' by having too many jobs -- in all Lord Smith has 11 paid and unpaid posts -- have added to the growing concern in Whitehall.
Although he is due to step down as chairman...
Keystone XL unites environmentalists and landowners in pipeline battle
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2014
Associated Press: With yet another obstacle removed for the Keystone XL pipeline, opponents of the project are pressing forward with a lawsuit, public protests and an effort to inject the issue into the November midterm elections.
Supporters and opponents of the transnational pipeline were both quick to claim victories regarding the US State Department report released Friday, which raised no major objections to the project. The oil industry, some union groups and congressional Republicans called on the Obama administration...
Severe Drought Has U.S. West Fearing Worst
Posted by New York Times: Adam Nagourney and Ian Lovett on February 1st, 2014
New York Times: The punishing drought that has swept California is now threatening the state’s drinking water supply. With no sign of rain, 17 rural communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out within 60 to 120 days. State officials said that the number was likely to rise in the months ahead after the State Water Project, the main municipal water distribution system, announced on Friday that it did not have enough water to supplement the dwindling supplies of local agencies that provide...
Keystone report ups pressure Obama for green light
Posted by USA Today: Susan Davis and Rick Jervis on February 1st, 2014
USA Today: The White House is facing increased political pressure to greenlight the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, even as environmentalists are redoubling their efforts to fight its construction.
A State Department report issued Friday said the venture wouldn't create a significant environmental impact if the project is ultimately approved by the federal government.
A coalition of Republicans and Democrats in conservative states has advocated for five years for the pipeline's construction to boost...
Dams May Provide Resilience to Climate Change
Posted by Climate Central: Virginia Gewin on February 1st, 2014
Climate Central: It's official: Last year was Australia's hottest on record. As temperatures go up Down Under, so do concerns about how to keep rivers cool in a warming world. Ironically, the soundest solution could mean tapping into what has long been considered a pollutant.
Dams have long been vilified for blocking fish migrations. But the deep reservoirs of dammed water do something free-flowing rivers can't: stratify so that the cooler layers settle to the bottom.
Until recently, scientists only studied...
Pressure is on Kerry as Keystone pipeline decision nears
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2014
Washington Post: "This is the gut-check moment,' Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, said during a telephone news conference held Friday afternoon by some of Keystone's most prominent foes in the environmental movement.
That means that neither side intends to ease up on Kerry, who has spent his career battling climate change. The 1,179-mile northern leg of the pipeline has become the most visible symbol of human-induced global warming that environmental activists are fighting, and they have promised to redouble...
January was UK’s wettest winter month in almost 250 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2014
Guardian: The deluge that has engulfed southern and central England in recent weeks is the worst winter downpour in almost 250 years, according to figures from the world's longest-running weather station.
The rainfall measured at the historic Radcliffe Meteorological Station at Oxford University in January was greater than for any winter month since daily recording began there in 1767, and three times the average amount.
The latest Met Office data shows that the region from Devon to Kent and up into...
Tom Steyer’s Response to the Keystone XL Final Environmental Impact Statement
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Steyer on February 1st, 2014
EcoWatch: First of all, this is President Obama’s decision, and the State Department’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is just an input. So we don’t have an answer yet, and the fight is far from over. I remain hopeful that the President will, in fact, apply the test for Keystone he established in his speech at Georgetown University: that the project cannot be approved if it increases the amount of carbon pollution being put into our air, which it does. I trust the President is aware of the opportunity...
Keystone’s big mystery: What will John Kerry do?
Posted by Politico: Andrew Restuccia on February 1st, 2014
Politico: The fate of the Keystone XL oil pipeline is now in John Kerry's hands -- and greens say the secretary of state's legacy as a climate champion is at stake.
Kerry spent much of his Senate career at the center of the global warming debate, fighting an unsuccessful battle for climate legislation in the face of an often apathetic Congress. He wrote a 2007 book on environmentalism that included a chapter saying we face a "decisive decade' on climate change, and he warns in his speeches that the world...