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Archive for February 27th, 2015
Growing Risks to India Water Supply Mapped New Online Tool
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: A new online tool could help water users in India understand the risks to their water supply, which is dwindling and increasingly polluted, recent analyses show. The tool, created by 13 organizations including the World Resources Institute, allows users to see where the competition for surface water is most intense, where groundwater levels are dropping significantly, and where pollution levels exceed safety standards. Northwest India, for example, faces extremely high surface water stress as well...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Growing Risks to India Water Supply Mapped New Online ToolShutting off Tap Water: Revenge of the Rainforest
Posted by Dissident Voice: Robert Hunziker on February 27th, 2015
Dissident Voice: Imagine this scenario: The following is a Public Service Announcement by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Water, July 4, 2015: Because of low water levels in state reservoirs, the Division of Water proclaims a statewide water-rationing program. Starting next month, on August 1st, 2015, water service will turn off at 1:00 P.M. on a daily basis for an indeterminate period of time. Service will return the following morning.
Now, imagine a city the size of the State...
Plastic Smog: Microplastics Invade Our Oceans
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 27th, 2015
EcoWatch: The idea that there are “patches” of trash in the oceans is a myth created 15 years ago that should be abandoned in favor of “plastic smog,” like massive clouds of microplastics that emanate out of the five subtropical gyres. My recent publication in the journal Plos One, estimates 269,000 tons of plastic from 5.25 trillion particles, but more alarming than that is it’s mostly microplastic (>92 percent in our study) and most of the plastic in the ocean is likely not on the sea surface.
Recent...
In Louisiana, Measure to Kill Wetlands Damage Lawsuit Appeal Likely to Fail
Posted by Times-Picayune: Y Mark Schleifstein on February 27th, 2015
Times-Picayune: Members of the east bank levee authority opposed to the controversial wetlands damage lawsuit against oil, gas and pipeline companies have called for a special meeting of the authority on Monday to force commissioners to vote up or down on whether to appeal a federal judge's decision throwing out the suit.
But a plan by the opponents, led by attorney Joe Hassinger of New Orleans, to tailor a motion in such a way that even a tie vote during the special meeting of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Louisiana, Measure to Kill Wetlands Damage Lawsuit Appeal Likely to FailWho’s to Blame for the Exploding Oil Trains?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2015
Bloomberg: A week after a CSX train hauling crude oil derailed and exploded 30 miles southeast of Charleston, W.Va., on Feb. 16, its mangled, charred tank cars were still being hauled from the crash site. Of the 27 cars that derailed, 19 had been engulfed in flames. The wreckage burned for almost three days. “It’s amazing no one was killed,” says John Whitt, whose home is one of a handful clustered near the crash site, along the banks of the Kanawha River. Some were within 30 yards of the site. One home was...
Mining company closing office in northern Wisconsin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2015
Associated Press: The company looking to open an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin announced Friday it was closing its office in Hurley, saying future investment was "unfeasible at this time," a move that marks the end for now of the project near Lake Superior that sparked fierce debate and opposition from environmentalists and tribal members near the site. Bill Williams, president of mining company Gogebic Taconite, released a statement announcing the decision. It comes after field explorations were put on hold...
NASA satellites show rain like never before
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on February 27th, 2015
Climate Central: Few things on our planet connect us like precipitation. The storm that drops snow in the mountains of Tennessee can one day bring rain to the plains of Spain a week later.
Yet there hasn't been a way to effectively monitor all the precipitation across the globe at once, let alone create a vertical profile from the clouds to the ground. All that changed last year, though, when NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the last piece of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission,...