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Archive for August, 2012
Arctic ice cap shrinks to smallest area ever
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2012
Independent: The news that came yesterday should be, environmental campaigners said, a global wake-up call. The ice cap covering the top of the world is now smaller than it has been at any point since scientists started to measure it precisely from space.
Satellite data released last night show that the sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean has reached a record low, retreating further than it has done since detailed records began more than 30 years ago.
The US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder,...
Judge overturns suspension of Brazil’s Belo Monte dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2012
Reuters: A Brazilian judge said on Monday construction could resume on the controversial $13 billion Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, alleviating concerns that key work would not be done ahead of the rainy season.
The judge overturned an order by a lower court that had suspended work last week but still has to consider the merits of the case.
The lower court had called for an immediate halt to construction after years of high-profile criticism. The likes of Hollywood director James Cameron and the Inter-American...
Watching Over The Ocean In Kailua, Hawaii
Posted by National Public Radio: Linton Weeks on August 28th, 2012
National Public Radio: Some may see the efforts of Hui o Ko'olaupoko as just a drop in the bucket, but the bucket is the Pacific Ocean and arguably every drop is important to the health of the whole planet.
HOK works with landowners in Windward Oahu to improve and conserve threatened land and to restore the watershed. So far this year, 1,150 volunteers have logged 2,947 volunteer hours.
One of the group's biggest challenges, says Executive Director Todd Cullison, is "showing measurable changes in water quality. We...
Kenyan University Offers Degree Programs on Climate Change
Posted by Voice of America: Reuben Kyama on August 27th, 2012
Voice of America: Changing climate conditions are making it harder for people in East Africa, most of whom grow food or raise livestock, to survive. Rainy seasons are changing, destructive floods and temperatures have risen, and the soils have become drier than in recent years. Among the hardest hit are arid and semi-arid regions, small islands and the coastal strips. Environmental experts say it's important for the people of the region to learn to adapt. In an effort to help farmers, the University of Nairobi...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Kenyan University Offers Degree Programs on Climate ChangeNavy Continues to Test Biofuel Flights Despite Money Concerns
Posted by Yahoo!: Susan Graybeal on August 27th, 2012
Yahoo!: The Navy reported over the weekend that it completed another test flight using biofuel in its aircraft on Friday, Aug. 24, and deemed the mission a success. This comes after a summer of questions as to the cost that is being spent on the Navy's plan for a Great Green Fleet. Here are the details.
* The "Salty Dogs" of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 flew a high performance T-45 "Goshawk" training aircraft on a successful biofuel flight at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Navy Continues to Test Biofuel Flights Despite Money ConcernsStudy: Climate change could transform Colorado grasslands, alpine tundra
Posted by Coloradoan: None Given on August 27th, 2012
Coloradoan: Clues to climate change in Northern Colorado aren’t limited to dying stands of limber pine trees, bark beetle outbreaks and a trend of rising temperatures throughout the region.
Scientists at the U.S. Forest Service’s Fort Collins-based Rocky Mountain Station say there has been precious little research conducted on how climate change is impacting the Great Plains and the Grasslands of Northern Colorado, but the evidence so far is dramatic.
“Birds are migrating further north, some plant and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study: Climate change could transform Colorado grasslands, alpine tundraPerry Renews Call for EPA Waiver in Midst of Drought
Posted by Yahoo!: Susan Graybeal on August 27th, 2012
Yahoo!: Citing severe drought that has damaged more than 55 percent of the country's pastureland, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday once again requested a waiver or partial waiver of the EPA's renewable fuel standard mandate for 2012 and 2013. His letter to the EPA was both echoed and supported by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association . Here are the details.
* According to the EPA , the Renewable Fuel Standard program was created in 2005 as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and expanded...
Hurricane Warnings Issued as Isaac Heads for Gulf Coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2012
Climate Central: It's too early to say for sure, but as of Monday morning, Tropical Storm Isaac was forecast to turn into a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane and was expected to hit a stretch of the Gulf Coast between the Florida panhandle and New Orleans sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday -- the latter putting it an eerie seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated The Big Easy.
New Orleans itself hasn't been ordered to evacuate; the levees that were breached by Katrina have been rebuilt,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hurricane Warnings Issued as Isaac Heads for Gulf CoastArctic sea ice shrinks to lowest extent ever recorded
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2012
Guardian: The Arctic sea ice has hit its lowest extent ever recorded, according to the US-based National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Norwegian, Danish and other government monitoring organisations.
With possibly two weeks' further melt likely before the ice reaches its minimum extent and starts to refreeze ahead of the winter, satellites showed it had shrunk to 4.1m sq km (1.6m sq miles) on Sunday. The previous record of 4.3m sq km was set in 2007. The...
Arctic ice melts to record low: US researchers
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Shaun Tandon on August 27th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted to its smallest point ever in a milestone that may show that worst-case forecasts on climate change are coming true, US scientists said.
The extent of ice observed on Sunday broke a record set in 2007 and will likely melt further with several weeks of summer still to come, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the NASA space agency.
The government-backed ice center, based at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said in...