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Archive for August 21st, 2015
Study finds a link between neonic pesticides and honeybee deaths
Posted by Grist: None Given on August 21st, 2015
Grist: A new study, published on Thursday, shows a correlation between honeybee colony deaths and neonicotinoid pesticide usage in the United Kingdom.
Neonicotinoids generally come as a seed coating. When the seed sprouts, it takes in the pesticide, which then protects it against predators. But if that plant flowers, small amounts of the pesticide will linger in the pollen and nectar, which may hurt the beneficial insects, like bees, visiting those blooms to feed.
There`s some controversy about this:...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Study finds a link between neonic pesticides and honeybee deathsHumans: The Worst Predators on the Planet
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 21st, 2015
EcoWatch: Watch any nature documentary and you’ll see the same story unfold time and time again: A predator approaches a group of potential prey and ends up taking down a single animal, perhaps the youngest, the weakest or the oldest among them.
To get a glimpse of a superpredator, just look in the mirror: http://t.co/kvkqS0cNVu pic.twitter.com/Pcoqb9STDd
-- Science News (@ScienceNews) August 20, 2015
Watch human beings doing the same thing and you’ll observe something different: They’ll either take...
Donald Trump: Keystone XL Pipeline Would Have ‘No Impact’ Environment
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on August 21st, 2015
EcoWatch: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump believes that the Keystone XL pipeline would have "no impact" on the environment and, if elected president, he said he will "immediately approve" the project.
If I am elected President I will immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline. No impact on environment & lots of jobs for U.S.
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015
Trump says 1,179-mile tar sands pipeline would have ‘no impact’ on the environment http://t.co/BkY9oSDUjp...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Donald Trump: Keystone XL Pipeline Would Have ‘No Impact’ EnvironmentStudy finds climate change makes California’s drought worse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2015
Reuters: Climate change has aggravated California's devastating drought, causing between 8 and 27 percent of the dry conditions afflicting the nation's most populous state, a study released on Thursday has found.
The study, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, is the first paper to estimate how much climate change has exacerbated the state's drought by sending moisture from plants and soils into the air, according to Columbia University, where the lead author works.
Researchers examined...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study finds climate change makes California’s drought worseJuly Was the Hottest Month On Record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2015
Associated Press: Earth just keeps getting hotter. July was the planet's warmest month on record, smashing old marks, U.S. weather officials said.
And it's almost a dead certain lock that this year will beat last year as the warmest year on record, they said.
July's average temperature was 61.86 degrees Fahrenheit, beating the previous global mark set in 1998 and 2010 by about one-seventh of a degree, according to figures released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's a large...
EPA Says It Doesn’t Monitor Abandoned Mines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2015
Guardian: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it has no system for monitoring hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines that pock the American landscape, or knowing which one could be the source of the next big toxic spill.
“EPA does not maintain records of the number of mines or tailings dams in the US,” a spokesman for the federal agency told the Guardian. In the western US, the EPA estimates there may be 161,000 abandoned “hard rock” mines, where metals such as gold, silver and copper were...
More Than Three-Quarters of Canada’s Oil Sands Being Produced At a Loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2015
Reuters: Aug 20 More than three-quarters of Canada's daily output of 2.2 million barrels of crude from oil sands is being produced at a loss at current prices, research from analysts at TD Securities shows, although producers are unlikely to halt operations. Only two mining and upgrading projects - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's Horizon project and Suncor Energy's Millennium mine - are producing synthetic crude for less than its current outright price around $36 a barrel, analyst Menno Hulshof said on...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on More Than Three-Quarters of Canada’s Oil Sands Being Produced At a LossSome permafrost might soak up methane as climate warms
Posted by ArsTechnica: None Given on August 21st, 2015
ArsTechnica: Talk of a warming planet often focuses on places that are cold. Glaciers shrink and raise sea level. Arctic sea ice dwindles, opening an actual northwest passage in the summer. And permafrost thaws, pulling vast amounts of organic matter out of the freezer to spoil and add to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Lots of research has focused on organic-rich permafrost and the amount of carbon dioxide and methane it could produce as microbes break down all that food.
But that’s only a slice of...
Toxic Algae Invade Guatemala’s Treasured Lake Atitlan
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on August 21st, 2015
Environment News Service: A thick bloom of algae known as cyanobacteria appeared in Lake Atitlan on August 3, the first such occurrence since 2009. But help appears to be on the way in the form of funds to upgrade the waste water treatment system and water supply in the Atitlán basin.
Located in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range, Lake Atitlan is the deepest lake in Central America and one of the most beautiful. The surrounding area became a national park in 1955.
An infestation of microalgae...
Three Firefighters Die as Wildfires Scorch the West
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on August 21st, 2015
Environment News Service: Three U.S. Forest Service firefighters died Wednesday night when a wildfire near the small town of Twisp in southeastern Washington overtook their vehicle after it crashed. Four other firefighters in the same area were injured, one critically. Officials are investigating the exact cause of the deaths.
At a news conference, Washington Governor Jay Inslee said the wildfires have "burned a big hole in our state`s heart."
"These are three big heroes protecting small towns," Inslee said, urging...