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Archive for February 4th, 2013
ECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on February 4th, 2013
By Dr. Glen Barry, scientific journal article under preparation
Abstract
Planetary boundary science defines key thresholds in the Earth System's ecological conditions that precede local or global ecosystem collapse and threaten human well-being. Terrestrial ecosystems enter into the nine originally defined planetary boundaries only indirectly, through boundaries such as biodiversity and land use. This observational study and literature review aggregate what is known regarding the quantity and quality of terrestrial ecosystems - particularly old-growth and primary forests - necessary to sustain the biosphere. The study seeks to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System must remain as connected and intact core ecological areas and agroecological buffers to sustain local ecosystem services as well as the biosphere commons? Two preeminent considerations are connectivity of large ecosystem patches, enabling them to persist as the matrix for the landscape, and critical collapse of the dominant large habitat patch or "percolating cluster" into smaller, more isolated habitats, in a sea of human development. This transition, which has been found to occur at about 40% habitat loss in landscapes and bioregions, is likely to be similar at a continental and global scale. An example of the importance ...
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Comments Off on ECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere CollapseMP blasts ‘insulting’ Environment Agency claims over ‘wrong type of rain’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2013
Telegraph: Lord Chris Smith said areas of Britain were facing future problems due to climate change and a "new kind" of rain.
But his comments, made after he attended a 60th anniversary memorial service to those who died in 1953 floods in East Anglia, have drawn fierce criticism.
Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for West Somerset, said they were an "insult to the intelligence" of his constituents.
Thousands of homes and businesses were damaged by floods last year and eight people were killed when Britain suffered...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on MP blasts ‘insulting’ Environment Agency claims over ‘wrong type of rain’United Kingdom: Friends of the Earth says George Osborne creating ‘bonanza’ for oil firms
Posted by Guardian: Larry Elliott on February 4th, 2013
Guardian: Friends of the Earth has accused George Osborne of creating a bonanza for Britain's big energy companies by providing almost £1bn of tax breaks designed to boost North Sea oil and gas production.
FoE said the chancellor was going against the advice of Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, in providing subsidies designed to ensure "every last drop of oil" is extracted from the UK's rapidly declining reserves.
It said Osborne had hugely expanded field allowances, introduced by Alistair...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Friends of the Earth says George Osborne creating ‘bonanza’ for oil firmsUnited Kingdom: Founding father of the green movement battles plans to erect wind turbine in his village
Posted by Daily Mail: Anna Edwards on February 4th, 2013
Daily Mail: One of the world's top environmentalists and a founding father of the 'green' movement is fighting plans to build a wind turbine in his village.
Professor James Lovelock, 93, is famous for inventing 'Gaia Theory' and predicting global warming would wipe out four fifths of the world's population by 2100.
But in recent years the scientist has outraged many followers after becoming an advocate of nuclear power and a staunch opponent of wind energy.
He is now battling plans for a 275ft wind...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Founding father of the green movement battles plans to erect wind turbine in his villageMississippi River Reopened to Vessels After Oil Removed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2013
Associated Press: The Coast Guard has reopened the Mississippi River to vessel traffic in both directions after finishing the cleanup of thousands of gallons of oil from a leaking barge.
Officials said in a news release Saturday that the safety zone has been reduced to one mile on either side of the two barges that collided with a railroad bridge near Vicksburg last Sunday, causing a leak from one barge. Vessels are not permitted to pass or overtake other vessels within the zone.
The news release said the light...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mississippi River Reopened to Vessels After Oil RemovedAustralia: Giant Heatwave Delivers Hottest January on Record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 4th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia notches another hot month, breaking a record for January that had stood since 1932.
Australia's year of extreme weather has collected a fresh record with January posting the hottest average temperatures for the month on record.
With just a day's data to be collected, the average of maximum and minimum temperatures for the month was 29.7 degrees. That tally was 1.79 degrees above the long-term average.
Almost certainly there'll be a hotter, longer, more extreme spell (in February)...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Giant Heatwave Delivers Hottest January on RecordChina Company Buys Texas Oil & Gas Field
Posted by Forbes: None Given on February 4th, 2013
Forbes: China’s state owned petrochemical giant Sinochem (SHA: 600500) acquired a 40 percent in Wolfcamp, a well-known shale oil and gas field in the Permian Basin of Texas.
Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) of Irving, Texas said this week that it sold a 40 percent stake in its Wolfcamp field for a total price of $1.7 billion. Sinochem’s U.S. subsidiary signed the deal on Wednesday.
The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013, subject to customary governmental approvals. Under...
John Kerry to ‘Stay in Touch’ with Canada on Keystone XL
Posted by CBC: Susana Mas on February 4th, 2013
CBC: With the fate of a controversial Keystone XL pipeline in his hands, it didn't take long for newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to pick up the phone and call Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird during his first weekend on the job.
Kerry, who was sworn in on Friday succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton in the cabinet of U.S. President Barack Obama, made the call to Baird on Saturday.
The two agreed to work closely together on a broad range of issues and "agreed to stay in touch on...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on John Kerry to ‘Stay in Touch’ with Canada on Keystone XLLakes Michigan, Huron sink to lowest level ever
Posted by Detroit News: Jim Lynch on February 4th, 2013
Detroit News: In the nearly 100 years researchers have catalogued the rise and fall of the Great Lakes, Michigan and Huron have never seen a month like January.
The two-lake system recorded its lowest-ever level for a month, a mean of 576.02 feet above sea level. It's a number that dips below the all-time low for January — 576.12 feet — as well as the all-time low for any month, 576.05 feet in March 1964.
For those who live along or play in the waters of the Great Lakes, the news is disturbing but unsurprising....
Vast Oil Reserve in California May Now Be Within Reach, and Battle Heats Up
Posted by New York Times: Norimitsu Onishi on February 4th, 2013
New York Times: Secure in this state’s history and mythology, the venerable Midway-Sunset oil field near here keeps producing crude more than a century after Southern California’s oil boom. Many of its bobbing pump jacks are relatively short, a telltale sign of the shallowness of the wells and the ease of extracting their prize. But away from this forest of pump jacks on a flat, brown landscape, a road snakes up into nearby hills that are largely untouched — save for a handful of exploratory wells pumping oil from...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Vast Oil Reserve in California May Now Be Within Reach, and Battle Heats Up