Tara Lohan
AlterNetSat, 06 Oct 2007 11:36 UTC
Whether we avert catastrophe with climate change may actually be decided by Citibank and Bank of America.
We're nearing the end of the window of opportunity we have to avert the catastrophic effects predicted from the earth's changing climate. We're either going to sink or swim. Our best hope at this time is to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, like carbon dioxide.
Global leaders are putting their heads together to come up with solutions. Across the world, countries and municipalities are passing legislation to limit GHG emissions; people are cutting consumption; new technologies are being developed to further alternative energy sources. And yet, in the United States, the coal industry has us poised to move in the absolute wrong direction. Right now, there are about 150 new coal-fired power plants on the drawing board. The amount of polluting emissions they will release is staggering -- between 600 million and 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions every year, for the next 50 years. And this, according to Rainforest Action Network (RAN), will basically negate every other effort currently being considered to fight climate change.
An earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale jolted the city of Esfarayen in this northeastern province Friday night.
The seismological base of Qouchan affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University, registered the quake at 19:08 hours local time (1538 GMT).
Nearly 20 people are dead or missing in the worst floods to hit northern and central provinces in the last 20 years, Tuoi Tre newspaper said on its website.
Sarah Phelan
AlterNetFri, 05 Oct 2007 00:33 UTC
Think hydropower helps in the fight against climate change? Think again.
Opponents of dams have long argued against putting barriers in the natural flow of a river. Dams, they point out, prevent endangered fish from migrating, alter ecosystems, and threaten the livelihoods of local communities.
Native Americans, fishing communities, and environmentalists have made these arguments in their quest to decommission four dams on Klamath River, which runs from southwest Oregon to the coast of California. But with California requiring a 25 percent reduction in the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, clean energy has suddenly entered the Klamath dam debate.
The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk 30 percent as compared to last year's record size. According to measurements made by ESA's Envisat satellite, this year's ozone loss peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes.
7:58 p.m. A pair of mild eruptions hit Mt. Bulusan, a volcano in Sorsagon Province, which is part of the Bicol Region on Luzon Island. Relief and disaster teams report that an estimated 10,000 people are affected by clouds of ash. Some residents were reported to have suffered breathing problems, from the effects of thick, sulfur-laden ash and were hospitalized.
A volcano which erupted on the Yemeni island of Jebel Al Tair began spewing lava again on Wednesday evening. The news was confirmed by Hussein Abdul-Rahman, head of control center at the Naval Operation Room.
According to the Yemeni state news agency, Saba, the lava started to come out again from the western part of the island at 6pm UAE time.
The best seismologists in the world don't know when the next big earthquake will hit. But a Tel Aviv University geologist suggests that earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents of Middle Eastern countries indicate that the region's next significant quake is long overdue.
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| ©American Colony Hotel, American Colony Collection
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| Damage in Jerusalem's Old City following a July 11, 1927, earthquake. One of the first earthquakes on the Dead Sea Fault to be recorded by modern seismographic techniques, it reached 6.2 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was in the northern part of the Dead Sea.
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XinhuaFri, 05 Oct 2007 09:52 UTC
JAKARTA - At least 1,736 separate fire hotspots have been detected in Kalimantan island and South Sumatra province of Indonesia over the past week, officials said.
In Kalimantan, where 1,370 hotspots have been found, haze from the forest fires has begun to disrupt flights at Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjar Baru city in South Kalimantan, the Jakarta Post daily Friday quoted head of the South Kalimantan Environmental Impact Management Agency Rahmadi Kurdi as saying.
Indonesian residents living near a rumbling volcano in East Java have begun evacuation drills, officials said Thursday as they warned activity was increasing at the site.
Volcanologists lifted an alert for Mount Kelut to the third of a four-level warning system last Sunday. Hiking the warning to the four level means scientists fear an eruption is imminent.
