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Archive for June, 2013
Billionaire Steyer Rejects Trade With Obama on Keystone
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on June 20th, 2013
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama’s adoption of measures to combat climate change shouldn’t be seen as a trade off for approving the Keystone XL pipeline, a top donor to his re-election campaign said.
Hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer unveiled a social-media campaign today meant to organize supporters and pressure the president to reject the pipeline, which would carry oil sands from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Steyer hired a former Obama campaign digital producer, Tara McGowan, to help...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Billionaire Steyer Rejects Trade With Obama on KeystoneNew FEMA Study: Climate Change Will Greatly Increase Flood Risk, Debt
Posted by Huffington Post: Peter Lehner on June 20th, 2013
Huffington Post: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in a study finally released last week after five years in the making, predicted that areas at risk of flooding in the United States would increase 45 percent by 2100, largely because of climate change. That prediction is dire news, not just for residents of flood zones, but for all taxpayers, who fund FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). With flood risk on the rise, the program will have to insure 80 percent more properties than it does today, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New FEMA Study: Climate Change Will Greatly Increase Flood Risk, DebtIndia: Global warming to dry up rivers, inundate cities
Posted by Deccan Chronicle: None Given on June 20th, 2013
Deccan Chronicle: India’s summer monsoon will become highly unpredictable if the world’s average temperature rises by 2ºC in the next two-three decades, a scientific report commissioned by the World Bank says.
The report released in the national capital on Wednesday focuses on the likely impacts of warming between 2ºC and 4ºC on agricultural production, water resources, coastal ecosystems and cities across South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.
The report titled Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India: Global warming to dry up rivers, inundate citiesNew indictments for ex-BP executive, engineer over Gulf spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2013
Reuters: Federal prosecutors unveiled new criminal indictments on Wednesday against a former BP Plc executive and a former BP engineer charged with obstructing investigations into the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The new indictment of former executive David Rainey adds language suggesting he knew of the congressional probe he was charged with obstructing when he provided false information soon after the spill to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, including about the rate that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New indictments for ex-BP executive, engineer over Gulf spillArizona wildfire threatens hundreds of homes, California blaze wanes
Posted by Reuters: Tim Gaynor and Alex Dobuzinskis on June 19th, 2013
Reuters: An Arizona wildfire whipped up by strong winds threatened hundreds of homes on Wednesday, even as firefighters were gaining an edge on a California blaze raging near a pristine wilderness, authorities said.
More than 500 firefighters were battling the Doce Fire, which has burned through 7,000 acres of chaparral, pine and juniper since Tuesday morning near Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, the Prescott National Forest said in a statement.
Fanned by gusting winds, the fire has led to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arizona wildfire threatens hundreds of homes, California blaze wanesTo Rebuild NYC’s Beaches, A Native Plant Savings And Loan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
National Public Radio: Across the New York region, people are still working to rebuild homes and businesses after the havoc wrought by Hurricane Sandy. But the storm also devastated the dunes and native flora of New York's beaches. When the city replants grasses on those dunes, it will be able to draw on seeds from precisely the grasses that used to thrive there. That's because of a very special kind of bank: a seed bank run by the Greenbelt Native Plant Center on Staten Island. Heather Lea Liljengren has been a seed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on To Rebuild NYC’s Beaches, A Native Plant Savings And LoanGulf of Mexico Faces Record-Breaking Dead Zone With Devastating Consequences
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 19th, 2013
Nature World News: This year may be one of the deadliest for marine life who call the Gulf of Mexico home, a number of researchers warn.
NOAA-supported models at the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium forecast that the hypoxic "dead" zone located along the shores of the gulf will stretch between 7,286 and 8,561 square miles, resulting in a biological desert.
Should this be the case, 2013 would rank in the top 10 for largest dead zones ever recorded...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Gulf of Mexico Faces Record-Breaking Dead Zone With Devastating ConsequencesOily substance in Lake Michigan remains a mystery
Posted by Mother Nature Network: Melissa Breyer on June 19th, 2013
Mother Nature Network: What’s weirder than a slick, oily substance suddenly appearing at a northwest Indiana beach on Lake Michigan? Its equally sudden disappearance. Swimmers at Porter Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore came out of the water Monday afternoon to find themselves covered in an oily substance and there was a silver sheen on the lake, according to the Coast Guard and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). But by the next day, it was gone. "They checked the beach, and they can't find...
Shell to resume Nigera delta oil spill compensation talks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
Guardian: Oil company Shell will resume talks next week in London with lawyers representing 15,000 of the poorest people in the world who are claiming millions of pounds' compensation for oil spills on the Niger delta. But Martyn Day, of Leigh Day law firm which is acting for the communities, said the case could still go to a full high court trial in London in 2014. The Shell petroleum development company of Nigeria (SPDC) has admitted liability for two spills from a pipeline in the Niger delta in 2008, but...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shell to resume Nigera delta oil spill compensation talksWill Climate Change Destroy New York City ?
Posted by LiveScience: Marc Lallanilla on June 19th, 2013
LiveScience: The city of New York -- America's largest metropolis and home to over 8 million people -- will be ravaged by the effects of climate change within a few years. That's the bleak scenario presented by a recent 430-page report developed by a blue-ribbon panel of academics, environmental planners and government officials. The report, nicknamed "SIRR" for Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, presents an ambitious plan for managing the worst effects of global warming, which include flooding,...