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Archive for February, 2016
William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ‘Chinatown’
Posted by Daily Beast: None Given on February 27th, 2016
Daily Beast: Irish immigrant William Mulholland brought LA the water it needed to grow, even when he was accused of stealing it, and even when it cost the lives of almost 500 innocent people.
Mulholland? Sure, you say. I know that name. Isn’t it a twisty street somewhere in Los Angeles, and wasn’t Mulholland Drive the title of an eerie film by David Lynch? And didn’t Roman Polanski and Robert Towne’s movie Chinatown have a character with the sound-alike name of Hollis Mulwray, the L.A. city water engineer...
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Comments Off on William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ‘Chinatown’TMT case returns to Land Board
Posted by Hawaii Tribune: Tom Callis on February 27th, 2016
Hawaii Tribune: A Hilo Circuit Court judge officially remanded the Thirty Meter Telescope’s land use permit this week, setting the stage for another review by the state Land Board and a new contested case hearing for the proposed project on Mauna Kea.
But first, a new hearings officer will need to be selected.
Dan Dennison, Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman, said 11 people have applied for the job, and a screening committee selected by Chair Suzanne Case will review them for qualifications...
Time, BBC & others drive historic deal protect Canada Great Bear Rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Guardian: Earlier this month, a groundbreaking agreement was reached to prohibit logging in the majority of the 6.4m-hectare Canadian rainforest known as the Great Bear Rainforest – a stretch of coastal ecosystem nearly the size of Ireland.
The winners in the deal were environmental groups and the First Nations peoples who call the land their ancestral home. But there was also a less obvious contingent: an international assortment of business interests that used their influence to push for a deal.
More...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Time, BBC & others drive historic deal protect Canada Great Bear RainforestThese Native Americans Might Be the Country’s First Climate Change Refugees
Posted by Vice: Matt Smith on February 27th, 2016
Vice: Sometime in the next few years, the remaining two dozen or so families of Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles will pack up their stuff and leave for good.
They'll leave behind homes that some of the Native American residents have lived in for generations, and they'll watch from afar as what's left of the island gets swallowed by the surrounding waters.
"All of our history, all of our ancestral line -- that's where our people are buried. That's where our family members were born," island native...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on These Native Americans Might Be the Country’s First Climate Change RefugeesUnited Kingdom: How to combat climate change from your garden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Telegraph: When the screenwriter William Goldman said "nobody knows anything", he was talking about the inability of anyone in Hollywood to predict what would turn out to be the next blockbuster. But he might equally have been talking about gardening and climate change, where no one seems to know for sure what to expect, or how to prepare for it.
So I was intrigued to see a report of a project by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh attempting to answer that question. Edinburgh and its three regional outposts...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: How to combat climate change from your gardenOil Stocks: Bakken Shale Drillers Feel Burn From $30 Crude
Posted by Motley Fool: None Given on February 27th, 2016
Motley Fool: After months of speculation about what oil price would break the back of shale drillers, we finally have that number: $30 a barrel. At least that's the price at which Bakken shale drillers Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS), Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) and Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) can no longer keep drilling in the oil play that really turned around America's oil production. That was abundantly clear after reviewing their plans for 2016, with each company basically winding down operations in the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oil Stocks: Bakken Shale Drillers Feel Burn From $30 CrudePorter Ranch ‘Monster’ Gas Leak Largest U.S. History
Posted by EcoWatch: Deirdre Fulton on February 27th, 2016
EcoWatch: The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout, which lasted for months and sickened scores of nearby residents, has been confirmed as the largest methane leak in history.
According to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday in the journal Science, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane--effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Southern California Gas Co. said it stopped the leak earlier this month. State Division of Oil, Gas and...
California Natural Gas Leak Officially Largest Leak in U.S. History
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: The four-month natural gas leak that sickened hundreds of Los Angeles residents and forced the evacuations of 1,800 homes this winter has officially been deemed the largest methane leak in U.S. history, according to a study in the journal Science. The California leak spewed a total 97,100 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, up to 60 tons per hour—the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 572,000 cars. Methane is a greenhouse gas dramatically more potent than carbon dioxide...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California Natural Gas Leak Officially Largest Leak in U.S. HistoryIndigenous communities are forced to clean up a 3,000-barrel oil spill in Peru’s Amazon
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 26th, 2016
Mongabay: The images being shared on social media and by the international press these days show to the average eye what the impacts of a broken oil pipeline can be: water dyed deep black, turned into a liquid as thick as the oil that has contaminated them. Those recent photos from northern Peru document how the oil spill is covering rocks on the rivers’ shores, and also the white suits donned by the men who have been hired to clean up the spill in the Amazon tributary. This isn’t the first time that an...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indigenous communities are forced to clean up a 3,000-barrel oil spill in Peru’s AmazonChinese dam builder eyeing major Amazon mega-dam contract
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 26th, 2016
Mongabay: Chinese construction companies are trying to gain a larger foothold on infrastructure projects — especially hydroelectric dams — in the Amazon, a region and sector in which large Brazilian construction companies have long dominated. That opportunity has been created by hard times for the Brazilian companies, due to the ongoing government/corporate Operação Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) scandal, the devaluation of Brazil’s Real currency, along with pricey credit rates. China Three Gorges — a state-owned...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Chinese dam builder eyeing major Amazon mega-dam contract