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Archive for June 13th, 2015
California drought: Washington is fiddling as the Golden State burns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Telegraph: In February 2014 farmer Joe Del Bosque stood in his field in drought-stricken California's Central Valley being personally reassured by President Barack Obama that Washington would not let his crops wither and die.
It was Mr Obama's one and only visit to this vast agricultural area, half the size of England, which provides half of America's fruit and vegetables.
Last week Mr Del Bosque, 65, ran out of water. He had to destroy a 70-acre field that was supposed to produce 300,000 lbs of asparagus....
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Wildlife conservation: can white rhino escape extinction?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Guardian: “The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one,” boasts AA Milne’s exuberant creation. But Hundred Acre Wood is the only habitat where devastatingly low population figures are a subject of joy and mirth. For species like the northern white rhino, with only five individuals left in the world, the struggle for survival is no laughing matter.
Smaller populations are more vulnerable to environmental catastrophes, the negative consequences of inbreeding and even sheer bad luck, such as...
US navy could create thriving biofuel hub in Queensland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Guardian: The US navy could help create a thriving biofuels industry in regional Queensland, the state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says. Palaszczuk visited the Pentagon in Washington DC as part of her first trade mission as premier, where she met the navy’s top brass. A renewable energy policy has set a goal for half the navy’s energy needs to be met from alternative sources by 2020. The premier says that opens up opportunities for regional Queensland. “We saw the boom of the LNG industry – this...
Climate change creating ‘longer, more intense’ fire seasons, warns interior secretary
Posted by Post-Intelligencer: Joel Connelly on June 13th, 2015
Post-Intelligencer: Climate change is a burning issue for the United States and particularly the American West, according to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department has to fight increasingly intense forest and range fires.
In a tweet Friday, Jewell warned: “Fire seasons are longer and more intense from climate change. They damage landscapes vital for wildlife and people.”
The 23,000-acre Taylor Bridge fire, east of Cle Elum, consumed forests and threatened homes in 2012. Fires on the east slope...
California curtails some longstanding water rights over drought
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on June 13th, 2015
Reuters: California's water board, facing a devastating four-year drought, on Friday curtailed some longstanding water rights for agriculture and other uses in Northern and Central California for the first time in nearly 40 years, officials said. The curtailment affects more than 100 so-called senior water rights holders, including water districts and farmers of commodities such as almonds, pears and grapes, with most of those located near the Sacramento River, the State Water Resources Control Board said...
China reaffirms 2030 climate commitments: State Council
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Reuters: China's Premier Li Keqiang reaffirmed the government's commitment to achieve peak carbon emissions by "around 2030", the State Council said in a statement issued late on Friday.
The statement contained no new commitments ahead of crucial climate talks scheduled to take place in Paris at the end of the year.
Li, at a meeting of the State Council's National Leading Group on Climate Change, also said it would impose a "tough limit" on the expansion of heavily polluting and energy-intensive industries....
Rising seas, sinking peat to swamp Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Mongabay: With global sea levels going up at a rate of about 9 millimeters per year, the livelihoods of many coastal people in the world look increasingly threatened, especially in those parts of the world with limited financial or technical means to adapt. A rate of a thumb-width of water per year may not sound like much, but the half to one meter higher water levels mean that many coastal people will have to abandon their homes and fields before the end of the century.
Indonesia with its countless low-lying...
Exxon must pay $1m 2011 spill into Montana’s Yellowstone river
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 13th, 2015
Guardian: US officials have rejected Exxon Mobil’s request to reconsider a $1m penalty imposed against the oil company over a 63,000-gallon crude spill into Montana’s Yellowstone river.
The US Department of Transportation on Friday ordered the Texas company to pay the penalty within 20 days at a hearing in Billings, Montana.
Safety regulators said Exxon Mobil failed to adequately heed warnings that its 20-year-old Silvertip Pipeline was at risk from flooding. They said the company lacked procedures to...
Drought forces cuts to some of California’s oldest water rights
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 13th, 2015
Grist: California water regulators Friday took a step that they haven`t taken since 1977: They cut water allocations to 114 senior water-rights holders in the state.
In fact, this action will probably have more impact than the 1977 cuts, because the state has a greater legal and practical power to demand restrictions.
The State Water Board issued a notice saying: "The State Water Board has been monitoring diversion records and flow conditions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River watershed and Delta....