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Archive for June 12th, 2014
Chile drops hugely controversial mega-dam project in wild Patagonia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Mongabay: One of the world's most controversial mega-dam projects met its likely end this week when Chile's Committee of Ministers voted to cancel the permits for the HidroAysén project. Costing around $8 billion and expected to produce about 2.75 gigawatts, the HidroAysén project involved building five large dams on two wild rivers in Chile's famously-unspoiled Patagonia region. Yet critics of the proposal said it threatened both the environment and local communities.
"Patagonia's rugged and varied wilderness...
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A Last Look at California’s Glaciers
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 12th, 2014
EcoWatch: Beyond the world we know, in the shaded recesses of our highest mountains, lies another California. It’s a world of rock and ice, of brilliant light, of fearsome snowstorms that over time have formed a stunning collection of magnificent glaciers. Many people don’t realize that glaciers even exist in California. In fact, we have about 130. Most cling to steep slopes of the Sierra Nevada, but they’re disappearing at a rapid rate. Geologist Greg Stock of Yosemite National Park reports that even Lyell...
Blaze the Way for Biodiversity Research with BioTrails
Posted by Discover: None Given on June 12th, 2014
Discover: Our earth is home to approximately 9 million eukaryotic species. Plus or minus a million or so. While it’s a trifle embarrassing that we don’t know exactly how many or even what other inhabitants share our world, it’s no small task to enumerate the earth’s biodiversity. Biologists currently identify animals, plants, and fungi by careful observation- color patterns, morphological differences, distinct behaviors and other features that depend on an expertly trained human eye. But species are also uniquely...
UK pension fund investments linked land grabbing & risk
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on June 12th, 2014
Blue and Green: UK pensions funds and asset management companies potentially have up to £37 billion invested in ‘land grabs’ worldwide, according to a report published by Friends of the Earth. As well as raising ethical concerns, land grabbing could also pose additional risk to investments.
The report – What’s your pensions funding? How UK institutional investors finance the global land grab – links UK pension funds and asset management companies to global firms that are either known or alleged to be involved...
Keystone, Northern Gateway pipeline pressure mounts oil bottleneck costs economy $50-million a day
Posted by Bloomberg: Theophilos Argitis and Andrew Mayeda on June 12th, 2014
Bloomberg: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which has failed to persuade President Barack Obama to approve TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL, is turning up the heat on the U.S. administration.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver, Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird traveled to New York this week, arguing in media interviews and at an energy conference that Obama has unfairly entangled the $5.4 billion pipeline with U.S. politics. According to Oliver,...
Cambodia most vulnerable climate change: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Phnom Penh Post: US credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has ranked Cambodia’s economy and creditworthiness as the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Of 116 nations measured by S&P as part of a vulnerability index published last month – with a number 1 ranking being the least vulnerable – Cambodia scored the lowest, coming in at 116th.
The index took into account the share of Cambodia’s population living in areas below five metres of altitude, the percentage that agriculture contributes to...