L.A. Times - Environment

Rising sea levels threaten Caribbean region

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:09:00 -0800

The Colombian city of Cartagena is trying to plan ahead as scientists say cities nearer the equator, where temperatures are already higher, are at greater risk if global warming isn't checked.

The effect of climate change is anything but hypothetical to retired Colombian naval officer German Alfonso. Just ask him about the time his neighborhood in this historic coastal city became an island.

A climate change dust-up

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

One side sees hacked e-mail as a sign of a 'Warmist Conspiracy.' The other says it's being taken out of context. Analysts don't expect it to have much effect on the Senate greenhouse gas bill.

Is it a "Warmist Conspiracy," or a case of an e-mail being "taken completely out of context"?

Permanent water wisdom

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Southern California has embraced water conservation, but it must be more than a temporary response to drought.

California did it. This month, the Legislature passed a package of bills that includes a statewide urban water conservation goal of 20% by 2020. We have confronted the kind of conservation that will be needed to secure the water supply of Los Angeles, and the state, in the face of population growth and climate change.

Children starve in parched southern Madagascar

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

As temperatures rise, drought, crop failure and deforestation have combined to create a crisis of malnutrition.

Foreigners have come to Anjandobo village, a cluster of wooden huts on the desolate red dust of southern Madagascar. They're vaza -- outsiders.

'Carbon tax' is sensible, and perhaps inevitable, advocate says

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Dieter Helm of Oxford says climate change policy should focus not on carbon production, but carbon consumption. A tax on carbon-heavy activities places the emphasis where it belongs, he says.

With the global climate change summit in Copenhagen just a few weeks away, gloom has settled in many quarters over the increasing likelihood that a robust international treaty to lower carbon emissions is out of reach, at least for now.

Catalina bison going on birth control

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:20:00 -0800

The Catalina Island Conservancy has been rounding up the herd so females can get a reversible contraceptive vaccine. The goal: Control the size of the herd to keep it and the environment healthier.

Half a dozen men with walkie-talkies and cattle prods set out on foot at sunrise Thursday to coax a herd of 10 feral bison into a corral a mile away at the bottom of a Santa Catalina Island valley.

Effects of judge's Katrina ruling could be huge

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for much of the New Orleans flooding could change how levees are designed nationwide.

The harshly worded legal ruling that held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for much of the flooding during Hurricane Katrina could have a far-reaching effect on national flood-control policies and on the federal government's long-standing refusal to take responsibility for its errors.

Jeanne-Claude dies at 74; collaborated with artist-husband Christo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The artists attracted attention for decades by wrapping buildings and with temporary environmental projects such as 'Running Fence' in California in the 1970s and 'The Gates' in New York City in 2005.

Jeanne-Claude, whose collaboration with her husband Christo in creating massive environmental works of art such as the 24-mile-long "Running Fence" in California in the 1970s attracted worldwide attention for decades, has died. She was 74.

California approves new standards on energy-hungry TVs

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The California Energy Commission votes 5-0 in favor of the nation's first efficiency regulations for televisions of up to 58 inches sold in the state. The stricter rules take effect Jan. 1, 2011.

California is putting big-screen television sets on a diet.

Malibu mobile home park receives reduced fine for sewage spills

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Paradise Cove has been ordered by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to pay only $54,500 of a $1.65-million penalty, a move that has angered a notable environmental group.

A Malibu mobile home park that was hit with a proposed fine of $1.65 million in February for repeatedly allowing raw or partially treated sewage to spill into the ocean and local creeks will be ordered to pay a mere fraction of the penalty, an outcome that has infuriated a key environmental group.