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Indonesia warns of fire risk in haze-prone regions in March-April
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2016
Reuters: Indonesia expects dryer than normal weather in several fire and haze-prone regions in western and central Indonesia in March and April, the state weather agency (BMKG) said on Monday, referring to a recent increase in fires and hotspots.
The region suffers every dry season from so-called haze caused by smoldering fires, often set deliberately to clear land for palm oil plantations on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
Fires were particularly bad in 2015 because of a prolonged dry season caused by...
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Comments Off on Indonesia warns of fire risk in haze-prone regions in March-AprilCrisis puts water projects in top gear
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2016
Times of India: The civic officials and elected representatives are in a huddle as the city stares at a severe water crisis. A series of meetings have been held in Mumbai and Pune to expedite pending water projects. Experts, however, say that traditional business-as-usual approach to water management will not help resolve the crisis permanently.
On its part, the PMC has accelerated the Bhama Askhed pipeline project. Guardian minister Girish Bapat called a meeting in Mumbai last week to discuss hurdles in the...
Can you put a price on nature? A Californian nonprofit thinks it can
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2016
Guardian: Everyone agrees that nature has value. It clothes, feeds and shelters us – and provides a spectacular playground. Yet we have never put a value on everything nature offers.
Now, environmental and sustainable business consultants want to change that by forcing corporate leaders to take stock of the economic impact of how they manage natural resources. By accounting for this so-called natural capital, the advocates hope to see more businesses adopting practices that are both good for the environment...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Can you put a price on nature? A Californian nonprofit thinks it canSouth Africa bans leopard hunts due to uncertainty on numbers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2016
Reuters: For the first time in decades, hunters with deep pockets will not be able to shoot all of the “big five” game animals in South Africa after the government banned leopard hunts for the 2016 season.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) recommended the temporary ban because it said leopard numbers could not be firmly established.
“There is uncertainty about the numbers and this is not a permanent ban, but we need more information to guide quotas,” John Donaldson, SANBI’s director...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on South Africa bans leopard hunts due to uncertainty on numbersThe Global Solution to Extinction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2016
New York Times: DURING the summer of 1940, I was an 11-year-old living with my family in a low-income apartment in Washington, D.C. We were within easy walking distance of the National Zoo and an adjacent strip of woodland in Rock Creek Park. I lived most of my days there, visiting exotic animals and collecting butterflies and other insects with a net that I had fashioned from a broom handle, coat hanger and cheesecloth. I read nature books, field guides and past volumes of National Geographic. I had already conceived...
Thunderstorms pound U.S. South after days of rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Reuters: A line of severe thunderstorms hit Louisiana on Saturday, adding more rain to flooded rivers across the lower Mississippi Valley after days of downpours, meteorologists said.
Drenching rains this week have killed three people in Louisiana and one in Oklahoma. Two fishermen remain missing in Mississippi, state emergency management officials said.
Mike Steele, a spokesman for the Louisiana emergency office, said areas of the state had received more than 2 feet (60 cm) of rain during the deluge....
Louisiana flash floods leave at least three dead as Mississippi faces deluge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Guardian: Residents in Louisiana and Mississippi are taking stock of damage Saturday after a massive deluge of rain submerged roads and cars, washed out bridges and forced residents to flee homes.
The rain and flooding is part of a weather system that has affected Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. At least three people have died in Louisiana alone.
In Mississippi, officials said as many as 1,000 residents could see their homes flooded by the rising Leaf River in Hattiesburg, Petal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Louisiana flash floods leave at least three dead as Mississippi faces delugeUnited Kingdom: Tap water remains unsafe in Derbyshire & Leicestershire
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Guardian: Thousands of people in the north of England are still being advised not to use their tap water after the discovery of high chlorine levels at a nearby reservoir.
Up to 3,700 households in Derbyshire and Leicestershire have been unable to use their water supply since Friday afternoon, when it emerged “higher than normal” levels of the chemical were detected.
The normal level of chlorine in drinking water is 0.5 micrograms. According to the Drinking Water Inspectorate, water in the network that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Tap water remains unsafe in Derbyshire & LeicestershireUnited Kingdom: A pocket of acorns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Telegraph: When he wasn't at sea blockading the French, Admiral Collingwood liked nothing better than walking out from his house in Morpeth, Northumberland, with a pocket full of acorns, which he would press into the soil at likely spots, in order to ensure that, years after he was gone, there would be full-grown oaks enough to build new ships of the line for the Royal Navy.
Today, our ships are no longer heart of oak, and thousands of our oaks are afflicted with a disease called acute oak decline. This...
Five Years After Nuclear Disaster Fukushima Remains Highly Contaminated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: It has been five years since a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. While a few towns closed after the disaster have reopened and some locals have returned, groundwater en route to the ocean, as well as nearby soils, remain highly contaminated with radioactive waste. Toxic water and soil that has been removed by the cleanup project’s 8,000 workers sit in a growing number storage tanks on the property, several of which...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Five Years After Nuclear Disaster Fukushima Remains Highly Contaminated