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Archive for January 25th, 2015
The end of the world: three minutes and counting ..
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2015
Guardian: Age: 68.
Appearance: Very like a clock.
What time is it? Three minutes to Blammo.
Sorry? Three minutes to the End of Days, Apocalypse o’clock, Rapture-thirty.
Is that GMT? It is if GMT stands for Goodbye Mankind Time. According to the Doomsday Clock, armageddon is at hand.
Rats, I just bought theatre tickets. Do I have time to tell my line manager he’s a cock? You might want to hold off on that. The Doomsday Clock is but a symbolic measure of the relative probability of us being wiped...
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Obama proposal expand Alaska Arctic refuge angers Republicans over oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2015
Guardian: President Barack Obama will propose expanding the protected area of Alaska’s Arctic refuge by 12.28 million acres, including the state’s Coastal Plain where oil and gas are drilled, the Interior Department said on Sunday.
The proposal to expand the part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge designated as wilderness faces an uphill battle in Congress, where Republicans in control of both chambers oppose curbs to oil production, and drew immediate criticism.
The wilderness designation, the highest...
Obama Moves Put Much of Refuge Off Limits Drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2015
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama’s call to restrict oil exploration on 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge probably won’t have much practical impact for an area already off-limits to drillers, though it’s created a new fault line with the Republican-led Congress.
The White House on Sunday said it would ask Congress to designate “core areas” of the 19.8 million-acre refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5 million-acre coastal plain that geologists believe lies atop a rich oil reserve....
New Proposal to Protect Alaskan Wilderness Most Sweeping in Decades
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2015
National Geographic: No president in 35 years has made as sweeping a conservation proposal as President Barack Obama did today by urging Congress to transform the oil-laden coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into what would be the largest wilderness area in the nation's history.
The president's move to designate 12.3 million acres of new wilderness would block decades of efforts to drill for oil on a 1.5-million-acre portion of the refuge. That coastal region is thought to contain up to 10.3-billion...
Climate Change Could Turn Chicago into Texas, Report Claims
Posted by DNAinfo: None Given on January 25th, 2015
DNAinfo: Last year was the hottest on record, and if climate change persists, it could get a lot worse, a new report claims, warning Chicago's climate could mirror that of modern-day Texas by the end of the century.
The report, part of a study examining climate change called the Risky Business Project, was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Paulson Institute and TomKat Charitable Trust, and examined how climate change may affect the Midwest, its cities, communities agriculture and businesses.
"Rising...
How Keystone review undercut Obama’s climate policies
Posted by Bloomberg: Brad Wieners on January 25th, 2015
Bloomberg: Ranchers arrested for trespassing on their own property. Preachers moonlighting as land agents. Billionaire activists hiring former Navy SEALs to conduct mock terror attacks. Given the farcical turns the fight over Keystone XL has taken, it’s only fitting that the pipeline has reemerged as a top priority for the new Republican Congress when the issues it was supposed to fix--weak job creation, energy insecurity, pain at the pump--are far less pressing than when Keystone was proposed.
The pipeline,...
Brazil drought: rainfall is at its lowest level since 1930
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2015
Independent: As water reserves in Brazil’s most populous city, São Paulo, ran perilously low last year, there were jokes about needing a rain dance.
This year is different. Last week, the country’s politicians called upon divine intervention to end a historic shortage. “God is Brazilian,” said Eduardo Braga, mines and energy minister. “He will make it rain.” Even those within São Paulo’s water company Sabesp are hoping for a miracle to prevent the reservoirs from drying up completely within five months, after...