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Archive for December, 2015
Fracking foes unveil 11 proposed ballot initiatives including ban
Posted by Denver Post: Joey Bunch on December 23rd, 2015
Denver Post: A Boulder County-based citizens group opposed to fracking filed a package of ballot initiatives Tuesday that would circumvent a compromise sought by Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder.
Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development submitted paperwork for 11 potential ballot questions to provide mandatory setbacks for wells from homes and schools, more local control on drilling decisions or an outright ban on the process of hydraulic fracturing.
Eight of the 11 are...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Fracking foes unveil 11 proposed ballot initiatives including banUK gives Ethiopia £30m to fight drought similar in scale 1984 crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 23rd, 2015
Guardian: The UK will provide an extra £30m in aid for Ethiopia, where a prolonged drought means that more than 18 million people will need urgent relief in the next year, according to the Department for International Development (DfID).
Half of the cash is earmarked for the UN’S World Food Programme to supply emergency food supplies to around 1.9 million people, while £14m will go to a pooled fund that can be accessed by UN agencies and NGOs providing emergency water and healthcare.
The funding was...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UK gives Ethiopia £30m to fight drought similar in scale 1984 crisisChristmas Eve may wrap up warm, wet weather records in US
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 22nd, 2015
Reuters: Santa may want to install air conditioning and heavy-duty wiper blades on his sleigh for his Christmas Eve ride into what U.S. weather forecasters say may be record-breaking warmth and wet. Along the East Coast, absurdly warm weather was expected to shatter records on Thursday including in Washington, D.C., where a forecasted high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) may top the record of 69 F (21 C) set in 1933, said meteorologist Richard Bann of the National Weather Service. Thermometers...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Christmas Eve may wrap up warm, wet weather records in USRising lake temperatures may worsen algae blooms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 22nd, 2015
Associated Press: Some of the world’s biggest temperature jumps are happening in lakes — suggesting that problems such as algae blooms and low-oxygen zones hazardous to fish will get worse, a new report says. An analysis of 235 lakes that together hold more than half of the Earth’s fresh surface water found they have been warming an average of 0.61 degrees per decade, the report said. While seemingly insignificant, the increase is bigger than changes recorded in the oceans or the atmosphere. Such rapid swings can...
California Struggles to Set Water Priorities
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 22nd, 2015
New York Times: Californians suffering through the fourth year of a punishing drought have a new worry. With fierce storms predicted for the winter, they are bracing for floods by stockpiling sandbags and rushing to buy insurance.
Yet those who need water the most, farmers, are in a poor position to take advantage of any deluge. If El Niño floods pour into the Central Valley, the farmers will inevitably watch millions of gallons of water flow to the sea.
This state, forward-looking on other environmental issues,...
Climate change is impacting lakes faster than oceans
Posted by Environmental News Network: Jpl Nasa on December 22nd, 2015
Environmental News Network: Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a new NASA and National Science Foundation-funded study of more than half of the world's freshwater supply. Using more than 25 years of satellite temperature data and ground measurements of 235 lakes on six continents, this study -- the largest of its kind -- found lakes are warming an average of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit (0.34 degrees Celsius) each decade. The scientists say this...
Greenhouse gas emissions from freshwater higher than thought
Posted by Environmental News Network: Kelly April Terrell, University Of Wisconsin-Madison on December 21st, 2015
Environmental News Network: Do not underestimate the babbling brook. When it comes to greenhouse gases, these bucolic water bodies have the potential to create a lot of hot air.
According to a new analysis in the journal Ecological Monographs, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues, the world’s rivers and streams pump about 10 times more methane into our atmosphere than scientists estimated in previous studies. The new study also found that human activity seems to drive which streams are the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenhouse gas emissions from freshwater higher than thoughtIn a first, China prosecutors sue environmental department
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
Reuters: Prosecutors in eastern China have filed a lawsuit against a county-level environmental protection department, accusing it of "failing to fulfil its regulatory duties" in its supervision of a local sewage firm, China's top prosecutor said on Monday.
China's Supreme People's Procuratorate said the lawsuit filed by prosecutors in eastern Shandong province last week marked the first time prosecutors had sued a government department in a public interest case.
"This is the country's first administrative...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In a first, China prosecutors sue environmental departmentEarth’s Lakes Are Warming Faster Than The Oceans And Atmosphere
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
Associated Press: Some of the world's biggest temperature jumps are happening in lakes — an ominous sign that suggests problems such as harmful algae blooms and low-oxygen zones hazardous to fish will get worse, says a newly released scientific report.
An analysis of 235 lakes that together hold more than half the earth's fresh surface water found they have warmed an average of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.34 degrees Celsius per decade, the report said. While seemingly insignificant, the increase is bigger than...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Earth’s Lakes Are Warming Faster Than The Oceans And AtmosphereGroundwater depletion adding to global sea-level rise
Posted by Desert Sun: Ian James on December 21st, 2015
Desert Sun: Increasing amounts of water are being depleted from the world’s aquifers, and scientists have estimated that a large portion of the water ends up flowing into the oceans.
So much groundwater is being pumped from wells that researchers say it is contributing significantly to global sea-level rise.
Hydrologists Yoshihide Wada and Marc Bierkens have calculated estimates of the amounts of groundwater depleted annually since 1900, and their findings are striking. When plotted on a chart, their figures...