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Only one of every five miles of river in the United States is ecologically and biologically healthy, according to a first-of-its-kind assessment of national water quality. The Environmental Protection Agency used random sampling to estimate river and stream health in the lower 48 states. Based on data from 1,924 sites monitoring rivers, streams and ponds, [...]
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The numbers dribbled out in a weekly Bureau of Reclamation update. Then they were splashed on a regional map. The conclusion is the same: the Colorado River runoff forecast is dry and getting drier. In fact, that is the case for most of the states west of the Rocky Mountains. They rely on a deep [...]
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UNEP Highlights Energy, Climate Change, and Arctic Ice Melt Reuters reports on the UNEP Year Book 2013 which highlights the cyclical nature of Arctic ice melt and fossil fuel extraction there. “What we are seeing is that the melting of ice is prompting a rush for exactly the fossil fuel resources that fuelled the melt [...]
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A 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Japan near the site of the Fukushima disaster, creating a 1-meter (3.2 feet) tsunami, Reuters reported. Neither the quake nor the tsunami caused much damage. In this Guardian blog, George Monbiot questions the United Kingdom’s trial policy of biodiversity offsetting, which allows developers to destroy habitat for [...]
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A Utah water quality board approved the first commercial tar sands project in the U.S. Wednesday, opening a largely undeveloped area in Utah’s eastern desert to production next year. A Canadian company called U.S. Oil Sands Inc., the Deseret News reported, aims to start production of 2,000 barrels of oil next year. Contaminated Water in [...]
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Before adjourning for a five-week vacation, the House of Representatives passed a US$383 million drought-relief bill, the Hill reports. To pay for it, farmland conservation programs will be cut. Critics say that this is short-sighted because these programs protect, among others things, the soil’s ability to hold moisture. “If Congress is serious about assisting farmers [...]
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A team of scientists and photographers has embarked on a mission to document Africa’s melting glaciers, according to the Guardian. A southwestern Chinese city has cancelled plans to build a multimillion-pound copper alloy plant amid anti-pollution demonstrations that lasted for days, the Guardian reported. Water supply cuts in New Delhi have made this year’s summer [...]
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Push-back on the transportation of tar sands equipment through a wilderness corridor reflects civic resistance to North American fossil fuel boom.
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United States The Great Lakes Watershed is at risk from potential oil spills due to inadequate federal regulations for pipelines, according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation and The University of Michigan, UPI reported. In 2010, crude tar sand oil spilled from a ruptured pipe into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Ohio faces a [...]
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Water scarcity will likely create conflict in regions around the world within the next decade, according to a report from the United States Director of National Intelligence, launched March 22 in Washington. The report, available here, predicts that water-linked instability is most likely to occur in South Asia and the Middle East. Providing enough water [...]
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Drought and Water Access A forest fire in China’s Yunnan province was brought under control Tuesday after burning for two days and coming within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the provincial capital, Xinhua reported. The fire was linked to drought conditions that have plagued Yunnan for the past three years. The Guardian looks at the [...]
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A year after the devastating tsunami in Japan, communities in the affected regions are slowly repairing their towns. On the one-year anniversary of the disaster, the Guardian features a series of montages that press agencies have created by combining pictures taken during or just after the tsunami hit with images taken up to a year [...]
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Extensive flooding in Australia makes the need to implement a new Murray-Darling Basin water management plan less urgent, argued the Water Minister of New South Wales, who called for delayed action on the reforms, according to The Australian. Two billion people gained access to safer drinking water between 1990 and 2010, meeting an international Millennium [...]
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Energy South Africa may invest $78 billion in new nuclear power plants, a hydropower project and a coal-fired power plant in order to keep up with energy demand, Business Week reported. A European Union expert committee failed to reach a decision on a proposal that would label fuel from tar sands as highly polluting, pushing [...]
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Droughts South-East England is officially in a state of drought, the Press Association reported, citing the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Guardian has mapped out the affected regions. As rivers and reservoirs in England and Wales are running low after two dry winters, water industry executives have again called for regulatory reforms [...]
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The proposed pipeline could be approved on a much shorter timeline than was laid out by President Barack Obama, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday giving approval power for the project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Senate has not yet considered the bill.
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Energy A bill meant to speed up approval of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline passed the United States House of Representatives, Bloomberg News reported. Those opposed to the pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canada’s tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, say it could harm the environment. In this Guardian video, [...]
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Bulgaria should pursue shale gas in order to achieve energy independence, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to the country, according to EurActiv. In January, Bulgaria placed a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, which forces large quantities of chemicals and water into shale gas formations underground to release [...]
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Transporting and processing corrosive crude raise new questions about consequences.
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Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2013
It is time we just said “no.”