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Archive for March, 2013
A Tide of Death, but This Time Food Supply Is Safe
Posted by New York Times: David Barboza on March 15th, 2013
New York Times: Hard as it may be to believe, the recent discovery of thousands of pig carcasses floating in a river that supplies drinking water to Shanghai may represent an encouraging step forward in Chinese public health. In May, for example, the police in this hog-producing city arrested four people who had sold dead pigs to slaughterhouses. And in December, a Zhejiang Province court sentenced 17 people to prison sentences, one for life, for processing and selling meat from pigs that had died of various diseases....
Bees are still dying – an EU pesticide ban would be a start
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2013
Guardian: When I wrote A World Without Bees to investigate why honeybees were mysteriously disappearing across the US and parts of Europe, one of the conclusions I came to – having talked to beekeepers, scientists, farmers and pesticide manufacturers, and waded through piles of academic papers – was that we must suspend the use of some neonicotinoid pesticides until we had a better idea of what harm they may be causing our bees.
The European commission has an opportunity to do just that on Friday by voting...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Bees are still dying – an EU pesticide ban would be a startTribes rejects payment from electricity company behind destructive Amazon dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2013
Mongabay: Leaders of more than two dozen Kayapó indigenous communities have rejected a $9 million offer from Brazilian state energy company Eletrobras to fund development projects in their region due to the the firm's involvement in the construction of the Belo Monte dam, reports Amazon Watch, an activist group fighting the hydroelectric project.
Eletrobras had offered the money over a four year period, during which it is planning to proceed with the dam, which will redirect the flow of 80 percent of the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tribes rejects payment from electricity company behind destructive Amazon damUnited Kingdom: Cuadrilla delays fracking plans until 2014
Posted by BusinessGreen: Jessica Shankleman on March 14th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Cuadrilla Resources' controversial plans to extract potentially huge reserves of shale gas from underneath Lancashire have been pushed back by at least year, after the company withdrew its original planning application over environmental concerns. Cuadrilla had initially hoped to restart test drilling for shale gas reserves this year, after fracking was deemed safe by the government late last year. A temporary ban had been imposed in 2011 following two small earthquakes near Blackpool that were...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Cuadrilla delays fracking plans until 2014New Zealand suffering most widespread drought in at least 30 years as dairy industry takes hit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2013
Associated Press: Dairy farmer John Rose has sent more than 100 of his cows to the slaughterhouse over recent weeks as a severe drought browned pastures in New Zealand's normally verdant North Island.
He had to thin his herd so the remaining 550 cows have enough to eat, and he's supplementing their diet with ground palm kernel as the grass in his fields withers.
"We try and make sure they've got water and shade during the day and do the best we can for them,' he said. "It's very hard to remember when the last...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Zealand suffering most widespread drought in at least 30 years as dairy industry takes hitThe natural ecosystems in the Colombian Orinoco Basin are in danger
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2013
ScienceDaily: The Orinoco River flows from the Andesin Colombia to the Atlantic in Venezuela. The area of the basin includes landscapes of the Andes, plains of the Llanos and the Guiana shield. Orinoco's tributary rivers form a basin considered to be the 3rd most important river system on the planet, and one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world.
Colombia has shown a strong commitment to the achievement of the Convention on Biological Diversity's2010 biodiversity target, by promoting the conservation...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The natural ecosystems in the Colombian Orinoco Basin are in dangerIncrease in heavy rainfalls over past 60 years in upper Midwest, US
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Heavy rains have become more frequent in the upper Midwest over the past 60 years, according to a study from the University of Iowa. The trend appears to hold true even with the current drought plaguing the region, the study's main author says.
The fact that temperatures over the country's midsection are rising, too, may be more than coincidence.The hotter the surface temperature, which has been the trend in the Midwest and the rest of the world, the more water that can be absorbed by the atmosphere....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Increase in heavy rainfalls over past 60 years in upper Midwest, USDead pigs in China river spotlight heedless industry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
Reuters: The rotting bodies of about 6,000 pigs in a river that supplies tap water to Shanghai has drawn attention to an ugly truth - China's pig farms are often riddled with disease and one way or another, sick animals often end up in the food chain.
Authorities have found traces of a common pig virus in some of the animals floating in the Huangpu River this week, and industry insiders say farmers likely dumped them, common in an industry which has no system of compensation for losses from disease.
"There...
Keystone XL pipeline not good for Canada, opposition leader suggests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
Guardian: Canada's opposition leader spoke out against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline during a visit to Washington on Wednesday, breaking with the Canadian government's full-on lobbying push for the controversial project.
In appearances around Washington, Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the New Democratic Party, was scathing of the Conservative government's environmental record and strongly suggested – without saying so explicitly – that he does not believe the pipeline is in Canada's interest.
"We...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL pipeline not good for Canada, opposition leader suggestsLarge Fractures Spotted in Vulnerable Arctic Sea Ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
Climate Central: Following more than two decades of Arctic sea ice thinning and melting, an unusual event just weeks before the start of the spring melt season is providing visual proof of how vulnerable the ice pack really is.
During the end of February and continuing into early March, large fractures in the sea ice were observed off the north coast of Alaska and Canada, from near Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic to Barrow, Ala., the northernmost city in the U.S.
The rapid climate change in the Arctic...