Environment

Pan Am Railways to describe cleanup plan for East Deerfield Rail Yard

Monday, June 17, 2013

DEERFIELD — Pan Am Railways will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Town Hall to present its draft plans to clean up and keep clear petroleum hydrocarbons and asphalt pollution at the East Deerfield Rail Yard. The company will present a draft Phase II Comprehensive Site Assessment Addendum and a draft Phase II Comprehensive Site Assessment/Phase III Remedial Action Plan Addendum for historical releases of petroleum … 0

BioWatch, created to detect biological weapons, faces congressional hearing this week

Monday, June 17, 2013

WASHINGTON — A decade ago, then-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge oversaw the start of BioWatch, the nationwide system designed to detect airborne releases of anthrax or other biological weapons. In his 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush had announced that BioWatch would “protect our people and our homeland.” Ridge’s … 0

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2011 file photo, cars are parked on an overfly on a flooded street in Bangkok, Thailand. Sea level rise projections show Bangkok could be at risk of inundation in 100 years unless preventive measures are taken. But when the capital and its outskirts were affected in 2011 by the worst flooding in half-a century, the immediate trigger was water run-off from northern provinces, where dams failed to contain unusually heavy rains. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong, File)

Beyond NYC: Other places adapting to climate, too

Sunday, June 16, 2013

BONN, Germany — From Bangkok to Miami, cities and coastal areas across the globe are already building or planning defenses to protect millions of people and key infrastructure from more powerful storm surges and other effects of global warming. Some are planning cities that will simply adapt to more water. But climate-proofing a … 0