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Archive for January, 2016
Southern US prepares flooding surge as waters move down Mississippi river
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 4th, 2016
Guardian: Southern US states are bracing themselves for major flooding as surging waters that have inundated parts of Missouri and Illinois head south down the Mississippi river.
Heavy rainfall at the end of December, the largest deluge since May 2011, has caused the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers to burst their banks. In some areas, the Mississippi is 40ft above its flood mark, causing at least 24 deaths in several states.
Most of the deaths have been caused by people attempting to drive through...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Southern US prepares flooding surge as waters move down Mississippi riverResidents along Mississippi River prepare for flood crest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Reuters: Officials along the lower Mississippi River prepared on Monday for the swollen river to reach its peak in their area, expecting levees to provide protection after flooding killed dozens of people as it pushed downriver toward the Gulf of Mexico.
The crest is currently at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in Cairo, Illinois, and it will take a couple weeks for the water to move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, National Weather Service hydrologist Jeff Graschel said.
The Mississippi River...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Residents along Mississippi River prepare for flood crestA far from perfect host
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Biologists at the universities of York and Exeter have published new research which shows that an ancient symbiosis is founded entirely on exploitation, not mutual benefit. The researchers concluded that a single-celled protozoa called Paramecium bursaria benefits from exploiting a green algae which lives inside it, providing its host with sugar and oxygen from photosynthesis. Scientists have been debating for decades whether symbioses, like the Paramecium-Chlorella association, are based on mutual...
Zimbabwe turns to fossil energy, as drought bites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Herald: With back-to-back droughts since 2013, Zimbabwe’s main hydroelectric power plant at Kariba is failing, forcing the southern African nation to turn to dirtier fossil fuel-based energies to make up for the deficit. The Kariba Hydropower Station is capacitated to generate 750 megawatts of electricity, but the plant has operated at just 63 percent of capacity since early October when the Kariba dam began to dry up. In good times, hydropower accounts for over 50 percent of...
This year’s El Niño not giving up
Posted by Environmental News Network: Jpl Nasa on January 4th, 2016
Environmental News Network: The current strong El Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean shows no signs of waning, as seen in the latest satellite image from the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 mission.
El Niño 2015 has already created weather chaos around the world. Over the next few months, forecasters expect the United States to feel its impacts as well.
The latest Jason-2 image bears a striking resemblance to one from December 1997, by Jason-2's predecessor, the NASA/Centre National d'Etudes...
Low water levels on Rhine hampers Danube shipping in Germany
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Reuters: Low water levels mean cargo vessels still cannot sail fully loaded on the Rhine and Danube rivers in Germany, traders said on Monday.
Low levels since the summer have created logistical problems for buyers and distributors of commodities including diesel, heating oil and grains as vessels could at best sail half-loaded. An unplanned shut down of Switzerland's only oil refinery exacerbated the problem.
The Rhine is too shallow to allow vessels to sail with full loads in its entire length south...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Low water levels on Rhine hampers Danube shipping in GermanyInsurance cost of natural disasters falls in 2015: Munich Re
Posted by Reuters: Jonathan Gould on January 4th, 2016
Reuters: Insurance claims from natural disasters such as storms and earthquakes fell to $27 billion in 2015 as the overall cost of natural catastrophes dropped to its lowest level since 2009, reinsurer Munich Re said on Monday.
The climate phenomenon known as 'El Niño' last year helped reduce the development of hurricanes in the North Atlantic, which traditionally cause some of the heaviest claims for the insurance industry, the world's largest reinsurer said in its annual review of natural catastrophes....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Insurance cost of natural disasters falls in 2015: Munich RePermit for $1.4 billion telescope revoked by Hawaiians
Posted by Sentinel: None Given on January 4th, 2016
Sentinel: Earlier this month, the Hawaii Supreme Court revoked a construction permit to build the largest telescope in the world at the summit of a sacred Hawaiian mountain.
The construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty-Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, which is considered hallowed ground to native Hawaiians, was led by an international coalition of astronomers, including key personnel from UC Santa Cruz such as Michael Bolte.
Bolte is a UCSC professor of astronomy and a member of the Thirty Meter Telescope...
Missouri assesses flood damage, U.S. South still imperiled
Posted by Reuters: Sue Britt on January 3rd, 2016
Reuters: Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Saturday toured communities ravaged by flooding that killed at least 31 people in several states and forced large-scale evacuations, as the danger of rising waters shifted to Arkansas and beyond.
Nixon visited Eureka and Cape Girardeau in eastern Missouri, where floodwaters caused widespread damage, and announced the federal government had approved his request to declare an emergency to help with the massive cleanup and recovery now under way.
The governor described...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Missouri assesses flood damage, U.S. South still imperiled2015: A year of progress and buffoonery on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Editorial on January 3rd, 2016
Washington Post: LAST WINTER, bitter cold on the East Coast prompted Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) to take a snowball onto the Senate floor in mockery of climate scientists. This winter, the weather is so warm that there are not two snowflakes in the Washington area for Mr. Inhofe to scrape together.
Just as last winter’s cold did not disprove global warming, this winter’s warmth does not, in itself, establish that humans are raising Earth’s average temperature. Rather, it is the long-term trend that matters...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 2015: A year of progress and buffoonery on climate change