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Archive for January 19th, 2011
Prince Charles to challenge ban on farmland housing
Posted by Guardian: Robert Booth on January 19th, 2011
Guardian: He claims to be "the defender of nature", but Prince Charles was accused of hypocrisy after it emerged that he will challenge a decision preventing his Duchy of Cornwall property empire from building 2,000 homes over green fields.
The Duchy will attempt to resist Bath council's draft policy that would prevent, on environmental grounds, plans for what would be a highly profitable estate near the historic city. It wants to build on farmland that provides meat to local schools and villages in a scheme...
EPA Posts Frack Rules Without Explanation; Oil and Gas Industry Cries Foul
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2011
Greenwire: Forget tedious public comment periods or dry Federal Register notices. U.S. EPA, it turns out, can change the rules simply by quietly posting new language on a back page of its website. That is what Matt Armstrong found out. A lawyer who closely follows the issue of "hydraulic fracturing," he was poking around on the EPA website last June and was stunned when he realized the agency had added new language requiring drillers to get permits if they are going to fracture with diesel fuel. "One day,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on EPA Posts Frack Rules Without Explanation; Oil and Gas Industry Cries FoulYellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2011
National Geographic: to a centimeter a year or less. Still, since the start of the swelling, ground levels over the volcano have been raised by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in places. "It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high," said the University of Utah's Bob Smith, a longtime expert in Yellowstone's volcanism. Scientists think a swelling magma reservoir four to six miles (seven to ten kilometers) below the surface is driving the uplift. Fortunately, the...
Loss of reflectivity in the Arctic doubles estimate of climate models
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 19th, 2011
Science Centric: A new analysis of the Northern Hemisphere's 'albedo feedback' over a 30-year period concludes that the region's loss of reflectivity due to snow and sea ice decline is more than double what state-of-the-art climate models estimate.
The findings are important, researchers say, because they suggest that Arctic warming amplified by the loss of reflectivity could be even more significant than previously thought.
The study was published online this week in Nature Geoscience. It was funded primarily...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Loss of reflectivity in the Arctic doubles estimate of climate modelsShrinking snow and ice cover intensify global warming
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 19th, 2011
Science Centric: The decreases in Earth's snow and ice cover over the past 30 years have exacerbated global warming more than models predict they should have, on average, new research from the University of Michigan shows.
To conduct this study, Mark Flanner, assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, analysed satellite data showing snow and ice during the past three decades in the Northern Hemisphere, which holds the majority of the planet's frozen surface area. The research...
Report Questions Role of Shale Gas as Bridge to Low Carbon Future
Posted by Reuters: Stacy Feldman on January 19th, 2011
Reuters: Without a global carbon price, the expanding shale gas boom would exacerbate climate change and take money away from renewable energy projects, a new report said, calling for a worldwide pause until countries take steps necessary to lower the risks of the new wave of drilling. The report from the well-respected Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester is one of the the first to try to measure the global warming implications of the shale gas drilling bonanza. The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report Questions Role of Shale Gas as Bridge to Low Carbon Future‘By 2020, world to be 2.4 degree C hotter, India to be hit the hardest’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2011
Press Trust of India: The Earth will be 2.4 degree celsius warmer by 2020 if the world continues with the business-as-usual approach to climate change and India would be one of the hardest hit countries witnessing upto 30% reduction in crop yields, a new study has claimed.
The rising temperatures will adversely affect the world's food production and India would be the hardest hit, according to the analysis by the Universal Ecological Fund.
The report titled "The Food Gap "” The Impacts of Climate Change on Food...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘By 2020, world to be 2.4 degree C hotter, India to be hit the hardest’Record Food Prices Causing Africa Riots Stoking U.S
Posted by Bloomberg: Alan Bjerga and Tony Dreibus on January 19th, 2011
Bloomberg: The same record food prices causing riots in Algeria and export bans in India are allowing President Barack Obama to combine the biggest-ever U.S. farm exports with the tamest inflation since the 1960s.
Global food costs jumped 25 percent last year to an all- time high in December, according to the United Nations. Countries probably spent at least $1 trillion on imports, with the poorest paying as much as 20 percent more than in 2009, the UN says. In the U.S., the largest exporter, retail food...