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Archive for September, 2013
Obama approves federal disaster aid for flooding in Boulder County, Colorado
Posted by Daily Camera: Brittany Anas on September 12th, 2013
Daily Camera: President Barack Obama signed an emergency order Thursday night, approving federal disaster aid for Boulder County after torrential rainfall prompted 100-year flooding that has, so far, resulted in two confirmed deaths, at least nine more missing and National Guard rescue efforts.
Continued flooding caused dozens more evacuations throughout the county, power outages and the closure of U.S. 36 on Thursday. Parts of most major roads in Boulder were also closed.
Walls of water coming down canyons...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Obama approves federal disaster aid for flooding in Boulder County, ColoradoChina should pursue ‘high-quality’ urbanization: top economic planning body
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2013
Reuters: China must plan scientifically for "high-quality" urbanization that is human-oriented and energy-saving, a senior official at the country's top economic planning agency said in remarks published on Thursday.
China's leaders have an ambitious plan to boost the urban population by 400 million over the next decade, a key plank in a reform effort to restructure the economy away from credit and export growth to one where consumers provide the main impetus.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice head of the National...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China should pursue ‘high-quality’ urbanization: top economic planning bodyGlobal warming may ‘flatten’ rainforests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2013
Mongabay: Climate change may push canopy-dwelling plants and animals out of the tree-tops due to rising temperatures and drier conditions, argues a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The development may be akin to "flattening" the tiered vegetation structure that characterizes the rainforest ecosystem.
The conclusion is based on surveys of frogs and other canopy-dwelling animals in Singapore and the mountains of the Philippines. Brett Scheffers of James Cook University and colleagues...
Study provides insights on protecting world’s poor from climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
PhysOrg: The worst impacts of climate change on the world's poorest fishing communities can likely be avoided by careful management of the local environment and investing in the diversification of options for local people, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and James Cook University.
Climate change is already putting pressure on fishers who depend on nature for their livelihoods. In a new study, scientists found large differences in the potential to adapt based on the local mixture of social...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study provides insights on protecting world’s poor from climate changeFlawed Fracking Bill Passes California Assembly
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Senate Bill 4, which undermines existing environmental law and leaves Californians unprotected from fracking and other dangerous and extreme fossil fuel extraction techniques, passed the California Assembly today and will likely head to Governor Brown’s desk after a concurrent vote in the Senate.
"This legislation does nothing to stop fracking or protect communities across the state from its harmful effects and last minute changes to the bill made it even worse," said Adam Scow, California campaigns...
Aquifers Discovered in Drought-Ridden Kenya
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
New York Times: The United Nations and Kenyan officials on Wednesday announced the discovery of a potentially enormous underground supply of water, a find they said could improve the lives of generations of people in impoverished northern Kenya, if not the entire nation.
With water security a growing concern around the world, the discovery of five aquifers in drought-plagued Turkana County could help secure Kenya's access to the most critical of natural resources, particularly in the arid north.
Out of a population...
Criminal Charges Filed Against ExxonMobil Subsidiary in PA for Dumping Toxic Fracking Wastewater
Posted by EcoWatch: Donald Gilliland on September 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday afternoon filed criminal charges against a Pennsylvania subsidiary of ExxonMobil for illegally discharging more than 50,000 gallons of toxic wastewater from a Marcellus Shale gas well site in Penn Township, Lycoming County.
XTO Energy Inc., of Indiana, PA, was charged after evidence and testimony was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended the criminal charges be filed, according to a news release from Kane’s office.
XTO...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Criminal Charges Filed Against ExxonMobil Subsidiary in PA for Dumping Toxic Fracking WastewaterCalifornia Legislature passes fracking regulation bill
Posted by LA Times: Marc Lifsher on September 11th, 2013
LA Times: A heavily lobbied bill that would give California the nation's toughest regulation of a controversial oil drilling technique won easy passage Wednesday from the Legislature.
The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who said Wednesday that he would sign it into law.
At issue is the practice of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. It is a process that involves injecting mixtures of sand, water and chemicals to free oil and natural gas trapped deep underground in shale formations.
The...
Climate Change Not Felt Equally Throughout Europe: A Study
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: Climate change is not equally felt throughout Europe, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters shows.
Comprised of researchers from the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick, the team translated weather observations into climate change observations using a gridded dataset going back 60 years.
In doing so, they discovered that the hottest 5 percent of summer days warmed fastest in a stretch of territory from southern England and northern France to Denmark....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change Not Felt Equally Throughout Europe: A StudyDiscovery Of Massive Aquifers Could Be Game Changer For Kenya
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
National Public Radio: Satellite imagery and seismic data have identified two huge underground aquifers in Kenya's drought-prone north, a discovery that could be "a game changer" for the country, NPR's Gregory Warner reports.
The aquifers, located hundreds of feet underground in the Turkana region that borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, contain billions of gallons of water, according to UNESCO, which confirmed the existence of the subterranean lakes discovered with the help of a French company using technology originally...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Discovery Of Massive Aquifers Could Be Game Changer For Kenya