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Archive for March, 2013
American Pipeline Will Diminish Energy Security, Prominent Canadian Says
Posted by InsideClimate: None Given on March 13th, 2013
InsideClimate: Prominent Canadian economist Robyn Allan [3] made waves in Canada last year with papers claiming that rapid oil sands growth would do more economic harm than good for her country. Allan's controversial analyses [4] focused on the Northern Gateway pipeline, a proposal to carry raw tar sands bitumen through British Columbia for shipment to Asia. One of her main points was that shipping raw crude for upgrading and refining in other countries also means exporting those industries—and jobs—abroad. ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on American Pipeline Will Diminish Energy Security, Prominent Canadian SaysChina river pig toll nears 6,000
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
BBC: The number of dead pigs found floating in Shanghai's main river has risen to almost 6,000. The city authorities, still investigating where they have come from, say a number of the carcasses have tested positive for a common pig virus. John Sudworth reports from Shanghai.
Did Climate Change Spark the War in Syria?
Posted by Care2: Kristina Chew on March 13th, 2013
Care2: Could global warming have played a role in instigating the ongoing, and bloody, war that has been going on in Syria for nearly two years, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 and a million Syrians forced to flee from their homes, thousands to other countries?
“Unprecedented food price rises” were “fundamental triggers” for the Arab Spring, writes Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed in the Guardian. A 2008 global rice shortage led to a steep rise in prices, setting off food riots in the Middle East,...
Thieves blight Nigeria’s swamps with spilt oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2013
Reuters: In a mangrove forest at the edge of a Nigerian swamp, a film of oil shimmers in rainbow colors for hundreds of meters around Royal Dutch Shell's Nembe creek pipeline.
The cause of this latest environmental catastrophe, Shell says, was an unprecedented level of oil theft targeting a pipeline pumping 150,000 barrels of oil a day to the Atlantic coast.
Nembe is one of the most important production routes for Africa's top energy producer, but it is also a frequent target for criminal gangs who...
Australia’s heatwaves to hit wildlife hard
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Jacqui Hayes on March 12th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: IN EARLY JANUARY 2010 golfers in Hopetoun, WA ventured out from the cool of the clubhouse to tee off. The day was oppressively hot: 47° was predicted. Only the keenest golfers were having a hit. But rather than golf-balls on the fairway, the golfers found dead and dying birds scattered.
The Department of Environment recorded the death of several hundred birds, including the devastating loss of 208 endangered Carnaby's black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris). At one site, this amounted to...
Australia toughens environmental hurdles on coal and coal seam gas mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2013
Reuters: Australia will impose tougher environmental hurdles on coal and coal seam gas mining, responding to mounting public concern about protection of fragile water resources from the impact of extraction, Environment Minister Tony Burke said on Tuesday.
The government would amend national environment laws to force coal seam gas and large coal mining developments to now receive national government approval and assessment of their impact on water, Burke said.
Australia has a booming coal seam gas industry...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia toughens environmental hurdles on coal and coal seam gas miningFracking: What’s That Smell?
Posted by EcoWatch: Michael Brune on March 12th, 2013
EcoWatch: You know what natural gas smells like. Or do you? Natural gas is actually odorless. That rotten-egg smell is added for safety reasons. Otherwise, you might not notice a potentially deadly gas leak.
If only we could add a similar smell to the natural gas industry. Too many people--especially politicians--aren`t paying attention to the dangers of the current "boom" in natural gas development. Here are three big reasons why we should stop new gas drilling before it starts and replace fossil fuels...
Sri Lanka: Changing Weather, Changing Fortunes
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on March 12th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Sri Lanka has paused for breath after the extreme weather conditions last year that many associate with climate change.
The reservoirs had hit new lows after a dry spell. That has now changed. "Thank god the weather has helped, all the reservoirs are at spill level," finance secretary P. B. Jayasundera announced last month. "It is a kind of a bonus."
During the first ten months of the year, regions ranging from the north through the east to the south and south-west suffered a serious drought....
Keystone Report Skirts Central Question Posed Under NEPA, Lawyers Say
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on March 12th, 2013
InsideClimate: The surprising message of the State Department's latest Keystone review—that the decision whether to approve the disputed pipeline won't have much effect on the environment—can be traced to the way the agency framed the report. The study presents an analysis of how markets will adjust if the pipeline isn't built. But lawyers and pipeline opponents say that approach allowed the State Department to dodge the central question that the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, presents about major...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone Report Skirts Central Question Posed Under NEPA, Lawyers SayAustralia: March heat has forecasters wondering ‘who stole autumn’?
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on March 12th, 2013
Age: Melbourne's March is already deep into record heat territory. With today's 30-plus maximum reached, the city has notched nine such days in a row, breaking the record for heatwave duration of eight days. All four previous events over the past 156 years happened in January or February, and the last one 52 years ago.
Where's autumn?
Weatherzone senior meteorologist Brett Dutschke said warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures and a southerly shift in the jetstream meant there was little sign of autumn...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: March heat has forecasters wondering ‘who stole autumn’?