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Archive for June, 2015
Sixth mass extinction is here: Humanity’s existence threatened
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence. That is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing. "[The study]...
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Comments Off on Sixth mass extinction is here: Humanity’s existence threatenedDust from abandoned Cliffs’ mine casts pall over eastern Canadian town
Posted by Reuters: Mike De Souza on June 19th, 2015
Reuters: Heavy dust clouds blowing from Cliffs Natural Resources' abandoned Wabush iron ore mine into a small township in the eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is putting a focus on the liability of miners that seek creditor protection and walk away from assets. Iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc announced in February 2014 it was shutting down its Wabush mine. This year it sought creditor protection for its Canadian assets. The fate of the deserted mine is in limbo...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Dust from abandoned Cliffs’ mine casts pall over eastern Canadian townPope calls for action on climate change, biodiversity loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
Mongabay: In a letter being widely heralded by environmentalists, yesterday Pope Francis called on world leaders to address threats to the planet, including climate change and species extinction. Notably, the leader of the Catholic Church singled out "human activity" as the main driver of these threats.
Calling climate change an urgent challenge and a danger that will disproportionately affect the world's poorest people, Pope Francis spoke of a need for a fundamental rethink of how we produce energy and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pope calls for action on climate change, biodiversity lossLooking to beat back encroaching desert, Chile preserves forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
Reuters: As part of efforts to counteract desertification and erosion brought about by climate change, Chile will invest $250 million to plant vast tracks of native forest, the national forestry agency said on Friday. Home to the Atacama desert, the world's driest, Chile will plant trees on 100,000 hectares. The forestry agency Conaf will also incorporate a similar amount of forest in the 13 million hectares it already manages as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "Some $1.5...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Looking to beat back encroaching desert, Chile preserves forestsHumans creating sixth great extinction animal species, say scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
Guardian: The modern world is experiencing a “sixth great extinction” of animal species even when the lowest estimates of extinction rates are considered, scientists have warned.
The rate of extinction for species in the 20th century was up to 100 times higher than it would have been without man’s impact, they said.
Many conservationists have been warning for years that a mass extinction event akin to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs is occurring as humans degrade and destroy habitats.
But the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Humans creating sixth great extinction animal species, say scientistsProposed floodplain restoration reduces flood risk and restores salmon habitat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Salmon are severely impacted by the loss of floodplain habitats throughout the West Coast. In few places is this more pronounced than in Oregon's Tillamook Bay, where nearly 90 percent of estuaries' tidal wetlands have been lost to development -- threatening the survival of federally-protected coho salmon and the safety of the local community. Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, NOAA Fisheries, and others have come together to reduce flood risk, increase resiliency of the ecosystem, and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Proposed floodplain restoration reduces flood risk and restores salmon habitatHunting Ways Keep Synthetic Estrogens Out Of Rivers And Seas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
National Public Radio: Once wastewater is released into the environment, these synthetic hormones can have negative effects on wildlife. Synthetic estrogen is a type of endocrine disruptor, a chemical that affects the endocrine system either by acting like a hormone or by blocking the action of natural hormones. It has caused some species of male fish to become feminized, even causing them to produce eggs in their testes.
One possibility researchers have explored for neutralizing these estrogens before they escape into...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hunting Ways Keep Synthetic Estrogens Out Of Rivers And SeasScience Panel Tries to Reinject Reality into Flood Insurance Pricing
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on June 19th, 2015
New York Times: Federal flood insurance in the United States is a mess, with politics continuing to trump data, and taxpayers paying the price. Just track the heroic passage of the Bigger-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act in 2012 and its subsequent gutting as property owners howled. The followup bill in 2014 had a name that perfectly reflects the irrational nature of what transpired: Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act. Will we ever have a Homeowner Taking Responsibility for Building in Flood Zones Act?...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Science Panel Tries to Reinject Reality into Flood Insurance PricingHow Fast Will Rising Temperatures Shrink CO2 Storage?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
Scientific American: As human activity has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon cycling has helped to buffer against some of the greenhouse gas's warming effects. But over time, if carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, the planet will become progressively less able to sequester CO2 in the soil or deep within the ocean.
Scott Doney, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, compares the scenario to an open faucet flowing into a basin (of air),...
German govt clashes with Bavaria over nuclear storage site plan
Posted by Reuters: Markus Wacket and Michael Nienaber on June 19th, 2015
Reuters: The German government presented a plan on Friday for four interim storage sites to host nuclear waste now piled up at plants in France and Britain, but the move drew criticism from Bavaria, which wants none of the material. After Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Germany decided to shut all of its nuclear plants by 2022, but still has to work out how to handle tonnes of highly radioactive waste. Original plans to turn an interim nuclear waste storage site in salt formations in Lower Saxony's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on German govt clashes with Bavaria over nuclear storage site plan