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Archive for November, 2014
Taking Stock Of America’s Toxic Sites And Millions Living Near Them
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 30th, 2014
National Public Radio: ERIC WESTERVELT, HOST:
In 1978, a man named Jun Apostol moved to a new house just east of Los Angeles - it's location and size just right for his family. The only catch - it was right next to a landfill that contained hazardous waste. Reporter Paul Voosen wrote about him for National Geographic.
PAUL VOOSEN: He came to the development with the promise that the waste site would be closed in a couple years and might even become a golf course. But that's not quite what happened when they found...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Taking Stock Of America’s Toxic Sites And Millions Living Near ThemOnly a few drops of water at the Lima Climate Summit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 30th, 2014
Inter Press Service: Although it is one of the victims of global warming, water will not be given a place of importance at the COP20 climate change conference to be held Dec. 1-12 in Lima, Peru.
Climate change already threatens water supplies for agriculture due to the reduction in the availability of fresh water, which is expected to be aggravated over the next decades. It also causes drought, torrential rainfall, flooding and a rise in the sea level, which together affect the global water situation.
"Water is...
Best and worst cities preparing for climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 30th, 2014
Living on Earth: Global warming presents cities around the world with challenges that range from drought to storms to rising sea levels. Jeff Turrentine of OnEarth magazine tells Steve Curwood which cities are doing the most to prepare climate change, and which cities have yet to plan ahead. Transcript Dkaha, the capital of Bangladesh, is home to millions of climate refugees forced out of their homes elsewhere in the country. But the city itself lies just twelve feet above sea level, and flooding is an ever-increasing...
Drought-hit Sao Paulo may ‘get water from mud’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 30th, 2014
Reuters: São Paulo, Brazil’s drought-hit megacity of 20 million, has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves, officials say.
The city began using its second so-called “technical reserve” 10 days ago to prevent a water crisis after reservoirs reached critically low levels last month.
This is the first time the state has resorted to using the reserves, experts say.
“If we take into account the same pattern of water extraction and...
2014 could be hottest year on record: NOAA
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 30th, 2014
Economic Times: The world could witness the hottest year this year with the first 10 months of 2014 being the warmest since record keeping began more than 130 years ago, a top US scientific agency has warned.
The first ten months of 2014 have been the hottest since record keeping began more than 130 years ago, according to latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Despite the early bitter cold across parts of the US in recent weeks, it has been a hot year so far for the Earth. ...
Where Grass Is Greener, a Push to Share Drought’s Burden
Posted by New York Times: Ian Lovett on November 30th, 2014
New York Times: In these hills overlooking San Diego, the only indication of the continuing drought — now among the worst in California’s recorded history — is the perpetually cloudless sky.
Private lemon groves hark back to the area’s agricultural past, before it became home to some of Southern California’s wealthiest residents; horses roam through grassy pastures; palatial homes are surrounded by rolling grass lawns and, in at least one case, a three-hole putting green owned by the golfer Phil Mickelson. And...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Where Grass Is Greener, a Push to Share Drought’s BurdenUnited Kingdom: Fracking firm’s plans to look for gas in North Yorkshire criticised by environmental groups
Posted by Independent: Andy Rowell on November 30th, 2014
Independent: As one of Britain's leading independent gas companies applies to frack in North Yorkshire, concerns have also been raised about what campaigners claim are flawed proposals to drill for gas in the nearby North York Moors National Park.
Gas firm Third Energy last week drew intense criticism from local campaigners as well as the local Conservative MP after announcing plans to hydraulically fracture – or "frack" – an existing well at Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire.
Rasik Valand, Third Energy's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Fracking firm’s plans to look for gas in North Yorkshire criticised by environmental groupsUnited Kingdom: Chernobyl lessons missed because research gaps
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 29th, 2014
Guardian: The long-term health effects of Chernobyl remain unclear 25 years after the most serious nuclear accident in history, according to a former World Health Organisation (WHO) official.
A full assessment of the public health impact has been thwarted by poorly co-ordinated research on residents in areas close to the plant, and should be carried out with funding from the European commission, said Keith Baverstock, a former health and radiation adviser to the WHO.
He said research had been frustrated...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Chernobyl lessons missed because research gapsAfrica hopes Lima meeting will re-energize climate talks
Posted by Deutsche Welle: None Given on November 27th, 2014
Deutsche Welle: At the upcoming UN climate change meeting in Lima (COP 20), African groups are hoping that progress can be made towards the goal of reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions. COP 20 - the acronym for the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - begins in Lima, Peru, on December 1, 2014. It is seen by environmental experts as a crucial springboard to COP 21 in Paris a year later, where it is hoped a binding and universal agreement on limiting the effects...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Africa hopes Lima meeting will re-energize climate talksAllen finances lawsuit targeting coal leasing on federal lands
Posted by Seattle Times: Hal Bernton on November 27th, 2014
Seattle Times: Mercer Island billionaire and Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen has jumped into the battle over the future of coal leasing on federal lands.
A federal lawsuit financed by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, seeks to force the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct a review of the effect of leasing coal on the global climate.
"The leasing of coal from federal lands undermines President Obama's climate policy goals,' Allen wrote in a column published in The Huffington Post. "We have...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Allen finances lawsuit targeting coal leasing on federal lands