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Archive for June 23rd, 2015
Unnatural Disaster: How Warming Helped Cause India Catastrophic Flood
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Daniel Grossman on June 23rd, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Two years ago this month, a flood devastated the Himalayan village of Kedarnath, India, the destination of half a million Hindu pilgrims annually. The town sits 11,500 feet up in a tight valley. Sharp, snowy peaks tower on three sides and a stone temple sits at one end. The flood — which occurred on June 17, 2013 — was India’s worst disaster in a decade. Several thousand people drowned. The deluge tore apart dozens of bridges, swept away miles of paved roads, and carried off herds of livestock. ...
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Canada Files Charges 2013 Lac-Megantic Oil Train Crash
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 23rd, 2015
Reuters: The Canadian government on Monday charged the Montreal Maine & Atlantic Canada Railway Ltd, its affiliate and eight people with violating federal railway safety and environmental laws in connection with a 2013 oil train crash that killed 47 people and flattened the heart of the Quebec village of Lac-Megantic.
Robert Grindrod, the chief executive of now-bankrupt Montreal Maine & Atlantic Canada Railway, was among those charged with contravening the federal Railway Safety Act.
Canada's transport...
Top doctors’ prescription for feverish planet: Cut out coal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 23rd, 2015
Associated Press: Some top international doctors and public health experts have issued an urgent prescription for a feverish planet Earth: Get off coal as soon as possible.
Substituting cleaner energy worldwide for coal will reduce air pollution and give Earth a better chance at avoiding dangerous climate change, recommended a global health commission organized by the prestigious British medical journal Lancet. The panel said hundreds of thousands of lives each year are at stake and global warming "threatens to...
Thirty Meter Telescope construction resume Hawaii this week
Posted by Pacific Business: None Given on June 23rd, 2015
Pacific Business: Construction on the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii will resume Wednesday, nearly three months after work on the $1.4 billion project was halted when protesters objected to another observatory being built atop the Big Island’s Mauna Kea volcano, officials with the multinational consortium developing the project said.
Gov. David Ige last month said he supported the Thirty Meter Telescope project and said the state would enforce the TMT Observatory Corp.’s right to proceed with construction on...
Hula halau traveling ceremony support TMT protesters
Posted by Hawaii News: Derek Kravitsky on June 23rd, 2015
Hawaii News: On the longest day of the year, several hula halau made the most of every hour by holding a traveling ceremony across the island to support opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Kumu Hula gathered on the Summer Solstice Sunday morning at 5:50 a.m. at Waimanalo Beach Park to send pule and mana to protesters of TMT.
Every hour performances were held to send support to the mountain and those fighting the construction of the giant telescope.
Gatherings not only took place on Oahu; similar...
Household chemicals’ ‘cocktail effect’ raises cancer concerns for watchdog
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 23rd, 2015
Guardian: Common chemicals found in household products, cosmetics and medicines may be causing cancers, fertility problems and other illnesses including diabetes and obesity, according to a study.
Europe's environmental watchdog, the European Environment Agency, has warned that products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals should be treated with caution until their true effects are better known. However, it stopped short of recommending a ban of any specific products. A few such chemicals have already...
Tar balls on Los Angeles-area beach linked Santa Barbara oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 23rd, 2015
Reuters: At least some of the tar balls found littering one of southern California's most popular beaches last month were matched by lab tests to crude oil that spilled from a ruptured pipeline along the Santa Barbara coast about 100 miles away, state and pipeline company officials said on Monday. Sticky, black oil globs began washing up along more than 6 miles of Manhattan Beach, just southwest of Los Angeles on May 27, prompting health officials to briefly close a stretch of shoreline in the area. Another...
Bid for UK’s fracking return debated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 23rd, 2015
BBC: An application to start the first fracking operation in the UK for four years is being considered by a council.
Energy firm Cuadrilla wants to extract shale gas at Little Plumpton and Roseacre Wood on the Fylde Coast, in Lancashire.
The county council is considering the bid, after fracking was suspended in the UK in 2011.
Protests were held outside the hearing in Preston where 70 people - for and against fracking - will be speaking.
The application for Little Plumpton was recommended...
Construction to resume for TMT, hula protest held
Posted by KITV: None Given on June 23rd, 2015
KITV: Construction is now set to restart on the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea amidst continued protest. The TMT International Observatory Board released a statement Saturday saying that construction on the controversial TMT telescope would resume after a two month work stoppage. We contacted the public relations firm that issued the announcement, but were told no one was available to comment further. Those who oppose the telescope were more than willing to voice their opinion after hearing...
Firefighters battle major blazes as U.S. West faces more heat
Posted by Reuters: Steve Quinn and Courtney Sherwood on June 23rd, 2015
Reuters: Firefighters in Alaska, Oregon and drought-hit California on Monday fought several massive wildfires that have blackened swathes of overheated U.S. West Coast states, as crews braced for warmer temperatures later this week, officials said. Aided by falling temperatures, Alaska firefighters have gained an edge over two major blazes in the greater Anchorage area that have destroyed dozens of homes. Some residents were allowed to return to their homes. Firefighters have contained about 25 percent...