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Archive for January 2nd, 2011
GOP-led House plans to fight Obama pollution plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2011
Associated Press: The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising a fight over the Obama administration's new approach on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Congress failed last year to pass limits and let companies buy and sell pollution permits. That system was known as "cap and trade" -- but to Republicans it was "cap and tax" because they said it would raise energy prices.
The administration now say it'll act on its own to clamp down on power plant and oil refinery greenhouse...
River rage: Why Iowa’s flood risk is rising
Posted by Des Moines Register: Perry Beeman on January 2nd, 2011
Des Moines Register: Changes in Iowa's weather patterns, landscape, cities and farms have rendered some of the state's most trusted flood prevention safeguards outmoded and inadequate, a review by The Des Moines Register shows.
That includes the state's system of dams - including Saylorville upstream from Des Moines - which were designed to meet climate conditions and a lay of the land that some scientists say haven't existed for decades.
That leaves Iowans, their homes and their businesses increasingly at risk...
Solar plant to generate power after sundown
Posted by Wall Street Journal: Rebecca Smith on January 2nd, 2011
Wall Street Journal: Something new is headed for the Southwest desert: solar power plants that can make electricity whether or not the sun is shining.
Abengoa Solar Inc. expects to start construction in mid-2011 on a plant in Arizona that will store sun-generated heat to provide six extra hours a day of electric-generating capacity. The heat creates steam that is used to turn power turbines.
Rebecca Smith looks at solar power plants that can make electricity whether or not the sun is shining, including one scheduled...
Kenya: Deaths as drought scorches region
Posted by Sunday Nation: Muchemi Wachira on January 2nd, 2011
Sunday Nation: A disaster is looming in Marsabit County where at least two people have starved to death following a protracted drought.
The two died following what Marsabit North acting district commissioner Mburu Mwangi called “suspected hunger and dehydration”.
The two are Barile Bericha, 54, from Yaa Gara village, and Liban Ndenge Arelo, 22, from Huri Hills village. The two villages are in Maikona division.
Bad to worse
“So far, about 30,000 people are facing starvation in the district and the situation...
A glacier in flux plunges seaward
Posted by Daily Climate: Nathan Rice on January 2nd, 2011
Daily Climate: The icebergs looked impenetrable. Roman Motyka needed a route through.
"If you see an opening anywhere, let me know," said the University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist, at the wheel of a small skiff puttering through the ice-choked bay off the Gulf of Alaska.
Beyond the iceberg maze loomed the nose of a glacier that, contrary to a warming climate, is advancing into the sea. Motyka and his team were here - in one of the most ice-covered regions on the planet - to find out why.
"Just a...
Eyewitness: After the deluge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2011
Guardian: x
Climate change is skiing’s worst nightmare
Posted by Associated Press: John Marshall on January 2nd, 2011
Associated Press: Ski resorts are getting greener, and they're seeking recognition for it -- partly to boost their image with their environmentally-conscious clientele. To educate the public and recognize the best programs, one grass-roots organization, the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition, tracks the environmental impact and efforts of 82 ski areas in 11 Western states and has issued an annual report card each of the past 11 years.
The Ski Area Citizens' Coalition's most recent report card gave the highest marks to...
Sustainable Food: A Diet for an Invaded Planet: Invasive Species
Posted by New York Times: Ames Gorman on January 2nd, 2011
New York Times: There’s a new shift in the politics of food, not quite a movement yet, more of an eco-culinary frisson. But it may have staying power; the signs and portents are there. Vegans, freegans, locavores — meet the invasivores. Some divers in the Florida Keys recently held a lionfish derby, the idea being to kill and eat lionfish, an invasive species. Local chefs cooperated by promoting the lionfish as a tasty entree. The idea drew editorial support from Andrew Revkin in a post on The Times’s Dot Earth...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Sustainable Food: A Diet for an Invaded Planet: Invasive SpeciesSouth Texas shale attracting billions of dollars
Posted by Houston Chronicle: Brett Clanton on January 2nd, 2011
Houston Chronicle: Though still facing uncertainty on many fronts as 2011 begins, the oil and gas industry knows one thing: It likes what it sees in South Texas.
That's the site of the Eagle Ford shale formation, a vast underground network of dense rock layers, discovered only recently and now thought to be one of the nation's biggest oil and gas fields.
To this point, the formation has existed in the shadow of other big domestic shale formations best known for their supplies of natural gas, including the Barnett...
India’s hidden climate change catastrophe
Posted by Independent: Alex Renton on January 2nd, 2011
Independent: Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we can sell the salt from our table." Ms Nagamma, 41, showed us a picture of her husband -- good-looking with an Elvis-style hairdo -- on the day they married a quarter of a century ago. "He'd been unhappy for...