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Archive for February 25th, 2016
Scientists find new large lizard species on remote Papua New Guinea island
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: Scientists have discovered the first new large lizard species in Papua New Guinea in over 20 years. The lizard was found on Mussau Island, one of the northernmost islands in country, by a team of Finnish and Australian researchers. The scientists have dubbed the new species, Varanus semotus, a “biogeographical oddity” because it is separated by several hundred miles from its next of kin. Islands in the Pacific Ocean lack predatory mammals, so large lizards, commonly known as monitor lizards, the...
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Comments Off on Scientists find new large lizard species on remote Papua New Guinea islandFracking stopped in Florida Senate — for now
Posted by Palm Beach Post: John Kennedy on February 25th, 2016
Palm Beach Post: A measure which supporters say would provide a framework to regulate hydraulic fracturing - or fracking - in Florida, but opponents denounce as a welcome mat for the high-risk industry was rejected Thursday by a key Senate panel.
The Appropriations Committee killed the measure (SB 318) after three hours of debate. But a procedural move kept the bill alive - and the prospect it may gain another review by the committee in the Legislature`s scheduled closing two weeks.
A similar bill (HB 191)...
How Northern European waters soak up carbon dioxide
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2016
BBC: The seas around the UK and the rest of northern Europe take up a staggering 24 million tonnes of carbon each year. It is a mass equivalent to two million double-decker buses or 72,000 747 jets. The number was produced by scientists studying the movement of carbon dioxide into and out of the oceans. The team, led by Heriot-Watt University and Exeter University, has produced a software "engine" that will allow other scientists to do the same for different parts of the globe. "It's a software toolbox...
Farm report: Montana to lose millions to climate change
Posted by Billings Gazette: Tom Lutey on February 25th, 2016
Billings Gazette: Montana agriculture losses to climate change could total $736 million a year, estimates an economic study prepared for Montana Farmers Union.
Warmer temperatures and drier summers are withering the future of Montana spring wheat, a major cash crop for state farmers, according to the report released Wednesday.
Over time, those changing conditions will cost the state $372 million on labor earnings due to 12,167 jobs lost to declined production. Range land losses due to dry conditions and changing...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Farm report: Montana to lose millions to climate changeGreenland’s glaciers through an artist’s eyes – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2016
Guardian: In September 2015, artist Mariele Neudecker and photographer Klaus Thymann embarked on a joint project to detail the glaciers of Narsarsuaq, south-west Greenland. The collaboration is part of a mission by UK charity Project Pressure to record the world’s vanishing and receding glaciers using art as inspiration
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenland’s glaciers through an artist’s eyes – in picturesDrought, air pollution rise up agenda in Iran election
Posted by Climate Home: Alex Pashley on February 25th, 2016
Climate Home: As Iran prepares to elect its tenth parliament since 1979’s revolution on Friday, mounting concern about environmental degradation has surprised observers of the Islamic republic.
Hundreds of candidates have signed a 15-clause green pact promising to shun damaging projects and liaise with NGOs, according to analysts at the Tehran Bureau news service.
Such statements are unprecedented.
A seven-year drought is putting pressure on farmers while city-dwellers suffer from air pollution. Lake...
Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast to contain global warming – study
Posted by Guardian: Tim Radford on February 25th, 2016
Guardian: Climate scientists have bad news for governments, energy companies, motorists, passengers and citizens everywhere in the world: to contain global warming to the limits agreed by 195 nations in Paris last December, they will have to cut fossil fuel combustion at an even faster rate than anybody had predicted.
Joeri Rogelj, research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, and European and Canadian colleagues propose in Nature Climate Change that all previous...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast to contain global warming – study‘Biogeographical oddity’: New monitor lizard is only large predator remote Pacific Island
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 25th, 2016
Mongabay: On Mussau, a remote island of the country of Papua New Guinea, biologists have discovered a new species of monitor lizard with a turquoise or blue-pigmented tail. The lizard also has a pale yellow tongue, a trait that it shares with only three other known species of Pacific monitors. So far, the blue-tailed lizard — more than a meter in length — is the only known large-sized predator and scavenger on the island, according to a study published in ZooKeys. This suggests that the lizard most likely...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘Biogeographical oddity’: New monitor lizard is only large predator remote Pacific IslandLooming Ethiopia famine highlights vulnerability climate change
Posted by Climate Home: Alex Pashley on February 25th, 2016
Climate Home: Food aid will run out for over 10 million Ethiopians by May, according to aid agencies, which fear a repeat of the horrendous famines of the 1970s and 80s. Chronic drought has sapped vast tracts of the north, central and eastern highlands, hitting crops and livestock as rain patterns have shifted. More than eight in ten people depend on rain-fed agriculture, according to Oxfam. Intensified by El Nino, the dry spell brings into sharp relief the vulnerability of the continent to a changing climate....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Looming Ethiopia famine highlights vulnerability climate changeNuclear water: Fukushima still faces contamination crisis
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Harumi Ozawa, Quentin Tyberghien on February 25th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: Fish market vendor Satoshi Nakano knows which fish caught in the radiation tainted sea off the Fukushima coast should be kept away from dinner tables.
Yet five years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl there is still no consensus on the true extent of the damage -- exacerbating consumer fears about what is safe to eat.
Environmentalists are at odds with authorities, warning the huge amounts of radiation that seeped into coastal waters after a powerful tsunami caused a meltdown...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Nuclear water: Fukushima still faces contamination crisis