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Archive for November, 2011
A burger a day won’t keep climate change away
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 16th, 2011
New Scientist: Meat is bad: bad for you, bad for the environment. At least, that's the usual argument. Each year, the doors to the UN climate negotiations, which kick off again in Durban, South Africa, on 28 November, are assailed by demonstrators brandishing pro-vegetarian placards. The fact is that livestock farming accounts for a whopping 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions. We can't all go veggie, so just how much meat is it OK for an eco-citizen to eat?
It's not just the demonstrators who are concerned...
Climate change will lead to human exodus, extreme costs
Posted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur: None Given on November 16th, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Ten days before UN talks on climate change open in South Africa, the UN's top climate panel is slated to release Friday a report on extreme weather events.
The report, from the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is expected to focus on how global weather patterns are supposed to change if nothing is done to lower carbon emissions blamed for global warming, said Mojib Latif, a climate scientist at the University of Kiel.
'The poor countries will be especially hit,'...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change will lead to human exodus, extreme costsGlobal firms failing to account for looming water risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 16th, 2011
Business Green: The corporate response to climate change is significantly more advanced than efforts to address water-related risks, despite the fact that flooding and drought are likely to have a major near-term impact on many firms' operations.
That is the conclusion of a major new report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which found that only 57 per cent of 190 listed companies have board-level water strategies in place. Moreover, 40 per cent of the Global 500 companies that were approached to provide...
UN chief uses Thai floods to press for movement on climate change
Posted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur: None Given on November 16th, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday used Thailand's current flood crisis to press world leaders to commit to climate change initiatives at an upcoming conference in South Africa.
'I am urging the leaders to address these matters with a sense of urgency,' Ban said after meeting with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government has been struggling to contain the country's worst floods in five decades.
'We do not have any time to waste,' Ban said before visiting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UN chief uses Thai floods to press for movement on climate changeNegotiating for Pacific survival
Posted by Islands Business: David Sheppard on November 16th, 2011
Islands Business: Last month, Tuvalu and Tokelau declared a state of emergency due to severe water shortages with residents in Tuvalu being rationed 20 litres of water a day per household.
Some islands in the Cook Islands have experienced water shortages and Samoa worked to drill new boreholes for potable water, asking the public to conserve water until the situation returned to normal.
Next month the world will come together in Durban, South Africa, to discuss the causes and impacts of climate change and the...
As Glaciers Melt, Bhutan Faces Increased Risk of ‘Mountain Tsunamis’
Posted by Time: Julien Bouissou on November 16th, 2011
Time: The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and China in the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range, is paying the price for global industrialization. To the north of the country, a chain of Himalayan glaciers is rapidly retreating -- by between 20 m and 30 m per year. Experts blame climate change and predict that by 2035, the glaciers could be gone altogether. Water flows from these melting glaciers until it breaks the natural ice dams that hold it in place. That, in turn, can result in devastating...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As Glaciers Melt, Bhutan Faces Increased Risk of ‘Mountain Tsunamis’World climate change takes toll on China’s seas
Posted by China Daily: An Baijie on November 16th, 2011
China Daily: Climate change around the world has caused sea levels along China's coasts to rise more than 80 millimeters over the last three decades, according to figures in a national report released by the government in Beijing on Tuesday
Such a rise marks an average increase of 2.6 millimeters each year from 1977 to 2009, said the second National Assessment Report on Climate Change.
According to the report, the sea level in China will continue to rise and a total of 18,000 square kilometers of coastal...
NY set to begin hearings on gas drilling rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2011
Associated Press: With New York poised to begin hearings on proposed gas drilling rules, an industry group claimed Tuesday that the regulations as drafted would be so restrictive that drillers would avoid the state. Green groups said they feared the rules would be too lax to protect public health and the environment.
The state has refused to issue permits for drilling in the lucrative Marcellus Shale formation since 2008, when it began reviewing the high-volume hydraulic fracturing process used to blast wells into...
EU resolution to nudge higher goal for carbon cuts
Posted by Reuters: Barbara Lewis and Gilbert Reilhac on November 15th, 2011
Reuters: European politicians are expected to vote through a resolution on Wednesday that nudges higher the bloc's ambitions to deepen its carbon reduction, ahead of climate change talks this month in Durban, a European Parliament source said.
The European Union laid out its negotiating stance ahead of the Durban conference at a meeting of its Environment Council in October. Ministers said then the bloc would commit to a new phase of the Kyoto climate change pact on condition the big emitters gave a firm...
In Alabama, sewer woes spur war on water costs
Posted by Reuters: Michael Connor on November 15th, 2011
Reuters: Dogged by soaring sewer rates, Alabama social worker Mary Jones and her friends are finding novel ways to keep from flushing their income down the toilet -- literally.
In the last year, Jones, 76, started using dirty dishwater for flushing to reduce her Jefferson County sewage costs in response to rates that have more than quadrupled in the last 15 years.
Massive renovation costs for what locals call a "gold-plated sewer system" and its "Taj Mahal" waste treatment plant are behind the precipitous...