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Archive for April 6th, 2015
Kaiduan dam in Borneo meets fierce opposition
Posted by Mongabay: Rebecca Kessler on April 6th, 2015
Mongabay: Activists are calling on the government of Sabah, Malaysia, to reconsider the proposed Kaiduan dam, saying the Infrastructure Development Ministry (IDM) has not considered other solutions to Sabah's looming water crisis and has failed to consult with the indigenous people who will be displaced if the project proceeds. The government first proposed building the Kaiduan dam in 2008. The IDM insists the project is necessary to ensure an adequate water supply for the west coast of Sabah, one of the...
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In Alps, glaciers retreat as climate debate goes on
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
CNN: The world's glaciers are disappearing. Climate change skeptics are not. The people who study our oceans and skies worry about both of these phenomena. But in wide swaths of 21st century America, the argument is still stuck on what to call the other side. "Denier" can also describe those who reject the Holocaust, so some who refuse to believe that human behavior is warming the planet prefer the label "skeptic." But scientists are de facto skeptics, and many resent that word being hijacked by...
How NASA helps gauge drought impact
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: Shortly before 5 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, a small, nondescript Beechcraft Air King climbed from the runway at Mammoth Yosemite Airport, reached 15,300 feet and headed over the snow-starved Sierra Nevada. To anyone driving past the airport, nestled on the backside of the mountain range, the airplane's departure might have seemed like just another private plane taking off from a rural airfield. Instead, the 1960s-vintage, twin-engine turboprop – NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO)...
California drought or dream? Jerry Brown at a hinge of Golden State history
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Mark Sappenfield on April 6th, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: If ever there was a California governor made for this moment, Jerry Brown might well be it. Fifty years ago, Governor Brown's father sat in the same seat that the son now occupies, and from the political smithies of Sacramento he forged the modern image of the Golden State. More than any other man, perhaps, Pat Brown fashioned California's sense of itself – a land of unapologetic possibility, dappled with sun, dusted with dreams, and outlined only by the limits of the imagination. Be it the building...
Brown defends not requiring water cuts for Calif farmers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
LA Times: In a nationally televised interview Sunday, California Gov. Jerry Brown defended his decision to largely target urban areas rather than agricultural users with his historic order to curb water use.
During an appearance on the ABC news program “This Week,” Brown told host Martha Raddatz that farmers had already fallowed “hundreds of thousands of acres of land” and pulled up vines and trees.
“Farmworkers who are at [the] very low end of the economic scale here are out of work,” Brown said. “There...
California’s wealthy lagging in water conservation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
LA Times: There are few signs of California`s epic drought along a stretch of Maple Drive in Beverly Hills.
Deep green front lawns stretch out, dotted with healthy trees and sculpted foliage. The only brown lawn in sight was at a home under construction.
As California gears up for the first mandatory water restrictions in its history, a long-standing class divide about water use is becoming increasingly apparent.
Beverly Hills and other affluent cities use far more water per capita than less-wealthy...
California’s wasteful water habits run up against a dry future – and past
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
New York Times: You don’t know you’re in a megadrought until you’re many years, if not decades, into one. So conditions in California could still turn around (which could lead to a “shock to trance” effect on water conservation efforts).
But lots of signs are pointing to the current extraordinary dry spell, likely exacerbated by heat from human-driven climate change, taking California into conditions unexperienced since long before the state’s water-dependent economy exploded during Gov. Jerry Brown’s father’s...
Duke Energy Agrees to Pay $2.5M in Virginia Coal Ash Spill Settlement
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 6th, 2015
Reuters: U.S. power company Duke Energy Corp agreed to a $2.5 million settlement proposed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality relating to the 2014 coal ash spill into the Dan River in North Carolina, the DEQ said on Friday. Duke, the largest in the United States by power generation capacity, will spend $2.25 million in carrying out environmental projects to benefit Virginia localities affected by the spill. (1.usa.gov/1F9WLrk) The remaining $250,000 will be placed in a DEQ fund to respond...
Poll: Voters Want Next President to Favor Climate Policies
Posted by Hill: Timothy Cama on April 6th, 2015
Hill: Most voters want the next president to favor policies to fight climate change, outnumbering those who want a president who opposes such policies by nearly 2-to-1. The Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday said that 59 percent want a president who “favors government action to address climate change,” compared with 31 percent who want someone who opposes government action. The poll matches other recent surveys showing that voters care about fighting climate change and want the government...
Obama’s Climate Change Blind Spot: Emissions From Public Lands
Posted by U.S. News and World Report: None Given on April 6th, 2015
U.S. News and World Report: President Barack Obama’s recent promise to “lead by example” on climate had the potential to be a major step forward. But sadly, his latest pledge to reduce greenhouse gases seems poised to keep our nation moving backward. While he committed to reducing greenhouse gases within the federal government by 40 percent over the next decade, he completely ignored one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions under his control: fossil fuel production from public lands owned by every American....