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Archive for October, 2012
France: No damage from leak at Flamanville nuclear reactor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2012
Reuters: A contained radioactive water leak detected at EDF's Flamanville nuclear plant did not cause any damage to the environment or harm any employees, France's nuclear safety watchdog ASN and EDF said on Thursday.
The nuclear safety agency said on its website EDF had detected a leak in a water pipe that feeds the plant's reactor 1 primary circuit late on Wednesday. It was stopped and did not cause any radioactive contamination.
The incident was defined as a grade 1 incident on the international...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on France: No damage from leak at Flamanville nuclear reactorEnergy independence for US? Try energy security
Posted by National Public Radio: Tom Gjelten on October 25th, 2012
National Public Radio: Gone from this year's presidential campaign are most mentions of climate change, environmental pollution, or green jobs. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee, prefers to call attention instead to the country's continuing dependence on foreign energy sources.
"I will set a national goal of North American energy independence by the year 2020," Romney declared in August.
The line is now a standard part of Romney's stump speech, and he repeated it in his first two debates with...
Canada: Can controversial ocean iron fertilization save salmon?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2012
Scientific American: In a bid to restore lost fish abundance, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC) undertook to mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption by fertilizing the ocean with iron. The idea was to provide the missing nutrient for a plankton bloom that would then trickle up the food web and restore salmon—with the ancillary effects of gathering data on the ocean food web and, potentially, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
"What if this is a means by which ocean pastures can be stewarded and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Can controversial ocean iron fertilization save salmon?Utah board backs first US oil sands project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2012
Associated Press: Utah gave its final approval Wednesday for the nation's first commercial tar sands project, handing a victory to a Canadian company that aims to start producing 2,000 barrels of oil next year in the start of what could grow into a much larger operation. The Utah Water Quality Board upheld the decision of state regulators and turned back an appeal from a Moab-based environmental group that vows to take up its fight in the state courts. Living Rivers has fought the project every step of the way,...
Pollution as big a health problem as malaria or TB, finds report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2012
Guardian: Waste from mining, lead smelters, industrial dumps and other toxic sites affects the health of an estimated 125 million people in 49 low- and middle-income countries. This unrecognised health burden is on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis (TB), a new report has found.
This year's World's worst pollution problems (pdf) report was published on Tuesday by the Blacksmith Institute in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland. It documents, for the first time, the public health impact of industrial...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pollution as big a health problem as malaria or TB, finds reportUS downplayed effect of Deepwater on whales, emails reveal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2012
Guardian: A cache of newly uncovered documents from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – including gruesome photographs of a dead whale – are raising questions about the environmental cost of the disaster and the price tag the oil company will have to pay to set it right.
Documents, obtained by the campaign group Greenpeace under freedom of information provisions and made available to the Guardian, offer a rare glimpse into how many whales came into close contact with the gushing BP well during...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US downplayed effect of Deepwater on whales, emails revealHalf the Global 500 facing water stress, says CDP
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on October 24th, 2012
BusinessGreen: More than half the world's largest listed companies are affected by water stress, but many are failing to set targets to improve water stewardship, a new Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) survey has found.
In a report published yesterday in partnership with Deloitte, CDP reveals 53 per cent of the 185 Global 500 companies participating in the poll have experienced water-related challenges, including scarcity, flooding, rising compliance costs, regulatory uncertainty and poor water quality in the...
Canadian Government Continues to Choose Dirty Energy Over Democracy
Posted by EcoWatch: David Suzuki on October 24th, 2012
EcoWatch: On Oct. 22, more than 3,000 people braved the rain and cold on the front lawn of the legislature of British Columbia to protest the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
Why, when so many people oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project, would government and industry resort to such extreme measures to push it through?
The problems with the plan to run pipelines from the Alberta tar sands across northern B.C. to load unrefined, diluted bitumen onto supertankers for export to China and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canadian Government Continues to Choose Dirty Energy Over DemocracyCayman Islands: Remarkable comeback: blue iguana downgraded to Endangered after determined conservation efforts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2012
Mongabay: The wild blue iguana population has increased by at least 15 times in the last ten years, prompting the IUCN Red List to move the species from Critically Endangered to just Endangered. A targeted, ambitious conservation program, headed by the Blue Iguana Recovery Team, is behind this rare success for a species that in 2002 only numbered between 10 and 25 individuals.
Endemic to Grand Cayman island in the Caribbean, the blue iguana (Cyclura lewisi) suffered precipitous declines due to habitat loss,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Cayman Islands: Remarkable comeback: blue iguana downgraded to Endangered after determined conservation effortsClimate Change, the Taboo Phrase in U.S. Electoral Politics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2012
Inter Press Service: The United States endured its hottest summer in history this year, with droughts and wildfires ravaging the country. And according to a new report from the global reinsurance giant Munich Re, insurance losses related to extreme weather have nearly quadrupled in the U.S. since 1980.
So one might expect that climate change would be a hot topic in the debates being held ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 6.
But during the four nationally televised debates held so far -- three presidential...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change, the Taboo Phrase in U.S. Electoral Politics