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Archive for March 15th, 2015
Vanuatu conditions ‘more difficult’ than Philippines typhoon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Aid agencies Monday described conditions in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu as among the most challenging they have ever faced, as the Pacific nation`s president blamed climate change for worsening the devastation.
Relief flights have begun arriving in the battered capital Port Vila after Super Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through on Friday night packing wind gusts of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour.
But workers on the ground said there was no way to distribute desperately needed supplies across...
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World Bank, UK to help poor nations hit natural disasters
Posted by TNN: Pradeep Thakur on March 15th, 2015
TNN: Some good news for the developing countries. The World Bank and the UK government has jointly launched a new competitive challenge fund that would help poor nations -- those hit by disasters like floods, cyclones, droughts and earthquakes -- to empower their local communities.
The fund, launched on Monday on the sidelines of UN's 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction at Sendai, will help developing countries design and implement ground-breaking solutions to overcome problems they face...
Conservation groups seek protect North American boreal forests
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Oanne LEE-YOUNG on March 15th, 2015
Vancouver Sun: Leading conservation groups, including Ducks Unlimited and the National Audubon Society, are pressing for a plan to protect North American boreal forests that are home to an estimated 3 billion birds and more than 300 species.
“Protecting at least 50 per cent of the boreal forest is in line with what modern conservation science contends is needed to preserve the ecological health of the forest and its biodiversity,” says Dr. Jeff Wells, senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative.
“Climate...
Vanuatu leader says ‘monster’ cyclone has ‘wiped out’ development on South Pacific island
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2015
Associated Press: Vanuatu's president said the cyclone that hammered the tiny South Pacific archipelago was a "monster" that has destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital Port Vila and has forced the nation to start anew.
Looking weary and red-eyed, Baldwin Lonsdale said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that the latest information he has is that six people are confirmed dead and 30 injured from Cyclone Pam. He appealed for international aid for a place he calls "paradise."...
Warm Winter in Pacific Northwest means less snowpack and water worries
Posted by Environmental News Network: Oregon State University on March 15th, 2015
Environmental News Network: If it seemed like Oregon has had a lot of unseasonably warm days this winter, well, it’s because we have. Now the focus is on a very low snowpack – and the implications that may have later this year.
The meteorological winter – which is comprised of December, January and February – recently wrapped up and depending on where you live in Oregon, it was one of the warmest – if not the warmest – winters on record.
“It has been a very, very warm winter – almost historically so,” said Philip Mote,...
Drought-Stricken West Gives Rise to Old World Cows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2015
Climate Central: The cows weren't acting like cows. In the remote reaches of Mexico's Copper Canyon, miles from the nearest road or settlement, a moving speck on a steep rock wall caught Alfredo Gonzalez's eye. "I thought, that couldn't be a cow, maybe a goat,' the longtime ranch manager and animal scientist. "The canyon goes straight up and down. But when we looked with binoculars, there they were: Criollos walking on the canyon walls.' Bingo. Criollos. Gonzalez and a former colleague from the Jornada Experimental...
Canada’s Waste Still Rotting in a Philippine Port
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2015
Inter Press Service: Filipino Catholic priest and activist Reverend Father Robert Reyes, dubbed by media as the "running priest", joined a protest of environmental and public health activists last week by running along the streets of the Makati Business District, the Philippines' financial capital, to urge the government to immediately re-export the 50 Canadian containers filled with hazardous wastes that have been in the Port of Manila for 600 days now.
Along with the groups BAN Toxics, Ecowaste Coalition and Greenpeace,...
Washington state rain no cure drought, due to bleak snowpack
Posted by LA Times: Maria Laganga on March 15th, 2015
LA Times: Californians take note: It is possible to have rain - lots of it - and still be plagued by drought.
Just look at tiny Forks, Wash., which bills itself as the wettest town in the contiguous United States. As of Thursday, 26.6 inches of rain had fallen on the Olympic Peninsula hamlet since Jan. 1, nearly twice what Los Angeles averages in an entire year.
And yet on Friday, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee declared droughts on the Olympic Peninsula, which has three separate rainforests; as well as on...
How Humans Are Still Evolving Avoid Extinction
Posted by Daily Best: None Given on March 15th, 2015
Daily Best: As humans accelerate our impact on the earth and on ourselves, will 50,000 years of self-evolution both destroy and save us?
Humans may be approaching a dodo moment of truth, a nexus where we either adapt to rapid changes in our environment, or go extinct.(The dodo being the flightless, goofy-beaked bird native to the island of Mauritius obliterated by hungry European sailors during a few decades in the 1600s.)
Unlike the dodo, however, humans...
Oil pipeline boom goes on despite Keystone XL setback
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2015
Associated Press: In a far corner of North Dakota, just a few hundred miles from the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline, 84,000 barrels of crude oil per day recently began flowing through a new line that connects the state's sprawling oilfields to an oil hub in Wyoming.
In West Texas, engineers activated a new pipeline that cuts diagonally across the state to deliver crude from the oil-rich Permian Basin to refineries near Houston. And in a string of towns in Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota, local government...