s skippy the bush kangaroo: environmental news stories sunday

skippy the bush kangaroo



Sunday, January 06, 2013

environmental news stories sunday

forget the fiscal cliff....it's the climate cliff we really need to worry about. however, i don't think you will hear anything about that on the talking head shows today.

staggering cost of repairs allows sewage to foul new jersey waterways. more than 23 billion gallons of raw sewage and other pollutants pour into new jersey’s rivers and bays each year because aging sewer systems are overwhelmed during heavy rains. the raw sewage and toxic waste is enough to fill the oradell reservoir nearly seven times over - bergen county record

as biofuel demand grows, so do guatemala’s hunger pangs. with its corn-based diet and proximity to the united states, central america has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the united states’ corn policy. now that the united states is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn - nytimes

fears for missing residents as fire fighting continues. police fear there may have been deaths in the fire-ravaged south-east of tasmania, with a number of people reported missing. since friday, more than 100 homes have been destroyed by a bushfire between forcett and the tasman peninsula, in the state's south-east - australia abc news

thousands flee out of control bushfires in australia. australia’s savage bushfire season has arrived with cruel force this weekend, destroying scores of buildings and taking the life of at least one man who died as he tried to save his tasmania home from the flames - times of london

china's heavy metal and chemical pollution worsening. in china, a senior environmental policy official has warned the mainland faces an "extremely grave" environmental crisis that will only worsen as pollution increases and the health problems its causes come to light - south china morning post

coal in the rich world: the mixed fortunes of a fuel. why is the world’s most harmful fossil fuel being burned less in america and more in europe? coal-fired power stations provide two-fifths of the world’s electricity, and there are ever more of them. if current trends continue, coal will vie with oil as the world’s largest source of primary energy within five years. - economist

projecting warming's impact on the san francisco bay area. without drastic changes to fossil fuel emissions, the impacts of global warming will land on the bay area with a brute force that pays no regard to our relatively liberal politics, farsighted state climate regulations or fondness for hybrid vehicles - sfgate

gregoire emerges as top contender to boss epa. president obama is about to nominate outgoing washington gov. chris gregoire as the new head of the u.s. environmental protection agency, according to a very private prediction from a very senior source in washington’s congressional delegation - seattle pi

scientists seek foolproof signal to predict earthquakes. the dream is to be able to forecast earthquakes like we now predict the weather. even a few minutes' warning would be enough for people to move away from walls or ceilings that might collapse or for nuclear plants and other critical facilities to be shut down safely in advance of the temblor. - national geographic news

looking to sky to fight climate change. a team of researchers is hoping to be able to make coastal clouds more reflective – thus sending more heat and light back into space, wielding clouds as shields against climate change. one fear, however, is that altering the atmosphere this way could also unleash dangerous side effects - sfgate

whatever your mixed metaphor for it might be -- melting glacial vortex, drought abyss, or maybe just hell (in the burning sense) -- climate change certainly deserves some imagistic attention in a world in which, as tomdispatch regular and founder of 350.org bill mckibben suggests, time is not on our side. - tom dispatch

climate change a reality for massachusetts south shore communities. if you want to see the effects of climate change and rising sea levels, look along ocean street in marshfield, mass., whenever waves batter the boulders and sea wall, the town’s planner, paul halkiotis, says - boston patriot leader

Fracker ad clashes on screen with damon’s 'promised land.' before many pennsylvania movie-goers settle in for matt damon’s film about the fight over natural gas drilling, they will see a message from the energy industry offering "straightforward facts" about hydraulic fracturing and trying to paint damon’s movie as derivative, condescending and cliched - bloomberg news


ohio's fracking panel is delayed. ohio officials are more than a year behind schedule in setting up a system to allow oil and gas “ fracking” in state parks and forests - columbus dispatch

dumped christmas trees are a gift for lake havasu fish. the ghosts of christmas past can be found in some unusual places. the bottom of lake havasu, for instance. there, thousands of christmas trees sunk by wildlife biologists have found a second life as fish habitat in an ecosystem damaged by the damming of the colorado river decades ago. - latte times
on new year’s eve, in the middle of a storm, shell was trying to tow its kulluk drilling rig from alaska to seattle. why then? why risk the bad weather, which, as it turned out, caused the rig to break free from its tugboats and run aground on lodiak island? to avoid paying state taxes, of course. - grist

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