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Archive for November 17th, 2012
Pressure builds on Obama over oil pipeline: Jobs vs. climate change
Posted by Minneapolis Star Tribune: None Given on November 17th, 2012
Minneapolis Star Tribune: President Obama's decision on whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline looms huge now that the election is over, and it could define Obama's legacy on energy and climate change.
The oil industry, which is pushing hard for approval, describes the choice as the president's "first test to the American people."
Environmental groups are promising that thousands of activists will demonstrate against the pipeline on Sunday outside the White House, just the beginning of the efforts...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Pressure builds on Obama over oil pipeline: Jobs vs. climate changeClimate change touching Indiana Dunes, researchers say
Posted by Post-Tribune: Amy Lavalley on November 17th, 2012
Post-Tribune: The warming planet is affecting Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
From lower water levels in Lake Michigan to declining food sources for the endangered Karner Blue butterfly, climate change is having an impact on the national park.
That was the message Saturday during a program at the Douglas Center in Gary’s Miller neighborhood presented by Joy Marburger, a research coordinator with the Great Lakes Research and Education Center based at the lakeshore. It’s one of 19 research centers located...
Keystone XL activists to press Obama again to block oil pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2012
Guardian: Environmental groups will step up the pressure on Barack Obama to act on climate change in his second term, with a rally Sunday at the White House against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Activists are pressing Obama to deliver early on his promise – renewed at his first White House press conference – to make climate change a personal priority of his second term, by blocking the Keystone XL.
"We wanted to make a first statement right out of the gate after the election that the environmental...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL activists to press Obama again to block oil pipelineUnited States: Patriot Coal concedes to activists, abandons mountaintop removal and strip mining
Posted by West Virginia Gazette Mail: Ken Ward, Jr on November 17th, 2012
West Virginia Gazette Mail: Patriot Coal has agreed to phase out mountaintop removal and other forms of strip mining, in a move Patriot officials say is in the best interests of their company, its employees and the communities where it operates.
In a deal with citizen groups and environmentalists, Patriot said it would never seek new permits for large-scale surface mining operations, according to details of the settlement that were made public in federal court Thursday afternoon.
St. Louis-based Patriot can continue some...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Patriot Coal concedes to activists, abandons mountaintop removal and strip miningNigeria Exxon spill spreads for miles along coast
Posted by Reuters: Tife Owolabi on November 17th, 2012
Reuters: An oil spill at an ExxonMobil facility offshore from the Niger Delta has spread at least 20 miles from its source, coating waters used by fishermen in a film of sludge.
A Reuters reporter visiting several parts of Akwa Ibom state saw a rainbow-tinted oil slick stretching for 20 miles from a pipeline that Exxon had shut down because of a leak a week ago. Locals scooped it into jerry cans.
Mark Ward, the managing director of ExxonMobil's local unit, said a clean up had been mobilized, and he...
Climate change affects Oregon
Posted by News-Register: Nicole Montesano on November 17th, 2012
News-Register: The worst drought in more than half a century, continuing in many parts of the country, is expected to raise national average food prices 4 percent this fall. Ironically, it has largely been pushed off the front pages by yet another manifestation of the climate change phenomenon, Hurricane Sandy. As the planet continues its inexorable warming — September ended 16 consecutive months of above-average temperatures in the lower 48, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the...
Bhutan’s glaciers at risk
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on November 17th, 2012
Summit Voice: After significant warming during half century, about 10 percent of Bhutan`s glaciers are likely to disappear within the next few decades -- even if regional and global temperatures were to stabilize at current levels.
"These particular glaciers have seen so much warming in the past few decades that they`re currently playing lots of catch up,” Brigham Young University geology professor Summer Rupper said after studying climate and glaciers in the Himalaya.
Rupper`s most conservative findings...
The best climate projections are extreme
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2012
Living on Earth: Scientists agree that the planet is warming, but there is a wide range of projections as to how hot it's going to get. A new analysis from scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research finds that the more alarming estimates may be the most accurate. John Fasullo, one of the climate scientists responsible for the analysis, joins host Steve Curwood to discuss the future of our warming planet.
Transcript
CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Boston, this is Living...
Weathering the storms
Posted by Marshall Independent: Per Peterson on November 17th, 2012
Marshall Independent: Our climate is changing for the worse, members of a climate awareness group say, and although some of the effects of global warming are subtle here in the Upper Midwest compared to other places in the U.S., immediate changes are needed to slow down global warming.
The Citizens Climate Lobby, a 3-year-old, non-partisan climate group with 60 offspring grassroots organizations in the U.S. (four in Minnesota) and Canada, just completed a southwest Minnesota tour to spread its message about the climate...
Alarm sounded as water rose
Posted by New Haven Independent: None Given on November 17th, 2012
New Haven Independent: The one-two punch of Superstorm Sandy and a follow-up Nor`Easter got local lawmakers asking: How should the city deal with rising oceans and extreme weather brought on by global climate change?
In the storms` wake, East Shore Alderman Sal DeCola and East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker have introduced a bill to require the city to develop "a comprehensive plan" to address the changes in weather and sea levels that are already happening and expected to worsen as a result of climate change.
Twenty...