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Archive for August, 2013
China says ‘shocked’ by continuing Japan radiation leaks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: China was "shocked" that Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was still leaking radioactive water two years after it was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
China "hopes that the Japanese side can earnestly take effective steps to put an end to the negative impact of the after-effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident", the Foreign Ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on China says ‘shocked’ by continuing Japan radiation leaksFracking protest at Balcombe: ‘People just seem to be looking for a party’
Posted by Telegraph: Joe Shute on August 21st, 2013
Telegraph: An unwanted mob had descended on the Balcombe protest camp yesterday, swarming en masse through police lines and fiercely resisting all attempts to squash them.
"Bloody wasps,' frowns 40-something protester and mother-of-three Ioonah Woods, watching one of the insects greedily burrowing into a jar of marmalade with all the gusto of a Cuadrilla drill. "They weren't a problem a few days ago but now they have invaded.'
Quite who is, and who is not, entitled to be in Balcombe is all the talk in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking protest at Balcombe: ‘People just seem to be looking for a party’Evacuation orders lifted as crews gain on massive Idaho wildfire
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters gained ground on a wildfire threatening the ski resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on Tuesday as evacuation orders were lifted for hundreds of homes and officials said they had "turned the tide" against the wind-whipped blaze.
The so-called Beaver Creek fire has destroyed one home and seven other buildings and forced the evacuation of thousands. It was sparked by lightning nearly two weeks ago outside Sun Valley, one of three tourist communities that make up a resort area in central...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Evacuation orders lifted as crews gain on massive Idaho wildfireJapan to raise severity rating for Fukushima leaks to level 3
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, with the country's nuclear watchdog saying it feared more storage tanks were leaking contaminated water.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday it viewed the situation at Fukushima "seriously" and was ready to help if called upon, while nearby China said it was "shocked" to hear contaminated water was still leaking from...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Japan to raise severity rating for Fukushima leaks to level 3Vancouver near top of list of cities threatened by rising sea levels
Posted by Canadian Press: Dene Moore on August 21st, 2013
Canadian Press: Coastal flooding could cost the global economy $1-trillion a year a few short decades from now because of the rise in sea levels caused by global warming if action is not taken now to stem the flow and Vancouver is one of the cities most at-risk for losses, says a new study.
The article, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, is part of an ongoing project by the Organization for Economic Co-operation.
"This work shows that flood risk is rising in coastal cities globally due...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Vancouver near top of list of cities threatened by rising sea levelsHighly Radioactive Water Again Found Leaking at Fukushima Plant
Posted by Nature World: None Given on August 20th, 2013
Nature World: Water so contaminated that it could expose a person to five years worth of radiation in just one hour was found leaking out of a storage container at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) reported Tuesday.
About 300 metric tons of contaminated water leaked from a storage tank, Tepco said, adding that this incident is separate from reports of contaminated water leaks reported in recent weeks, which have stated that the same volume of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Highly Radioactive Water Again Found Leaking at Fukushima PlantHow an ocean went into hiding in Australia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
New Scientist: A chunk of the oceans took a wrong turn in 2011. Instead of going from sky to rain, into rivers, and then back into the oceans in the usual water cycle, it got stuck in Australia, caught up in record-breaking floods and rivers that run backwards into the continent. So much water got lost down under that global sea levels fell and stayed low for more than a year.
John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, noticed something amiss while looking at trends in...
Cuomo won’t join Obama at fracking hotbed sites
Posted by Associated Press: Michael Gormley on August 20th, 2013
Associated Press: Gov. Andrew Cuomo will avoid a potentially dicey political conflict by not accompanying President Barack Obama to parts of upstate New York roiled over the state's ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. Obama supports the technology as an economic windfall that helps make the country more energy independent. He's expected to find supporters as well as protesters from environmental groups when he visits Syracuse and Binghamton late this week. Parts of central New York and the Southern Tier...
United Kingdom: Fracking: the Battle of Balcombe is far from over
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: What do bloody clashes on the streets of Cairo have in common with anti-fracking protests against the Cuadrilla exploration rig in rural West Sussex? At a stretch, what links the Battle of Balcombe, which so outrages Tory Fleet Street, with harassment of the Guardian over Edward Snowden's data-mining disclosures?
In terms of substance, not a lot connects a constitutional battle for the Egyptian presidency, an environmental tussle in a prosperous corner of Britain and a debate over national security,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Fracking: the Battle of Balcombe is far from overFrackers beware: public views on UK energy mix are based more on values than cost
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: Certain truisms have wormed their way into the national discourse of how people think about energy. We're told that no-one wants a wind turbine in their back yard. It's common knowledge that going green is only for the economic good times. And everyone knows that the only thing people are interested in when it comes to the energy system is the cost of their bills.
The trouble with truisms, though, is that they aren't always as true as they first appear. And as a new report on a major programme...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Frackers beware: public views on UK energy mix are based more on values than cost