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Archive for August, 2013
Asian Carp Quickly Advancing Toward the Great Lakes
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 21st, 2013
EcoWatch: The leading edge of the Asian carp invasion in Illinois has advanced dramatically, with spawning moving nearly 100 miles upstream this year to within 25 miles of an electric barrier that is the last line of defense guarding Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes beyond.
Data collected by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in June shows that verified spawning of Asian carp--a key indicator of a viable Asian carp population and its ability to out-compete native fish species--has moved to within...
Australia: A scientist explains the mystery behind the 2010-2011 sea-level drop
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on August 21st, 2013
ClimateWire: For the past couple of decades, the oceans have been steadily rising. Each year, sea-level increases by about 3 millimeters, a constant and ominous creep responding to climate warming.
Scientists have been measuring this rise from satellites since 1993, using instruments called altimeters. But for an 18-month period that began in the middle of 2010, something surprising happened. Instead of rising, sea levels fell.
Lake Eyre, a huge catch basin for eastern Australia's rainfall, typically collects...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Australia: A scientist explains the mystery behind the 2010-2011 sea-level dropRisk: Federal report says Sandy recovery spending must account for future climate change
Posted by ClimateWire: Elizabeth Harball on August 21st, 2013
ClimateWire: The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, a presidentially appointed group in charge of coordinating rebuilding efforts in the states devastated by last year's storm, yesterday issued a report stressing the need to take climate change into account when investing federal funds in disaster recovery. The 200-page strategy outlines 69 different recommendations and emphasizes the importance of using the latest science to strengthen communities against global warming's impacts. It also acknowledges the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Risk: Federal report says Sandy recovery spending must account for future climate change‘Two planets not enough to sustain mankind’
Posted by Cape Argus: Neo Maditla on August 21st, 2013
Cape Argus: We are using 50 percent more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce, and unless we change course not even two planets will be enough to sustain mankind.
This is the message from Morne du Plessis, chief executive of WWF-SA, on Earth Overshoot Day.
This is the day of the year when people have used as much renewable natural resources as our planet can regenerate in one year.
The day was initiated by the Global Footprint Network, which uses ecological footprint data to measure what...
How will crops fare under climate change?
Posted by SPX: None Given on August 21st, 2013
SPX: Under the hotter, wetter conditions projected by the climate scenarios they used, the empirical model estimated that maize production could drop by 3.6 percent, while wheat output could increase by 6.2 percent. Meanwhile, the mechanistic model calculated that maize and wheat yields might go up by 6.5 and 15.2 percent, respectively.
The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, according to...
United Kingdom: Cameron is fracking’s biggest cheerleader
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Guardian: Any new technology has a short honeymoon period where its attractions loom large before practicalities intervene to burst the bubble and a more realistic picture of its costs and benefits emerges. I should know, I helped to raise expectations about the future of UK wave power in the early 2000s. Our hope that large wave farms would be up and running within the decade proved distinctly optimistic.
But most politicians develop an instinctive reflex against technological optimism, understanding the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Cameron is fracking’s biggest cheerleaderQ&A: Fukushima leak problems
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on August 21st, 2013
BBC: This isn't the first water leak at the plant. What is going on?
The ongoing problem with water seems to be coming, in the main, from poorly constructed storage tanks.
Tepco, the company that operates Fukushima, is using huge volumes of water every day to cool the reactors that once generated electricity at the plant.
When the water comes in contact with fuel rods at the heart of the reactors, it becomes highly radioactive and has to be stored in large containers on the site where the water...
Hurricane enable: How climate change is mixing up bigger, badder storms
Posted by Grist: Jim Meyer on August 21st, 2013
Grist: Buy your Hurricanes at the Hard Rock Café, and you can probably make it through a third before you’ve dimmed enough to believe the Republican talking points on climate change. But by the time you get to The Marigny, they’re making those things with three kinds of rum, a half-gallon of rocket fuel, and the soul of an angry leprechaun.
Most climate models predict the same thing with storms: The more we stray from the climate norm, the stronger the hurricanes become. Which makes a lot of sense when...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hurricane enable: How climate change is mixing up bigger, badder stormsFukushima leak: Japan ‘working to prevent serious or fatal accident’ – video
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Guardian: The head of Japan's nuclear regulation authority questions whether it is appropriate to use the international nuclear event scale in the context of the latest incident at the Fukushima plant, but acknowledges that officials are working to prevent a leak there from becoming a fatal or serious accident. The plant's operator, Tepco, admits 300 tonnes of toxic water has leaked from a tank on the site in its is most dangerous incident since the 2011 meltdown
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fukushima leak: Japan ‘working to prevent serious or fatal accident’ – videoExxon Pipeline Rupture: Amount of Oil Spilled Is Still Guesswork
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on August 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: Homeowners whose lives are still in limbo after thousands of gallons of oil streamed into their neighborhood from a ruptured pipeline on March 29 [3]might never know precisely how much of the sticky black goo oil actually spilled. The working estimate is that 5,000 barrels—210,000 gallons—of Canadian heavy crude oil poured from a 22-foot break in ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline [4] on that Good Friday afternoon. But officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [5] and Exxon say the actual...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Exxon Pipeline Rupture: Amount of Oil Spilled Is Still Guesswork