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Archive for September, 2013
Yamuna’s plight highlighted on World Rivers Day
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2013
Reuters: Green activists Sunday walked along the Yamuna to the Taj Corridor to highlight the plight of the river burdened by human waste and industrial pollutants. The 'Walk for Yamuna' was undertaken on World Rivers Day, to draw attention to rivers facing severe and increasing threats associated with climate change, pollution and industrial development. "But in the past two decades, all kinds of pollutants and toxics are freely flowing into the river," said an organiser of the walk, Shravan Kumar Singh....
Discovery Could Decrease Reliance on Nitrogen Fertilizers
Posted by Nature World: None Given on September 28th, 2013
Nature World: A new discovery could represent the first step in decreasing the amount of nitrogen used by crops and, ultimately, the use of nitrogen fertilizer, which is known to disrupt the water systems where it is found.
Gary Stacey, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Missouri, discovered that many crops become "confused" when faced with the invasive but beneficial rhizobia bacteria. When the bacteria interact correctly with the plant, a symbiotic relationship is created in which the bacteria...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Discovery Could Decrease Reliance on Nitrogen FertilizersScientists: IPCC Report Should Serve as ‘Wake-Up Call’
Posted by ABC: Liz Fields on September 28th, 2013
ABC: The new U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report should serve as a "wake-up call" to governments and society about the role of humans in global warming, scientists say.
"It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century," the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, which was published Friday, found.
"This report confirms with even more certainty than in the past -- that it is extremely likely that the changes in our...
Australia has ‘much to lose’ from climate change
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Nick Miller and Nicole Hasham on September 28th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia has much to lose if climate change continues unabated, the head of a new review of climate science has warned.
Dr Qin Dahe, a glaciologist and respected Chinese academician, was co-chair of the working group that wrote the fifth major assessment of climate science for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on Friday.
In an exclusive interview with Fairfax, he urged Australia not to think of itself as a small, unimportant player in climate change.
Our scientists...
Environment Canada predicts two degrees of warming by 2050
Posted by Postmedia: Mike De Souza on September 28th, 2013
Postmedia: Environment Canada‘s most optimistic projections for climate change predict even faster warming of the atmosphere than the consensus view reached this week by an international panel assessing the latest scientific evidence.
Reached by telephone in Sweden where he contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, senior Environment Canada scientist Greg Flato said that even in the best-case scenarios for limiting growth of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, his federal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Environment Canada predicts two degrees of warming by 2050Despite new report, West Virginia officials still oppose Obama climate plan
Posted by Gazette: Ken Ward Jr. on September 28th, 2013
Gazette: Climate scientists are more certain than ever that human activity is causing global warming, but the latest comprehensive report did nothing to weaken opposition from most West Virginia political leaders to the Obama administration's plan to cut greenhouse emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Several top elected officials, asked to react to the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, repeated their previous harsh criticism of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Despite new report, West Virginia officials still oppose Obama climate planKill the EPA and let our rivers burn
Posted by Daily Climate: David Lillard on September 28th, 2013
Daily Climate: It’s fall, and if you’re like me, you and your family are getting out on the water, and plunging from a high rope swing as often as possible, before cold weather arrives.
For us, the highlights of Indian summer include my kids, joined by friends, floating a couple miles down the Potomac River while another dad and I paddle nearby in canoes.
For kids, it's just another fun day on the river. For me – and other adult paddlers, swimmers, and anglers – it's a miracle. We remember when the Potomac,...
New Climate Report More Confident About Alarming Changes
Posted by LiveScience: BeckyOskin on September 28th, 2013
LiveScience: The latest landmark climate change report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released today (Sept. 27), and it states the most certainty to date of humanity's role in causing global warming and climate change.
What makes this report stand out from the last four is that View gallery."In July 2012, a massive ice island broke free of the Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland. On ...nge-report/">IPCC has presented climate mitigation scenarios. Want to hold global warming...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Climate Report More Confident About Alarming ChangesForest Fragmentation can lead to ‘Ecological Armageddon’, Researchers Say
Posted by Nature World: None Given on September 28th, 2013
Nature World: Tropical forests are hotspots of biological diversity and currently occupy about 6 percent of earth's land surface, which is less than half of the area that they covered a few decades back. Conservationists claim disappearing forests would lead to extinction of many species of birds and animals.
The new study shows that we might have underestimated the effects of fragmented forest cover on animal survival. Large developmental projects such as dams, roads, mines and industries are the main reasons...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Forest Fragmentation can lead to ‘Ecological Armageddon’, Researchers SayWater Wars: Egyptians Condemn Ethiopia’s Nile Dam Project
Posted by National Geographic: Peter Schwartzstein on September 27th, 2013
National Geographic: "Ethiopia is killing us," taxi driver Ahmed Hossam said, as he picked his way through Cairo's notoriously traffic-clogged streets. "If they build this dam, there will be no Nile. If there's no Nile, then there's no Egypt." Projects on the scale of the $4.7 billion, 1.1-mile-long (1.7-kilometer-long) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam often encounter impassioned resistance, but few inspire the kind of dread and fury with which most Egyptians regard plans to dam the Blue Nile River. Egypt insists Ethiopia's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Water Wars: Egyptians Condemn Ethiopia’s Nile Dam Project