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Archive for July, 2014
Anti-fracking protesters arrested in U.S. capital
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 14th, 2014
Reuters: Two dozen protesters were arrested in Washington on Monday while demonstrating against hydraulic fracturing and the U.S. gas industry's push to sell "fracked" liquefied natural gas abroad. Protesters blocked entrances to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's headquarters for more than 90 minutes, holding signs calling the agency the "Fracking Expansion Rubberstamp Commission" and chanting "Wake up FERC." Some workers were forced to step over the protesters to access the government building's...
Rare Florida Forest to be Bulldozed and Turned into Wal-Mart
Posted by Nature World: None Given on July 14th, 2014
Nature World: A plot of Miami-Dade forest home to rare plants and endangered species is to be torn down to make way for a Wal-Mart, a move that's causing alarm among some environmentalists.
The University of Miami (UM) sold 88 acres of pine rockland to Ram, a Palm Beach County-based developer planning a 185,000-square-foot Wal-Mart, along with an LA Fitness, Chik-fil-A, Chili's and 900 apartments.
Though the company agreed to set aside 40 acres for a preserve, it's not nearly big enough to hold the vast...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Rare Florida Forest to be Bulldozed and Turned into Wal-Mart‘Tornadoes of fire’ in NWT linked to climate change
Posted by CBC: None Given on July 14th, 2014
CBC: Climate change is responsible for more frequent and larger forest fires, such as the ones now plaguing the Northwest Territories, says an Edmonton professor.
“What we are seeing in the Northwest Territories this year is an indicator of what to expect with climate change,” says Mike Flannigan, a professor of Wildland Fire in the University of Alberta’s renewable resources department. “Expect more fires, larger fires, more intense fires.”
This weekend, the wildfires left a 13-kilometre-long scar...
Climate: Greenhouse gases drive Australia drying trend
Posted by Summit Voice: Bob Berwyn on July 14th, 2014
Summit Voice: Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and ozone depletion over Antarctica are the main drivers of the long-term decline in rainfall over southwestern Australia, federal scientists said in a weekend press release.
The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, are derived from a new high-resolution climate model that may help researchers identify more links between heat-trapping gases and regional climate trends, including here in the U.S.
"This is really the first study to explicitly...
Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children With Malnutrition
Posted by New York Times: Gardiner Harris on July 14th, 2014
New York Times: He wore thick black eyeliner to ward off the evil eye, but Vivek, a tiny 1-year-old living in a village of mud huts and diminutive people, had nonetheless fallen victim to India’s great scourge of malnutrition.
His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled with hundreds of pounds of wheat and potatoes. The economy of the state where he lives has for years grown faster than almost any...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children With MalnutritionRising temperatures cause rising tensions
Posted by Wicked Local: Matthew Cappucci on July 14th, 2014
Wicked Local: In May, the U.S. Global Change Research Program issued its most recent report on climate change, illustrating just how severe the impacts will be on the United States in the not-so-distant future.
And while climate change has become as much a political debate as a global emergency, the urgency is becoming clear. According to the recently released 840-page report, the United States is already suffering considerable health and economic impacts from rising temperatures and sea levels.
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Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 14th, 2014
ScienceDaily: The agreement between observed and model simulated rainfall changes supports the idea that human activity contributed to the drying of southwestern Australia and that the drying will increase in the 21st century. Changes in fall-winter rainfall from observations (top panel) as compared to model simulation of the past century (middle panel), and a model projection of the middle of the 21st century. Credit: Graphic by NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory [Click to enlarge image]
NOAA scientists...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study showsClimate change signals the end of Australian shiraz as we know it
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2014
Reuters: Young Australian vintner Nick Glaetzer's winemaking-steeped family thought he was crazy when he abandoned the Barossa Valley - the hot, dry region that is home to the country's world-famous big, brassy shiraz.
Trampling over the family's century-old grape-growing roots on the Australian mainland, Glaetzer headed south to the island state of Tasmania to strike out on his own and prove to the naysayers there was a successful future in cooler climate wines.
Just five years later, Glaetzer made...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change signals the end of Australian shiraz as we know itHeartland Water Crisis: Why the Planet Depends on These Kansas Farmers
Posted by NBC: None Given on July 13th, 2014
NBC: In America’s Breadbasket, a battle of ideas is underway on the most fundamental topics of all: food, water, and the future of the planet. Last August, in a still-echoing blockbuster study, Dave Steward, Ph.D., and his colleagues at Kansas State University, informed the $15 billion Kansas agricultural economy that it was on a fast track to oblivion. The reason: The precipitous, calamitous withdrawal rates of the Ogallala Aquifer. The Ogallala is little known outside this part of the world, but it’s...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Heartland Water Crisis: Why the Planet Depends on These Kansas FarmersDoubts over ice wall keep Fukushima safe from damaged nuclear reactors
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2014
Guardian: In fading light and just a stone's throw from the most terrifying scenes during Japan's worst nuclear accident, engineers resumed their race against time to defeat the next big threat: thousands of tonnes of irradiated water.
If all goes to plan, by next March Fukushima Daiichi's four damaged reactors will be surrounded by an underground frozen wall that will be a barrier between highly toxic water used to cool melted fuel inside reactor basements and clean groundwater flowing in from surrounding...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Doubts over ice wall keep Fukushima safe from damaged nuclear reactors