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Archive for February 4th, 2014
Canada: Oil sands pollution two to three times higher than thought
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Kerry Sheridan on February 4th, 2014
Agence France-Presse: The amount of harmful pollutants released in the process of recovering oil from tar sands in western Canada is likely far higher than corporate interests say, university researchers said Monday.
Actual levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions into the air may be two to three times higher than estimated, said the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
The study raises new questions about the accuracy of environmental impact...
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‘Fossilized rivers’ reveal clues about disappearing glaciers
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on February 4th, 2014
LiveScience: An amazing landscape left behind by melting ice sheets offers clues to the future of Greenland's shrinking glaciers, a new study suggests.
The incredible terrain is in northern Canada, which is ridged with thousands of eskers -- the sinuous, gravelly remains of streams and rivers that flowed beneath the ice. Canada was once buried beneath miles of ice, similar to the way Greenland is today. Called the Laurentide Ice Sheet, this massive ice cap covered all of Canada and parts of the northern United...
UN appeals for Sahel aid as conflict, climate change take their toll
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2014
Reuters: The United Nations appealed on Monday for more than $US2 billion ($2.28 billion) to feed and care for a record 20 million people across Africa's Sahel belt, but aid workers said they feared donor fatigue and a weak global recovery may prevent them from reaching the target. Conflicts in Mali, Nigeria, Sudan and Central African Republic have disrupted markets and caused food shortages across the savannah region, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned. The problems...
Australia: Farmers feel the heat as drought advances
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on February 4th, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: "The burning heat has just scorched everything off right back to the ground and then these hot winds have just blown it all away": Rod Barnes. Photo: Paul Mathews Sydney has recorded its lowest summer rainfall to date in more than 70 years, as the state swelters through its driest January in more than a decade. Since December, the city has had just 48.4 millimetres of rain, a little more than a quarter of the usual amount, and the lowest since 1941-42, said Acacia Pepler, a climatologist at the...
Hundreds of actions are planned to protest Keystone XL
Posted by Nation: Allison Kilkenny on February 4th, 2014
Nation: Activists are participating in hundreds of nationwide protests on Monday against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The State Department released a long-awaited environmental review of the pipeline Friday that found the project would have a "negligible impact" on climate change, a decision that bolsters the case for the controversial project.
The pipeline would ship 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Environmentalists and advocates were quick to point...
Broad coalition backs Keystone XL oil pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2014
Associated Press: An unusual coalition of lawmakers from both parties, labor and business leaders, veterans groups and Canada's ambassador to the United States joined forces Tuesday to push for quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Five Democrats joined Republicans at a Capitol news conference to urge President Barack Obama to approve the pipeline following a State Department report last week that raised no major environmental objections. The $7 billion pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western...
U.S. lawmakers backing Keystone pipeline mull next steps
Posted by Reuters: Patrick Rucker on February 4th, 2014
Reuters: A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers voiced support on Tuesday for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, and did not rule out using legislation to force the White House to approve the Canada-to-Texas project.
Several U.S. senators and representatives encouraged President Barack Obama to bless TransCanada Corp's plan to build a line that would carry up to 830,000 barrels per day of oil sands crude from Western Canada and light, sweet crude from North Dakota to oil refiners in the Gulf of Mexico....
United Kingdom: Cuadrilla plans new Lancashire fracking locations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2014
Independent: A fracking company has announced plans to explore for shale gas in two new locations.
Cuadrilla Resources said it wanted to explore the full potential of Lancashire's shale gas resources at the two sites in Fylde.
The company said it would apply for planning permission to drill, hydraulically fracture and test the flow of gas from up to four wells on each of the sites.
Separate applications will also be made to install two seismic arrays that would be used to monitor the hydraulic fracturing...
United Kingdom: Cuadrilla announces two new Lancashire fracking sites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2014
Guardian: Shale gas explorer Cuadrilla has said it will apply to drill and frack a total of eight wells at two sites in Lancashire.
The company is the only one to have used hydraulic fracturing in the UK so far, including a well in Lancashire that was later linked to two very small earthquakes outside Blackpool.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Cuadrilla said it will apply for planning permission to frack and test gas flows at two sites, Roseacre Wood, near Elswick, and Preston New Road outside Little...
Rivers run dry as corruption claims surround Romania’s hydropower boom
Posted by Guardian: Luke Dale-Harris on February 4th, 2014
Guardian: Deep into the wilderness of Romania's Southern Carpathian mountains, Bogdan Binescu, an avid angler and environmental campaigner, stops by the white waters of a mountain stream. "This river used to be the only route back to civilisation," he says. "But now civilisation has caught up."
A few kilometres on, his meaning becomes clear. Where beech trees had previously risen from the banks of the River Capra, a grey concrete building sits on muddied earth, housing the turbines of a small hydropower...