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Archive for March, 2014
North Carolina cites five more power plants in massive coal ash spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2014
Guardian: North Carolina regulators have cited five more Duke Energy power plants for lacking required storm water permits after a massive spill at one of the company’s coal ash dumps coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.
The state department of environment and natural resources announced Monday that Charlotte-based Duke had been issued formal notices of violation for not having the needed permits, which are required to legally discharge rainwater draining from its plants into public waterways....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on North Carolina cites five more power plants in massive coal ash spillGlobal diets get more similar in threat to food security – study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2014
Reuters: Increasing similarity in diets worldwide is a threat to health and food security with many people forsaking traditional crops such as cassava, sorghum or millet, an international study showed on Monday.
The report, which said it detailed for the first time the convergence in crops towards a universal diet in more than 150 nations since the 1960s, showed rises for foods including wheat, rice, soybeans and sunflower.
Among shifts, Pacific islanders were eating fewer coconuts as a source of fat...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global diets get more similar in threat to food security – studyGreat Lakes oil pipelines raise spills fear amid debate over Keystone XL
Posted by Guardian: Associated Press on March 3rd, 2014
Guardian: A freshwater channel that separates Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas is a premier midwestern tourist attraction and a photographer’s delight, offering spectacular vistas of two Great Lakes, several islands and one of the world’s longest suspension bridges.
But nowadays the straits of Mackinac is drawing attention for something that is out of sight and usually out of mind, and which some consider a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation’s sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Great Lakes oil pipelines raise spills fear amid debate over Keystone XLFlood Risk in Europe Expected to Double by 2050
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on March 3rd, 2014
Climate News Network: The catastrophic floods that soaked Europe last summer and the United Kingdom this winter are part of the pattern of things to come. According to a new study of flood risk in Nature Climate Change annual average losses from extreme floods in Europe could increase fivefold by 2050. And the frequency of destructive floods could almost double in that period.
About two-thirds of the losses to come could be explained by socio-economic growth, according to a team led by Brenden Jongman of the University...
Microbead skin cleansers can be bad for everyone health
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Lauren E. Oakes on March 3rd, 2014
San Francisco Chronicle: When Rachel Carson revealed the harmful effects of DDT in her landmark book, "Silent Spring," it took 10 years for the federal government to ban the use of the pesticide. How long will it take to ban plastic microbeads?
On Feb. 11, the New York State Attorney General's Office introduced a bill to ban microplastics in cosmetics. California soon followed with a bill introduced by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica (Los Angeles County). Sweeping changes are on the hopeful horizon if the bills...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Microbead skin cleansers can be bad for everyone healthStudents arrested in Keystone pipeline protests outside White House
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on March 3rd, 2014
Al Jazeera: Police arrested nearly 400 student-led demonstrators who marched to the White House on Sunday to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Marching under the name XL Dissent, at least 500 students from across the United States demonstrated and engaged in acts of civil disobedience outside the White House.
After repeated warnings, police arrested demonstrators for "blocking passage" of sidewalks, Sgt. Lelani Woods of the U.S. Park Police told Al Jazeera. "We advised protesters of the outcome...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Students arrested in Keystone pipeline protests outside White HouseCities hope for state guidance on sea rise
Posted by Virginian-Pilot: Aaron Applegate on March 3rd, 2014
Virginian-Pilot: There's no shortage of studies on sea level rise in Hampton Roads. The binders would overwhelm a filing cabinet.
They all agree the water is coming. After that, it gets a little murky.
How high will it rise? How fast? Are historic trends accelerating? Is that in meters or feet? Does that include sinking land, subsidence? What if the Greenland ice sheet melts? What if the Gulf Stream slows down?
While scientists embrace uncertainty, it's enough to make city planners and engineers a little...
Climate change is redefining the Australia of ‘sunburnt country’ poem
Posted by Guardian: Graham Readfearn on March 3rd, 2014
Guardian: As one of the country's most popular and iconic poems laments, Australia is a "sunburnt country" of "droughts and flooding rains".
Dorothea Mackellar's My Country endures with its "wide brown land" evoking "flood and fire and famine" and that "pitiless blue sky".
According to the New South Wales State Library, My Country is the "universal statement of our nation's connection to the land".
You can hear the echoes of Mackellar when Australian politicians are asked about the country's increasingly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change is redefining the Australia of ‘sunburnt country’ poemThe UK government is playing both sides of the climate conflict
Posted by Guardian: Andrew Simms on March 3rd, 2014
Guardian: Most conflicts have their profiteers – the black market traders exploiting shortages and arms dealers who play both sides for personal gain. If the latter don't actually create conflict by flooding a region with weapons, they'll readily perpetuate existing conflicts.
History's most famous profiteer is probably the fictional, archetypal American capitalist Milo Minderbender, from Joseph Heller's acidic satire on world war two, Catch-22. He strikes deals with the Germans and, in search of financial...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The UK government is playing both sides of the climate conflictEuropean flood losses could increase four-fold by 2050
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on March 3rd, 2014
Blue and Green: Losses from extreme floods in Europe could soar over the next 36 years, as climate change and socioeconomic development have an impact. In addition, extreme events will also become more frequent.
The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, uses a new model to assess the cost of flooding across Europe. Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) estimated that in the European Union, flood costs averaged EUR4.9 billion (£4 billion) a year from...