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Archive for August, 2011
Efforts to Improve Water Quality Falling Short
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2011
Inter Press Service: Despite increased spending on sanitation works, the water quality in rivers near large urban centers in Brazil ranges from poor to very poor. Some say the reason is the development model chosen by the South American nation.
The 2011 report on the country’s water resources by the national water regulatory agency (ANA) was received with satisfaction by the government: in terms of availability and quality, 90.6 percent of the country’s freshwater sources presented "good" results, according to report...
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Hydro produces more carbon in tropics
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Rachel Sullivan on August 2nd, 2011
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Not all green Hydroelectric power production is seen an important part of the renewable energy mix, but a new study challenges its green credentials in tropical regions.
Globally hydroelectricity makes up 16 per cent of the total amount of electricity produced each year, and the number of new hydroelectric power projects are steadily increasing, particularly in developing countries.
Despite concerns about their effects on wildlife, displaced local populations and changes to river flows, hydroelectricity...
United States: As Climate Warms, A Shifting Landscape for Wildlife
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Steve Zack on August 2nd, 2011
Yale Environment 360: On the Dalton Highway south of Deadhorse, on Alaska’s North Slope, two of my colleagues from the Wilderness Society and I encountered a small herd of muskox. These beasts are the quintessential resident land mammal up here, and a true relic of the Pleistocene. They look like a shag carpet that has been tossed onto a Volkswagen bug, with horns replacing the front bumper. At this time of year, they are molting yards of wool, or qiviut, as their winter coat gives way to a cooler summer dress.
The...
Green groups launch blistering attack on US debt deal
Posted by Business Green: BusinessGreen Staff on August 2nd, 2011
Business Green: The US Congress may have staved off an economic crisis by cobbling together an 11th hour deal to raise the debt ceiling, but green groups have warned that the deep budget cuts agreed as part of the compromise deal could herald a new era of environmental crisis for the country.
Voting just hours before the deadline to agree an increase to the US debt ceiling was due to lapse, leaving the government unable to pay many federal cheques, the House of Representatives voted by 269 to 161 in favour of...
Worries Over Water As Natural Gas Fracking Expands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2011
National Public Radio: Drive through northern Pennsylvania and you'll see barns, cows, silos and drilling rigs perched on big, concrete pads.
Pennsylvania is at the center of a natural gas boom. New technology is pushing gas out of huge shale deposits underground. That's created jobs and wealth, but it may be damaging drinking water. That's because when you "frack," as hydraulic fracturing is called, you pump thousands of gallons of fluids underground. That cracks the shale a mile deep and drives natural gas up to the...
Somalia famine: Refugees move into Dadaab extension
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2011
Guardian: The UN refugee agency has begun moving displaced Somalis to a new camp extension at the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya to relieve overcrowding.
Relief groups are struggling with an influx of mainly Somali refugees fleeing drought and conflict that has left more than 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Some 70,000 refugees have arrived in Kenya in the last two months; 40,000 in July alone, according to UNHCR. The number of refugees at Dadaab has swelled to 440,000.
More than...
Syria’s woes paint picture of environmental migration to come
Posted by AlertNet: Jacob Park on August 2nd, 2011
AlertNet: The political turmoils in Syria, along with Egypt and other countries in the Middle East, have entangled the international community and served as a major test of global governance.
Syria's political difficulties have lead to such problems as a stream of refugees fleeing to the Turkish border, exacerbated sectarian tensions and contributed to the deterioration of human rights in the region, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
And new stories about regional security...
Famine due to climate change: African bank
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: The famine in Africa's fragile Horn of Africa region has been caused by climate change and a collective failure to end the Somali civil war, the head of the African Development Bank says. "This was not a tsunami that took us by surprise. Mother Nature can be blamed for much of what is happening but, before food shortages become famine, there's something else that comes into play," Donald Kaberuka told AFP. "In this case, the epicentre of the crisis is in those parts of Somalia that are not functioning,"...
Did a Storm Distort Mapping of a Gulf ‘Dead Zone’?
Posted by New York Times: Joanna M. Foster on August 2nd, 2011
New York Times: As the Midwest reeled from catastrophic flooding this spring, scientists warned of devastating consequences for the Gulf of Mexico this summer.
They feared that chemicals and waste rushing down the Mississippi would result in the largest-ever oxygen-depleted "dead zone" measured in the gulf since monitoring began in 1985.
New results are in: on Monday, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration announced that a team of scientists mapping the dead zone had just returned from a...
Climatic benefits from carbon sequestration are largely offset by increased nitrous oxide emissions, s
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2011
ScienceDaily: Recent studies have shown that human nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems increase the terrestrial carbon dioxide uptake from the atmosphere. A new study published online in Nature Geoscience reports now that the climatic benefits from carbon sequestration are largely offset by increased nitrous oxide emissions, a further side-effect of human nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems.
Human activities have more than doubled nitrogen inputs to the terrestrial biosphere since the 1860s....