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Archive for March, 2013
Study predicts lag in summer rains over parts of US and Mexico
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2013
ScienceDaily: A delay in the summer monsoon rains that fall over the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico is expected in the coming decades according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The North American monsoon delivers as much as 70 percent of the region's annual rainfall, watering crops and rangelands for an estimated 20 million people.
"We hope this information can be used with other studies to build realistic expectations for water resource availability in the future,"...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Study predicts lag in summer rains over parts of US and MexicoMonsoon failure key to long droughts in Southwest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Long-term droughts in the Southwestern North America often mean failure of both summer and winter rains, according to new tree-ring research from a University of Arizona-led team.
The finding contradicts the commonly held belief that a dry winter rainy season is generally followed by a wet monsoon season, and vice versa.
The new research shows that for the severe, multi-decadal droughts that occurred from 1539 to 2008, generally both winter and summer rains were sparse year after year.
"One...
India needs micro-level data for climate action
Posted by SciDevNet: Archita Bhatta and Athar Parvaiz on March 11th, 2013
SciDevNet: India needs micro-level scientific assessment at the state, district and village levels for effective planning and implementation of measures to combat climate change, a national workshop has highlighted. The workshop on climate-resilient development, organized last month (13 February), discussed integrating climate change into development programs in semi-arid regions like Bundelkhand in central India. Participants pointed to how lack of micro-level climate change information at the state and district...
Yoko Ono and Susan Sarandon star in new anti-fracking music video
Posted by Guardian: Adam Gabbatt on March 11th, 2013
Guardian: An eclectic group of celebrities including Yoko Ono, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Susan Sarandon have joined forces in a music video calling for New York state to ban hydraulic fracturing.
Titled Don't Frack My Mother, the song was written by Sean Lennon, with about 25 musicians, actors and comedians performing in the video.
It is the latest tool in the Artists Against Fracking campaign to discourage New York governor Andrew Cuomo from allowing fracking in the state. The group, set up by Ono and Lennon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Yoko Ono and Susan Sarandon star in new anti-fracking music videoPittsburgh’s leaky faucet: How aging sewers are impacting urban watersheds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Aging sewer systems are spilling a considerable amount of nitrogen into urban watersheds, diminishing both the quality of water and ecosystems' habitats. However, many studies documenting the impacts of nitrogen on urban environs have not properly estimated the contribution of leaky sewer systems -- until now.
Using water samples from the Pittsburgh-based Nine Mile Run watershed, a Pitt research team reveals in the current issue of Environmental Science & Technology that an estimated 10 to 20...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pittsburgh’s leaky faucet: How aging sewers are impacting urban watershedsStudy: climate change turning global north ‘green’ like south
Posted by Wired: David Cornish on March 11th, 2013
Wired: Martian impacts could have caused runaway greenhouse effect Arctic researchers burn off methane plumes Exhibition recreates Arctic in National Maritime Museum Ancient mummified forest emerges from the Canadian Arctic Comments 3
As the covering of snow and ice continues to shrink in the Earth's northern latitudes, the growth of vegetation and plant life in the region is increasing -- making it more and more similar warmer southern latitudes.
An international team of university and Nasa scientists...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study: climate change turning global north ‘green’ like southThousands of Dead Pigs Found in Chinese River
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on March 11th, 2013
New York Times: More than 3,300 dead pigs have been found in a major river that flows through Shanghai, igniting fears among city residents of contaminated tap water, according to official reports on Tuesday. Officials were trying to determine who had dumped the carcasses into the river, the Huangpu, which slices through the heart of Shanghai. Some reports blamed farmers. Officials were seeking to track the source of the pigs from marks on their ears, and a preliminary inquiry found that the dumping occurred in...
Miami Sea Levels Will Rise Flooding Streets, Threatening Sewage Plants: Report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2013
Associated Press: Three major sewage plants in South Florida could be reduced to shrinking islands in less than 50 years due to climate change, according to a group of climate scientists.
The scientists believe rising sea level will threaten some of the region's most vital facilities. It will also flood land, streets and neighborhoods nearby, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.
The scenario was drawn up by five experts from the University of Miami, Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Miami Sea Levels Will Rise Flooding Streets, Threatening Sewage Plants: ReportJamestown faces a future of rising tides
Posted by Times Dispatch: REX SPRINGSTON on March 11th, 2013
Times Dispatch: Nature has always been cruel here.
Bad drinking water and mosquitoes, among other problems, bedeviled those who created in 1607 the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Today the land itself is at risk, threatened by rising sea levels aided by a warming climate.
Most of Jamestown occupies an island that lies 3 feet or less above the tidal James River. If current projections hold, all of that low land will be underwater by 2100, and much of the island will be increasingly...
Skelos Says Republicans Will Block a Vote on N.Y. Fracking Ban
Posted by Bloomberg: Freeman Klopott on March 11th, 2013
Bloomberg: Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican and co-leader of the New York Senate, said he will block a vote on a bill to extend a ban on fracking.
“It’s unnecessary,” Skelos said today in an interview in Albany. “The governor has a process that’s been going on and I think that’s where we should leave it.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo has kept in place a four-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas until an environmental review is complete. That review hinges on an analysis by Health Commissioner...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Skelos Says Republicans Will Block a Vote on N.Y. Fracking Ban