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Archive for June 14th, 2012
Brazil: Please stop Xingu dam, Amazonian Indians plead at summit
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Madeleine Pradel on June 14th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Amazonian chief Raoni on Thursday implored the UN environment summit here to halt a $13-billion dam being built in one of the world's last bastions of wildlife.
"I want to ask the whole world to respect the indigenous peoples, to leave us in peace... without dams," the 82-year-old chief of the Kayapo tribe, bedecked with bright yellow and black feathers, told AFP.
The chief became known worldwide in the 1980s for teaming up with British rock star Sting for his defense of the rights of indigenous...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Brazil: Please stop Xingu dam, Amazonian Indians plead at summitUnited States: Exxon reports leak from Baton Rouge line
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2012
Reuters: Exxon Mobil Corp reported a leak in a pipeline at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, chemical plant on Wednesday which released unspecified amounts of benzene, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said on Thursday. The company secured the bleeder line at about 5:00 a.m. EDT and the leak was contained within the facility, the department said. All rail traffic has been stopped within the facility until the benzene is removed, according to the department. Air monitoring at the facility has...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Exxon reports leak from Baton Rouge lineStudy: Climate change to increase wildfires
Posted by The Hill: None Given on June 14th, 2012
The Hill: A major new study finds wildfires in the western U.S. are likely to increase because of climate change.
The findings arrive as fires in the West are forcing federal officials to try and boost resources to confront the blazes. New Mexico is fighting the largest fire in its history, while Colorado’s wildfire is among its worst.
President Obama on Wednesday signed legislation to speed up federal contracting for big aerial tankers to fight the wildfires in an effort to provide help to states in...
Drilling in New York
Posted by New York Times: Editorial on June 14th, 2012
New York Times: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s preliminary blueprint for hydraulic fracturing in New York State strikes a sensible balance between the need for economic development and the need to protect the environment and human health. Many important issues must still be addressed — and tough, detailed regulations issued — before Mr. Cuomo can think of greenlighting drilling. But he appears to be on the right track. As reported in The Times on Wednesday, the plan would restrict hydraulic fracturing to economically depressed...
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin frustrated by Keystone XL pipeline delays
Posted by Canadian Press: Lauren Krugel on June 14th, 2012
Canadian Press: Oklahoma's governor is losing patience with delays in building the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would cross through her state on its way from Alberta to the Texas coast.
"To me, it's been enormously frustrating that President (Barack) Obama and our nation has not been able to get through the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to move from Canada down throughout the United States," Mary Fallin told delegates at the Global Petroleum Show on Wednesday.
However, Fallin said she's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin frustrated by Keystone XL pipeline delaysCanada: First nations’ Northern Gateway stake ‘not free money at all’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2012
Globe and Mail: What Enbridge did not mention is that in accepting company shares, those groups also agreed not to stand in the project's way. The equity agreement, which Enbridge acknowledged but is taking pains to play down, helps explain why 40 per cent of the groups declined what was essentially free money. It also illustrates the tactics the company is using as it fights a strident opposition to its $5.5-billion project. Under the terms of the deal, unearthed through a Greenpeace freedom of information request,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: First nations’ Northern Gateway stake ‘not free money at all’Wildfires in Western U.S. to Increase with Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2012
Climate Central: Large fires in the western U.S. -- such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico -- may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Ecosphere, analyzed the results of 16 different global climate change models. The models included variables such as annual precipitation and mean temperature of the warmest month and projected an increase in the frequency...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wildfires in Western U.S. to Increase with Climate ChangeEgypt wheat experiment produces dramatic yield boost
Posted by SciDev.Net: Mohamed El-Sayed on June 14th, 2012
SciDev.Net: Egyptian scientists say a national experiment to boost wheat yields has succeed in increasing average national yields to 10 tonnes per hectare — one of the highest rates in the world, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Statistical Yearbook for 2012. Egypt's Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) said the experiment had been carried out at more than 1,000 sites in 22 governorates across the country, and had achieved an average 30 per cent increase in productivity....
Water Security and Climate Change in Africa
Posted by Institute for Security Studies: Duke Kent-Brown on June 14th, 2012
Institute for Security Studies: The problem of climate change is very real and will probably not go away during this century or this millennium. In approaching the problem of climate change the question to be asked is not what is causing climate change (human insouciance, solar activity or some other cause) but what should we be doing to mitigate its effects. How can we best survive its anticipated impact? Certainly, a worldwide reduction in CO2 emissions, particularly by the major industrial countries, including China, would...
India’s ‘lawless’ mining industry criticised by Human Rights Watch
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2012
Guardian: Government indifference and poor regulation have fuelled lawlessness in India's troubled mining industry and threaten serious harm to mining-affected communities, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.
The report: Out of control – mining, regulatory failure and human rights in India focuses on iron mining in Goa and Karnataka to illustrate a broader pattern of failed regulation, alleged corruption and harm to local communities.
In Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa resigned as chief minister...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India’s ‘lawless’ mining industry criticised by Human Rights Watch