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Archive for November 2nd, 2011
Canada: Keystone ruling may fall back as Obama weighs in
Posted by Reuters: Eff Jones and Andrew Quinn on November 2nd, 2011
Reuters: The decision on the controversial Canada-to-Texas Keystone pipeline could slip into next year, a U.S. State Department official acknowledged on Wednesday, a day after President Barack Obama said for the first time that the final decision rests with him.
TransCanada's $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline is at the center of a political firestorm with green groups and some landowners along the pipe's route mounting formidable opposition to the project that will transport Canadian oil sands crude to the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Canada: Keystone ruling may fall back as Obama weighs inNebraska bill would give governor power to ok pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Nebraska's governor would have the authority to approve any pipelines that cross the state under a bill introduced on Wednesday.
The measure, introduced by State Senator Chris Langemeier who is head of the Natural Resources Committee, is the latest move in a heated debate over a plan for a major pipeline to transport oil sands crude from Canada to Texas refineries.
TransCanada Corp wants the pipeline to traverse the ecologically sensitive Nebraska Sand Hills and the Ogallala aquifer, which...
Combination of humans, climate change hampered post-ice age survival: Study
Posted by PostMedia News: Bradley Bouzane on November 2nd, 2011
PostMedia News: A new U.S. study that explains the demise of some mammals at the end of the last ice age might not bode well for vulnerable Canadian species that currently face increased risks with a warming climate.
Researchers from Penn State University noted that species such as the polar bear and Peary caribou -- found in the High Arctic islands -- which are dealing with diminished numbers, may face even more difficult hurdles because of the relatively quick rate at which the Earth's climate is warming. ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Combination of humans, climate change hampered post-ice age survival: StudySaving Ghana’s vanishing frogs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Mongabay: Frogs need all the help they can get. With the IUCN Red List estimating that 41 percent of amphibians are endangered, frogs are currently the world's most imperiled animal family. Scientists estimate that around 200 amphibian species have been lost to extinction in recent decades to habitat loss, pollution, and a devastating fungal disease. Yet as the frog emergency worsens, there have been positive movements in conservation. The most recent comes from the small West African country of Ghana. Partnering...
United Kingdom: Protesters vow to stop fracking after energy company admits causing earthquakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 2nd, 2011
Telegraph: Cuadrilla Resources, that is the main company exploring for shale gas in the UK, admitted that the tremors which hit Lancashire's Fylde coast in April and May were caused by fracking
Fracking -- shorthand for hydraulic fracturing -- involves the blasting of water, chemicals and sand at high velocity into a shaft to crack rock and release gas.
The operation in May was the only attempt to so far to frack in the UK but energy companies are currently exploring dozens of other sites around the country...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Protesters vow to stop fracking after energy company admits causing earthquakesPollution makes powerful cyclones more likely, claim scientists
Posted by Guardian: Nic Fleming on November 2nd, 2011
Guardian: Powerful tropical cyclones that cause large numbers of deaths and massive property damage around the Arabian Sea are becoming increasingly common as a result of pollution, scientists say.
Analysis of the intensity of storms between 1979 and 2010 suggests that thick layers of haze have created atmospheric conditions that intensify cyclones and increase the chances they will reach land.
There has been a sixfold increase in fine aerosol emissions locally since the 1930s from forest fires, domestic...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pollution makes powerful cyclones more likely, claim scientistsRick Perry Attacks Ethanol Subsidies in Iowa
Posted by Yahoo!: Mark Whittington on November 2nd, 2011
Yahoo!: In a speech in Pella, Iowa, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a candidate for president, called for the abolition of ethanol subsidies. This is considered a bold position to take in the first caucus in the nation state, where a lot of corn is grown to make ethanol.
How does the U.S. subsidize ethanol?
The ethanol subsidy law was signed by President George W. Bush in 2004 and went into effect in 2005. The subsidy allows ethanol blenders to receive a 45 cents tax credit for every gallon of ethanol they...
Climate change already worsening weird, deadly, and expensive weather
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on November 2nd, 2011
Mongabay: Unprecedented flooding in Thailand, torrential rains pummeling El Salvador, long-term and beyond-extreme drought in Texas, killer snowstorm in the eastern US-and that's just the last month or so. Extreme weather worldwide appears to be both increasing in frequency and intensity, and a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) connects the dots between wilder weather patterns and global climate change. Leaked to the Associated Press and the AFP, the draft report warns that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change already worsening weird, deadly, and expensive weatherSenegal: Farmers and scientists to bridge the climate info gap
Posted by SciDev.Net: Divine Ntaryike on November 2nd, 2011
SciDev.Net: Farmers from different communities in Senegal will meet climate scientists at a major meeting in Dakar, the country's capital, later in the year to improve communication between them and help boost local disaster preparedness.
Arame Tall, a policy fellow at the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Senegal said, that preparatory meetings between scientists and some of the communities are already proving to be a crucial link in cushioning people from the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Senegal: Farmers and scientists to bridge the climate info gapBrazilian anti-dam campaigner sacked
Posted by Guardian: Megaron Txucarramãe Loses Job As co-ordinator For Indigenous Protection Service on November 2nd, 2011
Guardian: Activists in Brazil are in uproar after one of the country's best-known indigenous leaders was sacked from his job with the indigenous protection service, allegedly because of his outspoken stance against the construction of a massive hydro-electric plant in the Brazilian Amazon.
According to reports in Brazil, Megaron Txucarramãe lost his job late last week after years campaigning against the Belo Monte dam, which is currently being built in the Amazon state of Pará but which campaigners fear...