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Archive for August, 2015
Kansas earthquake decline coincides with injection rate reduction
Posted by Wichita Eagle: Stan Finger on August 22nd, 2015
Wichita Eagle: Earthquakes in Kansas have decreased since the Kansas Corporation Commission ordered oil companies in two southern counties to reduce the amount of saltwater they inject back into the ground, a state official said Friday.
But it’s too soon to tell whether the decrease is a direct result of the KCC mandate, said Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey.
“The jury is still out” on the cause, Buchanan said. “Earthquake activity is going to fluctuate naturally.”
Having...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Kansas earthquake decline coincides with injection rate reductionWhat we’ve lost in the Methow Valley wildfires
Posted by High Country News: None Given on August 22nd, 2015
High Country News: I am haunted by a scene from about a week ago of young U.S. Forest Service firefighters taking a break at The Mazama Store, which I consider the best “hang” in the Methow Valley, just across the Cascades in central Washington state. They were such babies, so long and lean and fit, seemingly drowning in their impossibly large firefighting garb. In addition to soot and grime, they wore the look of thorough exhaustion that you see on the faces of new parents. And yet, with doors swung open on their...
Climate change: Municipalities unprepared for ‘weather whiplash,’ warns meteorologist
Posted by CBC: None Given on August 22nd, 2015
CBC: Boreal forest being driven to tipping point by climate change, study finds Climate change is killing off bumblebees: study Climate change 'disaster waiting to happen,' Toronto summit told Can Pope Francis's 'street cred' shift the climate change debate?
A top Canadian meteorologist warns that municipalities aren't prepared to deal with the impacts of an increasingly volatile climate that can bring devastating floods one season and a drought the next.
In the last five years, Canadian cities...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change: Municipalities unprepared for ‘weather whiplash,’ warns meteorologistWhy climate change pushing Earth boreal forests tipping point
Posted by Monitor: None Given on August 22nd, 2015
Monitor: International policy makers should set their sights on the protection of boreal forests, international forestry experts argued this week in an article published Thursday in the journal Science. The article was part of a special issue on forests released before the World Forestry Congress is held in September.
“Boreal forests have the potential to hit a tipping point this century,” said Anatoly Shvidenko, a researcher scholar with the Ecosystems Services and Management Program at Austria's International...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Why climate change pushing Earth boreal forests tipping pointAs California goes, so goes country: Welcome to our hotter future
Posted by TomDispatch: None Given on August 22nd, 2015
TomDispatch: Long ago, I lived in a cheap flat in San Francisco and worked as the lone straight man in a gay construction company. Strangely enough, the drought now strangling California brings back memories of those days. It was the 1970s. Our company specialized in restoring the Victorian “gingerbread” to the facades of the city’s townhouses, and I got pretty good at installing cornices, gable brackets, and window hoods, working high above the street.
What I remember most, though, is the way my co-workers...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As California goes, so goes country: Welcome to our hotter futureStudy 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...