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Archive for March 4th, 2013
Can the new EPA chief stop Obama approving the Keystone XL pipeline?
Posted by Guardian: Richard Schiffman on March 4th, 2013
Guardian: Environmentalists got some bad news when the State Department released a report on Friday – a full month earlier than had been anticipated – saying that there are no convincing environmental reasons that the Keystone XL pipeline should not be built.
This just two weeks after thousands of demonstrators gathered at the National Mall for what has been called the largest climate rally ever. Environmental groups have joined in a rare united front to block the pipeline. If built, activists predict that...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Can the new EPA chief stop Obama approving the Keystone XL pipeline?Arctic ice-melt will bring frosty relations as nations navigate across North Pole
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 4th, 2013
Independent: The loss if sea ice in the Arctic will allow ships to navigate freely across the North Pole by the middle of the century and could lead to unprecedented geo-political tensions between countries that have territorial claims in the region, scientists said.
Ice-breaking ships that are only moderately strengthened against sea ice will be able to cross the Arctic Ocean with impunity during the late summer months starting from about 2050, the scientists found in a study of how the loss of the floating...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic ice-melt will bring frosty relations as nations navigate across North PoleWho holds the key to fresh water abundance? You
Posted by LiveScience: Wynne Parry on March 4th, 2013
LiveScience: Fresh water. The planet has only so much to meet the needs of a growing world population. And global warming throws more uncertainty into the mix by increasing chances of extreme weather, such as more intense droughts in some places. Dry spells, such as the devastating drought that gripped much of the United States last year, come with economic costs in the developed world and deadly consequences in poorer countries. There is no secret source of water of the future. Conservation is the best answer,...
Clearing Forests May Transform Local and Global Climate
Posted by Scientific American: Judith D. Schwartz on March 4th, 2013
Scientific American: In the last 15 years 200,000 hectares of the Mau Forest in western Kenya have been converted to agricultural land. Previously called a “water tower” because it supplied water to the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria, the forest region has dried up; in 2009 the rainy season—from August to November—saw no rain, and since then precipitation has been modest. Whereas hydropower used to provide the bulk of Kenya’s power ongoing droughts have led investors to pull out of hydro projects; power rationing and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Clearing Forests May Transform Local and Global ClimateFull steam ahead? Geothermal energy can be Africa’s game-changer
Posted by Business Day: Mafalda Duarte on March 4th, 2013
Business Day: THE Africa of today is exponentially more vital than 20th-century Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa, countries are experiencing a "new dynamism", with two-thirds of them expected to grow at 6.2% this year.
In the face of this trend, energy has become a front-burner problem. An astonishing 70% of Sub-Saharan Africans still lack access to basic energy services, undermining their health, limiting opportunities for education and development, and reducing countries’ potential to rise up out of poverty....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Full steam ahead? Geothermal energy can be Africa’s game-changerAustralia: ‘We have a climate on steroids’
Posted by 3AW: None Given on March 4th, 2013
3AW: After a summer of extreme heat, shattered records and torrential rain in Queensland, the lead author of the Climate Commission's report, The Angry Summer, says climate change is undoubtedly to blame.
"We've seen widespread extreme heat in Australia and record high temperatures across 70% of the continent," Will Steffen, the ANU's Climate Change Director told Tom Elliott.
"If you take the average high temperature across the entire country for seven days in a row in February, it was more than...
Obama taps two from Mass. for Energy, EPA posts
Posted by Boston Globe: Erin Ailworth on March 4th, 2013
Boston Globe: President Obama on Monday turned to Massachusetts for his nominees to the nation's top energy and environmental posts, tapping MIT physicist Ernest J. Moniz to lead the Department of Energy, and Boston-area native and former state environmental official Gina McCarthy as the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"These two over here they're going to be making sure we're investing in American clean energy," Obama said at the White House, "that we're doing everything we can...
United Kingdom: Households must prepare for extremes, after floods every five days in 2012
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 4th, 2013
Telegraph: The Government agency said such "topsy turvy weather' could become more frequent because of climate change and called for more assistance to help households adapt.
However politicians are warning that the Government is already cutting funding for flood defence.
Last year began in drought with hosepipe bans imposed for 20 million people across a swathe of England after two dry winters in a row. For 95 days there was official drought declared for some areas, mostly in the South East.
However,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Households must prepare for extremes, after floods every five days in 2012Australia: Climate change a key factor in extreme weather, experts say
Posted by WA Today: Ben Cubby on March 4th, 2013
WA Today: A few years ago, talking about weather and climate change in the same breath was a cardinal sin for scientists.
Now it has become impossible to have a conversation about the weather without discussing wider climate trends, according to researchers who prepared the Australian Climate Commission's latest report.
The report, The Angry Summer, says behind the litany of broken heat and rainfall records this year, a clear pattern has now emerged.
''Statistically, there is a one in 500 chance that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Climate change a key factor in extreme weather, experts sayAustralia: ‘Angry Summer’ made worse by climate change: Commission
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Sarah Clarke on March 4th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The latest report from the Federal Government's Climate Commission says the weather extremes experienced around the country this summer were made worse by climate change. The report - The Angry Summer - says the extreme heat, floods and bushfires experienced around country were all aggravated by a shifting climate, and it warns the trend is likely to continue. Climate Commission chief Professor Tim Flannery says that while Australia may have always been a land of drought and flooding rains, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: ‘Angry Summer’ made worse by climate change: Commission