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Archive for July, 2014
Australia Becomes First Nation Repeal Carbon Tax
Posted by EcoWatch: Brandon Baker on July 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: With Australia`s standing as the world`s highest per-capita emitter of carbon dioxide, one would think the country would be the last to repeal a pollution tax.
Think again.
The country defied the odds Thursday with a 39 to 32 Senate vote to repeal laws requiring companies to pay for their emissions. The law had been in place less than three years.
The country`s big emitters were paying up to $23.45 per metric ton of carbon dioxide as of this month, the New York Times reported.
“Today’s...
Australia repeals carbon tax, scientists freak out
Posted by Grist: None Given on July 17th, 2014
Grist: The cartoonish stereotype of Australia of yesteryear featured a rough-headed bloke in an Akubra hat wrangling crocodiles. That image has finally been scrubbed from our collective memories -- only to be replaced with something worse. Today, when we read news dispatches from Australia, we`re seeing a dunderheaded prime minister cartoonishly wrangling commonsense, becoming the first leader in the warming world to repeal a price on carbon.
It`s like George W. Bush, Crocodile Dundee-style.
Conservative...
California drought: San Jose’s new high-tech water purification plant recycled water use
Posted by Mercury News: Paul Rogers on July 17th, 2014
Mercury News: When the San Francisco 49ers' stadium opens next month in Santa Clara, almost all of it will be new except for one thing: the water used to irrigate the field and flush the toilets.
Like hundreds of other places around Silicon Valley -- golf courses, power plants, San Jose's airport -- Levi's Stadium will use recycled water, which is essentially sewage that has been filtered, cleaned and disinfected.
Valley water officials on Friday will take a big step toward expanding the use of recycled...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California drought: San Jose’s new high-tech water purification plant recycled water useArctic climate researchers zoom in on plankton
Posted by Alaska Public Media: Lauren Rosenthal on July 17th, 2014
Alaska Public Media: They’re not recognizable like polar bears or whales. But phytoplankton are a key part of life in the Arctic – and now, they’re at the center of a new research effort to predict how the region will respond to climate change.
Almost every animal in the Arctic eats - or eats something that consumes - phytoplankton. They’re tiny specks of algae that usually blossom into big clouds out in the ocean in the springtime.
But that’s not what Kevin Arrigo saw a few years back. He was in the Chukchi Sea...
In North Dakota oil bonanza, natural gas goes up in flames
Posted by LA Times: Paresh Dave on July 17th, 2014
LA Times: Frank and Wanda Leppell once lived on a quiet cattle ranch in the middle of a rolling prairie, the lowing of cattle and the chirping of sparrows forming a pleasant soundtrack to their mornings. No more.
Not since the pasture they began leasing in 2009 became part of one of the nation's most productive new oil fields. Not since a well barely 200 yards from their front porch began shooting a torch of burning gas skyward, 24 hours a day, with a force as loud as a jet engine.
"My bedroom's like...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In North Dakota oil bonanza, natural gas goes up in flamesCanadian politicians on attack after scientists call for more research into fracking
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Peter O'Neil and Rob Shaw on July 17th, 2014
Vancouver Sun: Deputy premier Rich Coleman challenged Thursday the conclusions of a scientific panel into the environmental effect of shale gas development using fracking.
The group of Canadian and U.S. scientists, appointed in 2011 by former federal environment minister Peter Kent to examine the sector's potential and risks across Canada, urge a cautionary, go-slow approach until more research is done on a relatively new sector.
Coleman, responsible for an industry that Victoria considers an economic linchpin...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canadian politicians on attack after scientists call for more research into frackingTthreat of wildfires is already above normal in Western states
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2014
Washington Post: A years-long drought and a warmer-than-average winter have Western states worried that they face extraordinary challenges in what by many estimates will be a record fire season.
The National Interagency Fire Center says the threat of wildfires is already above normal in much of Oregon and California, and the high desert in Washington, Idaho and Nevada. Parts of Arizona remain under heightened threat, too.
The drought that has parched Western states over the last three years has led to dangerous...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tthreat of wildfires is already above normal in Western statesScientists Confirm Burning Fossil Fuels Worsens Australian Drought
Posted by Climate News Network: None Given on July 17th, 2014
Climate News Network: American scientists have just confirmed that parts of Australia are being slowly parched because of greenhouse gas emissions, which means that the long-term decline in rainfall over south and south-west Australia is a consequence of fossil fuel burning and depletion of the ozone layer by human activity. Such a finding is significant for two reasons. One remains contentious: it is one thing to make generalized predictions about the consequences overall of greenhouse gas levels, but it is quite another...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists Confirm Burning Fossil Fuels Worsens Australian DroughtHow Hotter Summers Are Putting Swimmers at Risk
Posted by ABC: Katie Moisse on July 17th, 2014
ABC: As families flock to pools and lakes to cool off, experts are warning about a risky consequence of climate change: waterborne disease.
Just last week, a 9-year-old girl from Johnson County, Kansas, died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, an extremely rare but almost invariably fatal brain infection caused by the freshwater amoeba Naegleria fowleri.
“It’s a heat-loving amoeba,” said Michael Beach, associated director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s healthy swimming...
Four things should know about Detroit’s water crisis
Posted by Grist: Heather Smith on July 17th, 2014
Grist: This May, the Detroit Water and Sewerage District (DWSD) sent out 46,000 shutoff notices to customers who were behind in their water bills. It was the latest calamity to befall a city that had seen its water rates rise 119 percent in the last decade.
As a city that has lost nearly two-thirds of its population in the last 60 years, Detroit has a lot of water infrastructure to maintain, and not much money to maintain it.
Since the shutoffs began (about 17,000 households and small businesses have...