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Archive for March, 2015
Canada Pushes Ahead with Alternatives to Keystone XL
Posted by Climate Central: Bobby Magill on March 30th, 2015
Climate Central: A decision on whether to allow the Keystone XL Pipeline to be built in the U.S. could come at any time, but there are myriad other projects on the table designed to do exactly what Keystone XL was designed to do: transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries.
Those pipelines, both in the U.S. and Canada, are being designed to move the oily bitumen produced from the tar sands to refineries in Texas and eastern Canada, and to ports on the Pacific Coast where the oil could be shipped to Asia.
Combined,...
Posted in 
Fossil fuel path is immoral and financially imprudent
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2015
Guardian: I am proud of the legacy of John D Rockefeller, who built the greatest fossil fuel enterprise in history. In his day, fossil fuel was a liberating force – it literally changed the face of the earth, freeing many people from toil. The family business is now philanthropy; at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which I chair, we use the money made from Standard Oil to advance social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
But the key phrase in the encomium above is “in...
Antarctica’s ice shelves are thinning fast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2015
LiveScience: Antarctica's floating ice collar is quickly disappearing in the west, a new study reports. In the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas — two of West Antarctica's melting hotspots — some ice shelves lost 18 percent of their thickness in the past decade, researchers said. The most dramatic shrinkage occurred in the Bellingshausen Sea's Venable Ice Shelf, which lost ice at an average rate of 118 feet (36 meters) per decade in the past 18 years. At that rate, the entire ice shelf could disappear within...
Chile desert rains sign of climate change, chief weather scientist says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2015
Reuters: The heavy rainfall that battered Chile's usually arid north this week happened because of climate change, a senior meteorologist said, as the region gradually returns to normal after rivers broke banks and villages were cut off. "For Chile, this particular system can only be possible in an environment of a changed climate," Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Jeremiah Lengoasa told Reuters on a visit to Santiago on Friday. The intense rainfall that began Tuesday in...
Urban water future: Changing climate means changing water
Posted by Standard: None Given on March 30th, 2015
Standard: Editor's note: This is the final in a three-part series exploring the vital issue of Utah's urban water supplies. The first story delved into aging infrastructure and the second story addressed conservation efforts.
The T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest, located about an hour up Logan Canyon from Utah State University, is full of all kinds of shiny metal objects.
The metal feathers of rain gauge windscreens rattle with the breeze. Mylar insulation wraps trees, which helps measure sap flux and...
United Kingdom: Doctors and academics call for ban on ‘inherently risky’ fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 30th, 2015
Guardian: Fracking should be banned because of the impact it could have on public health, according to a prominent group of health professionals.
In a letter published by the British Medical Journal on Monday, 20 high-profile doctors, pharmacists and public health academics said the “inherently risky” industry should be prohibited in the UK.
“The arguments against fracking on public health and ecological grounds are overwhelming. There are clear grounds for adopting the precautionary principle and prohibiting...
EPA: Nearly 700 Chemicals Used in Fracking
Posted by Hill: Timothy Cama on March 30th, 2015
Hill: The Environment Protection Agency on Friday released a new analysis that concludes almost 700 chemical additives are used in hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas.
Ninety-eight percent of the fluid injected into wells is water mixed with sand, which is used to keep fractures open so that oil and gas can be removed from shale.
But the EPA’s analysis released Friday provides a more comprehensive look at the remainder of the fracking chemicals, which the industry says are used to protect...
Vanuatu risks long-term food insecurity after monster cyclone: UN
Posted by Reuters: Alisa Tang on March 30th, 2015
Reuters: The monster cyclone that hit Vanuatu earlier this month wiped out more than 90 percent of the archipelago's crops, putting its people at risk of a secondary emergency and long-term food insecurity, the United Nations warned on Monday. Tropical Cyclone Pam destroyed homes, electricity infrastructure and crops when it swept across the South Pacific island nation on March 13, leaving at least 11 dead. The United Nations issued an appeal last week for $29.9 million to provide an estimated 166,000 affected...
Record heat in Antarctica
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2015
Mongabay: The temperature at a base in Antarctica hit a record high last week, reports Weather Underground.
On March 24, 2015 Argentina's Esperanza Base reported a temperature of 63.5°F (17.5°C), which may be the warmest temperature ever recorded on the content. The previous high was set a day earlier at 63.3°F (17.4°C), according to a blog post by Christopher C. Burt.
"The 17.5°C (63.5°F) temperature at Esperanza occurred just one day following a reading of 17.4°C (63.3°F) measured at Base Marambio...
Rise govt insurance rates to mirror rising waters, flood debt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2015
Washington Post: At her small beach house that sits in a flood zone, Nancy Loft-Powers worries. The prospect of rising water, she said, isn’t what bothers her. It’s the expected rise in the cost of her $7,500 yearly flood insurance.
“My insurance is more than my mortgage,” Loft-Powers said in a phone interview from her year-round home in Deerfield Beach, Fla., near Fort Lauderdale. “I live by the beach in an old neighborhood. I pay [too much] insurance for a crap house that’s not great.”
This April Fool’s Day,...