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Archive for May, 2015
Facing Future Storms: Poor Honduran Communities Unite to Protect Watersheds and Nature
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on May 5th, 2015
Mongabay: There hasn't been much good news out of Honduras recently. One of the poorest Latin American nations, it has been afflicted by a series of natural and political calamities. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed over 14,000 people, impacted a third of the population and did $3.8 billion in damage -- three-quarters of the nation's total GDP. Droughts followed, reducing corn and bean production by 50 to 70 percent in some years. In 2009, an elected President was overthrown by the military. And in 2014, hard...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Facing Future Storms: Poor Honduran Communities Unite to Protect Watersheds and NatureFeds to require climate change plans for states seeking disaster relief
Posted by Hill: Lydia Wheeler on May 5th, 2015
Hill: A new Federal Emergency Management Agency policy requiring states to address climate change before they can become eligible for grant funding is drawing fire from congressional Republicans.
The regulations, part of a FEMA State Mitigation Plan Review Guide issued last month, are not set to take effect until next March. But lawmakers are demanding an explanation for the rules now.
In a letter to FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate, the lawmakers said they’re concerned that the agency’s decision...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Feds to require climate change plans for states seeking disaster reliefHow to break the political silence on the environment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2015
Guardian: A YouGov poll published last week found that 40% of voters wanted to hear more about the environment. They also wanted to hear more about education, pensions, foreign affairs and Europe. They have been disappointed.
It is too easy to blame this silence on the politicians. Political debate in Britain has largely been reduced to a hermetic conversation between party leaders no-one listens to anymore and editors who confuse news with entertainment. But environmentalists must also take some of the...
Ice cores show 200-year climate lag
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2015
BBC: Scientists have found a 200-year lag time between past climate events at the poles.
The most detailed Antarctic ice core provides the first clear comparison with Greenland records, revealing a link between northern and southern hemisphere climate change.
Scientists found that abrupt and large temperature changes first occurred in Greenland, with the effect delayed about 200 years in the Antarctic.
The study appears in Nature journal.
The paper is the work of almost 80 authors and it is...
We’re in the Process of Decimating 1 in 6 Species on Earth
Posted by ClimateDesk: None Given on May 5th, 2015
ClimateDesk: The extinction rate is rising rapidly, a new study finds. And climate change is to blame.
A wood frog lays eggs on a pond surface. Many frogs like this are breeding earlier in the spring because of climate change. Mark Urban
Plants and animals around the world are already suffering from the negative impacts of manmade global warming--including shrinking habitats and the spread of disease. A great number are also facing the ultimate demise--outright extinction--among them the iconic polar bear,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on We’re in the Process of Decimating 1 in 6 Species on EarthFjords are unexpected natural allies against climate change: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2015
Reuters: Fjords from Alaska to Norway soak up potentially damaging carbon from the atmosphere, making the steep-sided inlets an overlooked natural ally in offsetting man-made climate change, a study showed on Monday.
Fjords cover only 0.1 percent of the world's ocean surface but account for 11 percent of the organic carbon in plants, soils and rocks that gets buried in marine sediments every year after being washed off the land by rivers, it said.
The cliff-sided inlets, carved out by glaciers in successive...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fjords are unexpected natural allies against climate change: StudyFracking Chemicals Found in Drinking Water, New Study Says
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on May 5th, 2015
EcoWatch: If you ask communities on the frontline of the fracking industry in the U.S. what their greatest concern is about the controversial technology, often the reply is the threat to their drinking water.
The fracking industry replies in the way it always does to these concerns: it downplays the risks with an arrogance that verges on indifference.
The standard reply from the industry is that fracking cannot contaminate water as the fracking rocks are normally thousands of feet below drinking aquifers...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking Chemicals Found in Drinking Water, New Study Says“Denton Fracking Bill” Headed to Gov. Abbott’s Desk in Texas
Posted by Texas Tribune: None Given on May 5th, 2015
Texas Tribune: The so-called Denton fracking bill is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.
The Senate on Monday approved House Bill 40, which would pre-empt local efforts to regulate a wide variety of oil and gas activities and has stirred concerns in some towns that have sought to blunt the effects of drilling close to homes, schools and businesses.
The proposal already sailed through the House, and Monday's passage -- with no amendments tacked on -- means that it needs only Abbott's signature to become law....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on “Denton Fracking Bill” Headed to Gov. Abbott’s Desk in TexasAlberta’s Possible Pivot to the Left Alarms Canadian Oil Sector
Posted by Reuters: Scott Haggett and Nia Williams on May 5th, 2015
Reuters: Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta is on the cusp of electing a left-wing government that can make life harder for the energy industry with its plans to raise taxes, end support for key pipeline projects and seek a bigger cut of oil revenues.
Polls suggest Tuesday's election is set to end the Conservative's 44-year reign in the province that boasts the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and now faces recession because of the slide in crude prices.
Surveys have proven wrong in Canadian...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Alberta’s Possible Pivot to the Left Alarms Canadian Oil SectorWorld on course lose 1 in 6 species to climate change
Posted by Mongabay: Glenn Scherer on May 4th, 2015
Mongabay: Renowned biologist E.O Wilson, assessing Earth's sixth great extinction now underway, described the future as a shrinking keyhole through which all species must pass as humanity responds to, and hopefully averts catastrophe. A new study published in the journal Science shows that this keyhole could drastically narrow with each degree increase in global temperature due to climate change. The comprehensive study by University of Connecticut ecologist Mark Urban synthesizes data from 131 published...