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Archive for August, 2013
How Will Crops Fare Under Climate Change? Depends On How You Ask
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
ScienceDaily: The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, according to research based at Princeton University. The problem is that the most dire scenarios can loom large in the minds of the public and policymakers, yet neither audience is usually aware of how the model itself influenced the outcome, the researchers said.
The report in the journal Global Change Biology is one of the first to compare the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on How Will Crops Fare Under Climate Change? Depends On How You AskIndia: Kashmiri Farmers Unprepared for Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Zareena Bano has had to skip school 17 times this year to help out on her family's farm in Tangchekh village in the northern Indian state of Kashmir.
Her teachers say she has the potential to be a brilliant student, but warn that if she keeps missing school she will not go far.
Never before has the 15-year-old had to sacrifice her education in order to support her family, but an acute water crisis in this Himalayan state has made irrigation a constant worry and severely disrupted the way of...
Ecuador approves Amazon oil drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
BBC: Ecuador has abandoned a conservation plan that would have paid the country not to drill for oil in previously untouched parts of Yasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest.
President Rafael Correa said rich nations had failed to back the initiative, leaving Ecuador with no choice but go ahead with drilling.
The park is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.
Hundreds of people gathered in Quito to protest against Mr Correa's decision.
Oil exploitation has been taking place in...
Strike Two on Billionaire’s Anti-Keystone Ad
Posted by InsideClimate: Zahra Hirji on August 16th, 2013
InsideClimate: Hoping to raise awareness about the Keystone pipeline he vehemently opposes, billionaire climate activist Thomas Steyer's campaign to block the project is ramping up and turning personal. His target? Russ Girling, CEO TransCanada Corp., the company trying to build the controversial pipeline. Steyer challenged Girling this week to a live public debate over the Keystone, an offer the company quickly rejected. The group Steyer founded, NextGen Climate Action, also unleashed an attack ad and tried...
Anti-fracking protests delay U.K. drilling
Posted by CNN: Alanna Petroff on August 16th, 2013
CNN: Protesters near the Cuadrilla drilling site have said the company is "running scared" after it announced it would suspend drilling.
Plans for massive protests by anti-fracking campaigners have led a U.K.-based oil and gas exploration company to suspend its drilling in southern England.
Cuadrilla has vowed to resume drilling once it is safe, as the company searches for ideal sites to conduct hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.
"After taking advice from Sussex Police, Cuadrilla is...
Pegasus Pipeline Could Be Retired, ExxonMobil Official Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
Associated Press: A vice president at ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. says it`s possible a 65-year-old pipe that leaked oil into a Mayflower neighborhood could be taken out of service.
Karen Tyrone, the company`s vice president of operations, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story published Thursday that it is too early to know whether the Pegasus pipeline will be closed.
"It is within the realm of possibilities and considerations," she said, adding that a decision will be reached following an investigation that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pegasus Pipeline Could Be Retired, ExxonMobil Official SaysInterior Dept. Says Keystone XL Could Harm Parks, Wildlife
Posted by Hill: Zack Colman on August 16th, 2013
Hill: The Interior Department said the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline could have a negative impact on natural resources, wildlife and national parks.
Interior said Keystone builder TransCanada Corp. must better assess the Canada-to-Texas pipeline’s impact on noise and lighting.
“Scientific studies demonstrate that light pollution and noise can adversely affect natural and cultural resources, wildlife, and visitor experiences,” Willie R. Taylor, director of Interior’s office of environmental policy,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Interior Dept. Says Keystone XL Could Harm Parks, WildlifeTransCanada Acknowledges Tar Sands Oil Could Sink If Spilled
Posted by EnergyWire: Elana Schor on August 16th, 2013
EnergyWire: In comments released yesterday by the State Department, TransCanada Corp. acknowledged a possibility that opponents of Keystone XL have long used against the project: The heavy oil sands crude that would run through the controversial pipeline, if spilled in water, could sink below the surface. The TransCanada acknowledgment, tucked inside a 51-page list of proposed changes to State's March draft environmental review of KXL, came with caveats amid a suggestion that the government alter its reference...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on TransCanada Acknowledges Tar Sands Oil Could Sink If SpilledEcuador to open Amazon’s Yasuni basin to oil drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2013
Reuters: Ecuador will open up part of the Amazon rainforest to oil drilling after rich nations failed to back a conservation plan that would have paid the country not to explore in the area, President Rafael Correa said on Thursday.
Correa launched the initiative in 2007 to protect the Yasuni area of the Amazon basin, which boasts some of the planet's most diverse wildlife, but said he had now scrapped it after it attracted only a small fraction of the sum it aimed to raise.
"I have signed the executive...
Soaring temperatures may complicate fight against Idaho wildfire
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 15th, 2013
Reuters: A massive wildfire raging in the Idaho mountains crept ever closer to a pair of nearly deserted resort towns on Thursday, with firefighters bracing for soaring temperatures and high winds that could complicate their work, federal fire managers said.
The so-called Elk Complex Fire, which has been nipping at the edges of the south central Idaho communities of Pine and Featherville for days, has already devoured 38 homes and 43 other structures outside the city limits since it was sparked by lightning...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Soaring temperatures may complicate fight against Idaho wildfire