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Archive for December 3rd, 2013
Canada panel urges better response plan for oil spills
Posted by Reuters: Julie Gordon on December 3rd, 2013
Reuters: Canada must be better prepared to respond to major oil spills if more crude starts to flow in pipelines to the country's Pacific Coast, a government panel said on Tuesday, as fears of a major marine disaster grow.
The report, by the federal transport department, makes 45 recommendations, including ensuring companies are prepared for a worst-case scenario and new guarantees that taxpayers will not be liable for costs related to spills in Canadian waters.
Regulators are currently weighing separate...
Study Rebuts IPCC, Calls For More Severe Emissions Cuts
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on December 3rd, 2013
Climate Central: The globally agreed upon political goal of limiting global warming to 3.6°F (2°C) above preindustrial levels would bring "potentially disastrous impacts,' and a far more ambitious plan to slash emissions of global warming gases is needed, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary group of scientists and economists.
The study, published Tuesday in PLOS One, amounts to a rebuttal of a key finding from a recent U.N. climate report, that laid out a cumulative "carbon budget' for the world to...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Study Rebuts IPCC, Calls For More Severe Emissions CutsReady — Or Not. Quick Climate Changes Worry Scientists Most
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
National Public Radio: An expert panel at the National Academy of Sciences is calling for an early warning system to alert us to abrupt and potentially catastrophic events triggered by climate change.
The committee says science can anticipate some major changes to the Earth that could affect everything from agriculture to sea level. But we aren't doing enough to look for those changes and anticipate their impacts.
And this is not a matter for some distant future. The Earth is already experiencing both gradual and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ready — Or Not. Quick Climate Changes Worry Scientists MostEPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leader
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
Reuters: America's largest business lobby group warned the Obama administration on Tuesday against snuffing out the country's energy boom with regulations on new oil and natural gas drilling technologies.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study due next year could be used to justify clamping down on drilling techniques that have sparked a surge in U.S. oil and natural gas output.
"This could short-circuit America's absolute explosion in energy...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leaderAbrupt Climate Change Raises Concerns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
Voice of America: A National Research Council report is raising concern about the increased potential for abrupt climate changes in the near future, meaning change in a few years or decades - rather than centuries - leaving little time for society and ecosystems to adapt.
University of Colorado Geological Sciences Professor Jim White led the scientific committee assessing the risk.
"It is important to recognize that not only does climate change itself, but there are impacts, on human systems and on natural ecosystems,...
Tipping Point: Where May Abrupt Impacts from Climate Change Occur?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
ScienceDaily: Climate change has increased concern over possible large and rapid changes in the physical climate system, which includes Earth's atmosphere, land surfaces, and oceans. Some of these changes could occur within a few decades or even years, leaving little time for society and ecosystems to adapt. A new report from the National Research Council extends this idea of abrupt climate change, stating that even steady, gradual change in the physical climate system can have abrupt impacts elsewhere -- in human...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tipping Point: Where May Abrupt Impacts from Climate Change Occur?Federal study warns of sudden climate change woes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
Associated Press: Hard-to-predict sudden changes to Earth's environment are more worrisome than climate change's bigger but more gradual impacts, a panel of scientists advising the federal government concluded Tuesday.
The 200-page report by the National Academy of Sciences looked at warming problems that can occur in years instead of centuries. The report repeatedly warns of potential ''tipping points'' where the climate passes thresholds, beyond which ''major and rapid changes occur.'' And some of these quick...
Indigenous Canadian anti-fracking protesters refuse to back down
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on December 3rd, 2013
Al Jazeera: Anti-fracking demonstrators set tires ablaze to block a New Brunswick highway Monday in a fiery response to a judge’s decision to extend an injunction limiting their protests against a Texas-based shale gas exploration company.
In a courtroom in Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick, Judge Paulette Garnett ruled to continue through Dec. 17 the injunction obtained by SWN Resources Canada against a coalition of protesters led by Mi’kmaq indigenous people from the Elsipogtog First Nation.
The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indigenous Canadian anti-fracking protesters refuse to back downBotswana accused of allowing fracking in national parks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 3rd, 2013
LA Times: The government of Botswana has quietly allowed international companies to explore for natural gas in some of the country's most sensitive national parks using the controversial drilling method of hydraulic fracturing, according to a new documentary released in South Africa.
American filmmaker Jeffrey Barbee obtained a government map that appears to show that authorities in Botswana allocated vast exploration concessions in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Botswana accused of allowing fracking in national parksThreat ‘Abrupt’ Climate Impacts Warrants Early Warning System, Panel Finds
Posted by National Geographic: Dan Vergano on December 3rd, 2013
National Geographic: Climate change "tipping points" could be sudden and surprising, experts say. The threat of sudden climate change disaster-from the poles melting to farmlands failing-is real and requires an early warning system, an expert panel suggested on Tuesday. Looking at "tipping points" for global warming disasters, the National Research Council panel report on "abrupt" climate impacts finds noteworthy risks of sharp, sudden sea-level rise, water shortages, and extinctions worldwide in coming years and decades....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Threat ‘Abrupt’ Climate Impacts Warrants Early Warning System, Panel Finds