US Natural Gas, Oil reserves soar

U.S. natural gas reserves increased by the most in history last year, and crude reserves also rose, as companies drilled frantically into shale rock formations with new technology, the Energy Information Administration said in an annual report on Tuesday.
U.S. net proved natural gas reserves rose 11 percent, or 28.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf), in 2009 to total 284 tcf, underscoring the dramatic impact that new gas pumped from shale rock formations is having on world energy supply.
Louisiana, whose statewide reserves grew quickest, saw its economically viable gas reserves surge by 77 percent, or 9.2 tcf, led by developments in its Haynesville Shale.
U.S. net proved crude oil reserves rose 9 percent, or 1.8 billion barrels, to 22.3 billion barrels in 2009. Texas saw its proved oil volumes rise most, by 529 million barrels, or 11 percent.
North Dakota, home of the oil-rich Bakken Shale formation, saw its reserves jump by a whopping 83 percent, or 481 million barrels.
"These increases demonstrate the possibility of an expanding role for domestic natural gas and crude oil in meeting both current and projected U.S. energy demands," EIA researchers said in their report.

Proved reserves -- which now stand at the equivalent of 12 years of gas consumption and 3.3 years of oil demand -- represent energy supplies that are extensively charted out and could be tapped under current market conditions. Total recoverable reserves, however, can be far higher.
The addition of 47.6 tcf in new proved gas reserves was the sharpest on record and caps seven straight years of increases, EIA said. It was led by gas from shale rock formations, such as Haynesville, where advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have unlocked vast new energy potential.



Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AT68Q20101130

Locals fighting an Alaskan wilderness mine

Anglo American promised it would not touch the pristine habitat of Bristol Bay without our blessing. It must honor its word. Among our Alaskan native tribes, a promise made is a promise kept. Such promises over the generations have kept our populations of wild sockeye salmon, which sustain our culture and feed our families, plentiful and healthy. And last year, Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of London-based mining giant Anglo American PLC, made a promise
In a private meeting with Alaskans in London (including one of this piece's authors), Carroll promised her company would not build its proposed Pebble mine if local residents didn't support it.

The vast majority of Bristol Bay residents, joined by the Alaskan commercial and sport fishing industries, are strongly opposed to the proposed open-pit copper and gold mine project in the headwaters of the bay — spawning grounds for the largest and most valuable wild sockeye salmon on Earth. The Bristol Bay fishery supplies a third of the world's commercial supply. It is the lifeblood of many Alaska native communities and is critical to the state's economy, generating an average of $400m (£250m) a year and more than 5,500 jobs. The UK is the largest consumer of tinned sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay, with $43m-worth (£27m) of salmon exported to the UK last year.



While Anglo American has yet to file a complete application with state regulators, presentations by the company and water rights applications make it clear that the mine will be the largest of its kind in North America, and one of the largest in the world. If built, it would alter this special place for ever. Such a major industrial development will destroy productive salmon habitat and leave behind 10 billion tonnes of toxic mining waste that would stay here for ever. The sulphides in the rock make water pollution a near certainty. Even minute increases in certain metals interfere with a salmon's ability to navigate upriver to spawn.



Article continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/29/anglo-american-alaskan-bristol-bay

Get your own Green Bottle

Invest in a thermos. " 1,181,600 tons of wood, 2,040,061,237 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4,441,093,624 gallons of water would be saved yearly if Starbucks used their own re-usable thermos or mug."

 G E T   Y O U R S   H E R E

http://www.tronmarketing.com/greenthermo.html

Argentina protects its glaciers by law

Argentina enacted a new law that protects the country's glaciers, in a global context where climate change threatens the large bodies of ice and there are risks of different polluting activities.

The law, enacted on September 30, aims to preserve the glaciers as "strategic reserves of water for human consumption, for agriculture and as suppliers of water to recharge basins, for the protection of biodiversity ; as a source of scientific and tourist attraction."
the "National Inventory of Glaciers". It will be updated every five years, and verify the changes on the surfaces of glaciers and periglacial.

