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Australian firefighters battle worst bushfire decades
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on January 4th, 2015
Al Jazeera: Dozens of homes were feared lost as an intense bushfire affecting thousands of acres raged out of control in South Australia Saturday, forcing residents to flee their homes and leaving 2,000 firefighters struggling to contain the worst blaze the region has seen in decades.
The fires at Sampson Flat, located northeast of the state capital Adelaide in the country's south, was spreading rapidly in all directions, sweeping from a 380-acre area on Friday afternoon to nearly 12,000 acres on Saturday....
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Report: Global warming could undercut efforts eradicate poverty
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on November 24th, 2014
Al Jazeera: Climate change could undermine efforts to defeat extreme poverty around the globe, the World Bank warned Sunday.
In a new report on the impact of global warming, the bank said sharp temperature rises would cut deeply into crop yields and water supplies in many areas and possibly set back efforts to bring populations out of poverty.
"Climate change poses a substantial and escalating risk to development progress that could undermine global efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared...
All talk and little action on climate change
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on November 2nd, 2014
Al Jazeera: Interpreting the mire of UN climate-speak, I’d say the message boils down to this: attain near zero emissions by 2100 or billions of our descendants not yet born will be in big trouble. That means we have to start now, tripling or even quadrupling our use of renewable energy so it represents 80% of energy sources by 2050.
This latest report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a final précis of the most comprehensive assessment on climate change to date, conducted...
Politics & the pipeline: Plains bedfellows
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on November 1st, 2014
Al Jazeera: Pipelines break. They don’t break often, but when they do, the result can be catastrophic.
That’s what worries John Harter, a rancher who grew up in this rural, poor and conservative area of southern South Dakota. Harter, 51, still lives here, and owns land that the Keystone XL pipeline would cross if it’s ever approved.
Harter points to the 2010 spill of 860,000 gallons of tar sand oil from a pipeline crossing the Kalamazoo River in Michigan when people ask what he’s fighting against. Enbridge,...
When fracking and free speech collide
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on September 14th, 2014
Al Jazeera: What started as a short YouTube video and a couple of local news interviews about a Texas landowner being able to light his water on fire has ballooned into a free speech fight that’s being closely watched by anti-fracking activists across the country.
Steve Lipsky has complained for years that fracking company Range Resources polluted his drinking water and streams that run through his property. The company sued him in 2011 for defaming its reputation for environmental stewardship.
Now Lipsky...
Greenland glacial melt is growing factor rising sea levels
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on May 18th, 2014
Al Jazeera: Greenland’s glaciers are far more vulnerable to climate change-induced warming oceans than previously thought, a report released Sunday by UC- Irvine and NASA glaciologists said.
The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, reveals previously uncharted deep valleys stretching for dozens of miles under the Greenland Ice Sheet -- showing that there are no natural barriers to stop the melting.
The findings echo a report released last week showing that glacial melting in West Antarctica...
Russia, EU join aid effort in wake of Balkan floods
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on May 18th, 2014
Al Jazeera: Russian cargo planes and rescue teams from around Europe on Sunday joined volunteer efforts to provide aid across large swathes of Serbia and Bosnia and parts of eastern Croatia, where at least 24 people have died in the worst floods in over a century.
“These are the kind of waters not seen in 1,000 years, let alone 100,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a televised cabinet session Sunday.
Two Russian Ilyushin-26 cargo planes landed in Serbia carrying food, generators and rescue...
The cost of climate change
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on March 29th, 2014
Al Jazeera: The United Nations climate change body is painting a grim picture about global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth major assessment report is out this week, and the content affects us all. Millions have already been directly impacted by climate change. In the Philippines, for example, there was a lot of talk about how the warming Pacific Ocean played a part in last year's catastrophic Typhoon Haiyan. Although the IPCC report was not yet out by the end of the week,...
Students arrested in Keystone pipeline protests outside White House
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on March 3rd, 2014
Al Jazeera: Police arrested nearly 400 student-led demonstrators who marched to the White House on Sunday to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Marching under the name XL Dissent, at least 500 students from across the United States demonstrated and engaged in acts of civil disobedience outside the White House.
After repeated warnings, police arrested demonstrators for "blocking passage" of sidewalks, Sgt. Lelani Woods of the U.S. Park Police told Al Jazeera. "We advised protesters of the outcome...
Another Spill Reported West Virginia’s Freedom Industries
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on February 3rd, 2014
Al Jazeera: A subsequent MCHM chemical spill has been reported at Freedom Industries in West Virginia, local media sources said Friday, but state officials have said that the leak was contained before reaching the Elk River, sparing the already weary downstream residents. Test results from water samples taken from area schools, however, showed the continued presence of the chemical in five schools.
A spokesman for a West Virginia environmental agency said cleanup crews at the site of the previous chemical...