RSS Feed
Archive for November, 2011
China’s green growth potential ‘could create 9.5m new jobs’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2011
Guardian: China can make a net gain of 9.5m jobs over the next five years if it phases out its dirtiest, energy intensive industries and replaces them with renewable technology and other "green" businesses, according to an influential advisory body.
The potential for green growth was flagged up in a report that highlights the "Jeckyl and Hyde" nature of the environmental situation in China, which can claim both the world's biggest investment in new energy and the most dangerous levels of pollution. The...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on China’s green growth potential ‘could create 9.5m new jobs’Together They Lose
Posted by Inter Press Service: Christopher Pala on November 18th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Rarely have so many donor countries spent so much for so long to achieve so little. In fact, the scores of Western countries ranging from the Netherlands to the United States that have tried for 20 years to coax the Central Asian nations to use their water cooperatively and create a win-win situation for all have found that the Central Asians are cooperating less and less, not more and more.
Water-sharing problems among any neighbouring countries from the Danube to the Nile are among the most...
IPCC chief braced for storms of denial over extreme weather report
Posted by Guardian: George Black on November 18th, 2011
Guardian: A major new report is due out on Friday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that will link an increase in extreme weather events and disasters to global warming. A few days before its release, I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC -- the man the climate skeptics love to hate.
The report is, to put it mildly, well-timed, after this year's freakish sequence of extreme weather events, from the unprecedented heatwave and drought in Texas to the horrendous...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on IPCC chief braced for storms of denial over extreme weather reportChina’s Appetite for Wood Takes a Heavy Toll on Forests
Posted by Yale Environment 360: William Laurance on November 18th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: In Chinese folklore, a dragon symbolizes strength. It is an apt icon for a nation whose rise as an economic superpower has been nothing short of meteoric.
While China’s stunning economic advances have come at significant environmental cost, the boom has been a plus in a few realms. The country is investing avidly in green technologies, such as solar energy and high-tech car batteries. It has also undertaken an ambitious national reforestation program, while cracking down on illegal forest clearing...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China’s Appetite for Wood Takes a Heavy Toll on ForestsReport: Climate change means more frequent droughts, floods to come
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2011
Washington Post: Climate change will make the drought and flooding events that have battered the United States and other countries in 2011 more frequent in years to come, forcing nations to rethink the way they cope with disasters. according to a new report the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued Friday. The report — the culmination of a two-year process involving 100 scientists and policy experts — suggests that researchers are far more confident about the prospect of more intense heat waves and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report: Climate change means more frequent droughts, floods to comeThai floods could be costliest in decade: Allianz
Posted by Reuters: David Fogarty and Kevin Lim on November 18th, 2011
Reuters: Insured losses from Thai floods could be in the double-digit billions of dollars and the disaster will lead to a re-assessment of weather risks to industries in Asia, a senior official from global insurer Allianz said.
Calculating the true cost of the floods could take years in terms of working out the lost business to Thailand from investors who might now choose to invest in other countries, said Lutz Fullgraf, Allianz's regional CEO for global corporate and specialty.
He said the losses comprise...
The Rush for Oil in West Africa – The New Wild West?
Posted by Inter Press Service: Meena Bhandari on November 18th, 2011
Inter Press Service: There is a new oil rush off the coast of West Africa. But there are fears that the sector is not sufficiently regulated, and watchdog groups are raising concerns about transparency and governance in the region.
Anticipation is building in Sierra Leone after African Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration company focused on offshore West Africa, said they would begin drilling in the Sierra Leone-Liberia Basin next year after oil was discovered here in 2009. Civil society groups in Sierra Leone say...
Ministers join rebellion against more building in countryside
Posted by Independent: Andrew Grice on November 18th, 2011
Independent: Conservative ministers have joined the revolt against the Government's controversial proposals to relax the planning rules to allow more building in the countryside.
The rebel ministers have written strongly worded private letters to Greg Clark, the Planning minister, urging him to think again about his move to streamline planning guidance to include "a presumption in favour of sustainable development".
David Cameron regards the change as a crucial part of his "go-for-growth" strategy, because...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ministers join rebellion against more building in countrysideNature Studies by Michael McCarthy: Medical myth is dooming the rhino to extinction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2011
Independent: Can nobody stop it? Can no major political leader or other public figure realise what is happening and have the guts or find a moment to speak out about the horrific, heartless, headlong slaughter of the world's rhinos which is now running out of control?
Yes of course, most people naturally have concerns at the moment which preclude worrying about the welfare of wildlife. But the rhino carnage now going on is different; in its scale, it is something quite new. Driven by an urban myth in Asia...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Nature Studies by Michael McCarthy: Medical myth is dooming the rhino to extinctionStorms cause damage, deaths, injuries in South
Posted by Reuters: Colleen Jenkins on November 18th, 2011
Reuters: Severe storms and suspected tornadoes across the South have resulted in structural damage, power outages, injuries and at least six deaths in three states, officials said on Thursday.
Officials confirmed deaths in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia from the extreme weather that swept the region on Wednesday.
A 50-year-old woman and 3-year-old girl died in Davidson County in central North Carolina when an apparent twister destroyed the home they were in, said Major Larry James of Davidson...