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Archive for February, 2014
Tar Sands Air Pollution May Be 2-3 Times Higher Than Industry Reported
Posted by Canadian Press: John Cotter on February 4th, 2014
Canadian Press: A new study suggests the environmental health risks of oilsands operations in Alberta's Athabasca region have probably been underestimated.
Researchers say emissions of potentially hazardous air pollution that were used in environmental reviews done before approving some projects did not include evaporation from tailings ponds or other sources, such as dust from mining sites.
The study, by the University of Toronto's environmental chemistry research group, looked at reported levels of polycyclic...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Tar Sands Air Pollution May Be 2-3 Times Higher Than Industry ReportedTropical Tropopause Layer: Nature Selectively Buffer Human-Caused Global Warming
Posted by Science 2.0: None Given on February 4th, 2014
Science 2.0: Don't count nature out yet.
Some aspects of climate change are natural. And some mitigation will be also, according to researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Johns Hopkins University in the US and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. As the globe warms, ocean temperatures rise, leading to increased water vapor escaping into the atmosphere. Water vapor is really the most important greenhouse gas and its impact on climate is amplified in the stratosphere.
In their study, the researchers...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tropical Tropopause Layer: Nature Selectively Buffer Human-Caused Global WarmingCalifornia governor pans Republican water plan in face of drought
Posted by Reuters: Sharon Bernstein on February 4th, 2014
Reuters: California Governor Jerry Brown, whose state is facing its worst drought in decades, harshly criticized on Monday an effort by Congressional Republicans to roll back environmental rules limiting how much water agencies can pump out of the fragile San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta in dry years.
The emergency legislation would allow state and federal water managers to send water to farms and communities in California's parched breadbasket next summer, when the impact of the drought begins to hit...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California governor pans Republican water plan in face of droughtGreat Barrier Reef park directors still face conflict of interest questions
Posted by Guardian: Bridie Jabour on February 4th, 2014
Guardian: Two of the board members who approved the dumping of 3m cubic metres of dredging spoil on the Great Barrier Reef are still under investigation for potential conflicts of interest including links to mining companies
The environment minister, Greg Hunt, ordered a probity inquiry last October into the appointments of former Townsville mayor Tony Mooney and Queensland public servant Jon Grayson to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) by the former Labor government.
Potential conflicts...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Great Barrier Reef park directors still face conflict of interest questionsTar Sands Pipeline is a Bad Idea, Fails President’s Climate Test
Posted by EcoWatch: Robert Redford on February 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: The more people learn about the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the less they like it. Despite what we might be hearing in industry spin, the environmental report released by the State Department Friday confirms that tar sands crude means a dirtier, more dangerous future for our children all so that the oil industry can reach the higher prices of overseas markets. That`s right, overseas markets, which is where the majority of this processed oil will end up. This dirty energy project is all risk and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tar Sands Pipeline is a Bad Idea, Fails President’s Climate TestGE misstated chemical harm to NY’s Hudson River: federal trustees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 3rd, 2014
Reuters: General Electric Co has understated or misstated the environmental harm of its chemical dumping into New York's Hudson River, federal officials alleged on Monday.
The company's recent report to New York state officials failed to mention harm done to fish, waterfowl and groundwater, the Federal Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees said in a letter to the company that the trustees made public.
The trustees said the GE report "ignores significant natural resource injuries that have already been...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on GE misstated chemical harm to NY’s Hudson River: federal trusteesManhattan-Sized Ice Chunk Breaks Off Glacier, Sends Message to Climate Change Skeptics
Posted by Weather Channel: Michele Berger on February 3rd, 2014
Weather Channel: When the documentary Chasing Ice came out in 2012, it included footage of the largest glacier calving event ever caught on film. Two years later, the filmmakers hope to use that monumental capture as visual proof of climate change.
In March they begin a several-month tour, stopping in the Congressional districts of climate-change denying legislators. The idea is to shift the debate back from politics to science, to determine what happens when people can actually see rather than just hear about...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Manhattan-Sized Ice Chunk Breaks Off Glacier, Sends Message to Climate Change SkepticsAtmospheric Pollutants Being Underreported at Tar Sands Operations in Alberta
Posted by Nature World: None Given on February 3rd, 2014
Nature World: Tar sands in Canada's Alberta Province are emitting more hazardous air pollutants than official reports suggest, according to new research from the University of Toronto Scarborough.
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Frank Wania, a professor of environmental chemistry, and his PhD candidate Abha Parajulee report that carcinogenic pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are being underreported.
"When dealing with chemicals that have such...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Atmospheric Pollutants Being Underreported at Tar Sands Operations in AlbertaSenate votes to keep subsidizing flood insurance in flood-prone areas
Posted by Grist: John Upton on February 3rd, 2014
Grist: Members of Congress have been clamoring for months to undo one of the most ambitious pieces of climate-related legislation they ever passed. The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 would force coastal property owners to pay full market rates for their flood insurance. The law barely mentioned climate change, but it laid the groundwork for a more sane approach to building - and rebuilding - along increasingly disaster-prone coastlines and riverbanks.
Last Thursday, however, the Senate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Senate votes to keep subsidizing flood insurance in flood-prone areasGreenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier is Moving 10 Miles Per Year, Recording-Breaking Speed
Posted by Nature World: None Given on February 3rd, 2014
Nature World: The massive Arctic glacier believed to be responsible for calving the iceberg that sunk the Titanic is moving from the Greenland ice sheet and into the ocean at record speeds, according to a study in the journal The Cryosphere.
Jakobshavn Glacier is moving at a speed that appears the be the fastest ever recorded, researchers from the University of Washington and the German Space Agency (DLR) report.
"We are now seeing summer speeds more than four times what they were in the 1990s on a glacier...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier is Moving 10 Miles Per Year, Recording-Breaking Speed