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Archive for March, 2013
Researchers Analyze Amplified Greenhouse Effect’s Impact On Seasonality
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2013
RedOrbit: A warming climate and reduced temperature seasonality has resulted in increased vegetation production in northern latitudes, which have begun to resemble the conditions found in regions located several degrees of latitude further south as recently as three decades ago, an international team of researchers have discovered.
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, 21 authors from 17 different institutions in seven countries report that diminishing snow and ice in the northern latitudes has...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Researchers Analyze Amplified Greenhouse Effect’s Impact On SeasonalityOver 2,200 dead pigs found in Chinese river prompting pollution alert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2013
Reuters: Over 2,200 pigs have been found dead in one of Shanghai's main water sources, official media reported on Monday, triggering a public outcry in China where concerns over food safety and environmental pollution run high.
The carcasses were probably dumped in the Huangpu river in Zhejiang province and the total number was expected to increase, the Global Times quoted Xu Rong, director of Shanghai Songjiang District Environmental Protection Bureau, as saying.
"We have to act quickly to remove them...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Over 2,200 dead pigs found in Chinese river prompting pollution alertRail Is Not an Alternative to the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Posted by Huffington Post: Anthony Swift on March 11th, 2013
Huffington Post: In its recently released draft environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring tar sands from Canada to the Gulf Coast for export, the State Department attempts to make the case that rail could be a viable alternative. The State Department argued that Keystone XL would have little effect on tar sands production because rail could provide an equally feasible and economic transportation option for tar sands. This is a critical element of the draft environmental review because while...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Rail Is Not an Alternative to the Keystone XL Tar Sands PipelineTell Avon, New Jersey: Old-Growth Rainforest Boardwalks Cause Abrupt Climate Change
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on March 11th, 2013
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Tiny Avon, New Jersey, is moving forward with plans to rebuild their ocean-front boardwalk - recently destroyed by Hurricane Sandy for the second time in 20 years using ill-gotten old-growth rainforest timbers. Loss of primary rainforests is a primary cause of abrupt climate change [search], as well as mass extinction, social disintegration, and ecosystem decline. Unless we break the cycle of destroying ecosystems for luxury consumption, we can expect further climate weirding and biosphere collapse. Tell Avon to please follow New York Cities lead and use readily available alternatives.
TAKE ACTION!
http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=rainforest_boardwalk
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on Tell Avon, New Jersey: Old-Growth Rainforest Boardwalks Cause Abrupt Climate ChangeUnited Kingdom: No Dash for Gas campaigners set up anti-EDF website
Posted by Guardian: James Ball on March 10th, 2013
Guardian: A group of environmental campaigners being sued for £5m by energy company EDF for occupying one of the company's power plants in October last year has launched a website encouraging EDF customers to switch to alternative providers as a gesture of opposition to the civil action.
Members of the campaign group "No Dash for Gas" occupied EDF's gas-fired power plant in West Burton for a week in October last year, protesting against fossil fuels and carbon emissions. Last month, 21 activists pleaded...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: No Dash for Gas campaigners set up anti-EDF websiteAre tropical forests resilient to global warming?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 10th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Tropical forests are less likely to lose biomass -- plants and plant material -- in response to greenhouse gas emissions over the twenty-first century than may previously have been thought, suggests a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. In the most comprehensive assessment yet of the risk of tropical forest dieback due to climate change, the results have important implications for the future evolution of tropical rainforests including the role they play in the global climate system...
Hickenlooper Not the Only Government Official Trying to Frack Colorado
Posted by EcoWatch: Gary Wockner on March 10th, 2013
EcoWatch: Over the past few weeks, Colorado`s Governor John Hickenlooper has gotten a lot of negative attention. First, for telling a U.S. Senate committee that he drank Halliburton`s frack fluid and second, for threatening to sue the City of Fort Collins for its ban on fracking.
But Hickenlooper isn`t the only government official trying to frack Colorado.
Helen Hankins, who directs the Colorado office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has also been in the very-uncomfortable glare of public...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hickenlooper Not the Only Government Official Trying to Frack ColoradoChavez Death Could Affect Oil Prices, Production and Pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 10th, 2013
Scientific American: A Venezuelan oil minister once referred to his country's main export as the "devil's excrement." We’ll see how the death of Hugo Chavez affects production levels of this Faustian fuel—which influences both the global oil market and the climate.
Venezuela’s oil has problematic qualities. The thick, tar-like oil requires extra heat to flow. Once finally on the move, it's fed to refineries where the heavy oil must be what the engineers call "cracked." That chemical process removes excess carbon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Chavez Death Could Affect Oil Prices, Production and PollutionAustralia: Who will speak up for climate change adaptation?
Posted by Conversation: None Given on March 10th, 2013
Conversation: As with the federal elections of 2007 and 2010, climate change appears set to feature again in the forthcoming September poll. Yet one of the most important aspects of the issue, that of adaptation to climate change, is again unlikely to garner any attention.
Climate change and its associated global changes (prominently sea level rise and ocean acidification) will produce profound social, economic, and environmental changes in Australia. Some of these changes will be gradual. Others will be abrupt...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Who will speak up for climate change adaptation?Confronting Climate Change and Violence Against Women
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 10th, 2013
Energy Collective: International Women’s Day, a time for celebrating women’s achievements and calling for greater equality. The United Nations has focused this year’s events on ending violence against women--not with more pledges and promises but with real, concrete action. We have made some recent strides. Just yesterday President Obama signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Yet far too many women continue to suffer at the hands of others: 70 percent of women have experienced physical or sexual...