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Archive for March, 2011
Low-level radiation found in Massachusetts rainwater
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2011
Reuters: Trace amounts of radioactive iodine linked to Japan's crippled nuclear power station have turned up in rainwater samples as far away as Massachusetts during the past week, state officials said on Sunday.
The low level of radioiodine-131 detected in precipitation at a sample location in Massachusetts is comparable to findings in California, Washington state and Pennsylvania and poses no impact to drinking supplies, public health officials said.
Air samples from the same location in Massachusetts...
Growing urban water demand poses challenge to natural environment
Posted by The News: None Given on March 27th, 2011
The News: The speakers at a seminar said growing urban water and sanitation demand, increased pollution from municipal and industrial discharges, climate change and its unforeseen risks and challenges and over-exploitation of available water resources are posing grave challenges to the natural environment.
They were speaking at a seminar titled "˜World Water Day 2011' organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). The seminar focussed on the impacts of rapid urban population growth, industrialisation...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Growing urban water demand poses challenge to natural environmentStop the coal resurgence in its tracks
Posted by Washington Post: Editorial on March 27th, 2011
Washington Post: AS THE CRISIS at Japan’s stricken reactors wears on, it’s increasingly clear what a step away from nuclear power will mean for Europe and Asia: more coal, which means more nasty particulates, carcinogens, carbon dioxide and other dangerous effluences spewing from sooty smokestacks around the world.
As radiation levels outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant rise, so did the value of stocks of American companies that mine and export the black stuff. Business analysts expect demand for U.S. coal to...
Brazil needs to unblock climate talks: Bill Clinton
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2011
AFP: US ex-president Bill Clinton urged Brazil to push to get global climate change talks unblocked by getting key trade partners, the United States and China, to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"You cannot create a sustainable future for Brazil alone; you have got to convince enough other greenhouse gas emitters, including the US and China, your two biggest trading partners, to go with you on this," said Clinton, in a speech to Brazilian business executives in this sweltering city in the heart of the...
Tasmania’s rainforest at risk from mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2011
Independent: Considered one of Australia's natural wonders, the Tarkine Wilderness in Tasmania contains the southern hemisphere's largest temperate rainforest as well as ancient Aboriginal sites. Home to dozens of endangered species, it also has a unique landscape of karst gorges and cave systems. But that may not be enough to save it.
The Australian Heritage Council has no doubts about its significance -- it has recommended that nearly half a million hectares of the Tarkine be listed to protect them from...
Five countries sign for ‘European Amazon’ reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2011
AFP: Five central European countries signed an accord to launch a cross-border nature reserve in an area known as Europe's Amazon at a meeting of environmental ministers that ended Saturday.
The declaration signed by Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia paves the way for the creation of the world?s first five-country protected area, international environmental group WWF said, hailing the accord.
It will be "a first in the region and the first created by five countries," added Hungary's...
Heavy snowstorms consistent with a warming planet, scientist says
Posted by Tahoe Daily Tribune: Adam Jensen on March 26th, 2011
Tahoe Daily Tribune: -Global warming could make record-setting snowstorms in some parts of the country more common, but not in the Sierra Nevada, according to scientists with the Union for Concerned Scientists.
"Heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet," said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for www.wunder
ground.com, in a statement from the Union. "In fact, as the Earth gets warmer, and more moisture gets absorbed into the atmosphere, we are steadily loading the dice in favor of more extreme...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Heavy snowstorms consistent with a warming planet, scientist saysAvatar cast to seek inspiration from Amazon forest
Posted by Indian Television: None Given on March 26th, 2011
Indian Television: James Cameron is considering bringing in the cast of the Avatar sequels to Brazil's Amazonian rain forest in order to get in touch and be inspired by the place and its many indigenous tribes.
"Avatar is a film about the rain forest and its indigenous people. Before I start to shoot the two films I want to bring my actors here, so I can better tell this story", the Canadian director is reported to have said.
"Actors could learn about the natives and what real life in the jungle is like", he...
United Kingdom: Sixth police spy in protest movement unmasked
Posted by Guardian: Simon Hattenstone Rob Evans and Paul Lewis on March 26th, 2011
Guardian: A sixth police officer has been unmasked as an undercover spy in the protest movement as it emerged that Mark Kennedy, who spent seven years posing as an environmental activist, is considering suing Scotland Yard.
In an interview with the Guardian Weekend magazine, Kennedy, who went "rogue" and offered to help environmental campaigners accused of planning to break into a power station, says he has suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder and has been suicidal. His lawyers have been instructed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Sixth police spy in protest movement unmaskedGreat Lakes barrier may be too weak to stop carp
Posted by Reuters: Andrew Stern on March 25th, 2011
Reuters: Voltage coursing through electrical barriers designed to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes may need to be raised to keep out juvenile fish, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The Army Corps of Engineers has mounted a multimillion-dollar effort to keep voracious Bighead and Silver Carp that now infest the Mississippi River Basin out of the Great Lakes, where scientists predict they could decimate the lakes' $7 billion fishery.
"The current barrier operating parameters are effective...