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Archive for August, 2014
Water Trips Up Chemical Reactions That Lead To Biofuels
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2014
RedOrbit: Trying to understand the chemistry that turns plant material into the same energy-rich gasoline and diesel we put in our vehicles, researchers have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions. The study, which was reported online at the Journal of the American Chemical Society in July, can help improve processes that produce biofuels from plants.
The study examines the conversion of bio-oil, produced from biomass such...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Water Trips Up Chemical Reactions That Lead To BiofuelsShale gas industry needs more study, Justin Trudeau says in New Brunswick
Posted by Canadian Press: Kevin Bissett on August 23rd, 2014
Canadian Press: Greater scientific study is required before Canada expands its shale gas industry, federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said Saturday while campaigning alongside his provincial counterpart in New Brunswick.
Trudeau waded into the controversial issue while at a rally in Moncton with New Brunswick Liberal Leader Brian Gallant, who is vying to become premier after the Sept. 22 provincial election.
"I'm very much in agreement with Mr. Gallant that in terms of fracking and shale gas, we need to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shale gas industry needs more study, Justin Trudeau says in New BrunswickTake heed city dwellers: it’s hot and getting hotter
Posted by Indian Country: Terri Hansen Read More At http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/22/t on August 23rd, 2014
Indian Country: Buildings, roads, and other infrastructure that make up urban environments typically make cities hotter than surrounding rural areas, a condition known as an urban heat island.
If you live in Albuquerque, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland or Seattle, you inhabit a notably hotter environment than do your rural neighbors during the hottest months of the year, thanks to the urban heat island effect. Other cities with large Native American populations like Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Tucson suffer, too....
Global climate inaction mean economic turmoil for South Asia, warns bank
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on August 23rd, 2014
InsideClimate: The first comprehensive study ever issued on the economic costs that uncontrolled climate change would inflict on South Asia predicts a staggering burden that would hit the region's poorest the hardest.
"The impacts of climate change are likely to result in huge economic, social and environmental damage to South Asian countries, compromising their growth potential and poverty reduction efforts," said the study, published by the Asian Development Bank.
The cuts in regional GDP are so deep that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global climate inaction mean economic turmoil for South Asia, warns bankAmerican West is so dry that the land is rising
Posted by ClimateWire: Elizabeth Harball on August 23rd, 2014
ClimateWire: f you live out West, you've likely noticed that things have been pretty dry lately. What you probably haven't noticed is that the ground beneath your feet is also a little bit higher in elevation -- an average of 4 millimeters higher, to be exact. It may be hard to believe, but new research using data from hundreds of different GPS stations shows it to be true: The current drought in the American West is so bad that the loss of water weight has actually caused the land to rise. Moreover, scientists...
Gloomy prediction on California drought
Posted by Sun: Joe Nelson on August 23rd, 2014
Sun: Bill Patzert, long referred to by his colleagues in the science community as the “Prophet of California Climate,” had some predictions Friday on California’s severe drought, and they were anything but good.
El Nino-like weather patterns associated with fluctuating ocean temperatures have been thrown off balance, likely due to climate change. As a result, there has been less rain and warmer weather, and it will not end any time soon, Patzert said.
“When the Pacific speaks, everybody better listen,”...
Urban Metabolism: Understanding Your City by Understanding its Flow
Posted by Daily Kos: None Given on August 23rd, 2014
Daily Kos: Note: Climate change is the overarching environmental issue of our time and I'm a huge proponent of urging national and world leaders to take action. However, I often wonder what it is they're going to do once a treaty is signed to reduce CO2 emissions. It's not like there's a magic switch that will turn off all the centralized power plants and get most cars off the roads. Our current infrastructure is so inefficient and wasteful at its core that it depends on energy stored in fossils a million years...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Urban Metabolism: Understanding Your City by Understanding its FlowHundreds Weigh in on Fracking Rules in NC’s Drilling Epicenter
Posted by Time Warner: Julie Fertig on August 23rd, 2014
Time Warner: Hundreds of concerned home and business owners turned out Friday night for the second of four public hearings in Sanford on rules to govern the North Carolina fracking industry. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the practice of injecting water, sand and chemicals far below the ground to extract natural gas. Since fracking would occur in the Sanford region, many local home and landowners came to express their thoughts and concerns. Shortly after the public hearing got underway, about a dozen...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hundreds Weigh in on Fracking Rules in NC’s Drilling EpicenterAustralia: Wilderness Society: Wild Rivers Act replacement ‘weak regulation’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2014
Guardian: Ecologically and culturally sensitive parts of Cape York will be declared to be “strategic environment areas” under a new plan to allow development that replaces Queensland’s controversially scrapped wild rivers laws.
The Queensland government has publicly released a 52-page plan, a fortnight after repealing Labor’s 2005 Wild Rivers Act, which banned strip mining, intensive agriculture and in-stream dams in that part of far north Queensland.
The Cape York regional plan was tabled in parliament...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Wilderness Society: Wild Rivers Act replacement ‘weak regulation’Urban areas are hives for wild bees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2014
BBC: A study has found a "considerable richness" of wild bee species in most types of urban habitats.
French researchers recorded almost a third of the nation's 900 species of wild bees living in towns and cities.
Writing in Plos One, they added that 60 species were also found in very urbanised areas in the city of Lyon.
There is widespread concern that wild bee populations in rural areas are being adversely affected by a number of factors, including pesticides.
"For a bee species to be present...