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Archive for May 12th, 2011
U.S. asks six natgas drillers to disclose waste info
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
Reuters: Environmental regulators on Thursday directed six natural gas drillers to disclose how they dispose of or recycle waste water in Pennsylvania after a recent Chesapeake Energy Corp accident.
A regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency asked Chesapeake, Chevron-owned Atlas Resources, Talisman Energy USA, Range Resources, Cabot Gas and Oil Corp, and SWEPI, LP for the information.
The companies did not immediately respond to questions about the EPA request.
The request also follows...
EPA says Chicago rivers must be cleaned up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
Reuters: Chicago waterways long used to carry away the city's waste must be cleaned up expeditiously so residents can play in them, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told state officials on Thursday.
"A decade of investments in walkways, boat ramps and parks has provided people with access to the water -- and now we need to make sure that the water is safe," Susan Hedman, the agency's Midwest regional administrator, said in a statement.
Boaters commonly ply the city's rivers and canals, and residences...
2,300-Year Climate Record Suggests Severe Tropical Droughts As Northern Temperatures Rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
REDORBIT: A sediment core from a South American lake revealed a steady, sharp drop in crucial monsoon rainfall since 1900, leading to the driest conditions in 1,000 years as of 2007 and threatening tropical populations with water shortages, a team from Pitt, Union College, and SUNY-Albany reports in PNAS
A 2,300-year climate record University of Pittsburgh researchers recovered from an Andes Mountains lake reveals that as temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rise, the planet’s densely populated tropical...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on 2,300-Year Climate Record Suggests Severe Tropical Droughts As Northern Temperatures RiseHaze from Indonesia fires blankets parts of Malaysia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
AFP: Haze caused by fires burning in Indonesia blanketed parts of Malaysia on Thursday, sending air pollution at its largest port up to unhealthy levels.
Skies over Kuala Lumpur were gloomy, and the Air Pollutant Index reached 104 in Port Klang, within the band of 101-200 considered unhealthy.
Elsewhere in central Selangor state, which surrounds the capital, 29 other areas had "moderate" readings and the remaining 21 areas were "good."
When readings reach the 300-mark the air is considered "hazardous,"...
Chile dams will bring social and environmental destruction
Posted by Guardian: Catalina May on May 12th, 2011
Guardian: An environmental activist at a rally after Chile's regional environmental commission approved a hydro-power dam project. Photograph: Eliseo Fernandez/Reuters
A massive hydroelectric project was approved last Monday in Chile after three years of evaluations and big controversy. The project involves the construction of five hydroelectric power stations in two of the most untouched and wildest rivers in the world – the Baker and the Pascua rivers.
HidroAysén project will dam around 6,000 hectares...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Chile dams will bring social and environmental destructionSummer of drought as rivers run at record lows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
Telegraph: The monthly report from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology reports rivers were the lowest on record for the last week of April.
The Exe, Tone, Wye, Tawe and Ribble were lower or at a similar level to those seen during the 1976 drought, when Britain suffered a prolonged heatwave.
Reservoirs are also low and the land is the driest it has been for 50 years in England and Wales, prompting forest fires.
Water companies in some areas are warning households not to water gardens unless absolutely...
Burning up: warmer world means the rise of megafires
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
Mongabay: Burning up: warmer world means the rise of megafires
Megafires are likely both worsened by and contributing to global climate change, according to a new United Nations report. In the tropic, deforestation is playing a major role in creating giant, unprecedented fires.
"These extraordinary conflagrations [or 'megafires'] are unprecedented in the modern era for their deep and long-lasting social, economic, and environmental impacts," reads the report, adding that "among all wildfires, mega-fires...
Another fracking mess for the shale-gas industry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 12th, 2011
Time: When I traveled through northeastern Pennsylvania in March for my TIME cover story on shale natural gas, it wasn't hard to find unhappy homeowners like Sherry Vargason. Vargason, who lives on a cattle farm in rural Bradford County, has leased her land for shale-gas exploration, and a well was drilled a few hundred feet from her front door. Not long after, she began to experience problems with her water, which comes from an underground well on her property. It turned out she had unusually high levels...
Human influence comes of age
Posted by Nature: Nicola Jones on May 12th, 2011
Nature: Humanity's profound impact on this planet is hard to deny, but is it big enough to merit its own geological epoch? This is the question facing geoscientists gathered in London this week to debate the validity and definition of the 'Anthropocene', a proposed new epoch characterized by human effects on the geological record.
"We are in the process of formalizing it," says Michael Ellis, head of the climate-change programme of the British Geological Survey in Nottingham, who coordinated the 11 May...
First ocean acidification buoy placed in Alaska waters
Posted by Arctic Sounder: None Given on May 12th, 2011
Arctic Sounder: Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are installing ocean acidification buoys in Alaska waters to help scientists learn how climate change may be affecting the pH level of northern seas.
The first buoy was placed in April at the mouth of Resurrection Bay, near Seward, after being assembled at UAF's Seward Marine Center, university officials said May 11.
Jeremy Mathis, an assistant professor of chemical oceanography at UAF, and principal investigator for the project, said this...