The "periglacial environment" is the high mountain area, with frozen soil, that acts as regulator of water resources.
Researchers at the Argentine Institute of Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences will have the task to disclose necessary information to control and monitor all glaciers and periglacial areas that act as water reserves.
The law states and prohibits the release, dispersal or disposal of substances or contaminants, chemicals or waste of any kind or size in glaciers and periglacial environments. It also prohibited the exploration and explotacion of mines.

Furthermore, it required an environmental impact assessment of all planned activities which are not prohibited.

"The new Act Glaciers may be an important tool in protecting drinking water sources located in the higher sectors of the Andean Cordillera," told Jorge Rabassa to SciDev.Net, Rabassa is a researcher at the National Council of Science and Technology and Professor head of the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco in Ushuaia.
In the periglacial environment are the major water resources in the high mountains that supply throughout the year various river basins, especially during the summer.

Article translated from Spanish by J. Torres, ENN.


 For original article: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/argentina-protects-its-glaciers-by-law-.html

Take Your Caffeine and Make It Green

Every day, morning rather rudely announces itself with the screech of our alarm clocks. Work awaits so hitting the snooze isn’t an option, yet feeling awake and alert seems almost impossible. That’s where caffeine comes in.

Actually  2.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed around the world daily. America alone is responsible for drinking almost one-fifth of all that coffee. So what does that mean?

What’s clear is that the world is addicted to caffeine. What’s a little less known is that our caffeine-guzzling habits are also creating a lot of waste. According to Sustainability is Sexy, an environmental organized based in Seattle, there are a lot of issues with regular coffee cups, many of which you may not be aware of. Most coffee cups aren’t made from recycled materials but are made from new, bleached paper. During its creation, the paper cup is covered with polyethylene, a plastic that can’t be recycled. The entire process from start to finish uses up many resources, including trees and water.

Luckily, there are ways to reduce your coffee waste even if you won’t reduce your coffee intake. Here are a few:

1.Invest in a thermos. " 1,181,600 tons of wood, 2,040,061,237 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4,441,093,624 gallons of water would be saved yearly if Starbucks used their own re-usable thermos or mug."   G E T   Y O U R S   H  E R E

2.Recycle your coffee grounds. There are countless ways to do so, whether using them as compost for your garden or de-icing your driveway during winter.
3.Buy eco-friendly coffee.

For the more ambitious, you can always try to follow in the footsteps of UK engineer-turned-TV-reporter Jem Stansfield, who converted his car to operate off coffee waste.
To calculate how much coffee waste you create, there is a great calculator here.

Finally, you can always attempt a cool art project, like the one made by organizers of the Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia last year. It only took them 3,604 coffee cups to create the masterpiece! Does the face look familiar?


Mona Lisa made from coffee cups

by Karina Grudnikov



Yemen's capital 'will run out of water by 2025'

 Water shortages in Yemen will squeeze agriculture to such an extent that 750,000 jobs could disappear and incomes could drop by a quarter within a decade, according to a report.


Poor water management and the enormous consumption of water for the farming of the popular stimulant That are blamed for the predicted water shortages, which experts say could lead to the capital Sana'a running out of water by around 2025.

The report was produced by McKinsey&Company, an international management consulting firm, which was charged by the Yemeni government with identifying ten governmental priorities for the next decade. A preliminary draft of the report was released last month (24 September).
Yemen has no rivers, so the main sources of water are groundwater and rain. The study warns that almost 90 per cent of the country's available freshwater is used for agriculture.

"Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, located 2,150 metres above sea level and 226 kilometres from the Red Sea shore, is facing depletion of its main groundwater basin," said Mohamed Soltan, a hydrology expert who manages the city's groundwater basins. "Sana'a will be the first city in the world to run out of water by 2025."

