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Archive for January, 2014
Reading John Kerry’s Mind on the Keystone Pipeline
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on January 25th, 2014
InsideClimate: Imagine, if you will, John Kerry's internal monologue—his soliloquy as the State Department prepares to release its final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the Keystone XL pipeline designed to funnel tar sands crude from Alberta across the U.S. midsection. After the EIS arrives, Kerry must review whether the pipeline is in the national interest—a question that Obama has said rests largely on its climate impacts. Of course, we can't know what Kerry really thinks. Here we take a guess by looking...
Keystone potential bargaining chip in congress debt talks
Posted by Bloomberg: Derek Wallbank on January 25th, 2014
Bloomberg: House Republicans are trying to agree on what they want from Democrats in exchange for votes to raise the U.S. debt limit as soon as next month.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan have suggested insisting on approval of the TransCanada Corp. (TRP) Keystone XL pipeline as a condition of a higher debt ceiling. Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas is among Republicans who want to take a harder line and demand major changes to President Barack Obama’s health-care...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Keystone potential bargaining chip in congress debt talksIs climate change a northern catastrophe or an Arctic opening?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2014
Globe and Mail: This is part of The North, a Globe investigation of unprecedented change, to the climate, culture and politics of Canada’s last frontier. Join the conversation with #GlobeNorth The Globe’s Artic Circle panel of experts and leaders is discussing five key questions about Northern issues. Their responses and conversations have appeared on Globe Debate. Doug Saunders: The crucial factor in the future of the North is the melting of the polar ice cap, already well underway. How will this change the lives,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Is climate change a northern catastrophe or an Arctic opening?10-Year Water-Cycle Trend Identified in Wisconsin Lakes
Posted by Nature World: James A. Foley on January 25th, 2014
Nature World: A 10-year water-level cycle has been identified in Wisconsin's lakes, and researchers there were surprised to find that even the smallest lakes followed the same trend as gigantic lakes like Michigan and Huron.
"There was absolutely no reason for us to expect that our little lakes and lakes Michigan and Huron would act the same way, but they did," said Carl Watras, a research scientist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Wataras was part of a team of researchers the documented...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 10-Year Water-Cycle Trend Identified in Wisconsin LakesCrops Eating Into World’s Natural Land Base
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on January 24th, 2014
Environment News Service: Lands covering an area the size of Brazil could be degraded by 2050 if conversion of natural lands to crop lands continues, warns a report by the UN Environment Programme, presented at the ongoing World Economic Conference in Davos.
The report, "Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply," was produced by the International Resource Panel, a consortium of 27 internationally renowned resource scientists, 33 national governments and other groups, hosted by UNEP.
In...
Yukon Government Opens Vast Wilderness to Mining
Posted by National Geographic: Tom Clynes on January 24th, 2014
National Geographic: Canada's Yukon Territory announced on Tuesday that it has opened one of the largest unbroken wilderness areas in North America to mining and mineral exploration.
The government's decree stunned indigenous leaders, who support a 2011 plan developed under Yukon land claims treaties that would have maintained the wilderness character of 80 percent of the area, which is known as the Peel watershed region. The government's new plan all but reverses that figure, opening some 71 percent of the watershed...
Canadian tar-sand oil could start flooding into Europe
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 24th, 2014
Grist: Hey, European drivers, how would you like your gasoline to be even more filthy and climate-changing than it already is?
When the European Commission proposed new climate and energy rules for the European Union this week, it recommended opening a door for companies that want to import Canadian tar-sands oil into the continent. Responding to Climate Change explains:
Oil from Canada’s carbon-intensive tar sands - one of the world’s single biggest sources of greenhouse gas pollution - could be...
Al Gore on Climate Change: ‘Extreme Weather Events Are a Gamechanger’
Posted by Mashable: None Given on January 24th, 2014
Mashable: Climate change made an appearance at the 44th annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, thanks to former Vice-President Al Gore and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. The two world figures commented on how extreme weather events are intensifying global awareness of the climate change phenomenon.
The weather events they mentioned include the likes of the recent typhoon Haiyan and Hurricane Sandy, both of which caused huge economic and human damage.
“I think that these extreme weather...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Al Gore on Climate Change: ‘Extreme Weather Events Are a Gamechanger’Cost of climate change high on Davos agenda
Posted by Deutsche Welle: None Given on January 24th, 2014
Deutsche Welle: Issues related to climate change are taking center stage at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. In WEF's Global Risk Report, extreme weather events are viewed as the second biggest threat to societies.
From within the Davos Congress Center, you can see skiers racing down the slopes outside of the World Economic Forum. Looking at the snow outside, some participants might wonder why there's so much talk about global warming.
Not so Christiana Figueres. Standing in the snow, the UN climate...
Al Gore: ‘extreme weather has made people wake up to climate change’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2014
Guardian: Extreme weather events including typhoon Haiyan and superstorm Sandy are proving a "gamechanger" for public awareness of the threat posed by climate change, Al Gore said on Friday.
The former US vice-president, speaking to delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: "I think that these extreme weather events which are now a hundred times more common than 30 years ago are really waking people's awareness all over the world [on climate change], and I think that is a gamechanger. It comes...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Al Gore: ‘extreme weather has made people wake up to climate change’