RSS Feed
Archive for July, 2011
Climate-change-induced wildfires may alter Yellowstone forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 25th, 2011
Physorg: Climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem will increase the frequency of wildfires and alter the composition of the forests by 2050, according to a team of ecologists who modeled the effects of higher temperatures on fire occurrence.
"We are following the long-term effects of fire in the Yellowstone area and encountering some lessons and surprises that challenge the way we think about fire in the area," said Erica A. H. Smithwick, assistant professor of geography and ecology, Penn State,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate-change-induced wildfires may alter Yellowstone forestsSea Level Rise to Put the “Squeeze” on Coastal Georgia
Posted by Climate Central: Bruce Dorminey on July 25th, 2011
Climate Central: Some 60 miles south of Savannah, Dorset Hurley strides into chest-high cordgrass on the mainland side of the Sapelo Island ferry dock. Standing in elevated muck on a recent steamy summer's afternoon, he gestures toward a tidal creek running along an isolated spit of road.
"At high tide here, we would be ankle deep in water,' says Hurley, an estuarine ecologist at Georgia's Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. He snaps off the end of a dead cordgrass blossom and looks east long enough...
More wildfires will transform US national park: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 25th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Climate change is likely to cause more frequent wildfires and may transform the forests and ecosystem of the iconic Yellowstone national park in the coming decades, a US study said Monday.
Dense forests dominated by narrow lodgepole pines trees are currently a dominant feature of the picturesque tourist destination which straddles Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
But more open spaces, grasslands and forests populated by different kinds of fir trees and shrubs could characterize it in the future,...
Yellowstone burning: big fires to hits world’s first national park annually by 2050
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 25th, 2011
Mongabay: An icon of conservation and wilderness worldwide, Yellowstone National Park could see its ecosystem flip due to increased big fires from climate change warn experts in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). A sudden increase in large fires-defined as over 200 hectares (500 acres)-by mid-century could shift the Yellowstone ecosystem from largely mature conifer forests to younger forests with open shrub and grasslands.
"Large, severe fires are normal for this ecosystem....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Yellowstone burning: big fires to hits world’s first national park annually by 2050Once Raise Last $10K EI Intends Major Web Site Updates in Coming Months
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on July 22nd, 2011
Over the past 24 hours Ecological Internet's supporters have donated $2,500 in small, tax-deductible gifts.EI deeply appreciates your generosity! Together we must raise $11,000 more to fully meet 2011 expenses and to even remain operational. Please donate now! Upon successful completion of the fund-raiser, EI intends to start major updates to our blogging platform, action alert capabilities and search engines. Please expect upcoming web site disruptions. EI has been nearly entirely user-supported, meeting our modest needs by passing the hat, since 1999. Please donate what you can afford to EI's grassroots global ecology advocacy. EIs brand of radical ecology truth-telling is not likely to be foundation funded, so we need YOU to keep doing so.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on Once Raise Last $10K EI Intends Major Web Site Updates in Coming MonthsALERT! No Fracking Way! South Africas Species Rich Succulent Karoo Desert is too Water Poor for Gas Drilling
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on July 18th, 2011
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Local activists in South Africa are protesting now on the ground against fracking [search], and they need our support. Large parts of South Africa's beautiful, but water-poor and ecologically sensitive Karoo [search] desert, are under threat of devastation by natural gas drilling operations using the increasingly notorious, controversial and ecologically devastating technique called hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking'. The Karoo region is one of the worlds most ecological and evolutionary unique arid ecosystems and biodiversity hotspot. Unfortunately, the Karoo may also hold vast deposits of fossil fuel natural gas in shale rock deep underground, and the ancient "fossil" water aquifers that exist are inadequate for and threatened by fracking production.
The announcement of Shells intention to pursue shale gas fracking in this area has been followed by huge opposition from local communities in the Karoo and the rest of South Africa. Today and tomorrow local South African activists are protesting Shell oil and others plans to frack the Karoo for natural gas production outside an industry conference in Johannesburg. There is nothing to indicate blasting toxic water at high pressure to shatter rock and release toxic contamination will ever be environmentally acceptable much less sustainable. Please participate in Ecological ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on ALERT! No Fracking Way! South Africas Species Rich Succulent Karoo Desert is too Water Poor for Gas DrillingEcological Internet Needs Your Gift to Continue Bearing Witness and Resisting Ecocide
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on July 11th, 2011
Donate now please to EI's 2011 $40K mid-year fund-raiser! There is a New Earth Rising and ecology visionaries on the net need funds to work and meet basic computer and programming expenses. Already nearly 2/3 of EI's goal has been raised - $24,537 from 171 donors! To continue operating with certainty and a secure resource base, EI needs to raise the remaining $15,463 in the next three weeks.
Please donate NOW!
Dear Ecological Internet friends,
Together we have been working with some success to end primary forest logging, herald in an era of old forest protection and restoration, in order to allow for standing old forests to benefit local people and sustain global ecology. Ecological Internet (EI) has also been leading the fights against geo-engineering, fracking, tar sands, abrupt climate change, nuclear energy, GM trees, local old growth logging, and for peace and human rights.
We do so by developing and explaining ecologically sufficient solutions, providing the best biocentric ecology knowledge tools, and organizing global protest to sustain ecology on the Internet. As you may imagine, by taking on such powerful foes, EI has begun to face all sorts of opposition, vilification and downright hatred. Don?t leave us all alone, penniless, ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on Ecological Internet Needs Your Gift to Continue Bearing Witness and Resisting EcocideHouse panel to examine oil pipeline safety
Posted by Reuters: Laura Zuckerman on July 9th, 2011
Reuters: ExxonMobil on Saturday submitted a draft clean-up plan of its Yellowstone River oil spill to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Few details were immediately available of the draft report submitted by Exxon, which according to an EPA order should spell out how the oil giant will monitor the environment, clean up pollutants, restore damaged areas on the Yellowstone and dispose of hazardous wastes.
Exxon turned in the report, which was ordered by the EPA, as a congressional panel said it...
South’s ‘extreme drought’ could be felt at supermarkets soon
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Suzi Parker on July 9th, 2011
Christian Science Monitor: The extreme drought conditions throughout the South and as far west as California that stoked record-setting wildfires are increasingly taking their toll on cattle ranchers, a development that could lead to sticker shock at grocery stores in the fall.
Skip to next paragraph Related stories How can Congress cut $2.4 trillion? Here are three places to start. Argentina: Farming crisis batters world food provider Corn futures headed lower? Bigger crop forecast. Topics
With grassland pastures dying...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on South’s ‘extreme drought’ could be felt at supermarkets soonExxonMobil steps up Yellowstone River cleanup
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2011
Reuters: ExxonMobil Corp's unit said it stepped up efforts to absorb the oil spilled from the ruptured pipeline in Montana and put more people at work to clean up the Yellowstone River.
ExxonMobil Pipeline Co said it placed more than 9,000 feet of boom and almost 160,000 absorbent pads to clean up oil adjacent to the river.
The company also added more people to its spill response team.
On July 3, Exxon said it had shut down a crude oil pipeline after as many as 1,000 barrels of crude oil leaked into...