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Archive for August, 2011
Ecological Internet on vacation until August 24th when news updating will recommence
Posted by Ecological Internet: None Given on August 13th, 2011
Ecological Internet: LAST CALL: Thank Gaia Ecological Internet’s 2011Mid-Year Fund-Raise Nearly Complete Ecological Internet is only a few hundred dollars from meeting our revised mid-year fund-raising goal and our recent emergency appeal. Please get in your donations and pledges now! This means Ecological Internet has basic funding until the end of the year, and will be remaining fully operational. Raising a couple thousand dollars more during our holiday break starting today and ending on August 24th would allow more...
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CLIMATE ALERT! Protest Tar Sands Keystone XL Pipeline, Will Hasten Abrupt Climate Change and Foul Major Water Aquifer
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on August 12th, 2011
By ClimateArk, a project of Ecological Internet
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
The struggle over the Keystone XL pipeline which would run 1,500 miles from Alberta to Texas, extending the reach of Canada's filthy and addictive tar sands trade far into the United States may be the biggest environmental fight of the year. When Alberta, Canada's tar sands are fully developed, along with its vast proposed pipeline network, North America and much of the world will be further addicted to filthy, life destroying dirty energy for decades. Tar sand production and use is highly carbon intensive, and development of this and other filthy synthetic fossil fuels (and coal) may well push the planet into abrupt and runaway climate change. From August 20th September 3rd environmental groups are planning a peaceful protest in Washington DC to stop the pipeline as a step to defuse what they call the largest carbon bomb in North America. This is Ecological Internets affinity email protest, addressed to President Obama, the only person that can refuse pipeline permits.
Green Party to launch anti-fracking crusade
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 12th, 2011
Business Green: The Green Party is set to launch a major campaign against the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", which is being increasingly used as a means of extracting shale gas.
The nationwide campaign will be launched during the party's autumn conference at Sheffield Hallam University in September and will claim that the technique is environmentally destructive and risks polluting the UK's water supply.
The UK government and MPs on the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee...
Rick Perry’s environmental record –
Posted by Mother Nature Network: None Given on August 11th, 2011
Mother Nature Network: Rick Perry’s environmental record is as straightforward as it gets. Under his leadership, the state has consistently ranked as the worst in the nation when it comes to carbon emissions. Yet Perry has taken on the natural gas industry when it comes to fracking and he has even incentivised green energy initiatives. He just tries to keep the federal government out of anything that happens in Texas. So without further ado, here are a few of the tenets that make up Perry’s energy and environmental platform....
Coalbed Methane Drilling Plan Proceeds as BLM Rejects Enviro’s Petition
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2011
Greenwire: The Bureau of Land Management has dismissed a formal challenge to an agency plan that would allow nearly 500 coalbed methane wells to be drilled in an undeveloped section of northeast Wyoming's Powder River Basin.
The decision (pdf) to authorize the drilling project in Fortification Creek also marked the completion of an environmental assessment (EA) calling for a "performance-based" approach and phased drilling over a 10-year period. Each phase would proceed only after the agency determines that...
Polar climate change may lead to ecological change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2011
EurekAlert: Ice and frozen ground at the North and South Poles are affected by climate change induced warming, but the consequences of thawing at each pole differ due to the geography and geology, according to a Penn State hydrologist. "The polar regions, particularly the Arctic, are warming faster than the rest of the world," Michael N. Gooseff, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, told attendees today (Aug. 11) at the 96th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Austin,...
How climate data is bringing benefits to Senegal’s farmers
Posted by SciDev.Net: Emeka Johnkingsley on August 11th, 2011
SciDev.Net: Smallholder farmers have years of experience in assessing how climatic conditions, particularly rainfall, affect their crops. But as the climate changes, that knowledge -- often gathered over a lifetime -- may no longer be valid.
As a result, vulnerable farmers need help to adapt or fine-tune their practices. But as climate monitoring and research become more sophisticated, the gap between the technology and farming communities is getting wider.
A project in Senegal is now helping to bridge...
Climate change ‘to increase malaria’ in Indian Himalayas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2011
SciDev.Net: Climate change is likely to spread malaria to new areas in the Indian Himalayas, and lengthen the periods in which the infection is spread in a number of districts, according to projections from malaria researchers in India.
But the country's east coast could see fewer malaria cases by 2030, because of rising temperatures which affect mosquitoes' activity, they said.
The projections by the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi, published in a special issue of Current Science...
New Yorkers want fracking, but see consequences
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2011
Reuters: New York State voters want the economic benefits of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale more than they fear its environmental impact, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.
Nearly 60 percent of voters say there should be a new tax on drilling companies, the poll found.
A majority of Republican voters and men said the state should throw open its share of one of the world's richest natural gas deposits to drilling, while most Democrats and women oppose it...
Somali refugee settlement in Kenya swells as row grows over empty camp
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2011
Guardian: Somalis fleeing famine and conflict have pushed the population of the world's biggest refugee settlement past 400,000 for the first time, with the host Kenyan government apparently blocking the opening of an already built overspill camp.
About 1,400 Somalis arrive at Dadaab in Kenya's north-east every day, pushing the boundaries of the refugee camps deeper into the arid scrubland, far from toilets, water points and security patrols.
Aid workers are desperate to move some of the most vulnerable...