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Archive for June 12th, 2014
First Nations Vow: There Will Be No Tar Sands Pipeline
Posted by Common Dreams: Andrea Germanos on June 12th, 2014
Common Dreams: "We have drawn a line in the earth they cannot, and will not, cross," said Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation. There will be no tar sands pipeline. That is the message stressed by First Nations communities who say that even if Canada's Prime Minister Harper gives the federal OK to Enbridge's Northern Gateway project, First Nations law and their "responsibilities to future generations" will stop the project dead in its tracks. A federal decision on the project, which includes...
Bloody Mexican shale fields sit idle while Texas booms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Reuters: To grasp the difficulties Mexico faces in capitalizing on a North American shale boom, just wander into the dusty landscape due south of the U.S. border.
On one side of the fence, thousands of wells work around the clock in Texas to produce record volumes of shale oil and gas, transforming towns like Carrizo Springs in a modern-day gold rush.
On the other side, violent drug cartels roam above untapped shale riches, leaving behind a trail of blood. The relatively few conventional wells operated...
Major U.S. Breweries Work to Conserve Water Amid Widespread Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: Major breweries in the U.S. are cutting back on the amount of water they use to brew beer as drought threatens their water supplies, the Associated Press reports. MillerCoors, headquartered in Chicago, has reduced its water use by 9.2 percent since 2012, a company sustainability report said. Earlier this month St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the largest U.S. brewer, reported that it has cut water use by 32 percent in the last five years. Employing strategies such as fueling boilers with wastewater,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Major U.S. Breweries Work to Conserve Water Amid Widespread DroughtNewly Forming Permafrost May Not Survive Century’s End
Posted by Alaska Public Media: Emily Schwing on June 12th, 2014
Alaska Public Media: Scientists are announcing a surprising find from the arctic: new permafrost is still forming. But it is unlikely to survive beyond the end of the century. That’s according to a new study out this week in the publication Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers made the discovery at a lake in Alaska’s Eastern Interior.
Twelvemile Lake, southwest of Fort Yukon is disappearing. Over the last three decades, scientists say the lake has lost 15 feet of water.
“Across the arctic, there’s a lot of...
Great Lakes Break the Ice after Record-Long 7 Months Frozen
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 12th, 2014
Nature World News: Most of the United States is gearing up for the fast approaching summer months, traces of the icy winter far behind them, but the Great Lakes are just thawing out after a record-breaking seven months of being frozen.
The NOAA declared all the Great Lakes officially ice-free Wednesday morning after more than 80 percent of its surface was encrusted with ice for seven months - an occurrence that hasn't happened since the 1970s, according to Live Science.
Lake Superior, the deepest, largest and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Great Lakes Break the Ice after Record-Long 7 Months FrozenOil Firm Bows to Pressure, Ends Operations in Africa Oldest Park
Posted by National Geographic: Jon Rosen on June 12th, 2014
National Geographic: In the face of global pressure, the British oil and gas firm Soco International announced Wednesday that it will not drill for oil in Virunga National Park as long as the park remains fully protected under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. The announcement was part of a joint statement released by Soco and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of several conservation groups that have challenged the legality of a 2010 contract signed by Soco and the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oil Firm Bows to Pressure, Ends Operations in Africa Oldest ParkFourth year of drought hits Djibouti: U.N
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Reuters: Djibouti is suffering from a fourth straight year of drought, which has driven a huge exodus of people from rural areas to the capital and caused a surge in disease and malnutrition, the top U.N. official there said on Thursday. Robert Watkins, U.N. resident coordinator in Djibouti, was meeting officials from donor countries to seek funds for a U.N. appeal of $74 million for Djibouti this year, launched in May. The United Nations has received $9.5 million from donors so far. "The biggest issue...
Indian Point’s Tritium Problem and N.R.C.’s Regulatory Problem
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on June 12th, 2014
New York Times: The Indian Point nuclear power plant, 30 miles from New York City (and 8 miles from my house), has been run safely and reliably for the most part. But it’s at a critical juncture, with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo having vowed to shut it down and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission weighing relicensing for the two operating reactors. Now news that two monitoring wells detected a spike in levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, has raised important questions about the aging infrastructure...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indian Point’s Tritium Problem and N.R.C.’s Regulatory ProblemOne third of corn grown in water-stressed areas
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on June 12th, 2014
Blue and Green: One third of the world’s corn is grown in highly water-stressed regions, raising questions over the sustainability of global food supply, experts have warned.
According to a statement released on Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, competition for water is tight in agricultural areas across each of the top six corn producing nations – the US, China, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and India.
Corn is a vital crop. It is one of the world’s largest sources of food calories, and also feeds livestock....
Anger rises as India swelters under record heatwave
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2014
Reuters: Swathes of north India are sweltering under the longest heatwave on record, triggering widespread breakdowns in the supply of electricity and increasingly angry protests over the government's failure to provide people with basic services.
The power crisis and heatwave, which some activists say has caused dozens of deaths, is one of the first major challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected three weeks ago partly on promises to provide reliable electricity supplies.
In Delhi,...