HOUSTON, January 7 (AP) – The National Weather Service says 2011 was Texas’ driest year on record as well as its second hottest. The agency said Friday the average rainfall for the drought-stricken state last year was 14.88 inches. The previous driest average total was in 1917 with 14.99 inches. The weather service says 2011’s […]
By Laine Welch, For the Alaska Journal of Commerce21 December 2011 West Coast shellfish growers have learned to work around upwellings of corrosive waters and save the lives of their bivalve stocks. Increased levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere are changing the chemistry of the oceans, making it more acidic. The CO2 […]
By Jens Erik Gould / Los Angeles 3 January 2011 To quench the thirst of Southern California’s some 20 million people, water must be imported from hundreds of miles away, across a daunting array of deserts, valleys and mountains. For decades, Angelenos have muttered a doomsday refrain: our water supply isn’t sustainable, and we are […]
By Jon Hilkevitch2 January 2012 The tally on Chicago’s rutted streets and alleys is in, and it’s a record: Crews filled more than 600,000 potholes in 2011, or about 25 percent more than in 2010, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation. In a city notorious for aging asphalt and unpredictable winters, 2012 threatens to […]
[Apologies in advance for the ad.] By Sarah Huisenga 30 December 2011 DES MOINES – Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a post-election book of essays about the environment. But the intended author of the chapter, who supports the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change, says that’s […]
By Jonathan Fahey, AP Energy Writer30 December 2011 ALAMINOS CANYON BLOCK 857, GULF OF MEXICO – Two hundred miles off the coast of Texas, ribbons of pipe are reaching for oil and natural gas deeper below the ocean’s surface than ever before. These pipes, which run nearly two miles deep, are connected to a floating […]
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY27 December 2011 Nighttime stretches of road across the USA are being left dark by the theft of copper wiring from streetlights, and police are investigating whether the darkness contributed to some crashes. Copper thieves also are hitting traffic lights. The problem is particularly acute for localities where the sour economy […]
By Rana Foroohar 26 September 2011 It’s official: There are now more poor people in America than at any other time in the 52 years records have been kept. We knew that the 2010 poverty numbers, released by the Census Bureau on Sept. 13, weren’t going to be good. They turned out to be, in […]
By CORNELIA DEAN26 December 2011 The intense, deep blue skies of the American Southwest, skies that have drawn painters and photographers for a century or more, are a product of the region’s extremely dry air. Yet here’s another interesting fact: Though we think of the Southwest as dry — and it is dry — its […]
Mexico City (AFP) Dec 19, 2011 – Authorities Monday shut down Mexico’s — and possibly the world’s — biggest garbage dump and said they would invite bids to exploit methane gas generated by the decomposing waste. Waste Management Commission chief Fernando Menendez called the closing “historic” as “it is the world’s largest (truck-filled open-air) dump.” […]
