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Archive for July 13th, 2015
California towns getting water by truck as drought continues wells run dry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2015
Environmental News Network: Rural Tulare County, Calif., is now being called the epicenter of this drought.
That's because at least 1,300 residential wells have run dry, affecting at least 7,000 people. When your taps start spitting out air here, Paul Boyer and his team are who you call.
Under a punishing midafternoon sun, Boyer helps muscle down five of these hefty 400-pound water tanks from a semi-truck flatbed. He helps run a local nonprofit that's in charge of distributing these 2,500-gallon water tanks to drought...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California towns getting water by truck as drought continues wells run dryFossils indicate human activities disturbed ecosystem resilience
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A collection of fossilized owl pellets in Utah suggests that when Earth went through a period of rapid warming about 13,000 years ago, the small mammal community was stable and resilient, even as individual species changed along with the habitat and landscape. By contrast, human-caused changes to the environment since the late 1800s have caused an enormous drop in biomass and "energy flow" in this same community, researchers reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fossils indicate human activities disturbed ecosystem resilienceMega-dams doing drastic harm to tropical biodiversity: study
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on July 13th, 2015
Mongabay: Researchers with the University of East Anglia say the full extent of impacts to biodiversity of large hydroelectric dams in lowland tropical forest regions have been "severely overlooked." Mega-dams are being proposed the world over as sustainable development projects, even though there have been plenty of studies calling attention to the fact that the emissions savings from hydroelectric dams are drastically overstated. But this is one of the first times that such an extensive study has been done...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mega-dams doing drastic harm to tropical biodiversity: studyBumblebees Decimated by Climate Change: Study
Posted by Discovery: Lori Cuthbert on July 13th, 2015
Discovery: All bees -- all pollinators, actually -- are under stress these days, but bumblebees are especially affected by climate change, according to a new study.
Other species are mitigating the effects of warming by expanding their territories northward, but not bumblebees, found the study, published in Science. In fact, bumblebees appear to be contracting their territories.
“One of the important things to me was how many species are being impacted by climate change. That was a bit of a surprise,”...
Speedy study claims climate change doubled chances of European heatwave
Posted by Nature: Mark Zastrow on July 13th, 2015
Nature: Over much of Europe, the sweltering heatwave of late June and early July has barely subsided. But already, scientists have analysed the possible role of climate change, concluding that global warming made such an event at least twice as likely over much of the continent. In some cities, climate change has made comparable heatwaves four times more likely, they say.
The speedy study comes from a collaboration involving the US-based nonprofit environmental news organization Climate Central and an...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Speedy study claims climate change doubled chances of European heatwaveNatural world feels the heat as temperatures soar
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on July 13th, 2015
Climate News Network: Extremes of heat - and an extra helping of drought - have begun to change the planet in small, subtle ways, and will almost certainly continue the process of change, according to new research.
Bird species such as the Elegant Tern have begun to move north from the Gulf of California in Mexico, a species of ant that lives underground has shown it cannot take the heat, and the giant trees of the world’s forests may be at risk.
The link between any single extreme of heat and drought, and global...
Record torrential rainfall linked warming climate
Posted by Climate News Network: Alex Kirby on July 13th, 2015
Climate News Network: If you think you’re getting an unusually hard soaking more often when you go out in the rain, you’re probably right. A team of scientists in Germany says record-breaking heavy rainfall has been increasing strikingly in the last 30 years as global temperatures increase. Before 1980, they say, the explanation was fluctuations in natural variability. But since then they have detected a clear upward trend in downpours that is consistent with a warming world. The scientists, from the Potsdam Institute...
Too few specialists to track loss of Himalayan glaciers
Posted by Climate News Network: Nivedita Khandekar on July 13th, 2015
Climate News Network: Studying ice loss in the vast, inhospitable region of the Himalayas can be a very tricky business as most glaciers are found above 12,000 feet. While much of the data is derived from satellite surveys, reliable field data is also vital - but skill shortages mean that only four of the approximately 9,500 glaciers spread across the Indian section of the Himalayas are being studied in detail. Gathering field data involves a combination of skills that include high-altitude mountaineering. Weather restricts...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Too few specialists to track loss of Himalayan glaciersStudy: Most California Fracking Waste Left Unlined Pits
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: David R. Baker on July 13th, 2015
San Francisco Chronicle: More than half of the wastewater from fracked oil wells in California is disposed of in open, unlined pits and could contaminate groundwater, according to a state-mandated study of hydraulic fracturing issued Thursday.
The California Council on Science and Technology study presents a cautious assessment of fracking in the state. And it’s not likely to defuse the political fight over fracking, with both the oil industry and its opponents on Thursday claiming vindication in its findings.
The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study: Most California Fracking Waste Left Unlined PitsCalif. Regulators Have Limited Power to Punish Farmers in Drought, Court Rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2015
Associated Press: A judge ruled Friday that California regulators violated some farmers’ rights by telling them to stop diverting from rivers and streams, but the state said it can still punish those who illegally take water during the drought. The temporary restraining order by Judge Shelleyanne Chang of Sacramento Superior Court blocked the state from punishing farmers who ignored a state notice issued earlier this year to stop diverting water. The ruling applies to dozens of farmers in the Central Valley and the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Calif. Regulators Have Limited Power to Punish Farmers in Drought, Court Rules