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Archive for August, 2013
In the heart of the Amazon with Alex Atala
Posted by Guardian: Allan Jenkins on August 17th, 2013
Guardian: Manaus, Brazil, where the Rio Negro and Solimões rivers meet and the Amazon as we think of it begins. It's a city built on long-gone fortunes from the rubber trade and home to the world's most remote opera house, the inspiration for Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. I am here with Alex Atala, flame-haired, heavily tattooed, No 1 cook in South America and the only chef to appear on Time's list of 100 most influential people on the planet earlier this year. From druggy, bad-boy beginnings, Atala is now...
Females Prefer Males that can Multitask
Posted by Nature World: None Given on August 17th, 2013
Nature World: Female frogs choose to mate with males that can multitask, a new study reported. The study supports the multitasking hypothesis, according to which females prefer males that can manage many tasks at a time. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota who found that male frogs belonging to the species Hyla chrysoscelis, produce a mating call that has a string of pulses. Hyla chrysoscelis or the gray treefrog species is native to North America. Usually the frogs' mating...
United Kingdom: Anti-fracking firebrand and his brother the senior barrister
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2013
Telegraph: Jamie Kelsey-Fry, 49, a leading Left-wing protester, has refused to condemn those who break the law, describing them as brave heroes and likening them to the Suffragettes.
The former secondary school teacher, who was a member of the Occupy Movement campaigning against global capitalism in 2011, said some causes were worth risking liberty for.
Mr Kelsey-Fry, who lives in Islington, north London, said: "There comes a time when you have to risk your own liberty and your own safety if you are so...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Anti-fracking firebrand and his brother the senior barristerUnited Kingdom: Fracking: RSPB objects to Cuadrilla plans for two sites
Posted by BBC: Roger Harrabin on August 17th, 2013
BBC: The RSPB has lodged objections to proposals to drill for shale gas at sites in Lancashire and West Sussex.
It says regulations are inadequate to ensure water, landscapes and wildlife are protected.
Prime Minister David Cameron has urged the UK to back fracking, which involves shattering shales to release trapped gas.
Cuadrilla, which is exploring the sites, says its activities will not harm birds or other wildlife.
These are the first formal objections to fracking from the RSPB, and they...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Fracking: RSPB objects to Cuadrilla plans for two sitesCuadrilla: Fracking Scaled Back In Balcome As Critics Attack ‘Mob Rule’ By Protesters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 17th, 2013
Huffington Post: Fracking firm Cuadrilla has "scaled back" its controversial drilling in the West Sussex countryside in the face of fierce protests. Critics said the company had "caved to mob rule" after activists threatened direct action to disrupt the process. On Friday night, Sussex Police said the operation had cost the cash-strapped force nearly £750,000. And the RSPB joined the debate, lodging a complaint with Cuadrilla about its operation near Blackpool. Up to 1,000 activists are due to join the protest...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Cuadrilla: Fracking Scaled Back In Balcome As Critics Attack ‘Mob Rule’ By ProtestersHundreds evacuated as wildfire menaces Idaho ski resort towns
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on August 17th, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters battled on Friday to check a fast-moving wildfire raging near the Sun Valley ski resort in Idaho, where more than 1,000 people were evacuated as flames menaced multimillion-dollar homes in the area, authorities said. The so-called Beaver Creek Fire, the nation's top firefighting priority, has raced across 64,000 acres of mountains and canyons intersected by luxury housing developments since it was sparked by lightning in the Sawtooth National Forest on August 7. Occupants of more than...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hundreds evacuated as wildfire menaces Idaho ski resort townsRise in Extreme Heat Waves Already Locked in for Next 30 Years
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on August 16th, 2013
Nature World: The amount of global land affected by extreme heat waves classified as three-sigma events is set to double by 2020 and quadruple by 2040 regardless of changes in the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, a study published in Environmental Research Letters reports.
Heat waves classified as three-sigma events -- a reference to a rise in temperatures of three standard deviations above the norm -- include the one that hit Australia in 2009 and more recently the one that took place...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Rise in Extreme Heat Waves Already Locked in for Next 30 YearsFracking campaigners like MMR scaremongers, says Church of England
Posted by Telegraph: John Bingham on August 16th, 2013
Telegraph: It also publicly accused opponents of shale gas exploration of ignoring the interests of the poor, who might benefit from cheaper energy bills and jobs.
And while strongly denying seeking to gain financially from fracking by reasserting centuries-old mineral rights, it refused to rule out the possibility of drilling on Church-owned land. In signs of a growing split within the Church over its approach to the controversial technique, senior officials also appeared to criticise one diocese that said...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking campaigners like MMR scaremongers, says Church of EnglandHistoric Water Shortages Prompt Government Restrictions in Colorado River Basin
Posted by EcoWatch: Mindy Lubber on August 16th, 2013
EcoWatch: Water users in the parched Southwest U.S. were just hit with a devastating warning.
Due to water shortages in the Colorado River Basin, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation today announced first-ever cutbacks in water releases to the river’s lower basin, which could mean reduced water deliveries to Nevada and Arizona as early as next year.
The decision, triggered by historically low water levels in one of the river’s key reservoirs, Lake Powell in Utah, is unprecedented and significant.
It caps...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Historic Water Shortages Prompt Government Restrictions in Colorado River BasinFeds Slash Colorado River Release to Historic Lows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
National Geographic: A "No Fishing" sign sits improbably along a dry desert road in Nevada. The largest man-made reservoir in the U.S., Lake Mead, once extended this far-but the watery destination of anglers and boaters has shrunk so much that the lakeshore now is about a half-mile away. (View an interactive map of the region.)
The recession of the massive lake that straddles Nevada and Arizona is symbolic of a long-standing problem that just got a lot worse: The Colorado River's record-low flows and the shrunken...