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Archive for August, 2015
Zambia: ‘I drank the water and ate the fish. We all did. The acid has damaged me permanently’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2015
Guardian: You can’t see the old Chingola copper mine, with its smelter and refinery, from the village of Shimulala. It’s miles away, beyond 300ft-high hills of waste tailings, the leach plant, the main pollution control dam and the 1,600ft-deep open pit that is one of Africa’s largest holes. But you can smell and taste the pollution from the biggest copper mine in Africa. If you pump a glass of water from the borehole outside the little church in Shimulala, you will see it is bright yellow, smells of sulphur...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Zambia: ‘I drank the water and ate the fish. We all did. The acid has damaged me permanently’Agrarian settlements drive severe tropical deforestation across the Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2015
ScienceDaily: Resettlement projects in the Amazon are driving severe tropical deforestation -- according to new research from the University of East Anglia and Câmara dos Deputados (the Brazilian Lower House). Widely hailed as a socially responsible and 'innocuous' strategy of land redistribution, agrarian reform settlements have been created throughout the Brazilian Amazon since the early 1970s at an unprecedented scale. But a study published in PLOS ONE reveals that these farmer resettlement projects are far...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Agrarian settlements drive severe tropical deforestation across the AmazonFrightening Interactive Wildfire Map Shows That the West Is on Fire
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on August 1st, 2015
EcoWatch: Climate Central, a dedicated team of scientists and journalists researching climate change, has put together an interactive map that shows in real time the active wildfires in the U.S. Each flame icon indicates an active wildfire.
Climate Central explains:
Hover over a given fire to see its name, and if you zoom in you’ll be able to see the outline of the area that’s burning--the so-called fire perimeter. If you click within the perimeter, a window pops up showing the fire’s size in acres,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Frightening Interactive Wildfire Map Shows That the West Is on FireWhere the GOP candidates stand on global warming
Posted by Boston Globe: Matt Viser on August 1st, 2015
Boston Globe: Almost all of the Republican presidential candidates are skeptical of the idea that climate change is occurring, humans have a contributing role, and something should be done to reverse it. Here's a look at their past public statements.
JEB BUSH
"The climate is changing. I don't think the science is clear of what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural. It's convoluted. And for the people to say the science is decided on this is just really arrogant, to be honest with you. It's...
Startling Footage Calif Reservoirs Shows Devastating Impact Epic Drought
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 1st, 2015
EcoWatch: If you`re wondering how much damage four years of an epic drought can wreck, look no further than the condition of California`s depleted reservoirs. In new footage of the Folsom, Oroville and Shasta reservoirs--captured by the California Department of Water Resources (CA-DWR) on July 20--it`s genuinely startling to see how little water remains. The CA-DWR wrote on Facebook that Folsom Lake measured at 34 percent of capacity, Lake Oroville at 35 percent and Lake Shasta at 45 percent. Jay Famiglietti,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Startling Footage Calif Reservoirs Shows Devastating Impact Epic DroughtScience vs. the Real World on Mauna Kea
Posted by CounterPunch: None Given on August 1st, 2015
CounterPunch: Many view the debate surrounding the Thirty Meter Telescope’s proposed construction on Mauna Kea and Kanaka Maolis’ opposition to it as fundamentally a question of science versus culture. On the benign end, the word “science” has come to connote something close to cool and objective rationality – nothing more nor less than a collection of knowledge to be used in man’s (isn’t it always “man’s”?) noble aim to transcend nature. More malevolently, however, pitting science against indigenous culture is...
A Mauna Kea action against tourism could be the “nuclear option”
Posted by Disappeared News: None Given on August 1st, 2015
Disappeared News: Have you noticed that no matter how severe the discrimination or the oppression, there are never demonstrations in Waikiki, for example?
I was curious and asked someone about this maybe 25 years ago.
As a newcomer I had previously been totally oblivious to Hawaiian history, the illegal overthrow and the near-genocidal oppression of Native Hawaiians. As I began to learn and question, I became both depressed and angry (still am both) that it was still going on.
So I did ask someone, several...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on A Mauna Kea action against tourism could be the “nuclear option”Reaction from both sides of TMT issue after 7 arrested at Mauna Kea
Posted by KITV: None Given on August 1st, 2015
KITV: Seven people were arrested for camping during restricted hours from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and six were given citations for prohibited activity.
Demonstrators with Aloha Aina say they were caught off guard.
"They didn't inform us why they are arresting. That's why they were here. They just kind of got ready for action started grabbing people and said you're going to get arrested. If you want to get arrested or do you want to get a citation?" said Lakea Trask.
The state says that was not the case....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Reaction from both sides of TMT issue after 7 arrested at Mauna KeaCalifornia governor declares state of emergency over raging wildfires
Posted by Reuters: Curtis Skinner and Victoria Cavaliere on August 1st, 2015
Reuters: California's governor declared a state of emergency on Friday as a string of wildfires raged across the state and a firefighter was killed battling a blaze in drought-parched forest, officials said.
The firefighter, David Ruhl of Rapid City, South Dakota, was on temporary assignment in Northern California, where the brunt of 18 large fires burning across the state have destroyed homes and structures and temporarily displaced hundreds of people, the U.S. Forest Service said.
Ruhl was battling...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California governor declares state of emergency over raging wildfiresProtesters arrested and charged blocking telescope construction crews on Haleakala
Posted by KHON: None Given on August 1st, 2015
KHON: Tense moments on Maui Thursday night as protesters faced off against police as crews tried to resume construction of a controversial telescope on Haleakala.
Maui police report that, at 10 p.m., officers were summoned to the Central Maui Baseyard to assist with crowd control. A representative of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy initiated a complaint that numerous individuals were blocking the exit.
A crowd of demonstrators gathered in front of the baseyard access road...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Protesters arrested and charged blocking telescope construction crews on Haleakala