Archive for November, 2013
Kerala: Kasturirangan’s Western Ghats report leads to LDF-UDF battle
Posted by IBN: None Given on November 19th, 2013
IBN: Eminent Space Scientist Dr K Kasturirangan headed panel's recommendations on the protection of the Western Ghats has led to a pitched battle between the Congress-led ruling UDF and the CPM-led opposition LDF. In an election year, the LDF is trying to exploit the situation for it s advantage.
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic front sponsored dawn to dusk strike in Kerala against the implementation of the Kasturirangan Committee report was successful. The high range protection committee is also organising...
Expert warns of link between warming climate and extreme weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A senior lecturer in environmental studies at the University of Newcastle says there is a link between a warming climate and extreme weather events.
Dr Liam Phelan addressed a gathering in Newcastle yesterday as part of National Climate Action Day.
He says while recent bushfires across NSW and the typhoon in the Philippines are not solely caused by climate change, the occurrence of such events is more likely with warming conditions.
Dr Phelan says all extreme weather events are affected...
8 maps that explain why Typhoon Haiyan hit Philippines so hard
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2013
Washington Post: A week after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines, the country's crisis is far from over, with perhaps thousands of dead still be counted, tens or hundreds of thousands of people displaced and basic services, including access to food, shut down in many areas. To help convey how and why the storm was so bad, here is a series of eight maps on Haiyan, its impact and the Philippines' crisis.
1. The storm's path across Southeast Asia
(Maps of the World)
This map shows Haiyan's path...
Canada: Oil sands not a major source of climate change, says IEA economist
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2013
Globe and Mail: Alberta's oil sands producers have received some timely support from the International Energy Agency, with the industry - and indeed the Canadian government - facing increasing condemnation over the failure to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
As the United Nations climate summit continues in Warsaw this week, the IEA chief economist Fatih Birol played down the oil sands' contribution to global warming, and said the long-term challenge is to access the energy-hungry markets of Asia while slowing...
Fast-moving killer storm tornadoes batter Midwest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 18th, 2013
Reuters: A fast-moving storm system triggered multiple tornadoes on Sunday, killing at least five people, injuring about 40 and flattening large parts of the city of Washington, Illinois as it tore across the Midwest, officials said.
The storm also forced the Chicago Bears to halt their game against the Baltimore Ravens and encourage fans at Soldier Field to seek shelter as menacing clouds rolled in. Chicago's two major airports also briefly stopped traffic with the metropolitan area was under a tornado...
Botswana faces questions over licences for fracking companies in Kalahari
Posted by Guardian: Jeff Barbee, Mira Dutschke and David Smith on November 18th, 2013
Guardian: Botswana has been accused of sacrificing the Kalahari, one of the world's most precious wildlife reserves, to commercial fracking while ignoring the concerns of environmentalists and communities who could lose access to scarce water.
Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, for the production of gas is the subject of fierce debate in America, Britain, South Africa and countries around the world, with green activists warning that it degrades land and pollutes air and water.
Yet for more than...
Large tornado touches down near Peoria, Illinois
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2013
Reuters: A large tornado touched down outside Peoria, Illinois, on Sunday as an expansive storm threatened parts of the Midwest, U.S. meteorologists said.
"A confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado" was spotted near Washington, Illinois, located about 145 miles southwest of Chicago, the National Weather Service said, noting that the twister was moving northeast at about 55 miles per hour.
The weather service advised that it would affect mainly rural areas, with mobile homes likely to be destroyed...
Canada: Protestors alarmed by Line 9, climate change
Posted by Waterloo Record: Greg Mercer on November 17th, 2013
Waterloo Record: Armed with placards, homemade banners and other protest signs, demonstrators descended on MP Peter Braid's office Saturday to draw attention to climate change, the oil sands and the contentious Line 9 pipeline project.
The group, which numbered about 50, solicited the occasional honk from passersby as they huddled on the sidewalk in Uptown Waterloo. The gathering was one of about 125 similar protests across the country organized on the weekend by Lead Now.
They're worried about environmental...
EPA weighs environmental consequences of ethanol with proposed cuts
Posted by PBS: None Given on November 17th, 2013
PBS: SUMMARY The EPA announced that better fuel efficiency has led to proposed cuts in the amount of ethanol required to be blended into gasoline next year. These changes come amid revelations over the environmental impact of increased U.S. corn production. Hari Sreenivasan examines the story with Dina Cappiello of the Associated Press.
Transcript
JUDY WOODRUFF: Next: the changing requirements for ethanol in gasoline and bigger questions over its wider use in recent years.
Today, the Obama administration...
$900m risk in Caribbean from rising sea levels
Posted by Tribune: None Given on November 17th, 2013
Tribune: RISING sea levels could cause the tourism industry to lose almost $900 million a year by 2050, says a research group.
Sea rise, surge or erosion could cause as much as 1,200 square miles of Caribbean coastal land to be lost along with damage or destruction of half of the major tourist resorts.
A report by the Inter-American Development Bank titled “Climate Change’s Impact on the Caribbean’s Ability to Sustain Tourism, Natural Assets, and Livelihoods” forecasts the destruction unless Caribbean...