"Random drilling of wells and the misuse of drilling technology are the main reasons for the intensive consumption of groundwater in Yemen," said Nayef Abu-Lohom, vice-president of the Water and Environment Center at Sana'a University. "This, in addition to lack of proper management for water resources, as most of these wells are used to irrigate khat plants."
According to the National Agricultural Research Institution, khat consumes around 6,300 cubic metres of water per hectare, whereas wheat consumes 4,300 cubic metres. In Sana'a alone, khat plants consume 60 million cubic metres of water per year — twice the amount consumed by its citizens.
Khat is widely cultivated because it earns farmers far more than other crops — about five times as much as fruit, for example.
Moufeed El Halemy, co-deputy of Yemen's Ministry of Water and Environment, told SciDev.Net that the national water sector reform plan "will enforce regulations on well drilling, and the efficiency of khat irrigation, among other measures".
He added that the ministry is working on a plan to provide enough water for Sana'a, but that no details have yet been announced.
The Yemeni government's ten-point plan includes tackling issues such as corruption, population growth, gender inequality and infrastructure.

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/yemen-s-capital-will-run-out-of-water-by-2025-.html

Water Scarcity in American Southwest Gets Serious

Water scarcity has always been a problem in the southwestern desert, with practically everyone relying on one river, the Colorado, to quench their thirst and the thirst of their crops. Increased water demands coupled with a long protracted drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin has created a potentially dire situation. The effects can be seen in Lake Mead, the giant lake along the border of Arizona and Nevada. Lake Mead has reached its lowest levels since 1937, the year the Hoover Dam was completed.

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, created from the construction of the Hoover Dam. It is the primary source of water for much of Nevada and Arizona. Many times, it has fallen below drought level (1,125 feet above sea level). In June of 2010, the lake was at only 39 percent of its holding capacity. As of October 17, it reached its lowest level in nearly 75 years as its high-level mark fell to 43 feet below drought level to 1,083 feet above sea level.

The fastest growing region in the US is the southwest.. Unfortunately, it is the region that can least afford massive population increases. Places like the Las Vegas metropolitan area in Nevada and the Valley of the Sun in Arizona have grown by leaps and bounds in past few decades. Phoenix is now the nation's fifth largest city. Recent economic turbulence may have put a damper on that growth, but the higher water demand is still there.

Increased demand is a key factor, but perhaps not as important as the lack of rainfall across the southwest which feeds Lake Mead. According to the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, the Upper Colorado River Basin has had only 89 percent of its average precipitation for 2010. They predict that this autumn, the temperature will remain above average and precipitation below average, leading to worsening conditions.

The current drought began way back in October 1999. At that point, Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the US located along the Arizona-Utah border, was near full capacity. Over the next five years,

inflow into the lake was about half of the average. It has increased somewhat since then, but remains low.

At this point, nobody is able to predict when the drought will end. Normally, droughts occur as a natural climate variation, and the pendulum always swings back towards a wetter climate. However, the current drought has lasted much longer than normal, and local residents have become concerned with possible consequences. 

According to the 2007 Drought Plan, if Lake Mead drops another eight feet, which is likely by next year, major water restrictions will be put in place for Arizona and Nevada. Those first affected by restrictions would be farmers, the greatest users of water. Overall, water deliveries to Arizona will be dropped by about 11 percent, and to Nevada, about four percent. Arizona's losses will be from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) allocation which serves Phoenix and Tucson. This is because water rights for the CAP canal have lower priority than those of the lower Colorado River. Greater cuts in water deliveries would be delayed by releasing water from Lake Powell downstream to Lake Mead.

The upcoming water scarcity will test the laws and politics of the southwest region. Hopefully, the rains will fall and the hardship can be averted. In the meantime, businesses and individuals should prepare for the worst and get ready to curb their water use.

For more information: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/10/19/20101019lake-mead-water-level-new-historic-low.html