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Archive for February, 2013
Australia: Federal Govt stops funding to climate change research facility
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: TONY EASTLEY: One of Australia's key research bodies which has the task of preparing the nation to handle the impacts of global warming is running out of money.
The National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility has been going for about five years but the Federal Government hasn't extended its funding and so from June it's expected to be wound up.
Here's Environment reporter Sarah Clarke.
SARAH CLARKE: Set up by the Howard government, the National Climate Change Adaptation Research...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Australia: Federal Govt stops funding to climate change research facilityPlains states hit with second winter storm in a week
Posted by Reuters: Kevin Murphy on February 26th, 2013
Reuters: A potent winter storm bore down on the southern U.S. Plains on Monday, dumping more than a foot of snow and creating blizzard conditions in Oklahoma, Texas and parts of Kansas still digging out from a winter storm last week.
Highways in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and parts of Kansas were closed by the heavy and drifting snow that cut visibility and forced flight cancellations at airports across the region.
A man was killed Monday when his car slid off Interstate 70 in Sherman County,...
Maize ‘was key in Andean society’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2013
BBC: New evidence strengthens the argument that maize played an important role in ancient Peruvian civilisation 5,000 years ago, a study has said.
Samples taken from pollen records, stone tool residues and fossilised faeces suggest the food crop was actively grown, processed and eaten.
The authors say it adds more weight to the argument that Andean society was agricultural, not maritime-based.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"If you look at the origins...
Global surveys show environment ranks low among public concerns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2013
ScienceDaily: A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world.
The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment. Additionally, when asked about climate change, people identified the issue as more as a national problem than a personal concern.
Coordinated surveys, conducted by the International Social Survey Programme...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global surveys show environment ranks low among public concernsDog food recall underscores toxic danger in drought-hit U.S. corn
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam and Julie Ingwersen on February 25th, 2013
Reuters: High levels of a dangerous toxin found in bagged dog food on a grocery store shelf in Iowa have highlighted the prevalence of a problematic mold in last year's U.S. corn crop, as state and federal officials work on limiting the food safety concern.
"Last year's corn crop - it is a huge issue. We test every load coming in. And we reject a lot of loads," said Michael Wright, chief executive officer of Pro-Pet, an Ohio-based pet food manufacturer that learned last week some of its product was tainted...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Dog food recall underscores toxic danger in drought-hit U.S. cornWeather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2013
ScienceDaily: The world has suffered from severe regional weather extremes in recent years, such as the heat wave in the United States in 2011 or the one in Russia 2010 coinciding with the unprecedented Pakistan flood. Behind these devastating individual events there is a common physical cause, propose scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and suggests that man-made climate change repeatedly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphereRise in 1.5 degrees Celsius likely to spark massive greenhouse gas release from permafrost
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2013
Mongabay: While nations around the world have committed to keeping temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial era, new research published in Science suggests that the global climate could hit a tipping point at just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit). Studying cave stalactites and stalagmites in Siberia, scientists found that at about 1.5 degrees Celsius the Siberian permafrost melts, potentially releasing a greenhouse gas bomb of 1,000 giga-tonnes,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Rise in 1.5 degrees Celsius likely to spark massive greenhouse gas release from permafrostGlobal warming may cause extremes by slowing “planetary waves”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2013
Reuters: Global warming may have caused extreme events such as a 2011 drought in the United States and a 2003 heatwave in Europe by slowing vast, wave-like weather flows in the northern hemisphere, scientists said on Tuesday.
The study of meandering air systems that encircle the planet adds to understanding of extremes that have killed thousands of people and driven up food prices in the past decade.
Such planetary air flows, which suck warm air from the tropics when they swing north and draw cold air...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global warming may cause extremes by slowing “planetary waves”New Documentary Celebrates the Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 25th, 2013
EcoWatch: Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade is an hour-long documentary film written and directed by Garrett Graham in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade and features exclusive video footage shot by the blockaders during the course of more than six months of sustained resistance.
In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against a dangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Documentary Celebrates the Voices of the Tar Sands BlockadeProtecting Illinois From Fracking
Posted by Huffington Post: Jack Darin on February 25th, 2013
Huffington Post: The prospect of the gas industry coming Illinois to extract gas from beneath our state using high-volume hydraulic fracturing has caused a great deal of controversy and concern, especially in parts of Illinois where leasing for drilling rights has been underway for well over a year. Horror stories from other states about open pits of toxic wastewater, secret brews of toxins injected into the earth, air emissions sickening neighbors, and contaminated drinking water are just a few of the impacts seen...