RSS Feed
Archive for August 30th, 2011
UK has its coolest summer since 1993
Posted by Independent: Katie Binns on August 30th, 2011
Independent: This summer has been the UK's coolest since 1993, provisional Met Office figures indicate.
The data covers the three months from 1 June to 29 August and may confirm what many have already been thinking: it hasn't been the best of seasons.
The temperature during August has been 1C below average in most parts of the country. The UK has also received 126 per cent of the average monthly rainfall for August.
But while this summer has been wetter than last year, it has not been as wet as those...
Land grab for housing angers National Trust
Posted by Independent: Oliver Wright on August 30th, 2011
Independent: Land "twice the size of Leicester" is to be released by the Government in order to tackle the shortage of housing across the UK.
Home-ownership in England is predicted to fall from 72 per cent to just 64 per cent over the next decade, the lowest level since the mid-1980s.
At the same time the average house price is predicted to rise from £214,647 this year to £260,304 in 2016.
Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, admitted that not enough houses had been built, but claimed that this could...
Featured video: debating the tar sands pipeline as arrests mount
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2011
Mongabay: As arrests during a two week long civil action against the Keystone Pipeline XL in Washington DC rose to nearly 600 people, Bill McKibben, head of 350.org, and Robert Bryce, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, debated the issue on PBS. While activists oppose the massive pipeline (from Canada to Texas) for a variety of reasons, including potential oil spills, the major issue at stake is climate change. Oil from tar sands carried a significantly heavier carbon burden than other oil sources. Many...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Featured video: debating the tar sands pipeline as arrests mountCan Water Treaties Be Climate-Proofed?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2011
New York Times: The Indus River flows through a valley in northern Pakistan. Arguments over control of the Indus River system have been a source of tension between the two rival powers on the subcontinent.
For centuries, water has been a potent weapon between warring states. When Pisa was at war with Florence, Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli planned to divert the Arno and leave Pisa dry.
For at least as long, water has been a casus belli. India and Pakistan have contested one another`s access to the Indus...
Texas drought could threaten endangered species
Posted by Associated Press: Betsy Blaney on August 30th, 2011
Associated Press: Federal officials are readying plans to evacuate a small number of endangered species in Texas as a severe drought lowers water levels and threatens the survival of rare wildlife in the state's huge ecosystem.
Months with almost no rain have caused water levels to drop by half or more in many rivers, lakes and other bodies of water, including springs in the central Texas Hill Country that are the only remaining habitat for populations of small fish, amphibians and other creatures. If the water...
Is climate change making us crazy?
Posted by The Week Magazine: None Given on August 30th, 2011
The Week Magazine: Scientists worldwide are forecasting severe drought, unprecedented flooding, and scorching heat waves as a result of climate change. One thing that's often overlooked in these discussions, however, is the effect that climate change may have on our mental health. But researchers in Australia have just published a report, A Climate of Suffering: The Real Cost of Living with Inaction on Climate Change, that gives us some new clues. Here, a brief guide to this research:
How could climate change affect...
Libya: Gadhafi loyalists blamed for Tripoli water crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2011
Associated Press: A Libyan rebel official says attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces on water engineers deep in the Libyan desert have caused a widespread water shortage in the capital, Tripoli. The official, Aref Ali Nayeb, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that regime forces fired on repair crews a week ago as they tried to restart wells pumping water from deep aquifers some 700 kilometers (434.98 miles) south of Tripoli. The wells feed into a vast water network that supplies the capital. Nayeb says the security...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Libya: Gadhafi loyalists blamed for Tripoli water crisisEnvironment Agency spins river story
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2011
Guardian: The Environment Agency (EA) is getting better at its relentless spin. Its well-publicised report on the "10 most improved rivers in Britain" comes hard on the heels of news that otters have now returned to all English counties. The two stories suggest that nothing but good ever happens to our waterways and the government is living up to its intention to be the "greenest ever".
If only.
No one is disputing that the water quality of the 10 rivers has dramatically improved on 40-50 years ago....
Climate change ‘threatens mental health’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Flooding, drought and superstorms boosted by climate change are not only poised to ravage human habitats but mental health as well, according to Australian researchers.
"The damage caused by a changing climate is not just physical," they said in a report released this week by the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Sydney.
"Recent experience shows extreme weather events also pose a serious risk to public health, including mental health and wellbeing, with serious flow-on consequences...
Tar sands pipeline plan renews energy vs. environment debate
Posted by PBS: None Given on August 30th, 2011
PBS: Transcript
JEFFREY BROWN: Next: a friendly and safe new source of oil for the U.S. or an environmental disaster waiting to happen?
The tar sands of Alberta, in western Canada, are today considered one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a source of crude petroleum known as bitumen. But the extraction of oil there has come with concerns about the environmental impact. And now those concerns have exploded with a plan by the Calgary-based company TransCanada to build a massive pipeline to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tar sands pipeline plan renews energy vs. environment debate