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Archive for July, 2015
What’s in your landscape? Plants alter West Nile virus risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 6th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A new study looks at how leaf litter in water influences the abundance of Culex pipiens mosquitoes, which can transmit West Nile virus to humans, domestic animals, birds and other wildlife. The study found that different species of leaf litter in standing water influence where Culex pipiens mosquitoes deposit their eggs, how quickly the larvae grow, how big they get and whether they survive to adulthood. Because the mosquitoes feed on bacteria that grow on leaf litter, the team also measured how...
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Comments Off on What’s in your landscape? Plants alter West Nile virus riskPeru declares emergency in 14 regions on El Nino worries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2015
Reuters: Peru has declared a 60-day state of emergency in towns in 14 regions to brace for possible damage from the climate pattern El Nino in the rainy season, state media reported Sunday. Peru has forecast a "moderate to strong" El Nino in the winter season and has not ruled out an extraordinary event in the summer, which begins in December in the southern hemisphere. The phenomenon, a warming of Pacific sea-surface temperatures, has wreaked havoc on local fishing in Peru and triggered landslides in years...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Peru declares emergency in 14 regions on El Nino worriesSaskatchewan evacuating thousands more as wildfires spread
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2015
Reuters: The Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan said on Sunday it was evacuating an additional 8,000 people from the far north of the province, as wildfires continue to spread and threaten homes. The provincial government said that as of Saturday there were 114 active fires in the province. More than 5,000 residents have already been moved out of the area in the past week. The latest evacuations are around the town of La Ronge, roughly 600 km (370 miles) north of the provincial capital, Regina. ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Saskatchewan evacuating thousands more as wildfires spreadHeat Waves Europe Caused By Climate Change Says Scientists
Posted by Tech Times: Rina Marie Doctor on July 5th, 2015
Tech Times: Experts say that the latest heat waves in Europe is "virtually certain" to be caused by climate change. This week, Germany, Spain and London all experienced the hottest July day ever recorded. A group of climate experts from universities, meteorological facilities and research teams from all around the world came up with a real-time analysis of climate data on Friday, July 4. According to the scientists, the heat waves striking Europe this week, or coined as three-day periods of excessive heat,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Heat Waves Europe Caused By Climate Change Says ScientistsPink Salmon Risks a Double Threat of Acidification
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2015
Reuters: Pink salmon in the Pacific Ocean face a double threat of acidification linked to greenhouse gas emissions since it slows their early growth in rivers and disrupts the chemistry of seawater. Impacts have in the past been more studied in the seas than in fresh water. But the Canadian study found that acidification of rivers could make young pink salmon, the most abundant type in the Pacific, smaller and more vulnerable to predators by dampening their ability to smell danger. Damage done by acidification...
Secrecy over fracking chemicals clouds environmental risks, advocates say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 5th, 2015
Guardian: The fracking industry must be compelled to provide far more detailed information to regulators if the public is to be accurately informed of any risks to the environment, advocacy groups say.
A report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month found that hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas can lead, and has led, to the contamination of drinking water. It was the first time the federal government had admitted such a link.
The study, based on “data sources available to the agency”,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Secrecy over fracking chemicals clouds environmental risks, advocates sayMaintaining Kapu Aloha even in the face of violence
Posted by Hawaiian Independent: None Given on July 4th, 2015
Hawaiian Independent: “Public safety” on the Mauna Kea access road emerged, this week, as the latest hue and cry by officials against the Mauna Kea protectors. But reports of two vehicular assaults on protectors by state and Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) security officers casts a cynical shadow on Governor David Ige’s professed concerns for the public’s safety. The most recent vehicular assault, the hit-and-run assault of Mauna Kea protector Michael W. Kyser Jr., on Friday, June 26, is the second incident in which a protector...
Temperatures soar as heatwave sweeps across Europe
Posted by RTE: None Given on July 4th, 2015
RTE: A heatwave is sweeping across Europe, with temperatures set to exceed 40C in some countries.
The summer heat has taken hold of Italy, with temperatures over 35C in many cities.
Rome's zoo is helping animals deal with the high temperatures by handing out iced treats and encouraging frequent bathing in cold water.
Iced lollies made with yogurt and fruit were a hit with the zoo's orangutans, while the brown bears enjoyed iced melons.
Throughout the summer months at the zoo, keepers make...
Waiting to harvest after a rain enhances food safety
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 4th, 2015
ScienceDaily: To protect consumers from foodborne illness, produce farmers should wait 24 hours after a rain or irrigating their fields to harvest crops, according to new research published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Rain or irrigation creates soil conditions that are more hospitable to Listeria monocytogenes, which when ingested may cause the human illness Listeriosis. Waiting to harvest crops reduces the risk of exposure to the pathogen, which could land on fresh produce. Cornell...
Anti-fracking Nanas: ‘The government is all out for shale – we’re all out to stop it’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 3rd, 2015
Guardian: If the two security guards had been awake, they probably wouldn’t have believed their eyes. Twenty-five women aged between 25 and 60, in yellow tabards and matching Hilda Ogden headscarves, vaulting a gate in order to occupy the Blackpool field that the energy company Cuadrilla had paid the guards to mind.
“Everything went smoothly, except for the logistical bits we left to the fellas,” said hairdresser Anjie Mosher, one of the group known as the Nanas, who have become the frontline against fracking...
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