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Archive for January, 2015
United Kingdom: Labour seeks fracking restrictions to protect drinking water
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on January 8th, 2015
Blue and Green: The Labour Party is seeking to ban fracking for shale gas on land that collects Britain’s drinking water in proposed amendments to the government’s infrastructure bill. A campaign group has said such a move is “basic common sense”.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is gradually becoming more widespread in the UK although the method of extracting shale gas remains controversial.
Those supporting fracking claim it can be used as a transition fuel towards a low-carbon economy and that with the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Labour seeks fracking restrictions to protect drinking waterLeave Fossil Fuels Untapped to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change, Study Urges
Posted by Climate Change Network: None Given on January 8th, 2015
Climate Change Network: The sheer scale of the fossil fuel reserves that will need to be left unexploited for decades if world leaders sign up to a radical climate agreement is revealed in a study by a team of British scientists.
It shows that almost all the huge coal reserves in China, Russia and the U.S. should remain unused, along with more than 260 billion barrels of oil reserves in the Middle East—the equivalent of Saudi Arabia’s total oil reserves. The Middle East would also need to leave more than 60 percent of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Leave Fossil Fuels Untapped to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change, Study UrgesTropical forests may reduce global warming rate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2015
Environmental News Network: A new study led by NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shows that tropical forests may be absorbing far more human-emitted carbon dioxide than many scientists thought. The study estimates that tropical forests absorb 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide out of a total global absorption of 2.5 billion, in response to rising atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas.
This means, if left undisturbed, the tropical trees should be able to continue reducing the rate of global...
Australian wildfires threaten to produce ashtray wine vintage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2015
Reuters: Wildfires sweeping through southeast Australia are carrying with them the spectre of a silent killer for grapes growing in the nearby Adelaide Hills wine region.
The vineyards have so far escaped the direct ravages of the worst bushfires for 30 years but winemakers fear their grapes may have fallen victim to "smoke taint", which results in wines that taste like an ashtray and can ruin an entire vintage.
As fears grow that climate change is lengthening the time and severity of Australia's bushfire...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australian wildfires threaten to produce ashtray wine vintageJust years to go for unburnable coal reserves, new study finds
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on January 8th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: The viability of mining Australia's massive fossil fuel reserves has been called into question by new research that estimates the limits of carbon emissions possible if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.
In a study published in the journal Nature, University College London researchers say that 82 per cent of the world's coal, half its gas reserves and a third of its oil must remain in the ground if global temperature increases are to be kept within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels. ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Just years to go for unburnable coal reserves, new study findsSenate panel approves Keystone bill despite veto threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2015
Associated Press: Republicans pushed veto-threatened legislation to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through a Senate committee Thursday, but Democrats blocked plans for an immediate debate in the full Senate. The Energy and Natural Resources committee moved the bill closer to the floor on a 13-9 vote. Sen Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of six Democrats sponsoring the bill, was the only committee Democrat to support it. The House will vote Friday on its version of the bill and is expected to pass the measure...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Senate panel approves Keystone bill despite veto threatRice may become first crop in cap-and-trade program
Posted by Appeal Democrat: Andrew Creasey on January 7th, 2015
Appeal Democrat: Rice could soon become the first crop in California's cap-and-trade program, but it is unclear if the program provides enough incentives to motivate farmers to change their growing practices.
In a December meeting, the California Air Resources Board directed staff to begin the process for including rice in the cap-and-trade program, which is part of a statewide program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The idea is to provide economic incentives for major investment in...
Australia records third-warmest year in 2014
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 7th, 2015
BBC: Australia has recorded its third-warmest calendar year since national records began in 1910, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says.
Frequent heatwaves and a marked reduction in cold weather characterised 2014, the Bureau said.
Mean temperatures were 0.91C above the long-term average in 2014, the BOM said.
The news comes as South Australia is facing some of the worst bushfires in the region in decades.
Firefighters are battling to contain a major blaze in the hills behind the city of Adelaide...
California Gov. Brown proposes ambitious new climate policy goals
Posted by Bloomberg: Carolyn Whetzel on January 7th, 2015
Bloomberg: California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) Jan. 5 proposed increasing the state's current 33 percent renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent over the next 15 years and, over the same period, cutting petroleum use in cars and trucks in half, making heating fuels cleaner and doubling the efficiency of existing buildings.
Brown announced the ambitious climate policy goals in the inaugural address/state of the state message he delivered after being sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term.
In the 30-minute...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California Gov. Brown proposes ambitious new climate policy goalsObama’s Keystone veto threat proof that climate activism works
Posted by Guardian: Bill McKibben on January 7th, 2015
Guardian: When the news arrived from the White House on Tuesday that Barack Obama would veto the GOP’s Keystone pipeline bill – or at least “that the president would not sign this bill” as is – I thought back to a poll that the National Journal conducted of its “energy insiders” in the fall of 2011, just when then issue was heating up. Nearly 92% of them thought Obama’s administration would approve the pipeline, and almost 71% said it would happen by the end of that year.
Keystone’s not dead yet – feckless...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama’s Keystone veto threat proof that climate activism works