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Archive for June, 2013
Indian River Lagoon’s Dolphins May Face Increased Risk of Choking to Death: A Study
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 26th, 2013
Nature World News: With Florida's Indian River Lagoon (IRL) earning a reputation as a dolphin graveyard, researchers recently published an examination on one of the threats facing the area's dolphins.
The IRL comprises 40 percent of the Florida coastline and is the most biodiverse estuary in the United States. Moreover, it is home to a group of approximately 700 dolphins that never venture outside of lagoon.
Because of multiple single cases of asphyxiation in dolphins caused by fish lodged in the esophagus being...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Indian River Lagoon’s Dolphins May Face Increased Risk of Choking to Death: A StudyVisions of a Greener Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
New York Times: After two years of study, President Obama this week defined the criteria for what will be one of the signature decisions of his presidency: the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry heavy crude from here to American refineries must not “significantly” worsen global warming. Anticipating that standard, Canadian oil companies have embarked on a race to develop cleaner technologies that will make their production less damaging to the environment. From improving valves to revamping giant boilers...
Crop yields no longer keeping up with population growth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Mongabay: If the world is to grow enough food for the projected global population in 2050, agricultural productivity will have to rise by at least 60%, and may need to more than double, according to researchers who have studied global crop yields.
They say that productivity is not rising fast enough at present to meet the likely demands on agriculture.
The researchers studied yields of four key staple crops-maize, rice, wheat and soybeans-and found they were increasing by only about 0.9% to 1.6% a year....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Crop yields no longer keeping up with population growthCanada insists on C$1 billion clean-up fund for major oil lines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Reuters: Companies operating major crude oil pipelines in Canada will be required to have C$1 billion ($954.97 million) available to fund clean ups from any spills, the Canadian government said on Wednesday. Joe Oliver, Canada's minister of natural resources, also announced new fines that will soon come into force for companies and individuals that violate environmental laws. The fines will range from C$25,000 to a maximum of C$100,000. Oliver was speaking in British Columbia, where the provincial government...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada insists on C$1 billion clean-up fund for major oil linesStormy weather boosts newly planted U.S. corn crop
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Reuters: Thunderstorms that brought significant rainfall to the northern U.S. Midwest early this week, accompanied by warm temperatures, bolstered growth prospects for recently planted corn and soybean crops, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday. "There will be additional showers into the weekend in the central and southwest Midwest and heavier rains are expected in the east," said Joel Widenor, meteorologist for Commodity Weather Group. Drier weather next week in the north will also help ensure...
Climate Change and the Colorado River: New Study Warns of “Megadroughts”
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 26th, 2013
Nature World News: With some 30 million people relying on it, the Colorado River is a crucial American artery that, researchers warn, could shrink by nearly half its current size by 2050.
However, estimates regarding the river are varied, with the low end falling at just 6 percent.
For this reason, researchers at the University of Washington, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies and NOAA banded together to investigate and explain the reason why these discrepancies exists and summarize...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change and the Colorado River: New Study Warns of “Megadroughts”The microbeads in your body wash are slowly filling the Great Lakes with plastic
Posted by Grist: Sarah Laskow on June 26th, 2013
Grist: Sigh. You think the world would have caught on by now that plastic is one of the most incidentally destructive inventions the human race has ever come up with. Sure, L.A. just banned plastic bags, which is great. But meanwhile those tiny microbeads - the little bits of plastics in body wash that cosmetics companies invented for no real reason except to have a new thing to sell their customers - are slowly accumulating in the Great Lakes, where fish eat them.
Scientific American reports:
They...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The microbeads in your body wash are slowly filling the Great Lakes with plasticObama Has a Plan for Climate, What If It Involves Tar Sands?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Scientific American: "You see, I've got this plan..." ...
On a sweltering day in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama sweated as he laid out his new plan to combat climate change. In addition to the mandatory cuts in CO2 pollution from coal-fired power plants and the efforts to protect the country from the ravages of climate change highlighted by my colleague Mark Fischetti, Obama also found time to mention a little pipeline that would connect the tar sands in Alberta, Canada with refineries along the Gulf Coast...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama Has a Plan for Climate, What If It Involves Tar Sands?Spending review: environment suffers worst cuts once again
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Guardian: Environment secretary Owen Paterson had, I'm told, battled hard in the fight over which departments' budgets would fare the worst in Wednesday's spending review. He failed. One insider told me: "Paterson was lucky to escape with a department at all."
George Osborne inflicted the highest level of budget cuts – 10% - on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), alongside a few other unfortunates – just as he did in the 2010 spending review.
The casualties will be flood defences...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Spending review: environment suffers worst cuts once againAs Gaza heads for water crisis, desalination seen key
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Reuters: A tiny wedge of land jammed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea, the Gaza Strip is heading inexorably into a water crisis that the United Nations says could make the Palestinian enclave unliveable in just a few years.
With 90-95 percent of the territory's only aquifer contaminated by sewage, chemicals and seawater, neighborhood desalination facilities and their public taps are a lifesaver for some of Gaza's 1.6 million residents.
But these small-scale projects provide water for...