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Archive for February 6th, 2013
Questions Sprout Up Over Razed California Wildlife Reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 6th, 2013
National Public Radio: Just a stone's throw from two of Los Angeles' busiest freeways lies the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve, a unique spot in an urban jungle. The northern portion of the reserve is adorned with 30-foot-tall cottonwood trees, spots of coyote bush and other plants. Native plants cover 50 percent of the nature spot, says Kris Ohlenkamp with the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society. "On the other side it was significantly more than that," he says. A cement corridor leads to the southern part of the reserve....
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Posted by Miami Herald: Erika Bolstad on February 6th, 2013
Miami Herald: The United States will struggle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to promised levels by 2020, a report from a prominent think tank warned this week, but the federal government, states and industry already have the means at their disposal to achieve such goals.
The report, by the World Resources Institute, a think tank that focuses on the environment and socioeconomic development, looks at the technical and legal authority President Barack Obama could use to build on the pledge in his inaugural...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report outlines climate change options for Obama administrationObama’s Choice to Lead Interior Dept. Has Oil Sector and Conservation Credentials
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 6th, 2013
New York Times: President Obama on Wednesday nominated Sally Jewell, the chief executive of Recreational Equipment Inc., to lead the Interior Department, with a vow that she will balance the agency’s sometimes conflicting mandates to promote resource development and preserve the nation’s natural heritage. If confirmed, Ms. Jewell, a former oil company engineer and longtime advocate for conservation and outdoor recreation, will take over a department that has been embroiled in controversy over the regulation of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama’s Choice to Lead Interior Dept. Has Oil Sector and Conservation CredentialsHistoric, Crippling Blizzard May Strike New England
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 6th, 2013
Climate Central: A powerful storm is slated to plaster southern New England with blizzard conditions, hurricane-force winds, and coastal flooding, beginning on Friday and lasting through at least Saturday. Computer models that had been vacillating on whether the storm would take shape have now come into better alignment, although they still differ on crucial details that will affect snowfall totals in big cities such as Boston, Providence, and New York City. The National Weather Service has posted blizzard watches...
Study Downplays Risk of Catastrophic Amazon ‘Dieback’
Posted by Climate Central: Lauren Morello on February 6th, 2013
Climate Central: In a warming world, tropical forests may be hardier than previously thought.
For scientists who study the Amazon, the worst-case scenario has long been clear. As the planet warms, some models suggest, the rainforest will dry and die, sending a massive shot of carbon into the atmosphere to further warm the planet.
That risk now appears to be smaller than researchers feared, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature. It estimates that for every degree Celsius of warming, the Amazon and...
As Drought Intensifies, 2 States Dig In Over Water War
Posted by National Public Radio: Grant Gerlock on February 6th, 2013
National Public Radio: Epic water battles are the stuff of history and legend, especially in the West. And as a severe drought drags on in the Midwest, a water war is being waged over a river that irrigates agriculture in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.
It's that last border crossing where this water war is under way. Kansas has gone to the Supreme Court to argue that Nebraska uses too much water from the Republican River, and that there's not enough left for Kansas farmers.
In Clifton, Kan., on the short end of the...
Bangladesh Waterkeeper Provides Hope for Revival of the Buriganga River
Posted by EcoWatch: Sudhirendar Sharma, The Hindu on February 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: South Asians share a common historical lineage, of revering and desecrating their rivers with equal impunity at the same time. No wonder, major rivers across the sub-continent are at various stages of neglect. Add legacy of failed institutions to this neglect and you get an all-pervasive picture of environmental callousness, of which polluted rivers are a sad reflection. Though millions depend on them, water courses seem to be nobody’s responsibility.
Buriganga is one such river, lifeline for...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Bangladesh Waterkeeper Provides Hope for Revival of the Buriganga RiverUnited Kingdom: Government to ignore European ban on neonicotinoid pesticides
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 6th, 2013
Independent: The British Government is completely free to ignore recommendations from European safety regulators that controversial nerve-agent pesticides should not be used on crops visited by bees, MPs were told.
Herman Fontier, head of the pesticides division of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), told a Parliamentary committee that his organisation’s recommendation two weeks ago that neonicotinoid pesticides, widely blamed for bee declines around the world, should be kept away from bees, was merely...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Government to ignore European ban on neonicotinoid pesticidesDumping of Toxic Fracking Wastewater Reaffirms Natural Gas Industry Free-for-All in Ohio
Posted by EcoWatch: Environment Ohio on February 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: A week after the dumping of at least 20,000 gallons of toxic and potentially radioactive fracking waste into a storm drain that empties into a tributary of the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Ohio, by Hard Rock Excavating, state regulators have yet to disclose information about the quantity of waste and the chemicals involved. Environmental advocates are urging the state to act quickly to prosecute the perpetrator and look beyond the one incident to take more aggressive steps to protect the state’s...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Dumping of Toxic Fracking Wastewater Reaffirms Natural Gas Industry Free-for-All in OhioLungs of the planet reveal their true sensitivity to global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 6th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Tropical rainforests are often called the "lungs of the planet" because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. But the amount of carbon dioxide that rainforests absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate. In a paper published online Feb 6 2013 by the journal Nature, a team of climate scientists from the University of Exeter, the Met Office-Hadley Centre and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, has shown that these variations reveal...
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