Rushing Rivers Blog

Hello Everyone!

More press has been generated on the Russell Biomass case.  Today’s Valley Advocate contains this article

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=9240

which exposes the exclusion of Dr. Parasiewicz’s testimony to the public.  His involvement, as well as that of many other concerned citizens, advocates, and scientists, is detailed.

This quote,

“The DEP ruled that testimony from all those sources was “irrelevant” because it related to discharges of pollutants regulated under federal law, not to water withdrawal, the subject of the state permit. But that mischaracterizes Parasiewicz’s testimony, which analyzes the withdrawal in detail. And Margaret Sheehan, an attorney (…) and the other river activists, says the ruling misrepresents the pertinent state law. In an email Sheehan told the Advocate, “The Water Management Act, Mass. General Laws, Chapter 21G, Section 7, says in granting a permit for someone to take water from the river, DEP ’shall consider& reasonable protection of water quality, fisheries, wildlife, recreation,’ and the ability of the river to absorb wastewater from the plant that is taking the water.”

Gives an idea of the flavor of the article. 

Please, support our effort in the Russell Biomass case by submitting your letters to the editor at the above link, or posting on our blog.

Also, our affiliates at the Ocean River Institute have initiated a call to action to stop the destruction of the Westfield River on their site,

http://oceanriver.org/WestfieldRiverRussellMA.php

It only takes a moment to help us preserve these wonderful natural areas. 

Thank you so much for your support.  Have a wonderful day.

In recent years the warnings from climate scientists have been dire. They have been telling us that the build up of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere has been causing a vast array of changes all over the globe from the polar icecaps to the arid Australian outback. Now it seems that their warnings weren’t dire enough. Greenhouse Gases are collecting faster than previously thought.
Read more here:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/2009/02/climate_changing_faster_than_p.html

For the first time in nearly a decade the world’s greatest polluter, the US has a leader committed to cleaning up its act. Professor Jacqueline McGlade, of the European Environment Agency, thinks it is the people themselves who need to lead. McGlade feels that we, as the citizens of advanced nations, need to take control of our local environment by observing changes in our local areas and making use of current data to conserve and protect our vital resources. Paired with this, the European Environmental Agency and the EU are making the complex data available to citizens the way weathermen have been making complex meteorological data available for years.
It will also be up to citizens to help to gather this data, making use of the European Environmental Agencies new web portal. Models that depict the effects of cuts in CO2 emissions will also be made available to the public.
With all of this new responsibility to collect and use the growing body of climate data, we will finally get to see if we can be the leaders we have been waiting for.

Read more here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7893230.stm

Much of California is facing severe drought which is shuttering farms and costing the state over a billion dollars and 40,000 jobs. A solution to the current crisis will take a complex public private partnership. Increasing the challenges are environmental concerns, business concerns and past conflict over water availability.

Read the whole story:
Response to drought is dry run for a response to climate change

The British government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has run afoul of Northern Ireland’s Environment minister, a staunch climate change denier. The central governments Department of Energy and Climate Change had been running ads informing the people of Northern Ireland about energy saving measures and global climate change. The ads have been ceased based on legal advice given to the British government.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090210/NEWS07/302109955/-1/NEWS

Northern China is already facing a serious water crisis. New news reports from the BBC indicate that the relief system put in place by the Chinese government is facing it’s own problems. China had planned to divert water from its southern region to the arid north. The cause of the delay is being disputed by officials, one saying the cause is environmental; the other says it is a problem relocating peasant farmers.
What is not disputed is the need for the water diversion program. In 35% of China’s population lives in the northern region subsisting on 7% of China’s water resources. The planned central route is such a massive undertaking that it will require tunneling under the Yellow River in three places as well as enlarging several dams along the route. This is causing concern that there will be massive negative effects in the area of these new and larger dams and waterways; these concerns are slowing construction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7864390.stm

Many areas in the world are already facing water shortages or drought. This interactive map projects what areas will experience these problems more acutely over the next 60 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7821082.stm

Over-use of water and climate change is threatening some of the word’s largest river basins in Southern Asia. Among the findings are

• “Climate change is likely to lead to severe water shortages in all of the basins in the long term, as about 67 per cent of Himalayan glaciers are reported to be receding, reducing the glacial runoff which feeds these rivers.
• - Water resources in the Indus and Helmand river basins are highly vulnerable - this is mainly due to ecological insecurity illustrated by decreasing vegetation cover and declining water quality.
• Groundwater levels are declining at a rate of two to four meters per year in many parts of the GBM and Indus basins due to intense pumping, which threatens soil and water quality and results in saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers.”

Read the full story here: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=562&ArticleID=6068&l=en&t=long

A recent report warns of African nations being hard hit by damage to fisheries as a result of global warming. The study points to changes in the coral reef and possibly extreme flooding of rivers to countries such as Angola and the Dominican Republic of Congo

Read the full story here:     http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L5735401.htm

Recent studies have shown that acid levels  in the ocean are rising much more dramatically in contemporary times as a result of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that pH levels will drop (become more acidic) between 0.14 and 0.35 over the next century which is a dramatic change. Research indicates that the ocean has been absorbing the increased levels of Carbon Dioxide which threaten biodiversity, food webs, and the overall stability of the ecosystem.

Read the full story here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7860350.stm