RSS Feed
Archive for September, 2013
Powerful typhoon kills 20 in southern China, swipes Hong Kong
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 23rd, 2013
Reuters: A powerful typhoon hit Hong Kong and the southern China coast on Monday, killing at least 20 people on the mainland, crippling power lines and causing flooding and gale force winds.
Typhoon Usagi, the strongest storm to hit the Western Pacific this year, began pounding the Asian financial center late on Sunday. More than 370 flights were canceled.
Despite earlier warnings the typhoon could pose a severe risk to Hong Kong, the city suffered only minimal damage, including toppled trees. There...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Powerful typhoon kills 20 in southern China, swipes Hong KongArctic alpine plants may live in ‘micro refuges’
Posted by Guardian: Liz Kalaugher on September 23rd, 2013
Guardian: Arctic alpine plants may survive in small pockets of cold, disturbed ground even if rising temperatures drive them from the rest of their habitat, according to researchers.
Typical Arctic alpine species, such as white Arctic mountain heather, mountain avens, and Diapensia lapponica, thrive in cold temperatures. But they're not as competitive or as responsive to changes in their environment as their lowland cousins.
However, Miska Luoto of Finland's University of Helsinki says cold "micro refuges"...
Australia: ‘Mega-mines’ in Queensland’s Galilee basin would guzzle water, report says
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on September 23rd, 2013
Guardian: Nine planned "mega-mines" in the Galilee basin region of Queensland would drain the area of 1,354bn litres of water, equivalent to two-and-a-half times the volume of Sydney harbour, threatening the future of dozens of farming communities, a new report has found.
The study, undertaken by the anti-mining network Lock the Gate and overseen by Tom Crowthers, former general manager of water planning and allocation for the Queensland government, says the mines could cause "unacceptable impacts" on the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: ‘Mega-mines’ in Queensland’s Galilee basin would guzzle water, report saysMexico to revise 2014 budget after storms, death toll around 115
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2013
Reuters: Mexico's Congress will revise its proposed 2014 budget in the wake of some of the worst storm damage in decades, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Sunday as the death toll from widespread flooding and mudslides rose to some 115.
The government earlier this month said it aimed to run a budget deficit this year and next as it forges ahead with spending on infrastructure. It must now find additional funds to repair roads and infrastructure hammered by the storms.
Pena Nieto said Mexico's Congress...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mexico to revise 2014 budget after storms, death toll around 115Mexican army searches for bodies in flood and landslide-hit La Pintada
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2013
Associated Press: Fourteen hours per body. That's how long rescue crews with shovels, hydraulic equipment and anything they can muster are averaging to find the victims of a massive landslide that took half the remote coffee-growing village of La Pintada, leaving 68 people missing.
The Mexican army's emergency response and rescue team slogged in several feet of mud with five rescue dogs on Sunday, recovering a third body, a man found wedged under the collapsed roof of dirt-filled home.
Lieutenant Carlos Alberto...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mexican army searches for bodies in flood and landslide-hit La PintadaCalifornia’s water house of cards
Posted by LA Times: Jay Famiglietti and Sasha Richey on September 22nd, 2013
LA Times: Gov. Jerry Brown's Office of Planning and Research convened a meeting this month of groundwater experts from the University of California to determine what is currently known about the state's underground water reserves and how they may be changing in the future. This and other recent overtures from the office are strong indications of the governor's growing interest in the state's complete water picture.
That picture is increasingly threatened, in particular where groundwater is concerned. California...
Canadian resource minister: US still needs us
Posted by CNBC: Javier E. David on September 22nd, 2013
CNBC: The United States is likely to remain partly reliant on Canada for oil and gas on its road to energy independence, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver told CNBC in an interview this week.
Both the U.S. and Canada are emerging players in the worldwide natural gas export market. A U.S. shale boom is helping the world's biggest energy consumer become less reliant on energy imports, but "the U.S. will still need Canada," Oliver said.
Shale gas development is booming around the world,...
Canada: Climate change demands budget change
Posted by Sault Star: Tom Mills on September 22nd, 2013
Sault Star: As Ezra Levant demon stated in a Sun Media column this week, it's still possible to believe climate change is an elaborate hoax concocted by leftist scientists.
But as torrential rains demonstrated the night of Sept. 9, denial won't let anybody off the financial hook for the damage nature has been doing lately.
A mammoth and no doubt hugely expensive effort continues to restore a rail bed that was obliterated by flood waters at the Algoma Central Railway bridge over Great Northern Road in Sault...
Roaring waters, deep scars: ‘It chewed us up’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 22nd, 2013
New York Times: In the Colorado mountains, the floodwaters struck Jamestown like an invading army. Houses tumbled into the churning Little James Creek. A torrent of rocks and mud crushed Joey Howlett, 72, in his home. People rushed into the rain in pajamas, children in their arms, to shouts of “Get out! Get out!”
About fifty miles downstream in the blue-collar city of Evans, the flood filled up poor neighborhoods like a stoppered sink. The rain-swollen South Platte poured into enclaves of Hispanic immigrants....
Food Waste Worsens Greenhouse Gas Emissions: FAO
Posted by Climate News Network: Alex Kirby on September 22nd, 2013
Climate News Network: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates the direct cost to producers of food that goes to waste is currently $750 billion annually, a figure that excludes wasted fish and seafood.
But the FAO says the waste not only causes huge economic losses but is also doing very significant damage to natural resources -- climate, water, land and biodiversity.
Without accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from land use change, the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated...