skippy the bush kangaroo

Sunday, December 20, 2009

environmental news stories sunday

yes, virginia, there were other stories other than copenhagen this week.

the santa cruz looks healthier, but is it really? - one of the first things newcomers learn about tucson is that the santa cruz river here is no rio grande, let alone a mississippi. it's basically on life support, carrying no water except during increasingly rare storms.- tuscon daily star

louisiana tells epa that it should let congress handle greenhouse gas regulation. - the state department of environmental quality has demanded that the federal dpa rescind its recent finding that greenhouse gases endanger present and future generations, and take no action to require industries and small businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - washington post

city of cyclists. - bicycles are everywhere in copenhagen. the city invests heavily in this low-tech mode of transportation – with wide bicycle lanes, car-free streets, and special traffic lights, to make cycling safe, easy and fun - living on earth

biggest private funder of amazon conservation teams with google and scientists to develop earth monitoring platform. - the platform, which was officially unveiled at climate talks in in copenhagen, promises to enable near real-time monitoring of the world's forests and carbon at high resolution at selected sites before cop-16 in mexico - mongabay

residents of area say nosebleeds, breathing problems part of life now. - some 140 families took the tva buyout of their homes and land and relocated after the ash spill at the kingston fossil plant, but others remained. nearly a year later, living near the ash spill disaster zone remains a horror story - knoxville sentinel

pines residents still not certain of coal ash’s effects. - year after year, toxic chemicals from coal ash dumped in the town of pines spread under residents' feet. what it has done to their surroundings, their children, themselves, the residents of pines are still unsure. all they can do is wait. - michigan city news dispatch

drinking problems. - like many water utilities across the u.s, disinfectants like chlorine are added to the supply to remove life-threatening microbes. but when the disinfectants interact with organic material that seeps into drinking water, new chemicals are formed that could be a potential health hazard. - glens falls post star

dry coffers can mean that fires burn longer. - the budget-challenged city of sacramento has instituted rolling brownouts at fire stations to save money, at the risk of precious seconds during fires. - nytimes

oceans becoming nosier thanks to pollution. - the world’s oceans are becoming noisier thanks to pollution, with potentially harmful effects for whales, dolphins and other marine life, us scientists said in a study published sunday. the concentration of chemicals that absorb sound has declined from ocean acidification - afp

in industrial thailand, health and business concerns collide. - villagers in map ta phut avoid walking in the rain because it burns their skin and causes their hair to fall out. they have trouble breathing at night when factories release toxic fumes, they say. and the community is terrified by what studies show are unusually high cancer rates - nytimes

high lead levels found on soup can reopen mystery of doomed franklin expedition. - lead levels that are “off the scale” have been confirmed after tests were done this morning on the lid of a soup can dating back more than 150 years. the findings reopen the mystery surrounding the cause of death of sir john franklin and his doomed crew as they searched for the northwest passage- exchange magazine

un left hundreds of kosovo kids to die of lead poisoning. - sara jahirovic is dying a slow, painful death. sara is just one of hundreds of forgotten children abandoned to suffer brain damage and await death in an international scandal exposed today by the sun. - london sun

and, regarding copenhagen...not everyone walked away with the idea that it was a winning accord.

climate scientists underwhelmed by copenhagen accord. - top climate scientists said saturday that the eleventh-hour political deal hammered out at un talks in copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming- afp

copenhagen summit ends in blood, sweat and recrimination. - gordon brown and barack obama did their best to put a positive spin on it, but copenhagen was a disaster- london daily telegraph

'toothless' climate deal struck by superpowers. - president barack obama said that an "unprecedented breakthrough" to curb greenhouse gas emissions – including a mechanism to verify compliance – was achieved, after a frenzied day of diplomacy at the un climate talks. - edinburough scotsman

climate leaders: the rhetoric vs. the reality. - they had been urged to side with the angels but ultimately, base political instinct seems to have prevailed among the world's most powerful leaders as they sealed a climate pact among themselves, sparking fury elsewhere. - afp

one planet, different worlds. - all eyes in copenhagen were on china and president barack obama friday night, but no event captured the discord, mistrust and distance separating all sides at these climate talks than a pair of press conferences held simultaneously at the bella center earlier in the afternoon. - daily climate

poorest of the poor ask why copenhagen failed to listen. - it's hard to see how the copenhagen accord delivers justice to people in poor countries that are least responsible for climate change but suffer its impacts right now. - sydney morning herald

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