RSS Feed
Archive for February, 2011
China’s drought area to see rain or snow
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Most of China will see rain or snow in the next few days, which could help to relieve the severe drought that has hit many of China's wheat growing provinces, the Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the country's weather bureau.
Some areas in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei provinces, which were severely hit by the drought, could see heavy rain or snow, it said.
Toxins from South African mines threaten city
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Toxic liquids building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg could reach environmentally dangerous levels by June 2012, officials and scientists said yesterday. Work is to begin immediately on a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants. Water has already started leaking from abandoned mines west of Johannesburg in the so-called Western Basin. Water accumulating in shafts dug more than a century ago has been reacting with rocks to produce sulphuric acid, heavy metals, toxins and radiation....
Supreme Court Decides Against Intervening in ‘Critical Habitat’ Designations
Posted by Greenwire: Lawrence Hurley on February 22nd, 2011
Greenwire: The Supreme Court declined today to take up whether federal regulators and courts take account sufficiently of the economic impacts of "critical habitat" designations under the Endangered Species Act.
It is a touchy issue because private property owners, including developers and ranchers, have objected to critical habitat designations that infringe on their ability to do business.
The Endangered Species Act specifically states that the Fish and Wildlife Service must designate critical habitats...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Supreme Court Decides Against Intervening in ‘Critical Habitat’ DesignationsChina plans to rein in heavy metal pollution
Posted by Reuters: Michael Martina on February 22nd, 2011
Reuters: China's environmental protection agency has vowed to curb heavy metal pollution in a bid to cut widespread industrial contaminants like lead that have poisoned children and sparked protests.
The world's top consumer and producer of lead, China has struggled to rein in polluting industry under lax environmental regulations as the country's economy grows rapidly. Lead-poisoning, especially in children, has roused public anger.
"The prevention of heavy metal pollution concerns the health of the...
Lake Koroneia in northern Greece is dying
Posted by Guardian: Alain Salles on February 22nd, 2011
Guardian: Fence posts mark what was once the edge of Lake Koroneia, now several metres from the shore. Greece's fourth-largest lake, near Thessaloniki, used to extend over 45 sq km. In 30 years it has lost a third of its surface area, its depth has shrunk from five metres to only one, sometimes less. In summer 2009 you could walk across. In the heart of Europe a lake is dying.
There is a tip beside one of the fence posts, with an old television, broken furniture and bin liners. Yet this place belongs to...
Thousands of indigenous Panamanians reject mining reforms
Posted by Guardian: Jean-Michel Caroit on February 22nd, 2011
Guardian: Demonstrations are spreading across Panama demanding an end to plans to reform mining laws in order to attract foreign investors. Thousands of indigenous people this month blocked the Pan-American highway at San Félix, 400km west of Panama City.
Some had walked for several days from villages in the indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé region, which has large copper reserves. Brandishing signs condemning open-cast mining, they were joined by environmental campaigners. "This is a peaceful demonstration against...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thousands of indigenous Panamanians reject mining reformsRwanda makes saving its forests a national priority
Posted by Guardian: Laurence Caramel on February 22nd, 2011
Guardian: The rolling green countryside of Rwanda's Thousand Hills area may look fertile and flourishing, but the area desperately needs help. At the launch of the United Nations International Year of Forests, the Rwandan minister of land and the environment, Stanislas Kamanzi, announced a forest landscape restoration initiative.
This is not just a gesture to placate conservation organisations trying to save mountain gorillas and one of their few remaining sanctuaries. "Without a sustainable environment...
Increase in natural gas production could slow interest in Minn. wind power
Posted by Minnesota Public Radio: Mark Steil on February 22nd, 2011
Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota is the nation's fourth largest producer of wind energy, but a potential game-changing development in natural gas production could erode interest in wind power. In the Minnesota River valley town of Ottawa, near St. Peter, there's a big hole in the ground that's part of the rush to produce more natural gas. Grey Lusty is a manager for the Unimin Corporation, a company mining silica sand in Ottawa and plans to expand production. The sand is used in a natural gas extraction process called...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Increase in natural gas production could slow interest in Minn. wind powerCanada: Mega-deal for natural gas brings benefits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 22nd, 2011
Vancouver Sun: PetroChina's $5.4-billion US deal to acquire half of EnCana Corp.'s Cutbank Ridge natural gas play in northeastern British Columbia is tangible proof of the enormous value of this vast resource.
It also demonstrates the voracious appetite for energy in rapidly developing China, now the world's secondlargest economy.
Not only does this transaction provide crucial capital at a time of historically low natural gas prices to accelerate production (now at 250 million cubic feet a day), but it breathes...
Some see silver lining in bark beetle epidemic
Posted by Aspen Times: Scott Condon on February 22nd, 2011
Aspen Times: The beetle epidemic that has killed trees on millions of acres in western North America isn't the ecological disaster it is often portrayed to be, a senior forest scientist with The Wilderness Society said Monday.
Greg Aplet of The Wilderness Society's Denver office said forests are already showing signs of coming back in ways that will make them more resilient and adaptable to a changing environment brought by climate change.
Aplet attended Friday's "Forests at Risk" conference which attracted...