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Archive for June, 2013
Floods shut down Canada’s oil capital, two killed
Posted by Reuters: Nia Williams and Scott Haggett on June 22nd, 2013
Reuters: The heaviest floods in decades shut down the Canadian oil capital of Calgary on Friday, forcing the evacuations of tens of thousands of residents and shutting the Alberta city's downtown core.
The bodies of two men were found near High River, Alberta, a town of 13,000 located about 60 km (37 miles) south of Calgary. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said two other people were missing, including a woman who was swept away with her camper.
Some 1,300 troops were deployed to help with rescues...
Earth sciences secretary blames Uttarakhand rains on climate change
Posted by Times of India: Rajeev Deshpande on June 22nd, 2013
Times of India: The catastrophic rainfall in Uttarakhand was most likely a climate change event as it is in keeping with a pattern of increasing incidents of extreme weather events that often cause phenomenal damage as was seen in the hill state, earth sciences secretary Shailesh Nayak said. Nayak told TOI on Friday that although "direct evidence" was lacking, the cloudburst that triggered flash floods in Uttarakhand read like a weather phenomenon brought about by warming. "Extreme weather is becoming more common,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Earth sciences secretary blames Uttarakhand rains on climate changeRacing the Monsoon, India Rescues Thousands but 550 Die
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on June 22nd, 2013
Environment News Service: "On a war footing" India has mobilized military and civilian emergency personnel to rescue tens of thousands of people stranded outdoors in mountainous forests due to unseasonably early monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides.
More than 550 people have died as four times the usual amount of rainfall swept across 40,000 square kilometers (15,440 square miles) of northern India this week.
A rescued survivor is carried to safety in northern India, June 21, 2013 (Photo by National Disaster Response...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Racing the Monsoon, India Rescues Thousands but 550 DieIndia Flooding, Landslides Cause 600 Deaths as Stranded Begin to Starve
Posted by Nature World News: James A. Foley on June 21st, 2013
Nature World News: Flooding and landslides in northern India have claimed the lives of at nearly 600 people as the death toll continued to rise throughout the week.
Early and abnormally heavy monsoon rains caused the Ganges Rivers and some of its tributaries to flood, triggering landslides that killed or trapped hundreds, while tens of thousands have been left stranded.
The Himalayan state of Uttrakhand was among the worst affected regions. People in scores of towns and villages have been stranded by flooding...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India Flooding, Landslides Cause 600 Deaths as Stranded Begin to StarveCanadian floods prompt evacuation of entire downtown Calgary area
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2013
Associated Press: Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of the entire downtown area on Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city's hockey arena.
About 230,000 people work downtown on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work on Friday.
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated population of 75,000, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canadian floods prompt evacuation of entire downtown Calgary areaEPA Pushes Back Fracking Impact Study to 2016
Posted by EcoWatch: Trisha Marczak on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving back its timeline for release of its study on the impact of hydraulic fracturing from 2014 to 2016, the agency announced this week at the Shale Gas: Promises and Challenges conference in Cleveland, OH.
The study, aimed at assessing the threats fracking poses to groundwater supplies and air quality, began in 2010 under the direction of Congress. The intent was to create a thorough assessment of the drilling method so states could make informed...
EPA abandons investigation into fracking pollution
Posted by Grist: John Upton on June 21st, 2013
Grist: The EPA is dropping its only investigation that has found evidence of water contamination from fracking.
Following a three-year study of groundwater pollution around Pavilion, Wyo., the EPA concluded in a draft report in 2011 that fracking chemicals were a likely cause. The finding was obviously controversial -- frackers would like us to believe that injecting poisonous chemicals into the ground couldn’t possibly poison water. Critics of the research found fault with the EPA’s methodology and...
Obama administration cuts back oil shale development
Posted by Fox News: Kelly David Burke on June 21st, 2013
Fox News: Controversy is heating up over an administration plan to drastically reduce the amount of federal lands available for oil shale development in the American West. The Bush administration had set aside 1.3 million acres for oil shale and tar sands development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The new Bureau of Land Management plan cuts that amount by two-thirds, down to 700,000 acres, a decision that has prompted industry outrage. "What they basically did was make it so that nobody is going to want...
During Record Drought, Frackers Outcompete Farmers for Water Supplies
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: The impacts of 2013's severe drought are apparent across the nation in forests, on farms and on once snowy peaks. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry is demanding unprecedented amounts of water for hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.
Fourth-generation Colorado farmer Kent Peppler told the Associated Press (AP) that he is fallowing some of his corn fields this year because he can’t afford to irrigate the land for the full growing season, in part because deep-pocketed energy companies...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on During Record Drought, Frackers Outcompete Farmers for Water SuppliesPennsylvanians Demand Clean Water and Moratorium on Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: Kati Lawson on June 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: Clean water activists and representatives from Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Berks Gas Truth gathered in the Capitol Wednesday to call on Gov. Corbett (R-PA) to speak publicly on the extent of water contamination from fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Director of Clean Water Action, Myron Arnowitt, said the rally was being held because many activists know that Pennsylvania will end up with dirty water if gas companies continue to work...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pennsylvanians Demand Clean Water and Moratorium on Fracking