RSS Feed
Archive for September, 2011
Barack Obama: Dealing With Climate Change is “Not Impossible”
Posted by Tree Hugger: Brian Merchant on September 21st, 2011
Tree Hugger: "It is technically difficult to figure out how we're going to deal with climate change," President Barack Obama said in a keynote address at this year's Clinton Global Initiative. "Not impossible, but difficult."
Obama used most of his 15-minute talk to tout his new jobs plan, telling the international audience that "When America's growing the world is more likely to grow." But he took some time to hit on topics like scientific innovation and energy efficiency as well.
"I was talking to the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Barack Obama: Dealing With Climate Change is “Not Impossible”Texas sues EPA over interstate pollution rules
Posted by Houston Chronicle: Tom Fowler on September 21st, 2011
Houston Chronicle: Texas has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block the implementation of new rules aimed at curbing air pollution. State Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office filed a petition for review of the regulation — the Cross State Air Pollution Rule — at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. A request to bar its enforcement will be filed later today, said spokeswoman Lauren Bean. See the document below. Abbott “is deeply concerned about these new federal regulations’ impact on the State...
Salazar: Obama admin will continue push for solar energy, despite Solyndra case
Posted by Associated Press: Matthew Daily on September 21st, 2011
Associated Press: The Obama administration will continue its push for solar energy despite growing controversy over a $528 million loan to a now-bankrupt California solar panel maker, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
Salazar said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Solyndra Inc. case and a delay in the massive Blythe solar project in California illustrate the challenges facing the solar industry. But he remained upbeat about the potential for solar power. The Obama administration has...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Salazar: Obama admin will continue push for solar energy, despite Solyndra caseIndigenous people blockade river against ‘murderous’ oil company
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2011
Mongabay: Over the weekend more than 100 Shuar indigenous people, also known as Wampis, blockaded the Morona River in Peru in an effort to stop exploratory oil drilling by Canadian-owned Talisman Energy. The blockade in meant to prevent oil drilling in an area of the Peruvian Amazon known as Block 64, home to four indigenous tribes in total and the Pastaza River Wetland Complex, a Ramsar wetland site.
"We do not consider the oil company as a creator of jobs but instead as murderous, criminal and abusive....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indigenous people blockade river against ‘murderous’ oil company‘Land grabs’ leave people hungry and homeless – Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2011
Telegraph: The trend for buying up huge areas of land in poorer countries to grow cash crops like sugar harks back to the Colonial era.
But the problem has not gone away and may even be getting worse due to the increasing demand for food, the pressures of climate change, water scarcity and competition for land from non-food crops such as biofuels to power vehicles.
In a new report to highlight the scale of land grabs today, Oxfam estimate that 227 million hectares (560 million acres) have been sold, leased...
No Water, No Management, No Power
Posted by Inter Press Service: Anselme Nkinsi on September 21st, 2011
Inter Press Service: Frequent power cuts have led to the firing of the board of the Democratic Republic of Congo's national electricity company. But it is not clear if sub-par generation from the Inga hydroelectric power stations supplying the capital Kinshasa is due to poor management or to unusually low water levels in the Congo River.
The two power plants - Inga I and II, located on the river some 300 kilometres upstream of the capital - have a combined potential output of 1,775 megawatts, but in recent years due...
Ohio governor prepares energy and environment plans for his newly gas-rich state
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on September 21st, 2011
ClimateWire: The nation's fourth-largest carbon dioxide-emitting state is about to get a new energy policy that its governor says could be a model for the entire country. This week, industry representatives, state officials, academics and environmentalists are gathering in Ohio to craft a new energy plan for the state that will culminate in a major energy proposal from Gov. John Kasich (R) by next spring. The package from Kasich, a former congressman, will determine whether the state burns less coal, extracts...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ohio governor prepares energy and environment plans for his newly gas-rich stateAggie scientists take issue with Perry’s global warming skepticism
Posted by San Antonia Express-News: Scott Stroud on September 21st, 2011
San Antonia Express-News: When it comes to the science behind global warming, the Aggies are ganging up on one of their own. Gov. Rick Perry's alma mater, Texas A&M University, boasts some of the world's leading experts on climate change, and they're at odds with their fellow Aggie on what the evidence shows -- and not just a little. Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at A&M, took issue with the governor's campaign-trail skepticism about whether the scientific evidence of warming is “settled” in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Aggie scientists take issue with Perry’s global warming skepticismFarmers “have good reason to worry.”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 21st, 2011
Inter Press Service: Bananas are harvested where apples used to grow; cassava, a traditional crop, is disappearing from the Northeast; and the southeast is losing the fragrance of good coffee. This is the science fiction of a new distribution of crops in Brazil, South America's agricultural powerhouse.
The government is starting to get ready for this open-ended story of science fiction. Only one thing is for sure: the bad guys are neither extraterrestrials nor robots, but the most fearsome human invention: climate...
Polish villages eye shale gas to break coal addiction
Posted by Guardian: Arthur Nelsen on September 21st, 2011
Guardian: Polish rural communities largely depend on low-cost but dirty coal for their heating, but under pressure from Brussels to provide cleaner energy, Warsaw is proposing controversial shale gas wells as an alternative.
"In small villages, each house has its own individual heating system -- mostly based on coal -- because access to other [heating sources] is difficult," said a Polish diplomat in Brussels.
Many Polish villagers were switching to burning wood in their coal stoves instead -- because...