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Archive for April, 2013
Serbia’s unabated quest for coal causes tremors among mining communities
Posted by Guardian: Claire Provost on April 24th, 2013
Guardian: Vitomir Simic, 53, points at the faded, black and white photograph of his parents, still hanging on the wall of the home he abandoned in Radljevo, a village south-west of Belgrade, Serbia. Its modest frame hides only an inch of the giant fractures that ripped open the walls of the house where he was born, and forced him and his three children to flee.
Simic works nearby in the Kolubara coal mine, helping to maintain the giant excavators that gouge the earth day and night. This relentless quest...
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Comments Off on Serbia’s unabated quest for coal causes tremors among mining communitiesUnited Kingdom: Climate change advisers says fracking can be OK
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 24th, 2013
Telegraph: The controversial fossil fuel is forced out of the ground by blasting water into rocks, a process known as "fracking'.
Environmentalists claim this hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes and contaminates drinking water.
They are also concerned that methane escapes during drilling and burning the fuel releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
But despite these concerns, a new report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), said shale gas can be part of the energy mix.
The committee...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Climate change advisers says fracking can be OKFor Corn, Fickle Weather Makes For Uncertain Yields
Posted by National Public Radio: Abbie Fentress Swanson on April 24th, 2013
National Public Radio: "There are other things that can limit yield, and planting date isn't necessarily even the most important one," says University of Missouri agronomist Brent Myers. "But it is something we have to consider. And we want to try to get that corn planted in that timely window of, say, after the first week of April to the first week in May."
At his farm in Centralia, Mo., Gary Riedel, 69, in his green baseball cap and Western-style shirt, is just itching to plant corn on 1,000 acres of his 2,300-acre...
Arkansas AG on Why He’s Taking Exxon Spill Probe Into His Own Hands
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song on April 24th, 2013
InsideClimate: Since launching an investigation into the Mayflower, Ark. oil spill on April 2, state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has pushed hard to resolve unanswered questions about the pipeline accident. McDaniel, a Democrat in his second term as attorney general, caused a stir on April 3 when he insisted on touring the site of the spill with his staff instead of in a bus tour organized by ExxonMobil, the company responsible for the 210,000-gallon pipeline rupture. He drew attention again when he was among...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arkansas AG on Why He’s Taking Exxon Spill Probe Into His Own HandsUN must challenge Canada’s complicity in mining’s human rights abuses
Posted by Guardian: Meera Karunananthan on April 24th, 2013
Guardian: Canada is scheduled for its universal periodic review (UPR) at the UN human rights council on 26 April. The UPR is an international mechanism established in 2006 to hold governments accountable for their human rights records. According to Ban Ki-moon, the review has the potential "to promote and protect human rights in the darkest corners of the world".
When Canada stands before the UN to have its "darkest corners" examined, the international community must not turn a blind eye to its complicity...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UN must challenge Canada’s complicity in mining’s human rights abusesAdvisers warn UK CO2 emissions ‘up’
Posted by BBC: Roger Harrabin on April 24th, 2013
BBC: A new report has laid bare the UK's pretensions to have cut greenhouse gas emissions over recent years.
Ministers have claimed global leadership in reducing CO2 emissions and urged other nations to follow suit.
But the official Climate Change Committee (CCC) said that the UK's total contribution towards heating the climate has actually increased.
This is because the UK is importing goods that produce CO2 in other countries.
The UK has been cutting emissions at home, but it has been importing...
Shale gas could be lower carbon than imported fuel, say climate advisers
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on April 24th, 2013
Guardian: Shale gas extracted in the UK would be lower carbon than imported gas from countries such as Qatar, and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if well regulated, the government's chief climate change advisers have said.
But in a report published on Wednesday, the Committee on Climate Change also sounded caution on the prospects for widespread development of shale in the UK. It said that relying heavily on gas would scupper the UK's chances of meeting emissions targets in the longer term, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shale gas could be lower carbon than imported fuel, say climate advisersViews Differ on Fracking’s Impact
Posted by PBS: Chris Remington on April 24th, 2013
PBS: The practice of hydraulic fracturing is under debate across the country in areas impacted by America`s ongoing natural gas boom. In the town of Findlay, Ohio, an increase in manufacturing in recent years has been accompanied by expanded natural gas drilling. That has Greg Auburn, professor of International Business at the University of Findlay feeling optimistic about Ohio’s future employment prospects. “The estimates (for jobs in the natural gas industry) range anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 over...
Former Obama Staffer Leads White House Protests Against Pipeline
Posted by on April 24th, 2013
Yahoo: Environmental activists are turning up the heat on President Obama as he faces what could be the trickiest decision of his second term: whether or not to approve the controversial proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which could reach his desk this summer.
The project, which would transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, promises jobs and energy. But critics say it will ravage the environment and send oil overseas.
“We put him in the White House because we thought he was...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Former Obama Staffer Leads White House Protests Against PipelineAthabaskan Council: Arctic Warming Violates Our Human Rights
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on April 24th, 2013
Environment News Service: The Arctic Athabaskan Council today filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, requesting a declaration that Canada is undermining the human rights of Athabaskan peoples by allowing emissions of black carbon to warm the Arctic.
The Arctic Athabaskan Council is an international treaty organization established to defend the rights and further the interests of American and Canadian Athabaskan First Nation governments in the eight-nation Arctic Council, of which it is an authorized...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Athabaskan Council: Arctic Warming Violates Our Human Rights