Associated Press: San Diego’s regional water agency approved a contract Thursday to buy the entire output of what would be the Western Hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant. The San Diego County Water Authority voted on the 30-year contract involving Poseidon Resources LLC, which needed the deal to finance construction of the […] Read the original […]
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Dispersant makes oil 52 times more toxic
LiveScience: For microscopic animals living in the Gulf of Mexico, even worse than the toxic oil released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster may be the very oil dispersants used to clean it up, a new study finds. More than 2 million gallons (7.5 million liters) of oil dispersants called Corexit […] Read the original […]
Agency Seeks Protection for 66 Corals Under the Endangered Species Act
New York Times: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, prompted by a lawsuit from an environmental group, has proposed federal protection for 66 species of coral under the Endangered Species Act. Here are the basics from the agency: NOAA Fisheries is proposing Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings for 66 coral species: […] Read the original […]
Pacific islanders face major losses from climate change
AlertNet: The livelihoods of some 10 million people in Pacific island communities are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, which poses “unprecedented challenges” to the region’s economies and environment, a U.N.-backed report said on Friday. Incomes – in many cases already low – are at risk from sea-level rise, tropical cyclones, floods […] Read the original […]
Windfarms: the bitter fight dividing the UK
Guardian: On a sunny, blowy evening in September, a new single turbine was being unveiled in the Gloucestershire village of St Briavels. If you had been in the room, you would have been filled with optimism about the future. It wasn’t that the community centre was heaving, because it wasn’t, […] Read the original post […]
Lawmakers cry “fowl” over move to help lesser prairie chicken
Reuters: A move by U.S. authorities to consider placing a small grassland bird native to parts of the oil and gas belt on the Endangered Species List has drawn the ire of some Western lawmakers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced a plan to consider having the lesser […] Read the original […]
Brazilian bank approves $10.8 billion loan for controversial Amazon rainforest dam
Mongabay: Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) on Monday announced it has approved a $10.8 billion (22.5 billion Brazilian reais) loan to the consortium that is building the controversial Belo Monte dam in the state of Par´ in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, reports International Rivers, a group that is […] Read the original post […]
Pictures: Bakken Shale Oil Boom Transforms North Dakota
National Geographic: North Dakota, once a sleepy backwater of the petroleum industry, this year surpassed Alaska as the number two oil producer in the United States. The gush of North Dakota crude has helped lift U.S. oil production to its highest level in 14 years, and has the United States […] Read the original post […]
Outgoing Mexican President’s Environmental Legacy Questioned
Inter Press Service: – “A Canadian firm wants to extract minerals in our area; it will harm the environment and use up water needed by the community,” complained Hipólito GarcÃa, who lives in Tetlama, 110 kilometres south of the Mexican capital. Similar complaints are echoed around the country. GarcÃa`s protest is […] Read the original […]
Is climate change poised for a comeback?
Washington Post: Is the zombie issue of climate change poised for a comeback? Since the defeat of cap-and-trade legislation more than two years ago, climate change has seemingly vanished as a political issue. As it dropped in the polls of Americans’ concerns, so too did it vanish from the agenda of […] Read the original […]