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Archive for August, 2012
Catfish Farmers Fight Fish Glut and High Feed Prices
Posted by New York Times: John H. Cushman Jr. on August 31st, 2012
New York Times: In the federal government’s efforts to help farmers and ranchers survive this year’s devastating drought, perhaps the most surprising step has been a dose of support for struggling producers of catfish. It’s not that their ponds, shimmering across some of the poorest counties from Alabama to Arkansas, were drying up, although the catfish industry has been shriveling for 10 years. Rather, catfish assistance came as part of a $170 million federal purchase of pork, chicken, lamb and fish announced...
Women Spend 40 Billion Hours Per Day Collecting Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2012
Inter Press Service: As the weeklong international conference on water concluded Friday, it was left to one of the keynote speakers from the United Nations to focus on a much neglected perspective on water and food security: the role of women. Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of U.N. Women, told delegates that development can be neither sustainable nor inclusive if it does not free women and girls from "carrying heavy buckets of water every day". In Sub-Saharan Africa, 71 percent of the burden of collecting...
President Obama’s Alleged “War On Coal”
Posted by Forbes: None Given on August 31st, 2012
Forbes: We have long suspected that the never-ending sturm und drang surrounding climate change would have little real impact on public policy or energy markets because no politician ever got elected by promising to impose – or defending the imposition of – significant, observable costs on the present for the well-being of the future … in any policy arena. Believe what you like about the science, but the inescapable political fact is that voters – and in particular, swing voters – have the time horizons...
Drought, Climate Change and Journalism 101
Posted by CounterPunch: Steven Higgs on August 31st, 2012
CounterPunch: An Aug. 23 segment on NPR`s Morning Edition about the 2012 drought touched my sentimental side when a Kentucky farmer`s voice quivered while he spoke to correspondent David Schaper. "My wife and I just look at each other every night, and we look at our children`s faces before they go to sleep, and we wonder, will this be one of the last days?" he said. The piece was titled "Drought Extends Reach, Some Farmers Ready to Quit." I`ve spent a lot of time in Kentucky and writing about the place. I`ve met...
United Kingdom: The Government is gunning for the Green Belt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2012
Telegraph: "Courageous', as you'll recall, was Sir Humphrey Appleby's most damning description of government policy. If the Yes Minister mandarin were now ensconced in Eric Pickles's Department for Communities and Local Government, he would doubtless be trotting it out anew.
For -- just months after their proposed planning "reforms' caused the biggest public and political revolt of this Parliament, causing them to be radically toned down -- ministers are, almost unnoticed, about to embark on a similar exercise....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: The Government is gunning for the Green BeltClimate change: Romney quips, the Goreacle fumes
Posted by Seattle Post Intelligencer: None Given on August 31st, 2012
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Just four days after news that the summer ice pack in the Arctic has shrunk to a record low, Mitt Romney made a joke about global warming to make a point against President Obama in his acceptance speech.
"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet . . . My promise is to help you and your family," Romney told the Republican National Convention.
He got a big ovation.
The delegates apparently did not consider impacts that a rise in ocean levels will...
Climate Change is a Great Punchline, Mitt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2012
Mother Jones: If you didn't catch Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, you really missed an amazing snapshot of how he'll treat environmental issues as president: as a laugh line.
Here's the line from his speech last night. The stage directions are mine:
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans ... (Pause for effect, look of mild, mocking amusement on your face. Audience will chuckle here.)
And heal the planet. (Another pause...
State Considering Studying Health Impacts of Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2012
New York Times: Late in its review process, New York state regulators are now considering an examination of the potential public health effects of hydraulic fracturing as part of its review of the controversial natural gas drilling process.
What this means to the state`s timetable for deciding on whether and how to allow fracking is unclear.
Several environmental groups met Tuesday with top officials from both the New York State Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation to discuss...
Oil spill stretches for miles by Exxon Nigeria field
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2012
Reuters: An oil spill near an ExxonMobil oilfield off the southeast coast of Nigeria has spread along the shore for about 15 miles, and locals said it was killing fish they depend on to live.
Mobil Producing Nigeria, a joint venture between ExxonMobil and the state oil firm, said this month it was helping clean up an oil spill near its Ibeno field in Akwa Ibom state, though it did not know the source of the oil.
This Reuters reporter saw that water along the coast was covered with a rainbow-tinted film...
Kuwait to Invest Up to $4 Billion in Canadian Oil Sands
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy, Jacquie Mcnish AND Carrie Tait on August 31st, 2012
Globe and Mail: Kuwait's state-owned petroleum company has signed a preliminary deal to invest as much as $4-billion in a joint venture with Athabasca Oil Corp. to develop some of its oil sands properties in northern Alberta.
Kuwait's Ambassador to Canada, Ali al-Sammak, confirmed in an interview that senior Kuwait Petroleum Corp. officials signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month. A final agreement is expected in October.
"It's a plus-or-minus $4-billion deal and in October they'll be coming...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kuwait to Invest Up to $4 Billion in Canadian Oil Sands