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Archive for March, 2013
Fierce northern winter linked to Arctic sea ice melt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: TONY EASTLEY: There's more evidence today of the retreat of sea ice in the Arctic.
Satellite pictures reveal the icy expanse reached its maximum size for the year on March the 15th yet the sea ice was the sixth lowest since satellite records began just over 30 years ago.
Climate scientists say the ice loss is contributing to the massive snowstorms and bitter weather experienced in North America and Europe.
Ashley Hall reports.
ASHLEY HALL: It's been a particularly fierce winter and spring...
Oklahoma Quake Tied to Wastewater Shows Oil Boom Impact
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem and Jim Efstathiou Jr. on March 26th, 2013
Bloomberg: A 2011 Oklahoma earthquake has been tied by researchers to the disposal of wastewater from oil production, the latest study suggesting the energy boom from advances such as fracking is increasing temblors.
A series of quakes in November 2011 followed an 11-fold bump in seismic activity across the central U.S., as disposal wells are created to handle the increase in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas, geologists at the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University and the U.S. Geological...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Oklahoma Quake Tied to Wastewater Shows Oil Boom ImpactGovernors Ask Obama to Weigh Climate Impact of Coal Ports
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on March 26th, 2013
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama’s administration should weigh the climate-change impact of burning coal in Asia when considering whether to approve Pacific coal- export terminals, two Western governors said.
In a letter to the White House Council of Environmental Quality, the Democratic governors, John Kitzhaber of Oregon and and Jay Inslee of Washington, said the administration must expand its review of the projects and consider the carbon dioxide that would be released when the coal is burned for power....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Governors Ask Obama to Weigh Climate Impact of Coal PortsElectricity for All but Those the Kariba Dam Displaced
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Indigenous people who were displaced from the Zambezi Valley almost six decades ago for the construction of the Kariba Dam say they have not benefited from the development they made way for.
The building of the Kariba hydroelectric dam was supposed to usher in a bright future for the people of Zambia and Zimbabwe who gave up their land for its construction.
Unfortunately, that future was for others and not the displaced and their descendants. Most of the villages to which some 57,000 people...
British butterflies suffer devastating year after 2012’s wet summer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Guardian: Fewer butterflies flew in British skies in the miserable summer of 2012 than for thousands of years, leaving several species in danger of extinction from parts of the country.
The country's most endangered butterfly, the high brown fritillary, saw its small population slump by 46%, while another rare species, the black hairstreak, fell by 98%, as 300,000 fewer butterflies were recorded on the wing compared with 2011.
The wettest ever year recorded in England was equally damaging for once common...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on British butterflies suffer devastating year after 2012’s wet summerTiny possum could be Australia’s first climate change victim
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Reuters: A one-degree rise in temperature could spell doom for a rare Australian possum within a decade, potentially making the tiny, long-tailed marsupial the continent's first victim of climate change, researchers said.
Mountain Pygmy Possums have been a part of the Australian ecosystem for more than 25 million years, but only 2,000-2,600 are believed to remain in the wilds of the Snowy Mountains, a range that extends between New South Wales and Victoria states.
"There's so many ways that a change...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tiny possum could be Australia’s first climate change victimStudying clouds to find global answers
Posted by Press-Enterprise: Mark Muckenfuss on March 26th, 2013
Press-Enterprise: Some of the same chemicals that scientists believe are influencing climate change may be having an equally important effect on people’s health, as they inhale those chemicals into their bodies.
UC Riverside professor Akua Asa-Awuku is studying both.
Using the world’s largest atmospheric chamber at UCR’s College of Engineering/Center for Environmental Research and Technology, Asa-Awuku is trying to determine how airborne particles from emissions influence the formation of clouds. Clouds affect...
British butterfly species facing extinction after wettest summer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Independent: Britain's butterflies suffered catastrophically in 2012, which saw the wettest summer on record for England. No fewer than 52 of the 56 resident British species suffered declines in the relentless rain and cold, some to such an extent that they now face extinction in parts of the country, according to the annual survey of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.
The weather created disastrous conditions for species such as fritillaries as they struggled to find food, shelter and mating opportunities;...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on British butterfly species facing extinction after wettest summerShell Plans to Spend $1 Billion on China Shale Gas Development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
Bloomberg: Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) will spend $1 billion developing China’s shale gas reserves, according to Peter Voser, the company’s chief executive.
Shell has won government approval for its production sharing contract with China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s biggest oil and gas company, Voser said in an interview in Beijing today. He didn’t specify a timeline or other details for the $1 billion investment.
China is working with overseas partners to introduce hydraulic fracturing, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shell Plans to Spend $1 Billion on China Shale Gas DevelopmentButterflies ‘hurt by cold, wet 2012’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2013
BBC: Butterflies suffered in last year's wet and cold weather, having their worst year since 1976, a charity says.
Only four of the 56 species studied in the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme saw an increase in population size.
The relentless rain and cold of 2012 meant that in particular summer species struggled to find food, shelter and mating opportunities.
The scheme looked at how a range of species did at more than 1,000 sites across the UK.
The black hairstreak, one of the UK's rarest butterflies,...