RSS Feed
Archive for August 21st, 2012
Climate change: scientists ponder cloud brightening
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on August 21st, 2012
Summit Voice: With international efforts to limit heat-trapping greenhouse gases faltering, some scientists say it`s worth at least exploring the concept of creating clouds that might reflect sunlight to counter global warming.
Geoengineering has always had a few proponents, as there are always some people who think that we can engineer our way out of any problem. But many of the ideas floated as possible solutions to global warming are just vague theories at best, with little evidence that they could work....
China: Shanghai tops ‘flood risk list’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2012
BBC: Shanghai is the most vulnerable major city in the world to serious flooding, a study suggests.
Despite its economic wealth, the Chinese city is considered to be more exposed to the risk of flooding than much poorer cities such as Dhaka.
As well as evaluating a city's physical attributes, the study also considers social and economic factors when rating an area's vulnerability.
Details of the research appear in the journal Natural Hazards.
A team of scientists from the UK and the Netherlands...
How Some States Are Giving Oil and Gas Companies the Right to Take Your Land
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2012
AlterNet: Eminent domain, the government’s right to condemn (or take) private land for “public use,” has at times been a highly contentious topic because it can displace people from their homes to make way for construction of different projects, like highways or roads, civic buildings and other types of public infrastructure. However, what some may not realize is that several states have granted eminent domain authority to certain private entities, including oil and gas companies. These companies are using...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on How Some States Are Giving Oil and Gas Companies the Right to Take Your LandMount Rainier’s avalanche lilies could teach us about climate change
Posted by Seattle Times: Lynda V. Mapes on August 21st, 2012
Seattle Times: University of Washington researcher Elinore Theobald is studying the relationship between flowers and their pollinators on Washington's highest mountain. And what she is finding so far - avalanche lilies at higher elevation set seed at one-third the rate of lilies elsewhere on the mountain - points to troubling questions.
Is it possible that the lilies are struggling because of a mismatch in their timing with their pollinators? And does that, in turn, point to trouble as the climate changes? ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mount Rainier’s avalanche lilies could teach us about climate change