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Archive for November 28th, 2013
China desert lake shrinks by one-third in 13 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: China's largest desert freshwater lake has shrunk by one-third in the last 13 years, state media said Thursday, as the country's breakneck modernisation continues to damage the environment. Northern China's Hongjiannao Lake covers 32.16 square kilometres (12.86 sq miles), less than half its size in 1969 and two-thirds of its area in 2000, Xinhua news agency said. "Experts said human activities including reservoir construction, mining and agricultural irrigation are the main causes for the sad phenomenon,"...
Greenlands’s First Known Subglacial Lakes Revealed
Posted by Nature World News: By on November 28th, 2013
Nature World News: New research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters details the first subglacial lakes to be identified in Greenland.
Two lakes lie about 800 meters below the Greenland Ice Sheet according to researchers at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) at the University of Cambridge. The area of the two lakes are between 8 and 10 kilometers squared, but at one point the bodies of water may have been up to three times their current size.
The discovery of the lakes will help researchers...
California water woes hit hard in driest year on record
Posted by Reuters: Sharon Bernstein on November 28th, 2013
Reuters: To nurture his acres of pistachio trees, Tom Coleman has long relied on water from California's mountain-ringed reservoirs, fed by Sierra streams and water pumped from the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
But the driest year on record has left the reservoirs so depleted - and the delta so fragile - that state water officials say they may be able to provide just 5 percent of the water he and others were expecting for next year.
Other sources of water, including resources from a federal...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California water woes hit hard in driest year on recordUS may be producing 50% more methane than EPA estimate indicated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
LA Times: The United States may be emitting 50% more methane, a potent greenhouse gas, than the federal government had previously estimated, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Though carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels is the main driver of climate change, and less methane than carbon is emitted overall, methane is an even more powerful heat-trapping gas than carbon.
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency said that better pollution control...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US may be producing 50% more methane than EPA estimate indicatedTwo Lakes Discovered Under Greenland’s Ices
Posted by Softpedia: None Given on November 28th, 2013
Softpedia: A team of researchers with the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) from the University of Cambridge announces the discovery of two subglacial lakes in Greenland, the first of their kind to be found on the island. Similar formations were thus far only known to exist beneath the Antarctic ice sheets.
According to the research group, these lakes are now only one third of their previous area. Measurements conducted by the team revealed that each of the two lakes covers an area of 8 to 10 square...
Japan mulls more than $100 million new spending on Fukushima water-crisis: sources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
Reuters: Japan is considering more than $100 million in extra government spending to handle contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, boosting the budget allocation by at least a fifth, government officials familiar with the matter said.
The additional budget allocation of between 10 billion and 15 billion yen ($98 million-$147 million) aims to accelerate work on containing leaks and decontaminating the water, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move comes...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Japan mulls more than $100 million new spending on Fukushima water-crisis: sourcesWhy Burma’s forests must be preserved
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
BBC: For the first time in more than 50 years, a team of wildlife film-makers has been permitted to venture deep into Burma's barely penetrable jungles. The expedition's insect expert, Ross Piper, explains why the country's forests are special and, in his view, deserve protection.
Closed to outsiders for five decades, Burma, also known as Myanmar, is something of an unknown quantity, particularly in terms of its natural riches.
The country is right in the centre of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot,...