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Archive for May, 2013
Here is my manifesto for rewilding the world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2013
Guardian: Until modern humans arrived, every continent except Antarctica possessed a megafauna. In the Americas, alongside mastodons, mammoths, four-tusked and spiral-tusked elephants, there was a beaver the size of a black bear: eight feet from nose to tail. There were giant bison weighing two tonnes, which carried horns seven feet across.
The short-faced bear stood 13ft in its hind socks. One hypothesis maintains that its astonishing size and shocking armoury of teeth and claws are the hallmarks of a...
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Plants re-grow after five centuries under the ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2013
Mongabay: While monitoring the retreat of the Teardrop Glacier in the Canadian Arctic, scientists have found that recently unfrozen plants, some of which had been under ice since the reign of Henry VIII, were capable of new growth.
While in the field, the researchers from the University of Alberta discovered that the receding ice--which has doubled from 2 meters per year in the 1990s to 4.1 meters per year in 2009--had uncovered lots of mosses and other non-vascular plants, including more than 60 plant...
New FEMA Flood Maps Needed But Funding Is Slashed
Posted by Scientific American: Theodoric Meyer on May 27th, 2013
Scientific American: As the United States grows warmer and extreme weather more common, the federal government's flood insurance maps are becoming increasingly important.
The maps, drawn by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, dictate the monthly premiums millions of American households pay for flood insurance. They are also designed to give homeowners and buyers the latest understanding of how likely their communities are to flood.
The government's response to the rising need for accurate maps? It's slashed...
How nature writing can make us care
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2013
New Scientist: Ginkgo: The tree that time forgot by Peter Crane Published by: Yale University Press Price: £25
The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack Published by: University of Chicago Press Price: $27.50
Looking for the Goshawk by Conor Mark Jameson Published by: Bloomsbury Price: £18.99
NATURE writing is being touted as a new literary genre for new times. Most of us live in towns and cities but we are all keen naturalists now - at least by proxy. The more remote our physical relationship with the natural...
Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Niño
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2013
ScienceDaily: El Niño wreaks havoc across the globe, shifting weather patterns that spawn droughts in some regions and floods in others. The impacts of this tropical Pacific climate phenomenon are well known and documented.
A mystery, however, has remained despite decades of research: Why does El Niño always peak around Christmas and end quickly by February to April?
Now there is an answer: An unusual wind pattern that straddles the equatorial Pacific during strong El Niño events and swings back and forth...
Climate change still haunts African Union
Posted by Herald: Jeffrey Gogo on May 27th, 2013
Herald: Fifty years on, the African Union has encountered sizeable successes and numerous challenges in politics and economics. One of the biggest forceful challenges it faces today, which was scant threat in 1963 when it was formed, is climate change. Undoubtedly, a significant danger to any form of establishment, climate change adds to the mountain of political, social and economic crises that Africa grapples with today. As a progressive institution celebrating its 50th birthday, how has the African...
Oil spill restoration overseers release draft plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 27th, 2013
Associated Press: There's now a draft plan for using fines from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to restore the Gulf Coast's natural resources and economy.
But the document released Thursday doesn't include two items required by federal law: a 10-year allocation plan or a three-year priority list of projects and programs, The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly11jC0Vt ) reports.
There are several reasons, according to the 20-page "draft initial comprehensive plan" released Thursday by The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration...
New York beaches open despite Superstorm Sandy scars
Posted by Associated Press: Jake Pearson and Frank Eltman on May 27th, 2013
Associated Press: Not all the repairs are finished, not all the sand is replaced and not every nearby business has recovered.
But seven months after Superstorm Sandy devastated hundreds of miles of shoreline, most of New York's beaches are officially open this Memorial Day weekend.
After a cleanup effort that cost tens of millions of dollars, visitors from the Rockaways to the Hamptons will be able to enjoy miles of seashores that have been groomed and cleaned up by volunteers and work crews.
In some places,...
Water Waste May Leave Us Thirsty
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2013
Scientific American: Since 1900, the U.S. has pulled enough water from underground aquifers to fill two Lake Eries. And in just the first decade of the 21st century, we've extracted underground water sufficient to raise global sea level by more than 2 percent. We suck up 25 cubic kilometers of buried water per year.
That's the message from the U.S. Geological Survey's evaluation of how the U.S. is managing its aquifers. Or mismanaging. For example: water levels in the aquifer that underlies the nation's bread basket...
Attention to climate patterns is crucial
Posted by My Desert: K Kaufmann on May 26th, 2013
My Desert: The aftermath of the tornado that ripped though Moore, Okla., on Monday was both heart-rending and predictable.
As the nation sat stunned by television and online images of the mind-numbing destruction, President Barack Obama declared the city a major disaster area, offers of assistance flooded in and the inevitable question hit the Internet. What role, if any, did climate change play in the twister, which the National Weather Service first classified as an EF 4 tornado but later upgraded to an...