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Archive for July, 2014
Canada struggles with melting permafrost as climate warms
Posted by Scientific American: Christa Marshall on July 8th, 2014
Scientific American: In 2006, reduced thickness of ice roads forced the Diavik Diamond Mine in Northern Canada to fly in fuel rather than try to transport cargo across melted pathways, at an extra cost of $11.25 million.
The mountain pine beetle outbreak in British Columbia--fueled by higher winter temperatures that allow insects to survive--expanded in recent years to be 10 times greater than any previously recorded outbreak in the province. Mortality rates of sockeye salmon, meanwhile, have increased because of...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Canada struggles with melting permafrost as climate warmsAmazon rainforest once looked more like savannas of Africa than a jungle
Posted by LiveScience: Stephanie Pappas on July 8th, 2014
LiveScience: A series of square, straight and ringlike ditches scattered throughout the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon were there before the rainforest existed, a new study finds. These human-made structures remain a mystery: They may have been used for defense, drainage, or perhaps ceremonial or religious reasons. But the new research addresses another burning question: whether and how much prehistoric people altered the landscape in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans. "People have been affecting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Amazon rainforest once looked more like savannas of Africa than a jungleCanadians are eating tar-sands pollution
Posted by Grist: John Upton on July 7th, 2014
Grist: Tar-sands extraction isn`t just turning swaths of Canadian land into postapocalyptic film sets. New research shows it`s also contaminating the wild animals that members of the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations have traditionally relied on for food.
We already knew that the tar-sands operations have been dousing northern Alberta with mercury and other forms of pollution. Now university scientists have collaborated with the First Nations to test the pollution levels in hunted animals...
Leaked emails show World Bank could ease loans at expense of environment
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on July 7th, 2014
Blue and Green: Leaked emails by the World Bank, seen by the Observer, show how loans could become more readily available, potentially leading to lower environmental and social standards.
The emails show how regulations for loans could be relaxed with more than $50 billion (£29bn) available every year for power, mining, transport and farming projects.
The World Bank was established in 1944 and provides loans and grants to developing countries to help end extreme poverty and promote growth.
In 2012 the World...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Leaked emails show World Bank could ease loans at expense of environmentGovernment predicts an overcrowded planet riddled with conflict by 2050
Posted by Blue and Green: Richard Heasman on July 7th, 2014
Blue and Green: A new report forecasting the future of the planet, published by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), has described a world overpopulated and undernourished, with a high probability of consistent conflict.
The report, entitled ‘Global Strategic Trends’,also warns that ageing populations will become the burden of the young, as the elderly continue to live longer, inflicting rising health and living costs.
Climate change will incur mass migrations as those from Asia and Africa, according to the report,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Government predicts an overcrowded planet riddled with conflict by 2050Intersex Fish Found Three Pennsylvania Rivers Linked to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on July 7th, 2014
EcoWatch: A study led by the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) finds intersex fish in three watersheds of Pennsylvania and shows strong connections between these occurrences and increased pollution in waterways from endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
The study, Reproductive Health Indicators of Fish from Pennsylvania Watersheds: Associations with Chemicals of Emerging Concern, examined three species of fish in three separate watersheds of Pennsylvania to assess whether characteristics caused by hormones and hormone-mimicking...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Intersex Fish Found Three Pennsylvania Rivers Linked to Endocrine Disrupting ChemicalsAmerica’s Largest Reservoir Drains to Record Low As Western Drought Deepens
Posted by EcoWatch: Brett Walton on July 7th, 2014
EcoWatch: Lake Mead—America’s largest reservoir, Las Vegas’ main water source and an important indicator for water supplies in the Southwest—will fall this week to its lowest level since 1937 when the manmade lake was first being filled, according to forecasts from the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on America’s Largest Reservoir Drains to Record Low As Western Drought DeepensOklahoma Earthquake Swarm Linked to Wastewater Injection by Fracking Industry
Posted by Nature World: None Given on July 7th, 2014
Nature World: Oklahoma had more earthquakes than California in 2014. A new study suggests that the increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma is associated with wastewater wells used by the oil and gas industry.
Katie Keranen, professor of geophysics at the Cornell University, who conducted the study, said that earthquakes in Oklahoma account for nearly half of all seismicity occurring in central and Eastern U.S. Many of these earthquakes occurred in areas with high levels of water disposal.
Oklahoma has already...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oklahoma Earthquake Swarm Linked to Wastewater Injection by Fracking Industry20 Years Later, Legacy of Deadly Colorado Wildfire Endures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2014
National Geographic: Twenty years ago, at 4 p.m. on July 6, a wave of flame swept along a ridge on Colorado's Storm King Mountain, killed 14 firefighters, and became a benchmark for wildland firefighting with repercussions that continue to this day.
On Sunday, firefighters from across the nation will gather at the site of what became known as the 1994 South Canyon Fire, about seven miles west of the resort town of Glenwood Springs in central Colorado, to mark the anniversary and take stock of its legacy.
For many...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 20 Years Later, Legacy of Deadly Colorado Wildfire EnduresNorth Dakota, Texas Send U.S. Oil Boom Skyrocketing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 7th, 2014
Climate Central: What a difference four years makes.
The U.S. is in the middle of a huge oil and natural gas boom, with crude oil production heading skyward fast thanks to a drilling rush in two states -- Texas and North Dakota.
Newly released Energy Information Administration data show just how fast that rise is occurring and why: Thanks to hydraulic fracturing drilling technology opening up vast deposits of crude beneath North Dakota and Texas, those states are almost solely responsible for the meteoric rise...