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The Canadian pipeline (almost) everyone hates gets a go-ahead
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 17th, 2014
Grist: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the Northern Gateway pipeline. This is not a huge shock. This is the man, after all, who called Barack Obama to personally register his displeasure over the president`s failure to approve Keystone XL. In the years before he was prime minister, Harper was a second-generation employee of the Imperial Oil Company. The man has governed in a way that is not only anti-environment but anti-environmental science. What else was he going to say to a pipeline...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on The Canadian pipeline (almost) everyone hates gets a go-aheadClimate changes threatens America’s ‘king corn’
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 13th, 2014
Grist: The days of "king corn" could be numbered as climate change brings higher temperatures and water shortages to America`s farmland, a new report warned on Wednesday.
Nearly one third of U.S. farmland is devoted to raising corn and the country produces about 40 percent of the world`s corn crop. But the $1.7 trillion industry - the equivalent of Australia`s GDP - is under threat from water shortages, heat waves, and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change.
"Corn is an essential input to...
Sea-level rise is already eating our coasts
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 26th, 2014
Grist: “We are a coastal country,” says Susanne C. Moser, a convening lead author for the National Climate Assessment’s Coasts chapter. The U.S. has 94,000 miles of coastline and more than $1 trillion in coastal infrastructure. Coastal lifelines, such as water and energy infrastructure, and nationally important assets, such as ports, tourism, and fishing sites, all are increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise, storm surge, erosion, flooding, and related hazards.
When it rains, it pours: Climate change brings droughts and floods alike
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 24th, 2014
Grist: “This is really a call for America to find out, ‘What does climate change mean for where you live?’” says Paul Fleming, a convening lead author of the National Climate Assessment’s Water Resources chapter.
Fleming talks about how climate change will challenge the reliability of water supplies in the United States in multiple ways. Alterations in precipitation patterns and reduced snowpack are some of the climate-related changes that will affect the quality and quantity of water available to Americans....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on When it rains, it pours: Climate change brings droughts and floods alikeDrought is just start of climate change’s toll on the Southwest
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 19th, 2014
Grist: “The story in the Southwest is the story of water,” says Greg Garfin, one of the convening lead authors of the National Climate Assessment chapter on the region, already one of the driest parts of the United States.
Increased heat, drought, and insect outbreaks, all linked to climate change, have increased wildfires. Declining water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, and health impacts in cities due to heat will take their toll, especially in populous desert cities like Las Vegas, where water...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drought is just start of climate change’s toll on the SouthwestNew report warns of “cascading system failure” caused by climate change
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 8th, 2014
Grist: From roads and bridges to power plants and gas pipelines, American infrastructure is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to a pair of government reports released Thursday. The reports are technical documents supporting the National Climate Assessment, a major review compiled by 13 government agencies that the U.S. Global Change Research Program is expected to release in April. Scientists at the Department of Energy`s Oak Ridge National Laboratory put together the reports, which...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New report warns of “cascading system failure” caused by climate changeDrought-plagued California tries drink ocean (hold the salt)
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 4th, 2014
Grist: Despite the pugnacious storms that had California on the ropes this past weekend, the state is still in the middle of a record-making drought. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is well under half its usual level for this time of year, and there’s almost certainly no way to catch up this late in the season.
Enter the ongoing construction of 17 desalination plants across the state. A $1 billion plant being built in Carlsbad, Calif., expected to be ready by 2016, will pump 50 million gallons...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drought-plagued California tries drink ocean (hold the salt)Low impact: State Department says Keystone won’t hurt much at all
Posted by Grist: None Given on February 1st, 2014
Grist: It`s Friday, and nothing says Friday like the words "The Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project is out." Am I right? Let`s just pretend I`m right. It`s out, everyone! Some people might get into conspiracy theories about governmental agencies that release highly controversial documents late on a Friday right before the Super Bowl, but surely those are just theories. Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project party in the house!...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Low impact: State Department says Keystone won’t hurt much at allHawaii lawmakers move to block local bans on GMOs, pesticides
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 29th, 2014
Grist: Late last year, the Kauai and Hawaii County councils passed laws restricting the use of pesticides and experimental GMOs on their slices of Hawaiian paradise. But those laws could soon be sunk by state lawmakers.
Hawaii County`s rules ban biotech giants from the island and prohibit the new planting of GMO crops (farmers who already grow GMO crops may continue doing so). Kauai`s rules require disclosures from anyone growing GMOs or spraying agricultural pesticides and the creation of pesticide-free...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hawaii lawmakers move to block local bans on GMOs, pesticidesCanadian tar-sand oil could start flooding into Europe
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 24th, 2014
Grist: Hey, European drivers, how would you like your gasoline to be even more filthy and climate-changing than it already is?
When the European Commission proposed new climate and energy rules for the European Union this week, it recommended opening a door for companies that want to import Canadian tar-sands oil into the continent. Responding to Climate Change explains:
Oil from Canada’s carbon-intensive tar sands - one of the world’s single biggest sources of greenhouse gas pollution - could be...