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Archive for February, 2014
Fracking boom spews toxic air emissions on Texas residents
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song, Jim Morris and David Hasemyer on February 18th, 2014
InsideClimate: When Lynn Buehring leaves her doctor's office in San Antonio she makes sure her inhaler is on the seat beside her, then steers her red GMC pickup truck southeast on U.S. 181, toward her home on the South Texas prairie. About 40 miles down the road, between Poth and Falls City, drilling rigs, crude oil storage tanks and flares trailing black smoke appear amid the mesquite, live oak and pecan trees. Depending on the speed and direction of the wind, a yellow-brown haze might stretch across the horizon,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Fracking boom spews toxic air emissions on Texas residentsUnited Kingdom: Flooding: wet ground in worst-hit areas making burials impossible
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2014
Guardian: The flood crisis is causing further anguish for bereaved families as wet ground is making burials impossible in the worst-hit areas.
Authorities say there is little they can do about weather-related funeral delays that have been described as "absolutely abnormal".
While families face the possibility of extra distress, the floods have created dangerous conditions for gravediggers.
Crematoriums have not been immune from the issue either, with one having to close for about two months due to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Flooding: wet ground in worst-hit areas making burials impossibleObama announces plan for $1bn climate resilience fund
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 18th, 2014
BusinessGreen: As David Cameron faces mounting calls for an increase in the UK government's funding for climate resilience efforts, US President Barack Obama is moving forward with plans to dramatically increase spending to tackle droughts and floods on the other side of the Atlantic.
Obama used a trip to drought-hit California late last week, where over 91 per cent of the state was classified as experiencing severe or exceptional drought, to announce that he will include a new $1bn "climate resilience fund"...
United Kingdom: Barrage over climate change link to floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2014
BBC: As the barrage of bad weather eases, another kind of turbulence is brewing over one of the potential causes.
Listen to some environmental campaigners and you might think that there is total certainty that global warming led to the recent rain; listen to some climate sceptics and there is absolutely no connection at all.
Viewers have berated me either for failing to explicitly blame climate change in my reporting of the floods - or for suggesting that the rain may conceivably have been made...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Barrage over climate change link to floodsPM set to meet insurance industry over UK floods
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on February 18th, 2014
Blue and Green: David Cameron has planned to meet insurers to discuss measures to help those affected by the flooding, as wealthier households face a £1,000 increase in their annual insurance premium.
Insurance bosses reported they have paid £14 million to flood victims since the emergency began in December. The government will meet representatives from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) on Tuesday.
However, it was suggested that wealthier householders on council band H might face premium increases...
China announces $330bn water clean-up effort in latest environmental crackdown
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 18th, 2014
BusinessGreen: The Chinese government has opened a new front in its increasingly wide-ranging efforts to tackle the country's worsening levels of environmental pollution, revealing plans to invest up to ¥2tr ($330bn) in projects designed to tackle water pollution.
The China State Securities Journal reported this week that the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) is still working on the finer details of the strategy, but the ¥2tr budget has been set.
The budget exceeds the ¥1.7tr that was recently announced...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China announces $330bn water clean-up effort in latest environmental crackdownUK floods: in defence of the Environment Agency
Posted by Guardian: Leslie Manasseh on February 18th, 2014
Guardian: The flooding crisis has shone a spotlight on much that the government would prefer to remain hidden – not least the coalition's quiet slashing of the Environment Agency budget.
Despite advice in the wake of the 2007 floods to increase expenditure on flood defences, the government relied on its traditional mistrust of the public sector and the experts within it, and used the blunt instrument of cash limits.
Prime minister David Cameron said money would be "no object" to dealing with the immediate...
Fracking Eagle Ford Shale: Big Oil & Bad Air on Texas Prairie
Posted by InsideClimate: None Given on February 18th, 2014
InsideClimate: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale: Big Oil and Bad Air on the Texas Prairie is an eight-month investigation by InsideClimate News, the Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel.
Award-winning reporters reveal the dangers of releasing a toxic soup of chemicals into the air from oil and gas drilling and expose how little the Texas government knows about such pollution in its own state. They also show that the Texas legislature is intent on keeping it that way.
The project blends traditional...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking Eagle Ford Shale: Big Oil & Bad Air on Texas PrairieChina spend $330 billion to fight water pollution -paper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2014
Reuters: China plans to spend 2 trillion yuan, or $330 billion, on an action plan to tackle pollution of its scarce water resources, state media said on Tuesday.
China has a fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of its water resources, and the situation is especially precarious in its parched north, where some regions have less water per capita than the Middle East.
The plan is still being finalized but the budget has been set, exceeding the 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) China plans...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China spend $330 billion to fight water pollution -paperTexas Officials Turn Blind Eye To Fracking Industry’s Toxic Air Emissions
Posted by InsideClimate: David Hasemyer, Ben Wieder and Alan Suderman on February 18th, 2014
InsideClimate: In January 2011, with air quality worsening in Texas' booming oil and gas fields, state environmental regulators adopted rules to reduce emissions. The industry rebelled. So did the state legislature. A few months later, lawmakers passed SB1134, effectively preventing the new regulations from being applied in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas, one of the nation's biggest oil and gas booms. Since then, more than 2,400 air emissions permits have been issued in the Eagle Ford without additional...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Texas Officials Turn Blind Eye To Fracking Industry’s Toxic Air Emissions