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Archive for August 26th, 2012
Dozens of developments pose threat to sanctity of green belt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2012
Independent: The scale of the threat to the green belt is revealed today with a report highlighting more than 35 proposed developments on protected land.
Local authorities are under growing pressure to rip up countryside-planning rules by approving dozens of building projects including mines, industrial parks and 81,000 homes, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
Government policies requiring councils to allocate more than five years' worth of land for new housing is opening up large...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Dozens of developments pose threat to sanctity of green beltWeatherwatch: This summer cannot beat the wettest summer record in 1912
Posted by Guardian: Jeremy Plester on August 26th, 2012
Guardian: It may be some comfort to know that despite the earlier washout, this summer cannot beat 1912, the wettest summer on record. Gales, thunderstorms and horrendous downpours battered the country, and the weather actually grew worse, setting new records for the coldest, dullest and wettest August.
East Anglia was hit particularly hard. Incessant rains fell for days before a tremendous storm struck on 25 and 26 August. Over 7in (180mm) rain fell in a single day in Norwich: rivers burst their banks,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Weatherwatch: This summer cannot beat the wettest summer record in 1912Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2012
Guardian: Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world's population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages.
Humans derive about 20% of their protein from animal-based products now, but this may need to drop to just 5% to feed the extra 2 billion people expected to be alive by 2050, according to research by some of the world's leading water scientists.
"There...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientistsIs Humanity Pushing Earth Past a Tipping Point?
Posted by Wired: Brandon Keim Email Author on August 26th, 2012
Wired: Could human activity push Earth`s biological systems to a planet-wide tipping point, causing changes as radical as the Ice Age`s end - but with less pleasant results, and with billions of people along for a bumpy ride?
It`s by no means a settled scientific proposition, but many researchers say it`s worth considering - and not just as an apocalyptic warning or far-fetched speculation, but as a legitimate question raised by emerging science.
"There are some biological realities we can`t ignore,"...
‘Torture Lab’ Kills Trees To Learn How To Save Them
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2012
National Public Radio: The droughts that have parched big regions of the country are killing forests.
In the arid Southwest, the body count is especially high. Besides trying to keep wildfires from burning up these desiccated forests, there's not much anyone can do. In fact, scientists are only now figuring out how drought affects trees.
Park Williams studies trees at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but not the way most scientists do. "We're interested in trees that die," he says - spefiically,...
Britain’s lakes and canals hit by toxic algae
Posted by Telegraph: Padraic Flanagan on August 26th, 2012
Telegraph: Mild weather and fertilisers washing into waterways after heavy rain have been blamed for widespread algae covering inland water, putting pets at risk and devastating fish stocks.
The Environment Agency said it had recorded 127 incidents of algae, halfway through the three-month peak season for the blight. The record figure is 226, set in 2005, making a new record this year possible.
The algae starve fresh water of oxygen and when they are the blue-green toxic cyanobacteria are a risk to human...
United Kingdom: Ministers get ready to go for green-belt grab
Posted by Independent: Matt Chorley on August 26th, 2012
Independent: Building on green belt land around towns and cities will "irreversibly damage the countryside" yet fail to deliver the Government's hoped-for economic growth, the former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion warns today, as ministers face charges that they are ignoring the needs of Britain's rural communities.
So desperate is the Treasury in its search for growth that George Osborne is said to want to redesignate protected land to kickstart large-scale housing schemes. Developers wanting to build on...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Ministers get ready to go for green-belt grabBiomass ‘on rise despite drought’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 26th, 2012
BBC: The carbon storage capacity of protected forests in West Africa has increased despite the region suffering a 40-year drought, a study suggests.
A team of UK and Ghanaian researchers found that the tree composition in these areas favoured species that were able to cope with drier conditions.
Previous studies suggested that drought conditions resulted in less carbon being stored as vegetation died.
The findings have been published in the journal Ecology Letters.
"Despite the long-term drought,...