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Archive for December, 2013
SOS 54 years ago warned about vanishing glaciers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2013
Times of India: At a time when glaciers are melting at an alarming pace, an SOS buried in a bottle 54 years ago in the Canadian Arctic, and unearthed now, sent a distress signal about the world's rapidly disappearing glaciers.
An American geologist Paul Walker, concerned about the melting of ice, buried a message in a bottle during his exploration of Ward Hunt Island in Nunavut, Canada, in 1959.
He measured the distance - about 1.2 metres - from a glacier to where he buried the message in a bottle, requesting...
Some lose, some win in warming world
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on December 25th, 2013
Climate News Network: nd now for the good news: climate change could actually make life better for some creatures. The ibex in the Swiss Alps may find an extra spring in its step. The roly-poly pika of the American northwest might find it has gained an edge over its predators because it is adapted to a high fibre diet. The news is not uniformly good: climate change is already taking its toll of Arctic peregrine falcons and chinstrap penguins on the Antarctic peninsula. But change is not always for the worse. A team...
How to land a green job in 2014
Posted by Grist: None Given on December 25th, 2013
Grist: You want an environmental job. And who wouldn’t? You get to go to bed at night knowing you’ve done something good for the world. You can be smug about your job with less nobly employed friends. You can move out of your parent’s basement. These are all good things.
Still, you wonder. Are there any educated guesses about what employers are thinking? We’ve got you covered. Our prognosticator has traveled throughout the green employment community and returned with some predictions to get you going....
The EPA Screwed Up When It Dropped Fracking Investigation
Posted by Reuters: Douwe Miedema on December 25th, 2013
Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was criticized in an internal report for dropping charges that Range Resources Corp was polluting drinking water while "fracking" for natural gas.
Range is using the hydraulic fracturing technique in Parker County, Texas where one homeowner complained in August 2010 that he could set his drinking water on fire.
Six U.S. senators had asked the agency's internal watchdog - the Office of the Inspector General - to evaluate a 2012 decision to drop an order...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on The EPA Screwed Up When It Dropped Fracking InvestigationChina struggling to meet 2011-2015 environment goals
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2013
Reuters: China is struggling to meet its 2011-2015 targets to reduce pollution, cut greenhouse gas growth and introduce cleaner sources of energy, a report submitted to the country's parliament said on Wednesday.
The report, which covers the 2011-2012 period, said faster-than-expected economic growth was to blame for China's failure to meet environmental targets ranging from energy use to nitrogen oxide emissions.
The state of China's environment has come into particular focus in 2013, with most major...
Britain hit by floods, power cuts at Christmas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2013
Reuters: Thousands of Britons woke up to flooding and power cuts on Christmas morning after torrential rainfall and hurricane-force winds battered the country.
Three severe flood warnings are in place along with over 350 secondary warnings and alerts, largely across southern and central England, Britain's environment agency said on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly in southern England, had no electricity late on Christmas Eve and engineers were working on Christmas Day to restore power....
Under Arctic Ice, Photographer Captures Climate Shifts In Earth’s Most Rapidly Changing Place
Posted by Weather Channel: Terrell Johnson on December 24th, 2013
Weather Channel: What does the future hold for the parts of the world that will be most affected by Earth's warming climate? This spring and summer, St. Louis-based photojournalist Randall Hyman spent four months getting a preview in Arctic Norway, a place he's visited again and again since the mid-1970s.
What struck him most on this trip, a Fulbright Scholarship project between April and August, was a pace of change that "has really picked up in the last decade," Hyman said, since trips he made there in 2006...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Under Arctic Ice, Photographer Captures Climate Shifts In Earth’s Most Rapidly Changing PlaceFirst oil shale mine in U.S. is coming to Utah
Posted by Grist: John Upton on December 24th, 2013
Grist: As if we didn`t already have enough filthy, inefficient, unconventional oil-extraction techniques in use in North America, here`s one more: oil shale mining.
A Utah company has received the go-ahead from the state’s water-quality department to begin operating the first commercial oil shale mine in North America.
Oil shale is not to be confused with shale oil, or shale gas, or oil sands. So what the hell is it? "Contrary to its name," explains Western Resource Advocates, "oil shale contains...
EPA report on fracking in Texas raises new concerns
Posted by LA Times: Neela Banerjee on December 24th, 2013
LA Times: The Environmental Protection Agency was justified in intervening to examine possible risks of gas drilling to Texas drinking water, the agency's internal watchdog reported Tuesday.
But environmentalists say the report raises fresh concerns about the EPA's 2012 decision to halt its investigation into possible well-water contamination in Parker County, Texas.
The EPA inspector general's report is the latest analysis to spotlight the regulator's handling of high-profile cases of alleged drinking-water...
Scientists call for labeling tar-sands oil
Posted by Grist: John Upton on December 24th, 2013
Grist: For the past four years, European Union officials have been mulling a labeling system that would require fuel companies to tell their customers how much carbon pollution is produced by each of the products they sell.
The idea is deeply unpopular with oil companies, which don`t want their customers thinking about such things every time they fill up their tanks. It`s also deeply unpopular with Canada. That`s because the country`s tar-sands oil is particularly dreadful for the climate, something...