Plans Afoot to Ship Fresh Water from Alaska to India
Imagine an oil tanker plowing through the ocean, hauling valuable cargo from resource-rich nations of the world to the countries that need it: but instead of oil, the tanker holds millions of gallons of fresh water.
It’s not a vision from some futuristic film or doomsday novel, but the present-day intention of companies trying to launch the bulk water export business. The idea has been around since the 1990’s, yet no one has succeeded in making it a practical reality.
But last July, the US company S2C Global Systems, Inc. became the latest bulk water wanna-be by announcing it would begin shipping water from Alaska to India within the next six to eight months. Using large class vessels that can hold 50 million gallons at a time, S2C plans to sell the water for both manufacturing and drinking purposes to countries around the Arabian Sea.
"I think it's a dream," said Peter Gleick, a scientist and international water expert, in an interview with SolveClimate News. Gleick is President of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security. "I don't think bulk water transfers of any significant volume are ever going to happen, because the cost of moving water, especially across the ocean, is so high."
Bjørn Lomborg, a self-styled "skeptical environmentalist" who has long opposed international curbs on carbon emissions, is now urging world leaders to invest heavily in clean energy.
Most of Germany's energy demand can be met through renewable sources by 2050, but this is dependent on spending billions of euros, according to the conclusions of a government-commissioned report.
Accurate conclusions about what caused the blowout of BP's oil well in the Gulf and the massive spill that followed will have to wait for a key piece of equipment to be raised from the seafloor and analyzed, a member of a federal investigative panel looking into the disaster said.
An environmental group is holding a statewide "Keep the Promise" tour that's aimed at enacting a new "severance tax" on Marcellus Shale natural gas producers, and the first stop will be in the Pittsburgh area.
Activists from the Appalachian region called on the Obama administration Monday to end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, saying it is destroying their land and harming their water quality.
On Friday, it was widely reported that The Gap, Levi Strauss and Timberland had told their transportation companies that preference would be given to those that avoided using oilsands fuels. All three firms denied those reports to CBC News.
IPCC Procedures Get Tough Rebuke from Distinguished Panel
The Nobel prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must undergo "fundamental" changes if it is to remain a "valuable resource," said a committee probing the group's processes and procedures in an unexpectedly scathing review.
It represents the most comprehensive look ever taken at one of the world’s most influential climate science organizations.
The review was carried out by 12 experts of the InterAcademy Council (IAC), an Amsterdam-based organization of 15 of the world's science academies. The committee was chaired by Harold T. Shapiro, an economist and former president of Princeton University.
While Shapiro declared the IPCC assessment process a success "overall" and a value to society, he also clearly stated that the panel hasn't kept up with the complexity of climate science research and higher public expectations.
European Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or else risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE).
In a campaign launching today, the charity accuses European companies of land-grabbing throughout Africa to grow biofuel crops that directly compete with food crops. Biofuel companies counter that they consult with local governments, bring investment and jobs, and often produce fuels for the local market.
FoE has added its voice to an NGO lobby that claims local communities are not properly consulted and that forests are being cleared in a pattern that echoes decades of exploitation of other natural resources in Africa.
"The amount of land being taken in Africa to meet Europe's increasing demand for biofuels is underestimated and out of control," Kirtana Chandrasekaran, food campaigner for FoE in the UK, said. "Especially in Africa, as long as there's massive demand for biofuels from the European market, it will be hard to control. If we implement the biofuels targets it will only get worse. This is just a small taste of what's to come."
A divided Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that a state board had the power to sidestep community opposition to grant the controversial Cape Wind energy project local and state permits it needs to start construction off Cape Cod.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday a nationwide renewable electricity standard is "absolutely" in the mix as he tries to salvage energy legislation this year — possibly in a lame-duck session.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was booted from office in the Republican primary Tuesday by a little-known conservative lawyer in arguably the biggest political upset of the year.
A group of coal and power companies said Tuesday that it has decided to stick with the government-backed FutureGen project to cut emissions from a coal-fired plant despite a significant change in plan.
Two environmental groups, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Environmental Integrity Project, are lending legal support to the U.S. EPA in its lawsuit with the State of Texas.
The agency that oversees offshore drilling is imposing a first-ever ethics policy that bars inspectors from dealing with a company that employs a family member or personal friend.
