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Archive for October 9th, 2013
New Study Predicts Year Your City’s Climate Will Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
National Geographic: In seven years, inhabitants of New Guinea could be living in an unfamiliar world, one with a wholly different climate. A new analysis published today in the journal Nature finds that by 2020, New Guinea's climate will permanently enter a state never seen before, outside of the bounds of historical variability and short-term extremes.
To put it simply: The coldest year in New Guinea after 2020 will be warmer than the hottest year anyone there has ever experienced.
The global analysis also predicts...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on New Study Predicts Year Your City’s Climate Will ChangeCan Cities Solve Climate Change?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
Scientific American: When Superstorm Sandy roared ashore with a surge of seawater in 2012, Sergej Mahnovski had been on the job directing the New York Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability for one week. He had a steep learning curve. In the wake of the storm surge 43 people were dead, Lower Manhattan lacked light at night and seven hospitals had to be evacuated. Post-Sandy, the long-term plan could quickly be reduced to two words: "never again.' It consisted of a range of major initiatives, from strengthening...
Urgent New Time Frame for Climate Change Revealed by Massive Analysis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
ScienceDaily: The seesaw variability of global temperatures often engenders debate over how seriously we should take climate change. But within 35 years, even the lowest monthly dips in temperatures will be hotter than we've experienced in the past 150 years, according to a new and massive analysis of all climate models. The tropics will be the first to exceed the limits of historical extremes and experience an unabated heat wave that threatens biodiversity and heavily populated countries with the fewest resources...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Urgent New Time Frame for Climate Change Revealed by Massive AnalysisPlastic Waste Threatening Lakes, Study Suggests
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on October 9th, 2013
Nature World News: Plastic waste poses an ever-increasing problem facing the world's oceans where fragile ecosystems are threatened by products that are essentially non-biodegradable. The Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, for instance, represent the world's largest landfills and are made up almost entirely of plastic, according to some estimates.
Now, research published in the journal Current Biology identifies significant amounts of the same pollutants in Lake Garda, located in the foothills of the Italian...
Study: Temperatures go off the charts around 2047
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
Associated Press: Starting in about a decade, Kingston, Jamaica, will probably be off-the-charts hot -- permanently. Other places will soon follow. Singapore in 2028. Mexico City in 2031. Cairo in 2036. Phoenix and Honolulu in 2043.
And eventually the whole world in 2047.
A new study on global warming pinpoints the probable dates for when cities and ecosystems around the world will regularly experience hotter environments the likes of which they have never seen before.
And for dozens of cities, mostly in...
One Thing Obama Can Do: Decide The Fate Of The Keystone Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
National Public Radio: Journalist Ryan Lizza says there's one far-reaching, controversial issue President Obama will soon get to decide all by himself, without having to ask Congress. He alone can approve or reject construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to take heavy crude oil extracted from Alberta, Canada, through America's heartland to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
The oil here isn't conventional oil, Lizza tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies: "It's not really oil at all, it's oil sand - it's basically a mixture...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on One Thing Obama Can Do: Decide The Fate Of The Keystone PipelineKeystone XL’s not the only cross-border energy fight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 9th, 2013
Greenwire: In New Hampshire's northernmost reaches, locals are proving there's more than one way to overheat a presidential permit for a major energy project.
On one level, it's an old story: A huge utility wants to build a multibillion-dollar transmission project, but not-in-our-backyard locals want none of it. The ground war goes on for years in quirky places -- high school gyms, street corners, taverns -- until state and federal regulators exhaust the democratic process and hand down important decisions....
5 Ways Monsanto Wants to Profit Off of Climate Change
Posted by Mother Jones: Maggie Severns on October 9th, 2013
Mother Jones: Global warming could mean big business for controversial agriculture giant Monsanto, which announced last week it was purchasing the climate change-oriented startup Climate Corporation for $930 million.
Agriculture, which uses roughly 40 percent of the world's land, will be deeply affected by climate change in the coming years. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that warming will lead to pest outbreaks, that climate-related severe weather will impact food security,...
Japan: Six Fukushima workers tested after exposure radioactive water
Posted by Guardian: Justin McCurry on October 9th, 2013
Guardian: Six workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been exposed to radiation in the latest water leak in a week.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said several tonnes of radioactive water had spilled from a treatment facility after one of the workers mistakenly removed a pipe.
The workers, who were wearing protective clothing and masks, came into contact with the water and were being checked for any external and internal contamination, a Tepco spokesman said.
The accident...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Japan: Six Fukushima workers tested after exposure radioactive waterLatest leak at Japan’s Fukushima plant contaminates six workers
Posted by Reuters: Mari Saito on October 9th, 2013
Reuters: Six workers at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were exposed to a leak of highly radioactive water on Wednesday, the latest in a string of mishaps the country's nuclear watchdog has attributed to carelessness, saying they could have been avoided.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, also known as Tepco, has been battling to contain radioactive water at the plant, which suffered triple meltdowns and hydrogen explosions following a devastating earthquake in March 2011.
In the latest incident, a worker...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Latest leak at Japan’s Fukushima plant contaminates six workers