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Archive for February, 2013
Drought forecast to linger, spread in Plains, West
Posted by Associated Press: Josh Funk on February 21st, 2013
Associated Press: Climate experts say the drought affecting more than half of the nation will persist in the Great Plains and West through the spring and spread over more of California, Texas and Florida.
Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln released their latest predictions Thursday.
Currently, 56 percent of the continental U.S. is covered by some form of drought. That's an...
Moniz: Shale Gas Boom a Low-Carbon Solution—for Now
Posted by InsideClimate: None Given on February 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: The likely nomination of nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz to lead the Department of Energy has drawn criticism from some environmentalists who say his support for natural gas and close ties to industry would undermine efforts to tackle climate change. Moniz strongly favors natural gas as a "bridge fuel" and directs the MIT Energy Initiative, a research program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is funded by some of the world's largest fossil fuel companies. "His appointment to the DOE...
John Kerry Speech Ominous for Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2013
Associated Press: In yet another potentially ominous sign for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, John Kerry used his first major address as secretary of state on Wednesday to make an urgent call for comprehensive action on climate change.
"We as a nation must have the foresight and courage to make the investments necessary to safeguard the most sacred trust we keep for our children and grandchildren: an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts and the other hallmarks of...
Coal country bank first to report carbon footprint to shareholders
Posted by Mother Jones: Tim McDonnell on February 21st, 2013
Mother Jones: There's a growing interest among enviros these days in combating climate change with direct offensives against the fossil fuel industry, sights locked on its bottom line. The idea is that while we scramble to invent more efficient light bulbs and throw up solar panels, we also chip away at the mountain of money that gives the industry its power, by turning shareholders on to the idea that unwise investments can make them accomplices in global warming. Activist investment is nothing new, of course,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Coal country bank first to report carbon footprint to shareholdersNitrogen Pollution Soars in China
Posted by Scientific American: Jane Qiu on February 20th, 2013
Scientific American: Nitrogen-containing pollutants from agriculture, transport and industry in China has increased by more than half in 30 years, a study shows, adding to concerns about the country’s deteriorating environment.
“Rapid economic growth in China has driven high levels of nitrogen emissions in the past few decades,” says Zhang Fusuo, an agriculture researcher at the China Agricultural University in Beijing and a co-author of the study.
Once emitted into the air, key nitrogen pollutants — ammonia and...
After China’s multibillion-dollar cleanup, water still unfit to drink
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2013
Reuters: China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth.
China is promising to invest 4 trillion yuan ($650 billion) - equal to its entire stimulus package during the global financial crisis - on rural water projects alone during the 2011-2020 period. What's more, at least $200 billion in additional funds has been earmarked...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on After China’s multibillion-dollar cleanup, water still unfit to drinkIn Conservatives’ Canada, It’s Not Easy Being Green
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Canada`s police and security agencies think citizens concerned about the environment are threats to national security, and some are under surveillance, documents reveal.
The RCMP, the national police force, and Canada`s spy agency CSIS are increasingly conflating terrorism and extremism with peaceful citizens exercising their democratic rights to organise petitions, protest and question government policies, said Jeffrey Monaghan, a researcher with the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen's University...
Day 3: Fracking Pipeline Protest Gains Momentum
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 20th, 2013
EcoWatch: Gifford Pinchot, from Orange County, NY, is staging a tree sit on a suspended platform to prevent clearcutting for construction of the Northeast Upgrade Project of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) between Foster Hill and Cummins Hill roads in Pike County, Pennsylvania, near the boarder of New Jersey. The Northeast Upgrade Project would transport Marcellus Shale gas from fracking wells along Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. Fracking is a controversial method of extracting natural gas, as it has been...
Germany: Saving Heat from Going Down the Drain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Whenever hot water from the kitchen tap or the bathroom shower goes down the plughole, a substantial amount of heat energy goes with it. In some German buildings this is being recovered and used to heat buildings in the winter and run air conditioning systems in the summer, representing a real energy-saver.
The energy, recovery of which allows reduction of fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, flows in the drains. That is precisely where the city government of Fürth, in the southeastern...
Merkel warns of risks of fracking in Germany
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2013
Reuters: Germany should tread carefully in developing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tap shale gas reserves, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, in some of her first public comments on the controversial drilling technique.
Fracking has created a shale gas boom in the United States but it faces opposition in some European countries where critics say it could increase seismic risks and pollute drinking water.
"New deposits of gas could very probably be tapped in Germany with this technology...