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Archive for August, 2013
Fighting Pest, Farmers Find Strange Ally: A Drought
Posted by New York Times: Elizabeth Koh on August 31st, 2013
New York Times: Texas’ drought has left crops parched across the state, but the lack of water could have unintended benefits for South Texas farmers in one of the state’s longest-running agricultural battles. For the past two decades, the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation has conducted a program to eliminate the ubiquitous beetle, which punctures cotton pods to lay eggs that destroy the plant’s yield. By setting pheromone traps to detect weevils, spraying chemicals to eliminate them and changing farming...
National Park Service director gets firsthand look at the Rim fire
Posted by LA Times: Tony Barboza on August 31st, 2013
LA Times: As the Rim fire has burned into Yosemite National Park and into the record books, it has been watched around the world. From Washington, D.C., National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said he monitored the blaze's progress daily as flames threatened Sierra Nevada communities, ancient sequoia groves and the reservoir that holds San Francisco's water supply.
On Saturday, he went to see the blaze firsthand.
"This is a gnarly fire," Jarvis told firefighters at a morning briefing. "It's got high...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on National Park Service director gets firsthand look at the Rim fireCalifornian Rim fire heads towards Yosemite’s famed sequoia trees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2013
Reuters: A massive wildfire that has charred the northwestern edge of California's Yosemite national park is heading towards two groves of the park's famed sequoia trees, the national park service director, Jonathan Jarvis, said as firefighters battled the blaze on Saturday.
The so-called Rim fire, which now has an overall footprint that exceeds the area of Dallas, has burned about 6% of Yosemite's wilder backcountry but the vast majority of the park was still unaffected, Jarvis said. The sequoias are...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Californian Rim fire heads towards Yosemite’s famed sequoia treesWater hazard: How the UN plans to provide clean drinking water for everyone in Rwanda
Posted by Independent: Martin Hickman on August 31st, 2013
Independent: A winding path sweeps down past the banana trees to the swamp. Yves, aged 13, follows the path, fills a plastic jerry can, and carries the liquid cargo home on his head, despite knowing it will make him and his family ill. Fortunately the shallow pools do not attract crocodiles, but the water must be collected before the hippos gather at dusk.
Yves and his parents live in a cement-covered mud-brick hut in Bugesera District, southern Rwanda, where they grow beans, cassava and sweet potatoes, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Water hazard: How the UN plans to provide clean drinking water for everyone in RwandaOhio Man Pleads Guilty to Dumping Toxic Fracking Wastewater Into River
Posted by EcoWatch: Laura Beans on August 30th, 2013
EcoWatch: Last year, more than 14 million gallons of radioactive toxic fracking wastewater was injected into Ohio`s Class II disposal wells, with more than half of the wastewater coming from out-of-state.
While some toxic fracking wastewater is injected into wells, it has also been dumped illegally into streams and rivers, contaminating Ohio`s waterways.
According to The Plain Dealer, Michael Guesman, an employee of Hardrock Excavating--a company that stored, treated and disposed of oil and gas drilling...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Dumping Toxic Fracking Wastewater Into RiverProposal Weakens Endangered Species Protections From Fracking on Public Lands
Posted by Center for Biological Diversity: None Given on August 30th, 2013
Center for Biological Diversity: The Obama administration has proposed a new rule that would scale back the requirement that federal agencies fully track the harms inflicted on endangered species when large-scale plans are developed and carried out on federal public lands. As a result, the cumulative impacts on rare species from actions like oil and gas drilling will be discounted in the decision-making process--putting hundreds of plants and animals at greater risk of extinction. The change is being proposed by the U.S. Fish and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Proposal Weakens Endangered Species Protections From Fracking on Public LandsAntarctic moss a charming but chilling sign of warming
Posted by Grist: None Given on August 30th, 2013
Grist: A fleecy clump of moss growing on the Antarctic Peninsula might not seem like much of a sight to behold, but it`s a sign of a climate in flux.
The patch of Polytrichum moss, sampled in 2008 by scientists at Alexander Island`s Lazarev Bay, either did not exist or was slumbering beneath ice when the peninsula was first spotted by Russian sailors in 1820.
But now it is flourishing on ice-free rock - the world`s southernmost such moss bank.
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming...
Greenland Ice Hides Gorge Longer than the Grand Canyon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: A massive gorge nearly twice as long as the Grand Canyon is hidden under Greenland's ice sheet, reports a team of researchers from the U.K, Canada, and Italy. With a width of about six miles and a maximum depth of 2,600 feet, the previously undiscovered canyon is as wide as its Arizona counterpart and nearly half as deep. Flowing water likely carved the canyon long before the formation of the mile-deep ice sheet that has blanketed it for the past few million years. Researchers found the feature using...
Fracking Wastewater Spill Kills Rare Fish in KY, Puts Entire Species at Risk
Posted by EcoWatch: Amy Mall on August 30th, 2013
EcoWatch: Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently published a peer-reviewed journal article that discusses the results of the investigation into a 2007 fracking wastewater spill in Kentucky.
Fracking wastewater that was being stored in open air pits (a practice that can lead to toxic spills) overflowed into Kentucky`s Acorn Fork Creek and left an orange-red substance, contaminating the creek with hydrochloric acid, dissolved minerals and metals, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking Wastewater Spill Kills Rare Fish in KY, Puts Entire Species at RiskEnvironmentalists say Keystone fails Obama’s test
Posted by FuelFix: Jennifer A. Dlouhy on August 30th, 2013
FuelFix: Environmentalists on Thursday asserted that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline fails President Barack Obama`s test for approval, because it would exacerbate global warming.
The project is the "linchpin" to unlocking the development of Alberta, Canada`s oil sands using particularly energy intensive techniques, according to a report issues by the Sierra Club, Environment America and other groups.
"The Keystone XL presidential permit decision is so important precisely because it has critical implications...