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Archive for January, 2012
From forest sell-off to Thames airport plans – this government has a seriously anti-environmental agenda
Posted by Guardian: Martin Harper on January 20th, 2012
Guardian: "Quite frankly, when it comes to environmental policy the Treasury has often been at best indifferent, and at worst obstructive."
Who said these words? Was it George Monbiot? Jonathon Porritt? Caroline Lucas? Actually it was George Osborne in 2009 talking about his predecessor at number 11.
The speech, entitled A Sustainable Government: a Sustainable Economy, went on to promise: "That attitude is going to change if the government changes. I want a Conservative Treasury to be in the lead of...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on From forest sell-off to Thames airport plans – this government has a seriously anti-environmental agendaHow the Dutch make ‘room for the river’ by redesigning downtown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2012
ClimateWire: For centuries, the Dutch have built higher and higher dikes to keep waters at bay in a country where 55 percent of housing is located in areas prone to flooding. But climate change has convinced them this approach will no longer work, so the country is embarking on a mammoth task of moving dozens of dikes back to make room for swelling rivers.
Now the oldest city in the Netherlands is being hailed for its plans to move the country's biggest river, building more efficient flood defenses and at...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How the Dutch make ‘room for the river’ by redesigning downtownEcologists gain insight into the likely consequences of global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2012
ScienceDaily: A new insight into the impact that warmer temperatures could have across the world has been uncovered by scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.
The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology on January 20, found that the impact of global warming could be similar across ecosystems, regardless of local environmental conditions and species.
The team, based at Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, went to Iceland to study a set of geothermally-heated streams....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ecologists gain insight into the likely consequences of global warmingPa. town with tainted wells getting new EPA water
Posted by Associated Press: Michael Rubinkam on January 19th, 2012
Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will deliver fresh water to four homes in a northeastern Pennsylvania village where residential water wells were tainted by a gas driller. It also said it will begin testing the water supplies of dozens more homes as it ramps up its investigation more than three years after homeowners say the water supply was ruined.
Capping a tumultuous two weeks in which the EPA first promised the residents a tanker of water -- and then quickly...
U.S. EPA to test water in Pennsylvania near fracking site
Posted by Reuters: Edward McAllister on January 19th, 2012
Reuters: U.S. regulators said on Thursday they will perform water tests at about 60 homes in the small town of Dimock in northern Pennsylvania where residents say natural gas drilling has polluted wells.
The Environmental Protection Agency also plans to truck water to four homes in the town where some households have relied on trucked water since drilling by Cabot Oil & Gas began there three years ago, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The tests, which will begin in the coming days, are being carried...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. EPA to test water in Pennsylvania near fracking siteExxon: Yellowstone spill 1,500 barrels, not 1,000
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2012
Associated Press: Exxon Mobil says 1,509 barrels of oil spilled into the Yellowstone River during a pipeline break in Montana last summer -- an increase of more than 500 barrels over the company's earlier estimates.
Spokesman Alan Jeffers said Thursday the company recalculated the volume after discovering the pipeline was completely severed during the July 1 accident near Laurel.
Jeffers says pipeline breaches typically involve a crack or fissure. That was the assumption used to craft the initial estimate. ...
In Keystone wake, Obama campaign touts energy in first ad
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2012
Reuters: President Barack Obama's re-election campaign sought to manage fallout on Thursday from his decision to nix a new oil pipeline, putting up its first television ad of 2012 to promote his energy record.
Obama, who is fighting to retain the White House in the November presidential election, came under heated criticism from Republicans for deciding on Wednesday to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
The president blamed Republicans for forcing his hand by inserting an "arbitrary" deadline...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Keystone wake, Obama campaign touts energy in first adKeystone Pipeline Decision Aimed at President Obama’s Political Base
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Top aides to President Obama say that his desire to satisfy two key political constituencies -- environmental advocates and affluent Democratic donors -- played a major role in his decision to reject an application to build a pipeline to carry tar sands oil from Alberta to Texas. The president’s political advisers said that approval of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline would have alienated his political base and would have created nowhere near the 20,000 jobs that oil industry advocates claimed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone Pipeline Decision Aimed at President Obama’s Political BaseClimate change invites alien invaders — Is Canada ready?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 19th, 2012
Physorg: "Many species' distributions are already changing in response to a warming climate, and ecosystems are predicted to become more vulnerable to invasive species as climatic barriers are eliminated," says author Dr. Andrea Smith, IRIS Senior Fellow, currently conducting a legislative review of invasive species policy in Canada for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network. "The interactive effects of climate change and invasive species are expected to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change invites alien invaders — Is Canada ready?Climate related flooding poses threat to Helsinki
Posted by Helsingin Sanomat: None Given on January 19th, 2012
Helsingin Sanomat: According to an Environment Centre report published on Wednesday, floods are the greatest threat to the city of Helsinki posed by the warming climate. The report looks into the effects of climate change on the Finnish capital and maps out ways to adapt to the change. According to the report, floods are caused by extreme weather phenomena, such as storms and heavy rains, and in the long term also by rising sea levels. The most important targets of protection are the city’s building...