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Archive for July 15th, 2013
Aglukkaq takes environment post as Ottawa seeks to win over First Nations, U.S. on resource projects
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on July 15th, 2013
Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has moved his cabinet's lone aboriginal minister into the sensitive portfolio of Environment as the government works to win crucial First Nations' support for new pipelines and other resource-development projects.
In the shuffle announced on Monday, Mr. Harper demoted former broadcaster Peter Kent to the back benches and appointed health minister Leona Aglukkaq to the critical post, where one of her first jobs will be to finalize long-promised federal regulations...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Aglukkaq takes environment post as Ottawa seeks to win over First Nations, U.S. on resource projectsInteractive Map Links Climate Change and Wildfires in Western States
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on July 15th, 2013
EcoWatch: A new interactive tool produced by Climate Central illustrates how rising temperatures and reduced snowpack in the western U.S. have corresponded with an increase in wildfires in recent decades.
Based on federal wildfire data from 1970 to 2012, the graphic shows how large fires in some western states--including Arizona, Colorado and Idaho--have doubled or even tripled in four decades, a period when the average spring and summer temperatures in 11 states increased by more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Interactive Map Links Climate Change and Wildfires in Western StatesFrac-Sand Mining Boom Adds to Growing List of Fracking Dangers
Posted by EcoWatch: Andy Rowell, Oil Change International on July 15th, 2013
EcoWatch: Barely a day now goes by without further evidence of the harm of fracking.
Last Thursday scientists reported new compelling evidence of the link between fracking and earthquakes. The scientists argue that, due to fracking, U.S. earthquakes have become approximately five times more common in recent years.
The journal Science reported that there have been more than 300 earthquakes above magnitude three on the Richter scale, which are therefore deemed significant, from 2010 to 2012. This equates...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Frac-Sand Mining Boom Adds to Growing List of Fracking DangersOhio Fights Back After Becoming the Nation’s Fracking Waste Dump
Posted by EcoWatch: Trisha Marczak on July 15th, 2013
EcoWatch: For those living in Ohio, hydraulic fracturing wells aren’t the only cause of concern in the nation’s quest to leave no oil formation un-fracked. The state has been the site of a growing fracking fluid disposal industry that enjoys a steady stream of business from neighboring Pennsylvania.
Ohio is home to 191 fracking fluid disposal wells. Last year, more than 14 million barrels of the toxic waste were injected into the ground in Ohio.
With the focus on the petroleum industry’s use of fracking...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ohio Fights Back After Becoming the Nation’s Fracking Waste DumpMap Shows Possible Link Between Warmer Springs and Large Fires in U.S. West
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 15th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: An interactive tool produced by the group Climate Central illustrates how rising temperatures and reduced snowpack in the western U.S. have corresponded with an increase in wildfires in recent decades. Based on federal wildfire data from 1970 to 2012, the graphic shows how large fires in some western states — including Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho — have doubled or even tripled in four decades, a period when the average spring and summer temperatures in 11 states increased by more than 1.5 degrees...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Map Shows Possible Link Between Warmer Springs and Large Fires in U.S. West25 Years After Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Recovery Plan Still Needed
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on July 15th, 2013
EcoWatch: Nearly 25 years after the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the recovery plan for long-term natural resource damages sits on a shelf, according to documents posted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In recent court filings, the U.S. Justice Department and State of Alaska say they are still waiting for long overdue scientific studies before collecting a final $92 million claim to implement the recovery plan for unanticipated harm to fish, wildlife and habitat.
In...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 25 Years After Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Recovery Plan Still NeededSea levels may rise 2.3 metres per degree of global warming, report says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 15th, 2013
Reuters: Sea levels could rise by 2.3 metres for each degree Celsius that global temperatures increase and they will remain high for centuries to come, according to a new study by the leading climate research institute, released on Monday.
Anders Levermann said his study for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research was the first to examine evidence from climate history and combine it with computer simulations of contributing factors to long-term sea-level increases: thermal expansion of oceans,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Sea levels may rise 2.3 metres per degree of global warming, report saysSeas may rise 10 yards during centuries ahead
Posted by Grist: John Upton on July 15th, 2013
Grist: Sea-level rise is currently measured in millimeters per year, but longer-term effects of global warming are going to force our descendants to measure sea-level rise in meters or yards.
Each Celsius degree of global warming is expected to raise sea levels during the centuries ahead by 2.3 meters, or 2.5 yards, according to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The world is currently trying (and failing) to reach an agreement that would limit global warming...
‘Anthropocene’ period would recognize humanity’s impact on Earth
Posted by Mother Nature Network: Bruno Martini on July 15th, 2013
Mother Nature Network: The Anthropocene is the name of a proposed new geological time period (probably an epoch) that may soon enter the official Geologic Time Scale. The Anthropocene is defined by the human influence on Earth, where we have become a geological force shaping the global landscape and evolution of our planet. According to this idea, the present epoch — still known as the Holocene, which started 11,000 years ago — would have ended somewhere between the end of 18th century and the 1950s (when the Anthropocene...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘Anthropocene’ period would recognize humanity’s impact on EarthNorth Dakota oil output tops 800,000 bpd in May
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 15th, 2013
Reuters: Oil production in North Dakota topped 800,000 barrels per day for the first time ever in May, the state regulator said on Monday, adding that output this summer will exceed earlier expectations as firms clear a backlog of wells waiting to be fracked.
The state's Department of Mineral Resources said preliminary output figures in May rose 2 percent - or 16,277 barrels per day (bpd) - hitting a record 810,129 bpd even as record rainfall for the month impeded new drilling.
Lynn Helms, director...