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Archive for June 24th, 2015
Indiana will defy Obama on climate change plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2015
Associated Press: Indiana will not comply with President Barack Obama’s plan to battle climate change by requiring reductions in emissions from coal-fired power plants, Republican Gov. Mike Pence said Wednesday. The proposal as currently written, known as the Clean Power Plan, will make Indiana electricity more expensive and less reliable and hurt economic growth in Indiana and across the nation, Pence wrote in a letter to Obama. The plan targets pollution from the coal-fired power plants that Indiana relies on....
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New report estimates enough natural gas leaking negate climate benefit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2015
Guardian: Natural gas has been touted as an environmentally friendly substitute to coal and oil production, but a new report estimates enough gas is leaking to negate most of the climate benefits of process.
The report, commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund and carried out by environmental consulting group ICF International, estimated the amount of leaks from natural gas and oil production on federal and tribal land in the US. It also looked at venting and flaring, processes in which drilling sites...
Water level in reservoir formed by Hoover Dam dips record low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2015
Reuters: The largest capacity reservoir in the United States has hit its lowest water level in history following years of severe drought that have dramatically reduced flows from the Colorado River, water managers said on Wednesday.
Officials said Nevada’s Lake Mead, the 79-year-old reservoir created by the massive Hoover Dam, registered 1,074.98 feet (327.7 meters) above sea level late on Tuesday, but was able to rise above a critical mark by early on Wednesday morning.
A water level of below 1,075...
Death Toll Soars in Climate Change-Related Pakistan Heat Wave
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 24th, 2015
EcoWatch: A deadly heat wave spreading through southern Pakistan has killed nearly 800 people in just a few days--a number that threatens to rise as temperatures remain unusually high this week.
More than 600 people have died in Pakistan`s heatwave http://t.co/bsc8q7NZ2H pic.twitter.com/gtEBFxqR5P
-- Sky News (@SkyNews) June 24, 2015
At least 740 people have died of dehydration, heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses in Karachi, the country`s largest city, since Saturday, with various sources...
Hurricane Sandy and Typhoon Haiyan tied to global warming, scientists argue
Posted by Mashable: None Given on June 24th, 2015
Mashable: Humans are not just loading the dice in favor of extreme weather events, as many scientific studies have shown. They are also changing the characteristics and impacts of those events, be it in the form of an unprecedentedly strong and extremely deadly Typhoon Haiyan or the damaging Boulder, Colorado, floods of 2013.
The way that scientists have been probing extreme events for human fingerprints is flawed, however, because it underestimates the influence that global warming is playing, argues a...
Will humans survive the sixth great extinction?
Posted by Naitonal Geographic: None Given on June 24th, 2015
Naitonal Geographic: In the last half-billion years, life on Earth has been nearly wiped out five times-by such things as climate change, an intense ice age, volcanoes, and that space rock that smashed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago, obliterating the dinosaurs and a bunch of other species. These events are known as the Big Five mass extinctions, and all signs suggest we are now on the precipice of a sixth.
Except this time, we have no one but ourselves to blame. According to a study published last week...
U.S. Judge Temporarily Blocks New Fracking Rules on Public Lands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2015
Reuters: A U.S. judge in Wyoming on Tuesday granted a request by four states and several energy industry groups to temporarily stop new federal rules on hydraulic fracturing on public lands from taking effect on Wednesday.
The Interior Department rules would require companies to provide data on chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and to take steps to prevent leakage from oil and gas wells on federally owned land.
U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl granted a stay to the new rules until...
Troubled Delta System California Water Battleground
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2015
New York Times: Fighting over water is a tradition in California, but nowhere are the lines of dispute more sharply drawn than here in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals that is the hub of the state's water system.
Giant pumps pull in water flowing to the delta from the mountainous north of the state, where the majority of precipitation falls, and send it to farms, towns and cities in the Central Valley and Southern California, where the demand for water is greatest....
ICUN Red List: over 22,000 species threatened extinction
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on June 24th, 2015
Blue and Green: The latest update from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reveals that over 22,000 species around the world are now threatened with extinction, from the Lion to the New Zealand Sea Lion, one of the rarest sea lions in the world.
The Red List now contains 77,340 assessed species, of which 22,784 are threatened with extinction. The list highlights that over-collection and habitat destruction are placing enormous pressures on animal and plant species.
The update comes shortly after a study...
11 arrested as TMT crews fail get to Mauna Kea summit
Posted by KITV: None Given on June 24th, 2015
KITV: Construction crews for the Thirty Meter Telescope advanced roughly 300 yards up Mauna Kea before they were met by protesters Wednesday morning.
The TMT crews were crossing onto a portion of the road managed by the state. That's where Department of Land and Natural Resources officers were waiting to take over the escort.
There were hundreds more protesters lining the mountain in front of them and multiple people were arrested.
In total, 11 people were arrested, according to West Hawaii Today....