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Archive for December 9th, 2015
Walker Rejects Criticism About State’s Water Protection Efforts
Posted by Wisconsinsin Public Radio: Rich Kremer on December 9th, 2015
Wisconsinsin Public Radio: Gov. Scott Walker is rebuking a claim by former state Department of Natural Resources officials that lawmakers are endangering water quality, saying the state is balancing environmental and economic concerns.
After 45 former DNR staffers sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criticizing how the state is running its water protection program, the governor said he's proud that the number of DNR enforcement actions against property and business owners is on the decline.
"The...
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United Kingdom: Cameron government rejected flood risk warnings from climate advisers
Posted by Guardian: Damian Carrington and Patrick Wintour on December 9th, 2015
Guardian: The UK government was warned by its official climate change advisers in October that it needed to take action on the increasing number of homes at high risk of flooding but rejected the advice.
The decision not to develop to develop a strategy to address increase flooding risk came just a few weeks before Storm Desmond brought about severe flooding in Cumbria, Lancashire and other parts of the north west causing an estimated £500m of damage.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) also told the...
Canada climate push spells uncertainty for oil sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 9th, 2015
Reuters: Canada's newly elected government is committed to being a strong ally in global efforts to curb climate change, but it is unclear yet what that will mean for its vast oil patch, Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said on Wednesday.
"We are committed to moving to a low-carbon economy and we need to look at what that means," McKenna said at a briefing on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference in Paris.
Canada's oil sands are among the largest petroleum reserves in...
Will the Paris climate deal spell out end of the fossil fuel era?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 9th, 2015
Guardian: We are reaching le pointy end of the Paris climate change negotiations and a freshly prepared draft for a new global deal has just been released.
With less than 72 hours of scheduled negotiating time left, this is officially squeaky-bum time for the 40,000 or so negotiators, delegates, observers, civil society groups, campaigners, activists and media filling the vast plywood and plastic regaled halls and corridors of the cavernous Le Bourget venue.
One of the key decisions at the talks will...
Paris talks: US pledges to double aid to climate-hit countries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 9th, 2015
Guardian: The US has promised to double to $861m aid to countries on the frontline of climate change in the final push to reach an agreement to avoid dangerous global warming at crucial UN talks in Paris.
As the negotiations moved into their critical final phase, the White House said the US would deepen its commitment to help low-lying and poor countries that are already threatened by rising seas and powerful storms.
The additional aid, announced by John Kerry, the secretary of state, came as part of...
US Proposes Raising Spending on Climate-Change Adaptation
Posted by New York Times: Coral Davenport on December 9th, 2015
New York Times: In an effort to help smooth the passage of a sweeping new climate accord here this week, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday a proposal to double its grant-based public finance for climate-change adaptation by 2020 to $860 million, from $430 million. Mr. Kerry’s announcement came as the momentum toward a deal appeared to have hit a momentary snag. Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister who is presiding over the talks, delayed by two hours a self-imposed 1 p.m. deadline to release...
Keystone 2.0 in California
Posted by East Bay Express: Jean Tepperman on December 9th, 2015
East Bay Express: Now that President Barack Obama has blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, the Bay Area has emerged as a new battleground in the struggle to keep dirty tar sands oil in the ground — a goal that scientists say is critical to avoiding a climate change catastrophe. In fact, even before the defeat of the Keystone XL, Canadian oil investors — desperate to get their landlocked crude to market — were already planning an "invasion" of tar sands oil to the West Coast, according to a report issued...
Bad news for the climate as methane leaks far surpass previous estimates
Posted by ClimateWire: Gayathri Vaidyanathan on December 9th, 2015
ClimateWire: Emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry vastly exceed federal government estimates, according to a definitive study published yesterday. The study finds that daily leaks of the potent greenhouse gas from oil and gas wells in Texas' Barnett Shale matched the annual emissions of 8,000 cars.
Meanwhile, in California's Aliso Canyon, a natural gas storage site has leaked at least 800,000 metric tons carbon dioxide equivalents of methane since Oct. 23, equal to the annual emissions from 168,421...
‘Monster’ El Niño could usher in decade of more and stronger events
Posted by Reuters: Luc Cohen on December 9th, 2015
Reuters: In Buffalo, it hasn't snowed yet this year. A Duluth, Minnesota, newspaper reported that the temperature was 40 degrees above zero, not below. And in Miami, beachgoers are staying indoors during what's already the third-wettest December in local history. What's going on with the weather?
It's the phenomenon called El Nino, which is happening now as ocean water temperatures rise above normal across the central and eastern Pacific, near the equator. Its effects will leave the U.S. Northeast warmer...
Chinese glacier retreat signals trouble for Asian water supply
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on December 9th, 2015
New York Times: Over the years, Qin Xiang and his fellow scientists at a high and lonely research station in the Qilian Mountains of northwest China have tracked the inexorable effects of rising temperatures on one of China’s most important water sources. “The thing most sensitive to climate change is a glacier,” said Dr. Qin, 42, as he slowly trod across an icy field of the Mengke Glacier, one of the country’s largest. “In the 1970s, people thought glaciers were permanent. They didn’t think that glaciers would...