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Archive for September, 2012
Glacier Drainage
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on September 20th, 2012
Environmental News Network: Fast-flowing and narrow glaciers have the potential to trigger massive changes in the Antarctic ice sheet and contribute to rapid ice-sheet decay and sea-level rise, a new study has found. These glaciers are suspected to act as a sort of stream that drain off inland ice sheets. Research results published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveal in more detail than ever before how warming waters in the Southern Ocean are connected intimately with the movement and thinning...
Forests and Climate Change: a Combustible Combination
Posted by Forbes: John McQuaid on September 20th, 2012
Forbes: Smokey Bear’s advisories aside, wildfires are a normal part of forest ecology. Fire serves to clear out old trees and excess underbrush so younger trees can grow. You know, textbook “circle of life.” But the cumulative list of manmade alterations to forests, to land, and to climate is rendering the benefits of forest fires all but moot in many places, as this Nature piece illustrates:
Across the American west, the area burned each year has increased significantly over the past several decades...
US Forest mortality declines due to lack of food for mountain pine beetle
Posted by Environmental News Network: Allison Winter on September 20th, 2012
Environmental News Network: Forests are not only threatened by man-made decisions like logging and development expansion, but also by insect infestation. From beetles to forest weevils, moths to borers and timber worms, insects cost millions of dollars each year in forest destruction from eating and living in these trees.
Insects and diseases are important in maintaining a balance between healthy, functioning forests and catastrophic outbreaks and forest loss. These critical roles affect more than 750 million acres of forest...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on US Forest mortality declines due to lack of food for mountain pine beetleShale Gas: Cutting Carbon Emissions While Remaining Controversial
Posted by Forbes: Ken Silverstein on September 20th, 2012
Forbes: Presidential politics these days is about improving economic production and job creation. And while the focus lately is on which half of the country is more entitled to the federal pie, the attention should shift in part to the unyielding trends that now permeate the climate change debate. As recent data shows, cutting the level of heat-trapping emissions and enhancing economic productivity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the emergence of the shale gas revolution has not only reduced carbon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shale Gas: Cutting Carbon Emissions While Remaining ControversialCanada: Koch Brothers Cashing In 220,000 Acres of Tar Sands Holdings
Posted by Inside Climate News: Elizabeth Douglass on September 20th, 2012
Inside Climate News: A Canadian division of Koch Industries is reviewing a range of offers to buy up to 220,000 net acres of its many undeveloped oil sands properties within Alberta's vast reserves of oil sands. The company, Calgary-based Koch Oil Sands Operating ULC, said in June it was looking for strategic investors to help accelerate production on six properties held by the limited partnership Koch Exploration Canada. The company later said it would entertain offers to acquire the entire Koch Exploration partnership...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Koch Brothers Cashing In 220,000 Acres of Tar Sands HoldingsClimate change threatens nature from coffee to Arctic fox-forum
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2012
Reuters: Climate change is a threat to everything from coffee plantations to Arctic foxes and even a moderate rise in world temperatures will be damaging for plants and animals in some regions, experts said on Wednesday.
Habitats such as coral reefs or the Arctic region were among the most vulnerable to global warming, scientists said at a conference in Lillehammer, south Norway, organized by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
Almost 200 governments agreed in 2010 to a goal of limiting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change threatens nature from coffee to Arctic fox-forumMPs’ call to halt Arctic drilling amid safety concerns
Posted by BBC: Roger Harrabin on September 20th, 2012
BBC: A committee of MPs has called for a halt on drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic until safety is improved.
They say current techniques for dealing with any spill do not inspire confidence.
The Environmental Audit Committee fears that a spill could have caused unprecedented environmental damage.
The MPs want to see a standard pan-Arctic spill response standard, unlimited liability for firms and an Arctic environmental sanctuary.
But the UK has no power over the Arctic - and Arctic states...
Arctic sea ice is ‘toast’ as old record shattered
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2012
Mongabay: Some twenty days after breaking the record for the lowest sea ice extent, the Arctic sea ice has hit a new rock bottom and finally begun its seasonal recovery. In the end, the Arctic sea ice extent fell to just 3.4 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles) when only a few months ago scientists were wondering if it would break the 4 million square kilometers. The speed of the sea ice decline due to climate change has outpaced all the computer models, overrun all expert predictions, and...
Arctic sea ice reaches new low, shattering record set just 3 weeks ago
Posted by NBC: Miguel Llanos on September 19th, 2012
NBC: New sea ice is finally starting to form again in the Arctic, scientists reported Wednesday, but not before reaching another record low last Sunday.
"We are now in uncharted territory," Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said in a statement announcing the record low of 1.32 million square miles -- nearly half the average extent from 1979 to 2010. The extent has been tracked by satellite since 1979.
"While we've long known that as the planet warms up, changes would...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic sea ice reaches new low, shattering record set just 3 weeks agoQ&A: A New Era of Citizen Action Is Dawning
Posted by Inter Press Service: Lindsey Walker on September 19th, 2012
Inter Press Service: The Global Civil Society Network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation has a new secretary general -- Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah, who was appointed Monday by the board of directors following the CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal.
CIVICUS is a global alliance of organisations and individuals that strives to strengthen citizen action and civil society, particularly in regions of the world where freedom of association is limited or threatened.
Danny Sriskandarajah, previously...