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Archive for June, 2015
California drought grips tourist magnet Yosemite
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Sara Puig on June 11th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: It is one of America's most popular natural wonders. But even Yosemite National Park cannot escape the drought ravaging California, now in its fourth year and fueling growing concern.
At first glance, the spectacular beauty of the park with its soaring cliffs and picture-postcard valley floor remains unblemished, still enchanting the millions of tourists who flock the landmark every year.
But on closer inspection, the drought's effects are clearly visible.
The towering 8,840-foot (2,695-meter)...
Ethiopia Submits Carbon Cutting Plan for UN Climate Deal
Posted by RTCC: None Given on June 11th, 2015
RTCC: Ethiopia became the third African country to unveil its plan to slash carbon dioxide emissions as part of an global pact on Wednesday.
The continent`s second most populous country said it would target at least a 64% cut within 15 years on the current trajectory of emissions, in its submission to a UN portal.
That makes it the 40th country to post a so-called intended nationally determined contribution, in UN parlance, towards curbing global warming.
“The full implementation of Ethiopia’s...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Ethiopia Submits Carbon Cutting Plan for UN Climate DealWhat’s in Your Frac Fluid? U.S. Doctors Want to Know
Posted by Houston Chronicle: None Given on June 11th, 2015
Houston Chronicle: U.S. doctors want more information about the ingredients of the chemical compounds pumped underground during hydraulic fracturing operations at oil and gas wells nationwide.
The chemical disclosure request came in the form of a policy plank adopted by the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates during the group’s annual meeting Tuesday.
The AMA said in a statement that the group is concerned about the inability to effectively monitor and track the possible long-term public health...
One Map That Shows NASA’s New Climate Projections
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on June 11th, 2015
Climate Central: NASA has put a new item up on Amazon. But there's no price tag and you won't necessarily find it by using the marketplace's search bar or browsing the electronics section.
Instead, you'll have to look at Amazon's cloud, where NASA scientists have shared 11 terabytes of high resolution climate projections. A snapshot of July in 2100 in the map below shows how detailed the projections are. The new dataset is available to anyone with an internet connection, but comes courtesy of supercomputers only...
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 Study