Feb 28 2010

BP and Shell face new shareholder revolt over tar sands

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Investors want oil giants to answer questions on their involvement in the environmentally damaging extraction of oil from tar sands Shareholders at BP and Shell will get the chance to vote at upcoming AGMs on whether to force oil giants to come clean on their Canadian tar sands involvement. Institutional investors including The Co-operative Asset Management and Rathbone Greenbank have co-signed a 'special resolution,' which would force the two companies to fully disclose and justify their involvement in Canadian tar sands.
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Feb 27 2010

Chile Earthquake one of the 10 strongest ever recorded

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On February 27, 2010 a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Maule, Chile causing widespread damage and casualties. The quake ranks as one of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded and was the most powerful earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Sumatran quake that triggered the massive Indian Ocean tsunami. The Maule was the strongest earthquake to strike Chile since the magnitude 9.5 which hit Valdivia on May 22, 1960. A tsunami warning from the Maule quake has been issued for the U.S. west coast, British Columbia, and Alaska. The tsunami amplitude is expected to be minor.
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Feb 27 2010

House members seek to block EPA carbon limits

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Two senior Democrats in the U.S. House filed a resolution to block the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases on its own if a climate change bill fails to pass Congress soon. The resolution of disapproval, filed on Thursday, is identical to a controversial resolution by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Both resolutions offer a fairly quick way to overturn Environmental Protection Agency proposals to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.
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Feb 26 2010

New Lead-Based Paint Requirements from EPA

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In April 2008, EPA promulgated regulations governing renovations in target housing (i.e., any housing constructed prior to 1978) and child-occupied facilities. The rule was designed to ensure that owners and occupants of target housing and child-occupied facilities receive information on lead-based paint hazards prior to the commencement of renovations and to ensure that firms performing such work are certified and safe work practices followed. Pre-renovation notice requirements had been in effect since 1999; the April 2008 simply specified a new pamphlet to be distributed to owners and occupants as of December 22, 2008.
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Feb 26 2010

Environmental disaster looms from River Po oil spill

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A giant oil slick threatened wildlife, fishing grounds and tourist spots Thursday as it moved down the Po, Italy's longest river, towards the sea, defying all efforts to stem its progress. Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo called the spill, blamed on saboteurs who broke into a disused refinery and opened valves, "a true attack on the environment and on citizens' health," the ANSA news agency reported. Several kilometers (miles) long, the slick was halfway between the cities of Cremona and Mantua late Thursday, having covered about 200 kilometres (125 miles) since it was released into a tributary of the Po early Tuesday.
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Feb 26 2010

Huge iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier

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An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns. The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile) iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier's 160 km (100 miles) floating tongue of ice that sticks out into the Southern Ocean. The collision has since halved the size of the tongue that drains ice from the vast East Antarctic ice sheet.
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Feb 25 2010

China has “No intention” of capping emissions

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China has no intention of capping its greenhouse gas emissions even as authorities are committed to realizing the nation's target to reduce carbon intensity through new policies and measures, the country's top climate change negotiators said yesterday. The negotiators also warned that rich and developing countries have little hope of overcoming key disagreements over how to fight global warming. China "could not and should not" set an upper limit on greenhouse gas emissions at the current phase, said Su Wei, the chief negotiator of China for climate change talks in Copenhagen, at a meeting in Beijing on China's climate change policies in the post-Copenhagen era.
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Feb 25 2010

Fish and Wildlife Service Removes Endangered Species Act Protection From Arizona’s Desert Nesting Bald Eagles

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is acting to remove Endangered Species Act protection from Arizona's desert nesting bald eagles. Almost two years after U.S. District Court Judge Mary Murguia’s March 5, 2008 rejection of the agency's last attempt in 2007, a similar decision by Fish and Wildlife has been released for publication in tomorrow's Federal Register. Today the agency also filed a request with the U.S. District Court to remove an injunction currently in place to protect the eagle. "We conclude that the best information available does not indicate that persistence in the ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert Area is important to the species as a whole," the new Fish and Wildlife decision states.
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Feb 25 2010

Venezuelan drought continuing

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For most Venezuelans, the El Nino-linked drought that has struck the country this year means inconveniences like power and water rationing. But for some, the extreme dry spell is stirring up bittersweet memories. The Uribante reservoir that feeds a hydroelectric dam here is at its lowest level in decades, and the receding waters have uncovered a village that has been mostly underwater since 1985, when it was flooded. Former town resident Josefa Garcia, 74, is grateful for the drought, even though it has triggered Venezuela's worst-ever electricity crisis.
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Feb 25 2010

Saliva and the Pancreas

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The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, and somatostatin, as well as an exocrine gland, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that pass to the small intestine. There may soon be a new weapon in the battle against the so-called "worst" cancer - cancer of the pancreas. A multidisciplinary group of investigators from the UCLA School of Dentistry, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the UCLA School of Public Health and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has demonstrated the usefulness of salivary diagnostics in the effort to find and fight the disease.
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