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Flood protection to cost UK at least £860m by 2015, ministers warned
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on July 10th, 2012
Guardian: Protecting householders from devastating floods of the kind seen over the last few weeks across the UK will cost at least £860m by 2015, the government's climate change advisers have warned.
Since the start of May, more than 3,000 properties have been flooded, while 55,500 properties have received a flood warning from the Environment Agency and more than 31,000 were protected by flood defences.
But far from maintaining the expenditure needed, ministers have been drastically reducing the amount...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Flood protection to cost UK at least £860m by 2015, ministers warnedScientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on July 10th, 2012
Guardian: Climate change researchers have been able to attribute recent examples of extreme weather to the effects of human activity on the planet's climate systems for the first time, marking a major step forward in climate research.
The findings make it much more likely that we will soon – within the next few years – be able to discern whether the extremely wet and cold summer and spring so far experienced in the UK this year are attributable to human causes rather than luck, according to the researchers....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate changeUK fracking should be expanded, but better regulated, says report
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on June 29th, 2012
Guardian: Shale gas fracking should be allowed to go ahead in the UK, but with closer monitoring of companies engaged in the controversial activity, a committee of high-level academics and engineers has advised.
The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society said in a report published on Friday that the UK's current regulatory systems were sufficient for shale gas fracking if they were adequately enforced, but also said that closer monitoring of shale gas exploration sites should be put in place,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UK fracking should be expanded, but better regulated, says reportCarbon storage ‘may cause small earthquakes’
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on June 15th, 2012
Guardian: Capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground could give rise to small earthquakes, according to a new report from the US National Research Council.
But the authors said there was too little research to be firm on the findings, and called for more work to be done.
The report examined sites where hydraulic fracturing – the practice of blasting dense rocks apart with water, sand and chemicals in order to release tiny bubbles of natural gas trapped within them – had been used. The authors...
Drought will push up price of food, farmers warn
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on February 26th, 2012
Guardian: Farmers in drought-stricken areas of the country are facing crucial decisions in the next few days and weeks over what to grow this year – and their plans could mean rising food prices for hard-pressed consumers this summer.
Most of the south-east of England was officially declared to be in drought last week, and large swaths of the Midlands and south of England were confirmed as "at risk", with hosepipe bans and other restrictions likely to be introduced soon.
Farmers are particularly at risk...
Hosepipe bans likely as UK gripped by drought
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on February 24th, 2012
Guardian: The worst drought to grip the UK in more than 30 years is already killing wildlife, threatening farmers' livelihoods, and is likely to lead to widespread hosepipe bans – even before spring has begun.
Fish populations have been dying in Hampshire, according to the Environment Agency, owing to the low river flow that has left them stranded, while boats have been banned from areas on the Grand Union Canal where the level has had to be lowered. In the east of England, domestic boreholes supplying...
United Kingdom: Fracking company chief to face critics in south-east
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on January 10th, 2012
Guardian: The chief executive of the company pioneering shale gas "fracking" in the UK is to face his home county critics, as leading scientists urged closer monitoring of new drilling.
Mark Miller, chief executive of Cuadrilla – the shale gas company whose initial drilling near Blackpool was found to be "highly probably" responsible for two minor earthquakes last year – will confront a new set of opponents in the south-east's stockbroker belt. The company is widening its attention to Sussex, Kent and Surrey,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Fracking company chief to face critics in south-eastExtreme weather will strike, IPCC warns
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on November 18th, 2011
Guardian: Heavier rainfall, fiercer storms and intensifying droughts are likely to strike the world in the coming decades as climate change takes effect, the world's leading climate scientists said on Friday.
Rising sea levels will increase the vulnerability of coastal areas, and the increase in "extreme weather events" will wipe billions off national economies and destroy lives, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body of the world's leading climate scientists convened...
IPCC expected to confirm link between climate change and extreme weather
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on November 17th, 2011
Guardian: Climate change is likely to cause more storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, according to the most authoritative review yet of the effects of global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish on Friday its first special report on extreme weather, and its relationship to rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The final details are being fought over by governments, as the "summary for policymakers" of the report has to be agreed in full by every...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on IPCC expected to confirm link between climate change and extreme weatherChild six billion hopes for peace as population races on to next milestone
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: In a modest flat in Visoko, near Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 12-year-old Adnan Nevic is playing with a globe. "America, Australia, Asia," he says, pointing out the places he would like to visit on the slightly deflated blow-up toy.
His favourite subject at school is geography and he wants to be a pilot when he grows up, the better to fulfil his dreams of global travel.
That Adnan has such an international outlook is hardly surprising: at only two days old, he was held aloft in a Sarajevo...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Child six billion hopes for peace as population races on to next milestone