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Archive for November, 2013
Climate change ‘exaggerated’, says former Australian PM
Posted by Guardian: Karl Mathiesen on November 6th, 2013
Guardian: John Howard has told an audience of climate sceptics in London that Tony Abbott's defiance on global warming in the face of left-wing zealotry was the foundation of his electoral victory in September.
In a lecture at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, established by former Thatcher minister and climate sceptic Nigel Lawson, the former Australian prime minister insisted that the high tide of public support for "overzealous action" on global warming has passed.
"I am very sceptical about the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change ‘exaggerated’, says former Australian PMResearchers detail climate-change impacts in ecological journal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 5th, 2013
PhysOrg: The coming century will bring many changes for natural systems and for the human societies that depend on them, as changing climate conditions ripple outward to changing rainfall patterns, soil nutrient cycles, species ranges, seasonal timing and a multitude of other interconnected factors. Many of these changes have already begun.
The November 2013 issue of the Ecological Society of America's journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, is devoted to an assessment of climate-change impacts...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Researchers detail climate-change impacts in ecological journalJordan’s Farmers Struggle to Weather Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 5th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Abu Waleed isn`t quite sure where to begin his litany of grievances. Bugs that chomp their way through the mint he grows, or the dry well that forces him to pump water from a half kilometre away? Or perhaps the 160 dinars he spent on spinach seeds only to see scant growth after planting.
For the small community of farmers in the Zarqa river basin east of the capital Amman, industrial development, poor resource management and climate change have converged to create a perfect storm of problems that...
CO2 injections likely culprit in Texas earthquakes -study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 5th, 2013
Reuters: Carbon dioxide injected into oil and gas wells may have caused a series of minor earthquakes in Texas long before the adoption of current hydraulic fracking, according to a study published on Monday in a national science journal. The study, which analyzed 93 earthquakes that occurred between March 2009 and December 2010, appears to be the first to link earthquakes of magnitude 3 and above and carbon dioxide injections in the Cogdell oil field near Snyder, Texas. Tremors in the area that occurred...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on CO2 injections likely culprit in Texas earthquakes -studyDeforestation may hurt U.S. agriculture, affect monsoon cycle
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 4th, 2013
Mongabay: Unchecked deforestation will have far-reaching impacts on temperature, rainfall, and monsoon cycles in regions well outside the tropics, affecting agriculture and water availability, warns a new report published by Greenpeace International.
The report, titled An Impending Storm: Impacts of deforestation on weather patterns and agriculture, is a synthesis of dozens of recent scientific papers that assess the effects of forest cover loss on weather patterns, local climate, and agricultural productivity....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Deforestation may hurt U.S. agriculture, affect monsoon cycleLeaked IPCC Draft Cites Widespread Effects of Climate Change, Calls for Action
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on November 4th, 2013
Nature World: A leaked draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "Summary for Policymakers" cites "widespread and consequential" impacts throughout the globe as a result of climate change.
Published on the site No Frakking Consensus, the draft identifies a variety of impacts on ecosystems and societies the changing global climate has, and will have, in coming years.
Already, climate change has forced land and sea species to shift "their ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, and abundance,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Leaked IPCC Draft Cites Widespread Effects of Climate Change, Calls for ActionCoast Guard Proposes Policy to Transport Radioactive Fracking Wastewater by Barge
Posted by EcoWatch: Emily DeMarco on November 4th, 2013
EcoWatch: The U.S. Coast Guard, which regulates the country’s waterways, will allow shale gas companies to ship fracking wastewater on the nation’s rivers and lakes under a proposed policy published Wednesday.
Industry officials say barges are the safest, and cheapest, way to move fracking wastewater, but a spill would severely contaminate waterways. Photo credit: Keith Robinson/ Flickr
The Coast Guard began studying the issue nearly two years ago at the request of its Pittsburgh office, which had inquiries...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Coast Guard Proposes Policy to Transport Radioactive Fracking Wastewater by BargeChina’s Great Dam Boom: An Assault on Its River Systems
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Charlton Lewis on November 4th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: In their search for renewable electric power, China’s engineers have been building mega-dams at a rate unmatched in human history. Many far larger than the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River -- which is 221 meters high and capable of generating more than 2,000 megawatts of power -- are being constructed on China’s greatest rivers. Best known is the Three Gorges Dam, completed in 2008, which stretches a mile-and-a-half across the Yangtze and can generate ten times the hydropower of the Hoover Dam. Yet...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China’s Great Dam Boom: An Assault on Its River SystemsCan environmentalists and frackers be friends?
Posted by PBS: None Given on November 4th, 2013
PBS: SUMMARY In an unlikely alliance, natural gas companies and environmentalists have decided to work together to make fracking safer. Rick Karr travels to Pennsylvania to explore the tensions this has created among environmental groups.
ANNOUNCER:Environmentalists and oil and gas companies are used to finding themselves on opposite sides of debates about fossil fuel consumption, pollution, and global climate change. But in Pennsylvania, some environmental advocacy groups have formed an unlikely...
The West’s energy landscape, transformed
Posted by Daily Climate: Gary Braasch on November 4th, 2013
Daily Climate: Coal is still king in eastern Wyoming in the Powder River Basin, here shown at Alpha Coal's Eagle Butte Mine outside of Gillette. But oil and gas are starting to make a play.
Coal mines have torn into vast areas of the rolling hills, eating up grazing land and putting pressure on ranchers. But natural gas extraction – both from conventional drilling and coal bed methane – and oil drilling are fast expanding across the region.
Forty percent of American coal comes from this region of Wyoming...