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Archive for March, 2014
Invisible cities and flammable rivers: China’s pollution problem
Posted by Blue and Green: Ilaria Bertini on March 21st, 2014
Blue and Green: Disregard for pollution law from China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, is having destructive effects on the country’s rivers and land – not to mention its citizens and its long-term prosperity.
China relies heavily on coal-fired power plants to provide energy to its cities and businesses. This, combined with heavy traffic, has led to alarming levels of air pollution in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Harbin and Shanghai.
The concentration of smog...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Invisible cities and flammable rivers: China’s pollution problemGlobal Energy Thirst Threatens to Worsen Water Scarcity, UN Says
Posted by Bloomberg: Tara Patel on March 21st, 2014
Bloomberg: Energy production will increasingly strain water resources in the coming decades even as more than 1 billion of the planet’s 7 billion people already lack access to both, according to a United Nations report.
“There is an increasing potential for serious conflict between power generation, other water users and environmental considerations,” said the UN World Water Development Report published today that focused on water and energy. Ninety percent of power generation is “water-intensive,” it said....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global Energy Thirst Threatens to Worsen Water Scarcity, UN SaysRussia: Seal teeth offer glimpse into the environmental past of Russia’s Lake Baikal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2014
ScienceDaily: The nerpa, also known as the Baikal seal, is the only seal that lives exclusively in fresh water. This earless seal can be found in just one place, Russia's Lake Baikal, where it is at the top of the food web. And now, Wellesley scientists have found that the teeth of this particular seal may hold the strongest evidence of the effects of decades of environmental pollution, nuclear testing, and climate change on Lake Baikal -- the deepest, oldest, and most bio-diverse lake in the world.
"The Baikal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Russia: Seal teeth offer glimpse into the environmental past of Russia’s Lake BaikalConcerns over Lanka’s water safety
Posted by Colombo Gazette: None Given on March 21st, 2014
Colombo Gazette: While being impressed with the national figures of the number of people who have access to water, UNICEF today raised concerns about vulnerable groups of children and their families who do not have access to water, as well as water safety in general.
Almost four years after the world met the global target set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for safe drinking water, and after the UN General Assembly declared that water was a human right, the key issue now, according to UNICEF is how...
Lord of the bees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2014
PhysOrg: James Hung has collected more than 17,000 wild bees from coastal, desert and mountain areas of San Diego County. But many of his specimens bear little resemblance to the honey bees we normally think of as bees. To the casual observer, his bee collection looks more like a menagerie of Insects Gone Wild-gnat-sized bugs with long snouts, gigantic black bees and curious iridescent creatures with termite-like wings.
"When I first started studying native bees, I really didn't know that there was this...
New index reveals that recent flood could signal climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2014
PhysOrg: A new investigation of long-term weather records suggests that recent flooding in the south of England could signal the onset of climate change.
The research, from UWE Bristol, Loughborough University and the University of East Anglia has produced a new index of flooding trends called the Fluvial Flood Indices. This enables widespread flooding and weather patterns to be viewed in the context of the last 150 years, revealing that four of the six most severe flood episodes since 1871 have occurred...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New index reveals that recent flood could signal climate changeMeasurement Matters: Understanding Water Scarcity in an Increasingly Complex World
Posted by New Security Beat: Kathleen Mogelgaard on March 21st, 2014
New Security Beat: It was a scorching hot April afternoon in Keur Moussa, a small farming community about 60 kilometers outside Dakar, Senegal. The landscape was mostly barren and very dry, and a fine red dust settled into our clothes as we walked with community leaders to learn about their efforts to cope with a changing environment. In this part of the world, adapting to climate change is figuring out how to manage water: how to survive for long periods without it, and what to do when too much comes at unexpected...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Measurement Matters: Understanding Water Scarcity in an Increasingly Complex WorldNorth Carolina Says Utility Pumped Millions of Gallons of Ash Waste in River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2014
New York Times: Duke Energy, the electric utility whose massive spill of toxic coal ash into a river six weeks ago is part of a federal investigation, illegally pumped as much as 61 million gallons of coal-ash wastewater into a second river from September to last week, North Carolina regulators charged on Thursday. Both the accidental spill and the deliberate releases occurred not far upstream from municipal drinking-water intakes. The utility’s officials have said that the pumping was part of preparations for...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on North Carolina Says Utility Pumped Millions of Gallons of Ash Waste in RiverEl Niño seen bringing much-needed rain to Chile
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2014
Reuters: After five years of drought in central Chile, there is a good chance that the El Niño weather pattern could bring much-needed rains during the Southern Hemisphere's winter, the national meteorological service said on Thursday.
In recent years, power producers in the world's top copper producer have been forced to rely on more-expensive fossil fuels as the lack of rain has dented hydroelectric generation.
Over 40 percent of installed capacity in Chile's central power grid, which supplies electricity...
Koch brothers’ quiet play: Oil sands
Posted by Washington Post: Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2014
Washington Post: The biggest lease owner in Canada's oil sands isn't one of the well-known international oil giants. It's a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.
The Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres -- an area nearly the size of Delaware -- in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, according to an activist group that studied Alberta provincial records. The Washington Post confirmed the group's...