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Archive for February 17th, 2014
Green loans help Kenya’s small farmers and protect the environment
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Howden on February 17th, 2014
Guardian: Borrowing money did not come naturally to James Gachacha Chira. The 56-year-old, who farms a smallholding in the shadow of Kenya's Aberdare mountains, has a conservative streak that many farmers would recognise. Tales of bankrupted smallholders who lost their land to bad loans are common here, as are woeful stories of farmers swindled by corrupt co-operatives.
"I was afraid of borrowing money as I heard that farms are repossessed when you can't pay," the father of six admits. "So I never used...
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Israeli Water, Mideast Peace?
Posted by New York Times: Seth M. Siegel on February 17th, 2014
New York Times: Nuclear proliferation, religious militancy and income inequality are all major threats to Middle East stability. Sadly, a new one is brewing: water scarcity. The human causes are clear: rapid population growth, antiquated infrastructure, the over-pumping of aquifers, inefficient crop practices and pollution from fertilizer and pesticides. Then there are the factors that climate change is accelerating, like evaporation of lakes and rivers and diminished rainfall. One country in the region might...
Native Americans Vow a Last Stand to Block Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by McClatchy: Rob Hotakainen on February 17th, 2014
McClatchy: Faith Spotted Eagle figures that building a crude oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast would bring little to Indian Country besides more crime and dirty water, but she doubts that Native Americans will ever get the U.S. government to block the $7 billion project.
"There is no way for Native people to say no -- there never has been," said Spotted Eagle, 65, a Yankton Sioux tribal elder from Lake Andes, S.D. "Our history has caused us not to be optimistic. . . . When you have capitalism,...
In Ecuador, Oil Boom Creates Tension
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2014
Washington Post: In YAWEPARE, Ecuador -- An oil pipeline runs through this village to a Chinese rig at the end of the road. At night, when the rig is pumping, the pipeline is too hot to touch, but villagers say that in the morning, it's a good place to dry laundry.
That is its only apparent benefit to the families here, members of the Waorani tribe, lured out of the jungle by missionaries more than a generation ago. Its members live in plank-board shacks with no running water, amid the noise and dust of...
Enbridge Pipeline Joins Keystone XL in Wait for U.S. Permit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2014
Reuters: A second Canadian pipeline project to the United States is now facing delays as operator Enbridge Inc awaits a U.S. presidential permit, a development that may strain prices for Alberta oil sands crude and relations between the two countries. Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, said it no longer expects to get the permit amendment it needs to expand its Alberta Clipper line in time to start pumping extra oil on it at midyear as it had planned. It applied for the permit in November 2012....
Canada: Enbridge Reports First Quarterly Loss in Two Years
Posted by Bloomberg: Jeremy van Loon on February 17th, 2014
Bloomberg: Enbridge Inc. (ENB), the largest transporter of Canadian crude to the U.S., reported its first quarterly loss in two years on hedging contracts. The fourth-quarter net loss was C$267 million ($244 million), or 32 cents a share, compared with a profit of C$146 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said today in a statement. Excluding one-time items, the company reported a 44-cent per-share profit, missing the 45-cent average of 14 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg....
Tony Abbott leaves climate change out of his drought relief calculation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2014
Guardian: It seems obvious, but apparently it isn’t. If you remove the reality of climate change from government decision-making you risk making the wrong decisions.
Obviously the drought is causing extreme hardship for farmers in parts of New South Wales and Queensland and the government is about to announce a package of short-term measures to assist them.
But surely long-term drought policy needs to take into account the evidence that climate change means rainfall patterns are changing and that also...
Australia: Tony Abbott appoints climate change sceptic review energy target
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2014
Telegraph: Tony Abbott, Australia's prime minister, has appointed a climate change sceptic to review the nation's renewable energy target in his latest foray against measures to combat global warming.
Following his move to repeal Labor's tax on carbon emissions, Mr Abbott has announced a review that is expected to scale back renewable energy production.
The review will be conducted by Dick Warburton, a businessman and self-confessed "sceptic'. Another sceptic, Maurice Newman, has been appointed as the...