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Archive for September, 2011
South Asia could see African hunger scenario – Red cross
Posted by AlertNet: Nita Bhalla on September 22nd, 2011
AlertNet: Scenes of starving children in the Horn of Africa could well be played out in parts of South Asia unless governments invest more in agriculture and give poor farmers access to finances, the Red Cross movement warned on Thursday.
Rocketing food prices, climate change-related disasters as well as land grabs are set to not only push the number of the world's hungry past one billion, but also drive some to the brink of starvation, especially in vulnerable regions like South Asia, experts say.
"One...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on South Asia could see African hunger scenario – Red crossClimate change might lead to water shortage in the Alps
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2011
Xinhua: Climate change and rising temperature in the long term can lead to water shortages in the Alps region, international experts warned Thursday at the Water-Scarce Final Conference in the Austrian eastern city Graz.
The Alpine region originally is rich in water resources due to a large number of glaciers, spring and abundant rainfall either in summer or winter. But global warming may change this situation which has been shown in the past years that the water reserve has reduced gradually due to climate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change might lead to water shortage in the AlpsDrought worsens power crisis in Tanzania
Posted by AlertNet: Kizito Makoye on September 22nd, 2011
AlertNet: A persistent drought affecting much of Tanzania has depleted water levels in the Great Ruaha River, plunging much of this hydropower-reliant country into power cuts that are hurting businesses, tourism and government revenue.
The drought, attributed to the effects of climate change, has substantially crippled the operations of major hydropower facilities along the river. Clearing of trees and vegetation by villagers in the river delta is contributing to further water loss.
According to the...
Poll finds evangelicals stand apart on evolution, climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Lauren Markoe on September 22nd, 2011
Washington Post: White evangelicals and Tea Party members are less likely to believe in evolution and climate change than most Americans, a finding that could pose a particular problem for Republican presidential hopefuls.
A new poll released Thursday (Sept. 22) also showed that a majority of Americans (57 percent) believes in evolution, and an even larger majority (69 percent) believes in climate change -- though many still disagree that the phenomenon is based on human activity.
But most Americans do not...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Poll finds evangelicals stand apart on evolution, climate changeTransCanada on U.S. ad offensive as pipeline decision awaited
Posted by Edmonton Journal: Sheldon Alberts on September 22nd, 2011
Edmonton Journal: The lawmakers and lobbyists who clicked on the Washington-obsessed website Politico.com this week saw something more than the typical daily headlines about President Obama's travails and congressional dysfunction -- there was a burst of green advertising that dominated the screen and nearly overwhelmed the news stories.
The eye-grabbing ad spot was from TransCanada Corp., the Calgary-based pipeline company which has taken a public relations pummeling here in recent months over its planned Keystone...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on TransCanada on U.S. ad offensive as pipeline decision awaitedVast reserves of shale gas revealed in UK
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2011
Guardian: The huge scale of a natural gas field discovered under the north-west of England has been revealed, potentially revolutionising the UK's energy outlook and creating thousands of jobs, but environmental groups are alarmed at the controversial method by which the gas is extracted.
Preliminary wells drilled around Blackpool have uncovered 200 trillion cubic feet of gas - equal to the kind of recoverable reserves of big energy exporting countries such as Venezuela, according to Cuadrilla Resources,...
Guyana: Amaila Falls road project should be halted, re-examined
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2011
Stabroek News: In light of recent revelations that external consultants have found that the original specifications for the Amaila Falls access road were poorly designed, AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan has called for the project to be immediately halted and re-examined.
“There must be an immediate halt and a total re-examination of the whole project,” Ramjattan told Stabroek News recently, adding that it is clear from the consultants’ report that the project could have fundamental flaws. He said...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Guyana: Amaila Falls road project should be halted, re-examinedOxfam warns of spiralling land grab in developing countries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2011
Guardian: The scale of the rush by speculators, pension funds and global agri-businesses to acquire large areas of developing countries is far greater than previously thought, and is already leading to conflict, hunger and human rights abuses, says Oxfam. The NGO has identified 227m ha (561m acre ha) of land – an area the size of north-west Europe – as having being reportedly sold, leased or licensed, largely in Africa and mostly to international investors in thousands of secretive deals since 2001. This...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oxfam warns of spiralling land grab in developing countriesHands off our land: a chink of light from No 10
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2011
Telegraph: Say what you like about David Cameron, but he does seem to understand what Denis Healey calls "The First Law of Holes': "When you are in one, stop digging'.
While colleagues, including Chancellor George Osborne and Community Secretary Eric Pickles, reacted to their predicament over planning "reforms' by laying down their spades only to leap on to mechanical diggers, the Prime Minister has for some days now been looking around for a ladder.
Yesterday, he tried leaning one tentatively against...
Keystone pipeline lobbyist works all the angles with former colleagues
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson on September 22nd, 2011
Washington Post: In lobbying for a presidential permit to construct a massive oil pipeline stretching from Canada to the Gulf Coast, TransCanada’s Paul Elliott has tried nearly every angle.
Elliott — who served as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s national deputy campaign manager in 2008 — sought to broker multiple meetings between senior State Department officials and TransCanada executives. He offered to enlist TransCanada officials’ aid in helping State officials forge an international climate agreement....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone pipeline lobbyist works all the angles with former colleagues