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Archive for November 10th, 2015
Explaining Extreme Events from a Climate Perspective
Posted by Environmental News Network: Noaa News on November 10th, 2015
Environmental News Network: Human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, influenced specific extreme weather and climate events in 2014, including tropical cyclones in the central Pacific, heavy rainfall in Europe, drought in East Africa, and stifling heat waves in Australia, Asia, and South America, according to a new report released today. The report, “Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 from a Climate Perspective” published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, addresses the natural and...
Experts recommend modeling to avoid earthquakes resulting from fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Using computer analysis prior to drilling could limit seismic events as a result of hydraulic fracturing, according to new research published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," is used to break the subsurface rock mass into pieces and is done by injecting high-pressure fluid. While this gives the fluid or gas more paths to reach production wells, it also leads to several environmental problems, one of which is the unwanted shaking of the ground...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Experts recommend modeling to avoid earthquakes resulting from frackingBeyond Keystone: Why Climate Movement Keep Heat On
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: The key passage -- the forward-looking passage -- of President Obama’s speech last week rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline came right at the end, after he rehashed all the arguments about jobs and gas prices that had been litigated endlessly over the last few years.
“Ultimately,” he said, “if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and...
EU clogged by 700,000 asylum applications on eve of key Malta conference
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2015
Associated Press: The European Union`s asylum system is so clogged with applications that it would take a year to clear the backlog even if migrants stopped coming to Europe immediately, EU data showed Tuesday.
The applications of more than 770,000 people seeking international protection in the EU were on hold in the month of September, according to the European Asylum Support Office. Currently, the 28 EU countries are only able to process around 60,000 cases per month.
Almost 1 in 3 people have been waiting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EU clogged by 700,000 asylum applications on eve of key Malta conferenceWhat’s Going on in Antartica? Is the Ice Melting or Growing?
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on November 10th, 2015
EcoWatch: Last week a study was published in the Journal of Glaciology by a group of NASA researchers reporting that satellite data shows that, as a whole, Antarctica has been gaining--rather than losing--ice mass during the past two or more decades.
So was NASA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrong about Antarctica’s ice loss? Is the Antarctic ice growing?
The short answer is best summarized by the title of Andrew Freedman’s article on Mashable (which everyone should read):...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on What’s Going on in Antartica? Is the Ice Melting or Growing?South African drought follows third-driest season 80 years
Posted by Reuters: Ed Stoddard on November 10th, 2015
Reuters: The sugar-growing South African province of KwaZulu Natal is the driest it has been in over a century, according to data provided on Tuesday by the South African Weather Service, underscoring the scale of a drought scorching Africa's most advanced economy.
The drought, seen worsening due to an El Nino weather pattern, threatens South Africa's diverse farm sector including its key maize crop, which may fuel food prices and inflation at a time when the central bank is in a tightening cycle.
For...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on South African drought follows third-driest season 80 yearsTime wasted waiting on Keystone kill
Posted by Daily Astorian: None Given on November 10th, 2015
Daily Astorian: Declining for so long to simply make this decision official was a matter of avoiding an election-year handicap for a handful of politicians
Lawmakers should have used the time to find real alternatives
President Obama last week finally did something many felt he should and could have done near the start of his administration: He said no to the Keystone XL tar-sands oil pipeline between western Canada and refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Particularly during the months leading up to the...
Pipeline’s defeat could translate to rail gains
Posted by EnergyWire: Blake Sobczak on November 10th, 2015
EnergyWire: President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline Friday could come with a heavy side of tank cars. Canadian energy companies need about a dozen crude-laden trains each day to replace the volume of oil that could have been transported through KXL.
Now that TransCanada Corp.'s Alberta-to-Gulf-Coast pipeline has been denied, however, it's clear that the contest between KXL and railroads in Canada's western oil patch wasn't a zero-sum game.
Rail shippers could see a modest boost from...
Transition Alberta off oil sands, climate thinkers urge Trudeau
Posted by Observer: Mychaylo Prystupa on November 10th, 2015
Observer: Alberta and its oil sands needs to be the focus of the Trudeau government's climate action if it is serious about helping limit dangerous planetary warming to two degrees this century, warned a national group of environmental thinkers.
Climate Action Network Canada held a national media press conference Monday to give its recommendations to the federal government in advance of the Paris UN climate treaty talks, Nov.30 to Dec.11. Their toughest advice was focused on Alberta's crown energy jewel....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Transition Alberta off oil sands, climate thinkers urge TrudeauKeystone? Whatever. It’s coal that matters
Posted by Poliltico: Michael Grunwald on November 10th, 2015
Poliltico: The big climate news last week was President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone oil pipeline, so there wasn't much attention paid to an electric utility's decision to retire a 60-year-old coal plant in Alton, Illinois. Unlike Keystone, the Wood River Power Station isn't a global symbol of global warming. Its owner is closing it voluntarily, for economic as well as environmental reasons. And coal plants get shut down all the time; Wood River was the 206th announced retirement in the U.S. in the...