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Archive for January 31st, 2013
New study highlights impact of environmental change on older people
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 31st, 2013
ScienceDaily: Recent natural disasters illustrate vulnerability of older people: majority of deaths from the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011) and Hurricane Katrina (2005) occurred among older people.
Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York and Simon Fraser University's Gerontology Research Centre in Canada are calling for better awareness among policy makers and the public of the impact climate change and deteriorating environmental quality will have on an ageing population....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on New study highlights impact of environmental change on older peoplePalm oil, paper, biofuels production on peatlands drive large GHG emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 31st, 2013
Mongabay: Degradation of peat swamps for oil palm and timber plantations is a substantially larger source of greenhouse gas emissions than previously believed, finds a new study published in the journal Nature.
An international team of researchers tested the water chemistry of channels draining peatlands in Malaysia and Indonesia. They found high levels of "ancient" carbon, indicating that peat swamp degradation releases carbon that has been locked away for thousands of years. Much of the carbon eventually...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Palm oil, paper, biofuels production on peatlands drive large GHG emissionsU.S. Drought Hangs Tough Through January
Posted by Climate Central: Daniel Yawitz on January 31st, 2013
Climate Central: People all across the West, Plains and Southeast continued to hold their breath this week, as another seven days of below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures brought little to no reprieve to the historic drought conditions that have plagued these areas since early last spring. Some areas, such as Texas and Georgia, have been suffering from drought since early 2011.
Conditions deteriorated in several places this week, according to the updated U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday....
Butterflies Booking It North as Climate Warms
Posted by Mother Jones: Julia Whitty on January 31st, 2013
Mother Jones: Butterflies from the southern US that used to be rare in the northeast are now appearing there on a regular basis. The trend correlates to a warming climate report the authors of a paper in Nature Climate Change.
Subtropical and warm-climate butterflies--including the giant swallowtail (photo above) and the zabulon skipper (photo below)--showed the sharpest population shift to the north. As recently as the late 1980s these species were rare or absent in Massachusetts.
At the same time southern...
New Anti-Fracking Network Launches in NY
Posted by EcoWatch: Save The Southern Tier on January 31st, 2013
EcoWatch: As a key February deadline closes in, residents from each of the five Southern Tier counties previously targeted as a “sacrifice zone” for fracking launched a new anti-fracking network, Save the Southern Tier. The network launched with a stern message and demand to Governor Cuomo, who the network believes has fallen prey to manipulation and misinformation about the potential for fracking in the Southern Tier.
Save the Southern Tier will amplify existing anti-fracking efforts and build and prepare...
How Drought on Mississippi River Impacts You
Posted by National Geographic: Johnna Rizzo on January 31st, 2013
National Geographic: Woe is the Mississippi. A barge carrying light crude hit a bridge near Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Sunday, causing an oil spill.
But if you think that is the worst thing that's happened this winter to the river, you'd be wrong.
The middle Mississippi-the 200-mile (322-kilometer) stretch from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois-is experiencing drought conditions unrivaled in the last 50 years. That's been the case since November.
From December to March, this part of the river is always at its lowest...
Renewables in Bed With Natural Gas?
Posted by Climate Desk: None Given on January 31st, 2013
Climate Desk: It`s no secret that environmentalists are going through a bit of an identity crisis when it comes to natural gas. Celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, and Yoko Ono have aligned themselves with green groups like the Sierra Club to come out steadfastly against gas because of fracking, the drilling technique that harvests most of it, citing concerns about water and air contamination. Meanwhile others, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Environmental Defense Fund, have boosted...
From slash-and-burn to Amazon heroes: new video series highlights agricultural transformation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 31st, 2013
Mongabay: A new series of short films is celebrating the innovation of rural farmers in the Manu region of Peru. Home to jaguars, macaws, and tapirs, the Manu region is also one of the top contenders for the world's most biodiverse place. It faces a multitude of threats from road-building to mining to gas and oil concessions. Still the impact of smallscale slash-and-burn farming-once seen as the greatest threat to the Amazon and other rainforest-may be diminishing as farmers, like the first film's Reynaldo...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on From slash-and-burn to Amazon heroes: new video series highlights agricultural transformationIndia: Panel to aid council on climate change
Posted by Hindustan Times: None Given on January 31st, 2013
Hindustan Times: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday constituted a secretary level panel to assist the PM’s Council on Climate Change in implementing the eight missions to fight climate change. Implementation of the missions has been poor with no inter-ministerial coordination resulting in constitution of the Executive Committee on Climate Change to be headed by principal secretary to Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji.
The panel will regularly monitor the implementation of the eight missions, other climate...
Greenhouse Gases Affect Rainfall Differently Than Natural Global Warming
Posted by redOrbit: April Flowers on January 31st, 2013
RedOrbit: An international group of scientists has shown that global warming from greenhouse gases affects global rainfall patterns differently than global warming from solar heating. Using computer model simulations, the research team showed that global rainfall has increased less over the present-day warming period than during the Medieval Warm Period between 950 and 1250 AD despite the fact that temperatures today are higher than during that time.
The findings of this study were published in today’s...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenhouse Gases Affect Rainfall Differently Than Natural Global Warming