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Archive for November 28th, 2015
Rain and ice batter central U.S. as Texas death toll rises to four
Posted by Reuters: Karen Brooks on November 28th, 2015
Reuters: Flooding and travel delays are likely over the holiday weekend for a swath of south and central United States stretching from Texas to Kentucky, bringing up to a foot of rain in some places and killing at least four, weather forecasters said Saturday.
At the same time, an ice storm stretching from New Mexico through West Texas and Oklahoma and up to Kansas City knocked out power for tens of thousands of residents by Saturday morning. The system is expected to lead to airport delays across the...
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What happened to California regulators’ vows to make steam injections safer?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2015
LA Times: On the morning of the day he died, David Taylor and his crew were looking for a "chimney" - a fissure in the earth where steam and oil periodically spurted into the air in an oil field west of Bakersfield.
Taylor, a construction supervisor for Chevron, had been battling a long-standing problem near a dormant well in the Midway-Sunset oil field. His job was to control leaks at Well 20 in a primordial tableau of sinkholes, small bubbling pools of scalding water and geysers that on occasion spewed...
Rachel Notley will sell a ‘different’ Alberta at climate change talks
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 28th, 2015
CBC: Premier Rachel Notley says she's heading to climate change talks in Paris to show the world it`s dealing with a new Alberta.
"I think it's just very, very important for people to see that they're dealing with a different thing now in Alberta, and hopefully they'll view our efforts to engage in international trade more positively as a result," she said.
One focus at the conference will be selling Alberta's new climate change plan in meetings with stakeholders and governments, focusing on buy-in...
Counties oppose bills to pre-empt fracking bans
Posted by Tallahassee Democrat: Jeff Burlew on November 28th, 2015
Tallahassee Democrat: County commissioners across Florida are opposing a push by lawmakers that would short-circuit their ability to regulate or ban fracking in their communities.
About 20 counties, from Leon to Miami-Dade, and nearly 40 cities, including Tallahassee, have passed resolutions or ordinances banning fracking, an unconventional drilling technique that’s generated controversy over environmental and health concerns. As of late October, the bans were in place in cities and counties representing roughly 8...
Energy-rich Russia pays little attention to climate change
Posted by Associated Press: Katherine Jacobsen on November 28th, 2015
Associated Press: When forest fires roared through Siberia this summer, so vast that the smoke blocked vast Lake Baikal from satellite view, Russian officials blamed the blazes on arsonists and disorganized fire crews. Environmentalists say there was another culprit: global warming.
As temperatures rise worldwide, areas such as Siberia are suffering increasingly long dry spells. Russia's national weather agency says the country is the fastest-warming part of the world.
But Russia has taken little action to reduce...
Rain and ice in central US linked to three deaths in flash flooding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2015
Guardian: Heavy rain and icy conditions are likely to stick around through most of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in parts of the central US due to a slow-moving, complex weather system that’s being blamed for at least three flash-flooding deaths.
“There’s a pretty substantial shield of rain extending from parts of Texas across a lot of Oklahoma and into the mid-Mississippi Valley,” said John Hart, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service issued...
Climate change could have link with terrorism, UN chief Ban Ki-moon tells CBC
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 28th, 2015
CBC: The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the attacks in Paris can't overshadow efforts to reach a climate change agreement at next week's summit.
He also warns in an exclusive interview with CBC News of a possible link between climate change and terrorism.
"When we do not address climate change properly it may also affect many people who are frustrated and who are impacted, then there is some possibility that these young people who [are] jobless and frustrated may join these foreign terrorist...
Ahead of climate summit, French use emergency laws to put activists under house arrest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2015
Reuters: France has put 24 green activists under house arrest ahead of the United Nations climate talks, using emergency laws put in place following the Paris shootings, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Saturday.
Cazeneuve said the activists were suspected of planning violent protests at the talks which kick off on Sunday, a day ahead of the opening ceremony, and run until Dec. 11.
The conference, also dubbed COP21, is seeking to agree a deal that signals a break with a rising reliance on...
Global warming: The great thaw
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2015
Washington Post: The river of ice that hugs Mount Grinnell’s high ridges is neither big nor particularly beautiful, but it may be the most accessible glacier in all of North America. In as little as three hours, an average hiker can traverse the mountain’s well-groomed trail to plant a foot on a frozen relic of the Little Ice Age.
But if you want to see it, you’d better hurry. Grinnell Glacier is disappearing -- fast.
This crescent-shaped glacier in Montana’s northern Rockies had been contracting for decades...
UN chief warns climate change link with terrorism
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 28th, 2015
CBC: UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon says the attacks in Paris can't overshadow efforts to reach a climate change agreement at next week's summit.
He also warns in an exclusive interview with CBC News of a possible link between climate change and terrorism.
"When we do not address climate change properly it may also affect many people who are frustrated and who are impacted, then there is some possibility that these young people who [are] jobless and frustrated may join these foreign terrorist...