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Archive for June, 2014
Urgent: help needed now for climate refugees
Posted by Ecologist: Paul Brown on June 13th, 2014
Ecologist: Governments worldwide have been warned: draw up plans to help populations who are being forced to move because of climate change, or face a future of growing conflict and insecurity, writes Paul Brown. Planned relocation efforts should be aimed at integration of the newcomers into existing political structures and giving them some participation in decision making about their own futures. Hundreds of thousands of people are already migrating because of climate change, and countries urgently need...
Climate changes threatens America’s ‘king corn’
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 13th, 2014
Grist: The days of "king corn" could be numbered as climate change brings higher temperatures and water shortages to America`s farmland, a new report warned on Wednesday.
Nearly one third of U.S. farmland is devoted to raising corn and the country produces about 40 percent of the world`s corn crop. But the $1.7 trillion industry - the equivalent of Australia`s GDP - is under threat from water shortages, heat waves, and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change.
"Corn is an essential input to...
EU slated for cynical 113m shale gas subsidy
Posted by EurActiv: None Given on June 13th, 2014
EurActiv: Environmentalists have bitterly condemned a new EU research fund which invites shale gas firms to apply for EUR113m (£90m) of subsidies, under a programme designed to encourage ‘competitive low carbon energy’.
The Horizon 2020 research fund, which runs from 2014-2020, is intended to help identify potential environmental impacts and risks from shale gas exploitation by using satellite observation, developing models and establishing scientific recommendations for best practices.
But the monies...
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...