Environmental news roundup — whale protection, Gore on warming, Southeastern states disagree on water

Appeals court upholds restrictions on Navy sonar

A three-judge appellate panelhas upheld a federal district court ruling that the Navy must take whale-protection precautions with its use of long-range sonar.

Per the ruling, the Navy must maintain a 12 nautical mile no-sonar buffer zone along the California coast, shut down sonar when marine mammals are seen within 2,200 yards, avoid whale habitats and undertake similar other precautions. The Navy has 30 days to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Gore: Global warming getting short shrift in presidential campaign

So, the Nobelist former vice president will turn up the heat himself. His Alliance for Climate Protection will launch a national campaign pressuring candidates to describe in more detail how they will fight global warming.

Southeastern states can’t agree on divvying up diminishing water pot

Even intensifying drought can’t make good neighbors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. White House-brokered negotiations between the three over water sharing in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins, which have been the occasion of 20 years of wrangling, means the Army Corps of Engineers will impose its own plan.

Georgia, upstream, wants to hold more water in reservoirs around Atlanta while Florida and Alabama argue the Peach State didn’t plan for growth well enough. Meanwhile, legal action between the three will stay on the front burner, and perhaps even have new elements added to it.

Critical-level drought in the area has exacerbated the ongoing water fight. Gore’s comments seem prescient.

And, I can’t wait for something similar to play out in the Colorado River basin between California (Los Angeles), Arizona (Phoenix) and Nevada (Las Vegas).