By KATE GALBRAITH22 April 2011 The severe drought across Texas has hit the oil and gas city of Midland especially hard, as I reported in Friday’s New York Times and Texas Tribune. Since Oct. 1, Midland has received only 0.13 inches of rainfall — making it “most likely the driest six-and-a-half-month period in recorded history,” […]
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY Iraq has doubled its electricity capacity over prewar levels, making dramatic headway in a critical benchmark that had plagued U.S. leaders and frustrated Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Iraq’s supply of electricity is 7,900 megawatts, about double the levels before the war, according to the U.S. Embassy in […]
Geneva (AFP) April 20, 2011 – Swiss officials began moving trout from a river this week to save them from plunging water levels, amid one of the worst droughts to hit the country in 150 years. “2011 is off to a good start to finish as one of the most significant droughts since 1864,” the […]
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News21 April 2011 The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia’s recent series of droughts, scientists say. Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics. Their climate models suggest the […]
NAIROBI, 20 April 2011 (IRIN) – Officials and aid workers in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region have raised the alarm over the plight of drought-stricken villagers urgently needing food and water. “We are experiencing the worst drought we have seen in decades; since the beginning of March, we have buried 54 people who died from the […]
By Jim Bai and Tom Miles; Editing by Michael Urquhart18 April 2011 BEIJING (Reuters) – Central China’s Hubei province has joined a growing list of regions facing coal shortages, with a warning on Monday that it is very likely to start rationing power this month if coal supplies remain tight and low water stocks continue […]
By Jim Forsyth; Editing by Jerry Norton18 April 2011 SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry has requested a Major Disaster Declaration for the entire state, as brush fires which have burned more than 1.5 million acres continued on Monday. The fires have been whipped by 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts and fueled by brush dried out […]
By IAN URBINA16 April 2011 WASHINGTON — Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats. The chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or […]
April 11 (NPR) – The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for activities like washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking. But that amount doesn’t even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants. Each day, coal, nuclear and natural gas plants use about five […]
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press6 April 2011 COYLE, Okla. — In most years, the dark clouds over western Oklahoma in the spring would be bringing rain. This year, they’re more likely to be smoke from wildfires that have burned thousands of acres in the past month as the state and its farmers struggle with a […]
