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Archive for June, 2015
California climate plan has inland condemning coastal elitism
Posted by Bloomberg: Esmé E Deprez on June 22nd, 2015
Bloomberg: The way inland California lawmakers see it, the only benefit to their constituents from Governor Jerry Brown’s expansion of carbon pollution laws will be cleaner air to breathe as they wait at the unemployment office. Brown and other Democrats are pushing legislation to reduce greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels to a fraction of what they were a quarter-century ago. The state would make utilities get a greater share of electricity from low-pollution sources, compel industries to cut...
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Comments Off on California climate plan has inland condemning coastal elitismTribe sues US Department of Interior over fracking
Posted by Durango Herald: Ann Butler on June 22nd, 2015
Durango Herald: The Southern Ute Indian Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior on Thursday, challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s new hydraulic fracturing rule.
The rule, which is set to go into effect Wednesday, also is the subject of suits filed earlier this month, including a joint suit by the states of Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, as well as another filed by the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Producers on behalf of 46 trade associations and royalty-owners...
Santa Barbara’s cautious relationship with water offers drought lesson
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
LA Times: First came the rain garden, where bees buzz around the lavender and sage. Then came the back patio, where bananas, guava, passion fruit, ginger and an herb garden are fed by water diverted from the clothes washer.
Later came the raised beds thick with kale, chard, strawberries and several varieties of squash. Finally, the native bentgrass, spread like a pale green carpet across the frontyard.
This is the home of Amy Steinfeld and Cameron Clark, a married couple who bought a 1905 Victorian farmhouse...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Santa Barbara’s cautious relationship with water offers drought lessonClimate change forecasts warmer & drier Australia
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on June 22nd, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: How will climate change affect where I live?
That's the subject of intense research around the world, as scientists try to predict how increasing levels of greenhouse gases – and the additional heat they trap from the sun – will alter the climate of different regions.
For most regions of Australia, the climate will become warmer and drier, according to research by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO. For most centres, that's akin to shifting northwards, or in Canberra's case, to a lower...
Looking for the fingerprints of climate changes on today’s extreme weather
Posted by Age: Tom Arup on June 22nd, 2015
Age: A heatwave strikes the city. Temperatures rise well over 40 degrees for several consecutive days. Train tracks buckle. Trees wilt. Lives are at risk. Sure, summers in the city are typically hot. But this seems a little more intense than most, and something similar happened just last year. Is this climate change? That's the question increasingly being asked by communities around the world as droughts, heatwaves and floods bring devastation to their door. For a long time, climate scientists had...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Looking for the fingerprints of climate changes on today’s extreme weatherHow California’s Drought Could Spur Ecological Rebirth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Guardian: Jennifer and Lawrence Kesteloot like to begin the day with breakfast in their San Francisco backyard garden. For the last several months, they’ve had guests: iridescent green-and-red Anna’s hummingbirds, drawn by wildflowers planted to replace what had been dead brown turf grass and concrete.
The Kesteloots hadn’t considered hummingbirds when imagining their garden. Mostly they were concerned about not using much water amidst the deprivations and uncertainties of California’s drought.
Related:...
Typhoon to hit China’s Hainan, seen easing drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Reuters: The first typhoon of the year to hit China is expected to make landfall on or near the southern island of Hainan on Monday, which should help ease a severe drought on the tourist center and rubber producer, state news agency Xinhua said.
Typhoon Kujira will sweep over the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea before hitting land somewhere between Wanning on Hainan and Zhanjiang in the neighboring province of Guangdong, bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall, Xinhua said late on Sunday.
It...
Daryl Hannah arrested in Keystone XL protest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Guardian: The actor Daryl Hannah was arrested in northeast Texas on Thursday, along with a landowner as the pair protested against an oil pipeline designed to bring crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
"They've arrested Daryl Hannah and a rural Texas great-grandmother," said Paul Bassis, Hannah's attorney.
Hannah and Eleanor Fairchild were standing in front of heavy equipment in an attempt to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro, a town about 100 miles east of...
California Golf Trip Lands Obama in a Water-Use Debate
Posted by New York Times: Gardiner Harris on June 21st, 2015
New York Times: With four fund-raisers and an awkward reconciliation with the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, behind him, President Obama returned to a beloved golf oasis here for a weekend getaway with friends. This time, though, was different. A punishing drought has raised questions about whether such oases can survive, and about the president’s weekend here. The vast emerald green courses in the area are watered by a disappearing Colorado River and an underground aquifer that has fallen about 55 feet...
Israel Bets On Recycled Water To Meet Its Growing Thirst
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2015
National Public Radio: Recycling sewage water has helped free Israel, a desert country, from depending on rain. Treated sewage water provides close to a quarter of Israel's demand for water, right behind desalination, the other major process that has eased Israel's fear of drought. But making that water - from toilets, showers, and factories - clean enough to use is challenging. One of the first steps is removing garbage from the sewage system. At Israel's biggest wastewater treatment plant, called Shafdan, three-quarters...
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