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Archive for June 9th, 2015
Floods as war weapons
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A new study shows that, from 1500 until 2000, about a third of floods in southwestern Netherlands were deliberately caused by humans during wartimes. Some of these inundations resulted in significant changes to the landscape, being as damaging as floods caused by heavy rainfall or storm surges. The work, by Dutch researcher Adriaan de Kraker, is published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). During the Eighty Years' War, as the Spanish army fought...
Use It or Lose It Laws Worsen Western US Water Woe
Posted by Scientific American: Abrahm Lustgarten on June 9th, 2015
Scientific American: High in the Rocky Mountains, snowmelt fills a stream that trickles down into Ohio Creek and then onward toward the Upper Gunnison River. From there, it tumbles through the chasms of the Black Canyon, joining the Colorado River, filling the giant Lake Powell reservoir, and, one day, flowing to Los Angeles.
But before the water gets more than a few miles off the mountain, much of this stream is diverted into dirt ditches used by ranchers along the Ohio Creek Valley. Standing astride one of those...
Is the Fracking Boom Coming to an End?
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 9th, 2015
EcoWatch: Since fracking began its boom period in the last decade, its supporters have promoted it as the answer to all of the U.S.’s energy issues. It would free us from dependence on foreign oil, they said, thereby strengthening national security. And in fact, the U.S. has become the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels, while prices at the gas pump have dropped steeply as fracked oil and gas production has exploded. States like Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Ohio have welcomed frackers...
Scientists raise permafrost alarm at UN climate talks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Scientists issued a dire warning Tuesday to UN climate negotiators in Bonn of a vicious global warming cycle that will be unlocked with the thawing of carbon-bearing permafrost. There may be 1,500 billion tonnes of carbon locked away in permafrost -- perennially frozen ground covering about a quarter of exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere -- said Susan Natali, a researcher with the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. The carbon will be released incrementally as global temperatures...
Nature gives us everything free– let’s put at heart everyday econ life
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2015
Guardian: Natural capital is everything nature provides us for free. It is what our economy is built upon. We add man-made capital in the shape of houses, factories, offices and physical infrastructure, and human capital with our skills, ideas and science.
Natural capital should, therefore, be at the heart of economics and economic policy – but it isn’t. As a consequence we abuse nature, drive species to extinction, and destroy ecosystems and habitats without much thought to the consequences. The damage...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Nature gives us everything free– let’s put at heart everyday econ lifeHere’s What Most Media Outlets Left Out of Their Reporting on EPA Fracking Study
Posted by EcoWatch: Denise Robbins on June 9th, 2015
EcoWatch: Many major media outlets reported that a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking“) has had “widespread” impacts on Americans’ drinking water, but did not mention the EPA’s explanation for why the study doesn’t necessarily indicate “a rarity of effects on drinking water resources.” The EPA study identified several “limiting factors,” including insufficient data, the lack of long-term studies and inaccessible information, which...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Here’s What Most Media Outlets Left Out of Their Reporting on EPA Fracking StudyCalifornia lawmakers move to halt offshore drilling after spill
Posted by Fox: None Given on June 9th, 2015
Fox: California lawmakers are moving to halt offshore oil drilling on the heels of a major spill last month, amid Republican concerns the push could hurt jobs. The state Senate last week approved a bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Mike McGuire, that would ban any new oil drilling in state waters off the California coast. In May, California experienced its largest oil spill in 25 years. According to McGuire’s office, more than 100,000 gallons of oil from offshore platforms spilled from a ruptured...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California lawmakers move to halt offshore drilling after spillReport: Warming water in Long Island Sound altering fish populations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2015
Associated Press: Fish such as black seabass and summer flounder that prefer warm water are appearing more frequently in Long Island Sound because of climate change, according to a report released Monday on the health of the sound. And fish such as winter flounder, Atlantic herring and red herring that prefer cold water are slowly decreasing, according to the report by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The report also warned about pollution caused by human activity. Although Long Island Sound is in good...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report: Warming water in Long Island Sound altering fish populationsAustralia: Risk of flooding rises with global warming, says study
Posted by Toronto Star: Raveena Aulakh on June 9th, 2015
Toronto Star: Peak rainfall during storms will intensify as the climate changes and temperatures rise, leading to increased flash flood risks, especially in urban areas, new research from Australia indicates.
Scientists at the University of New South Wales in Sydney analyzed about 40,000 storms from three decades in Australia and found that warming temperatures are dramatically disrupting rainfall patterns within storms.
“We have known for a long time that as temperatures increase you can hold more moisture...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Risk of flooding rises with global warming, says studySubaru Damage Not Bullet Observ Confirms
Posted by Big Island News: None Given on June 9th, 2015
Big Island News: Reports of a "bullet hole" found in the door of the Subaru Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea have been dispelled. The observatory has "confirmed a match between this hole and an intake manifold cover on the wall", which indicates no guns or bullets were involved in creating the hole.
Photos and police reports of the "bullet hole" created a stir in the media on Sunday, illustrating the tense situation that currently exists on the mountain. With construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope delayed...