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Archive for April 3rd, 2013
U.S. proposal to move fracking wastewater by barge stirs debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
Reuters: The Obama administration is inching ahead with a plan that would allow wastewater from fracking to be shipped on barges, fueling a debate whether it is safer than other transportation modes or risks polluting drinking water.
The Coast Guard last month quietly sent to the White House's Office of Management and Budget a proposal to allow the barging of fracking wastewater. If the plan is pushed forward, it would become a proposed rule open for public comment and could be finalized sometime in the...
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Comments Off on U.S. proposal to move fracking wastewater by barge stirs debateClouds Helped Enhance Greenland’s Record Melting
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
Climate Central: When scientists saw melting across a whopping 97 percent of Greenland's icy surface last summer, they were quick to note that such an event is rare, but not unprecedented. The last time it happened was in 1889, so while manmade global warming is clearly involved it isn't necessarily the entire story.
A new new report in Nature on Wednesday has now helped flesh out the explanation: data from Summit Station, at the frozen island's highest point, 10,551 feet above sea level, show that unusually warm...
Environmental policies matter for growing megacities
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
ScienceDaily: A new study shows clean-air regulations have dramatically reduced acid rain in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea over the past 30 years, but the opposite is true in fast-growing East Asian megacities, possibly due to lax antipollution rules or lack of enforcement.
The U.S. Clean Air Act began requiring regulatory controls for vehicle emissions in the 1970s, and 1990 amendments addressed issues including acid rain. Similar steps in the European Union, Japan and South Korea over the...
Top 5 Reasons Transporting Tar Sands Crude is Reckless
Posted by EcoWatch: Anthony Swift on April 3rd, 2013
EcoWatch: On March 29, Exxon’s Pegasus tar sands pipeline ruptured, flooding a suburban community in Mayflower, Ark. with between 150,000 and 210,000 gallons (3,500 to 5,000 barrels) of tar sands crude. According to reports, the Pegasus line was carrying Wabasca Heavy diluted bitumen–a toxic mix of heavy tar sands bitumen and volatile petrochemical diluents.
Following the incident, Rep. Ed Markey observed:
This latest pipeline incident is a troubling reminder that oil companies still have not proven...
Ancient pool of warm water questions current climate models
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
ScienceDaily: A huge pool of warm water that stretched out from Indonesia over to Africa and South America four million years ago suggests climate models might be too conservative in forecasting tropical changes.
Present in the Pliocene era, this giant mass of water would have dramatically altered rainfall in the tropics, possibly even removing the monsoon. Its decay and the consequential drying of East Africa may have been a factor in Hominid evolution.
Published in Nature today, the missing data for this...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ancient pool of warm water questions current climate modelsThin clouds drove Greenland’s record-breaking 2012 ice melt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
ScienceDaily: If the sheet of ice covering Greenland were to melt in its entirety tomorrow, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet.
Three million cubic kilometers of ice won't wash into the ocean overnight, but researchers have been tracking increasing melt rates since at least 1979. Last summer, however, the melt was so large that similar events show up in ice core records only once every 150 years or so over the last four millennia.
"In July 2012, a historically rare period of extended surface melting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thin clouds drove Greenland’s record-breaking 2012 ice meltLeaking Pipeline Offers Warning on Keystone XL Proposal
Posted by Inter Press Service: Katelyn Fossett on April 3rd, 2013
Inter Press Service: Environmental groups are sounding alarms about conflicting reports on the size and seriousness of an oil spill that took place late last week in the southern U.S. state of Arkansas.
The spill has generated particular interest because it emanates from a pipeline carrying "tar sands" oil, a particularly heavy and environmentally destructive oil composed of bitumen and diluted with lighter elements.A lot of the people we talked to said, "˜We didn't even know there was a pipeline under our homes.'...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Leaking Pipeline Offers Warning on Keystone XL ProposalClimate Change Future Suggested by Looking Back 4 Million Years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
Scientific American: The last time the Earth enjoyed greenhouse gas levels like those of today was roughly 4 million years ago, during an era known as the Pliocene. The extra heat of average temperatures as much as 4 degrees Celsius warmer turned the tropical oceans into a nice warm pool of bathwater, as noted by new research published in Nature on April 4.
By analyzing the ratio of magnesium and calcium in the shells of microscopic animals found in long cores of mud from the deep ocean, the researchers confirmed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change Future Suggested by Looking Back 4 Million YearsCanada: Tree death toll from climate change likely underestimated
Posted by CBC: None Given on April 3rd, 2013
CBC: Climate change is likely killing more trees in the boreal forest than predicted, a new Canadian study suggests.
Models that predict the impact of climate change typically assume that older forests are representative of all forests. But older forests are less vulnerable to the effects of climate change than younger forests that make up the vast majority of Canada's boreal forest ecosystems, suggests a study of Alberta and Saskatchewan forests by Yong Luo and Han Chen, forest ecologists at Lakehead...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada: Tree death toll from climate change likely underestimatedAmazon dam activists threaten to wage war on Brazil over military incursion
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2013
Guardian: An Amazonian community has threatened to "go to war" with the Brazilian government after a military incursion into their land by dam builders.
The Munduruku indigenous community in Para state say they have been betrayed by the authorities, who are pushing ahead with plans to build a cascade of hydropower plants on the Tapajós river without their permission.
Public prosecutors, human rights groups, environmental organisations and Christian missionaries have condemned the government's strong-arm...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Amazon dam activists threaten to wage war on Brazil over military incursion