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Archive for June, 2015
California oil spill pipeline left to rust paper-thin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Guardian: An oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 383,000 litres (101,000 gallons) of crude near Santa Barbara in May had been allowed to corrode to a tiny fraction of its original thickness, federal regulators have said.
The preliminary findings released on Wednesday by the federal pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration point to a possible cause of the 19 May spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 14.5km (nine mile) slick in the Pacific Ocean.
The agency said...
Hawaii Officials Rethink Astronomical Observatory Plans
Posted by Monitor: None Given on June 3rd, 2015
Monitor: There will be no further construction work on Mauna Kea for new astronomical observatories, instead the existing ones will be decommissioned and rebuilt. This is the main decision reached by the University of Hawaii in cooperation with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Initial plans involved the construction of a new, modern observatory on a newly commissioned site. Following heated protests from the local population, University of Hawaii representatives have decided to rethink their...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Hawaii Officials Rethink Astronomical Observatory PlansCoupled human, natural systems explain change on Mongolian Plateau
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 3rd, 2015
ScienceDaily: Human influence on the natural world is widely acknowledged to have reached an unprecedented scale. Likewise, changes in natural systems have the potential to alter human behaviors, creating complex system interactions. These dynamics can be understood using the conceptual framework of coupled human and natural systems, or CHANS. In an article published in the June issue of BioScience, a cross-disciplinary group of researchers, led by Jiquan Chen, of Michigan State University and Nanjing University...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Coupled human, natural systems explain change on Mongolian PlateauThree Mauna Kea telescopes to go
Posted by Associated Press: Jennifer Sinco Kelleher on June 3rd, 2015
Associated Press: The University of Hawaii announced a plan Monday that will lead to the removal of several large telescopes on Mauna Kea.
School officials will meet with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources this week to discuss the decommissioning process.
The plan comes nearly a week after Gov. David Ige said school officials need to do a better job caring for the mountain and asked that they carry out 10 actions.
The discussions were sparked by protests against the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope....
Giant telescope Hawaii gets go-ahead, others shut down
Posted by New Scientist: Michael Lemonick on June 3rd, 2015
New Scientist: One in four must go. Hawaii's giant Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is back in business after a hiatus of 2 months - but at the expense of other telescopes.
Back in April, construction of the telescope was temporarily halted in the face of mounting protests from native Hawaiians. The telescope would dwarf any observatory now in existence, allowing astronomers to peer to the very edge of the visible universe. Its presence atop the extinct volcano Mauna Kea, however, which many Hawaiians consider sacred...
7 Epic Droughts Devastating the Planet
Posted by EcoWatch: Charles Iceland on June 3rd, 2015
EcoWatch: Every inhabited continent, to varying degrees, faces extremely high water stress. That means that in certain areas more than 80 percent of the local water supply is withdrawn by businesses, farmers, residents and other consumers every year. Not all of that water is consumed--it may flow back into a river after it’s used and be available again downstream--but the demand still creates competition where it is needed.
These “stressed” areas are also the ones most vulnerable to episodic droughts. With...
Canada’s Alberta pledges new climate regulations by month’s end
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 3rd, 2015
Reuters: Alberta, the Canadian province whose carbon-intensive oil sands are the largest source U.S. oil imports, said on Tuesday it would have new climate change regulations in place by June 30, when the current rules expire. Shannon Phillips, the environment minister for the province's newly elected left-wing government, said in a statement that her first steps would include energy-efficiency and renewable-energy strategies. The New Democratic Party, which ended 44 years of government by the Conservative...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada’s Alberta pledges new climate regulations by month’s endExxon CEO says Europe should see climate benefit shale gas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 3rd, 2015
Bloomberg: Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson said Europe should see the “tremendous environmental benefits” of producing natural gas from shale, pointing to the U.S. output boom as a model for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
“Natural gas and shale have been instrumental in reducing CO2 emissions to levels not seen since the 1990s” in the U.S., the chairman and chief executive officer of the Irving, Texas-based company said at the World Gas Conference in Paris Tuesday. “U.S. gas production has soared...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Exxon CEO says Europe should see climate benefit shale gasDrought takes $2.7 billion toll California agriculture
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on June 3rd, 2015
Climate Central: The record-breaking drought in California — brought about by a severe lack of precipitation, especially mountain snows — has exacted a $2.7 billion toll on the state’s economy because of agricultural losses, researchers said Tuesday. During a briefing for the California Department of Food & Agriculture, scientists from the University of California, Davis, told officials that based on their preliminary research and modeling, the drought is resulting in a harder economic pinch this year than it was...
Drought taking toll on West, senators told
Posted by Coloradoan: Bill Theobald on June 3rd, 2015
Coloradoan: Witnesses presented a bleak picture of the impact of ongoing drought in the West during a Senate hearing Tuesday, but there were a few rays of hope.
First the bad news:
"¢Seventy-five percent of land in the 11 westernmost states are facing abnormally dry to exceptional drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
"¢California has ordered a 25 percent reduction in water use by non-farm users.
"¢Washington has declared a statewide drought emergency and is predicting $1.2 billion...