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Archive for September 15th, 2011
More Americans believe world is warming: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
Reuters: More Americans than last year believe the world is warming and the change is likely influenced by the Republican presidential debates, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday.
The percentage of Americans who believe the Earth has been warming rose to 83 percent from 75 percent last year in the poll conducted Sept 8-12.
Republican presidential candidates, aside from Jon Huntsman, have mostly blasted the idea that emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human actions are warming the planet....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on More Americans believe world is warming: Reuters/Ipsos pollWill the Latest Gulf of Mexico Spill Report Prompt Any Legislative Action?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
Greenwire: The latest probe into last year's Gulf of Mexico blowout and oil spill -- a federal report that blames much of the disaster on poor management decisions by BP PLC -- has elicited strong but varied responses on Capitol Hill, but its chances of prompting immediate legislative action remain slim.
The highly anticipated report from the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is the latest in a string of investigations that probed the causes of the April 2010 blowout...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Will the Latest Gulf of Mexico Spill Report Prompt Any Legislative Action?Texas Fire Evacuees Return To Find Only Ashes
Posted by National Public Radio: John Burnett on September 15th, 2011
National Public Radio: For 17 years, Linda and Roger Ward lived in their two-story dream house in a subdivision in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, Texas. They loved to sit on their back deck and listen to the wind in the pines.
On the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 4, everything changed.
"I used to sit in the living room and decide which pictures on the wall "” that was my primary thing, important papers and pictures "” I was gonna get out," Linda Ward says. "And it happened so fast I didn't even have a chance to...
Long-Awaited Freedom Comes to Olympia NP’s Elwha River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
Greenwire: Starting today, the National Park Service will begin the largest dam removal project in U.S. history as part of a sweeping effort to restore the Elwha River that runs through Washington's Olympic National Park. The Elwha and Glines Canyon hydroelectric dams, built in 1913 and 1927, respectively, supplied electricity for nearly a century to thousands of Pacific Northwest residents. But the dams also severed Pacific salmon migration routes that were once among the country's most robust. Prior to...
Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level, says study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
Reuters: Sea ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank to its second-smallest extent since modern records began, in keeping with a long-term trend, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported on Thursday.
The annual sea ice minimum was reached on September 9, the center said on its website here in a preliminary finding.
"Changing winds could still push ice flows together reducing ice extend further," the researchers said. A full analysis will be available in October, when monthly data are available for...
‘Deer Capital’ Of Texas Faces Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
National Public Radio: Melissa Block talks with Llano, Texas, Mayor Mike Reagor about the ongoing drought in his city. The river that runs through town is extremely low. Llano has been dubbed the "deer capital of Texas" — and Reagor says the deer, with little to drink, are withering in the heat. Reagor is also a rancher, and he says he's selling cattle because of the drought.
Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
Associated Press: Arctic sea ice melted this summer to the second lowest level since record-keeping began more than 50 years ago, scientists reported Thursday, mostly blaming global warming.
"This is not a random event," said oceanographer James Overland of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's a long-term change in Arctic climate."
The new measurements were taken by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. It reported that the amount of ice covering the Arctic hit its...
Extremely Hot Summers Will Soon Be the Norm, Scientists Say
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward on September 15th, 2011
Climate Central: Anyone who's been paying the slightest attention knows that extreme weather and climate have wreaked havoc in Texas and many other states this year. The worst one-year drought in Texas history and its hottest summer on record -- which was the hottest summer ever recorded in any U.S. state -- have left Texas short on water, coping with billions of dollars in crop damage, and fighting off record wildfires. The total area burned in Texas so far this year would cover the entire state of Connecticut,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Extremely Hot Summers Will Soon Be the Norm, Scientists SayEvaporated Water Cools Global Climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
redOrbit: Scientists have long debated about the impact on global climate of water evaporated from vegetation. New research from Carnegie’s Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated water helps cool the earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere. These findings, published September 14 in Environmental Research Letters, have major implications for land-use decision making....
Balloon goes up for geo-engineering
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2011
BBC: I'm not too keen on raising the same kind of point in successive articles, but the news that UK scientists are to trial an innovative piece of geo-engineering kit within a couple of months begs some of the same questions that came up in Monday's piece on carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The most basic one is simple - money.
One end of the hose will be attached to a balloon floating a kilometre up in the air.
The other will be tethered to the ground, with a pump pushing water up the pipe...