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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
Satellite data suggests forest loss is accelerating
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2016
Reuters: Satellite images suggest tropical forests from the Amazon to the Philippines are disappearing at a far more rapid pace than previously thought, a University of Maryland team of forest researchers say.
The annual rate of deforestation from 1990 to 2010 was 62 percent higher than in the previous decade, and higher than previous estimates, according to a study carried out of satellite maps covering 80 percent of the world’s tropical forests.
The new study questions the United Nations Food and...
Extreme tornado outbreaks have become more common, says study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2016
ScienceDaily: Most death and destruction inflicted by tornadoes in North America occurs during outbreaks--large-scale weather events that can last one to three days and span huge regions. The largest ever recorded happened in 2011. It spawned 363 tornadoes across the United States and Canada, killing more than 350 people and causing $11 billion in damage.
Now, a new study shows that the average number of tornadoes in these outbreaks has risen since 1954, and that the chance of extreme outbreaks --tornado factories...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Extreme tornado outbreaks have become more common, says studyTanzania Farmers, Pastoralists Launch Forum to Resolve Water Conflicts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2016
Inter Press Service: At a remote village of Itunundu in Iringa, farmers and pastoralists recently met to discuss the best way to share land resources while charting out a strategy to prevent unnecessary fights among themselves. No one in the village ever imagined that this meeting would ever take place as the two groups had for long considered themselves enemies: they often clashed for water and pastures to feed their animals thus causing deaths and loss of property.
But the real story of that rare occasion was that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Tanzania Farmers, Pastoralists Launch Forum to Resolve Water ConflictsEarthquakes linked to shale gas exploration cause house prices fall
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2016
PhysOrg: Fear of fracking can have negative effects on the UK housing market around shale gas sites, economic researchers have warned. The research team, from the University of Bristol, the London School of Economics and Duke University in North Carolina, carried out a study that found licensing and exploration had minimal impacts on house prices. However, two highly publicised minor earthquakes linked to exploratory fracking near Blackpool in 2011 caused a three to four per cent reduction in house prices...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Earthquakes linked to shale gas exploration cause house prices fallBreeding birds use alligators to protect nests from raccoons, opossums
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2016
ScienceDaily: Breeding birds that nest above alligators for protection from mammalian predators may also provide a source of food for the alligators living in the Everglades, Florida, according to a study published March 2, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lucas Nell from the University of Florida and colleagues.
For many bird species, nest predation is the greatest threat to raising chicks. Long-legged wading birds, like herons, egrets, ibises, storks, and spoonbills may choose nesting sites above...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Breeding birds use alligators to protect nests from raccoons, opossumsClimate Change Could Kill Half a Million by 2050
Posted by Bloomberg: Whitney McFerron on March 3rd, 2016
Bloomberg: The impact of climate change on food supplies and diets may cause half a million more deaths in the next few decades, a University of Oxford study showed.
At least 500,000 extra people will probably die by 2050 from health effects related to warming temperatures and dietary changes, according to a study from the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food published in U.K. medical journal The Lancet.
Lower fruit and vegetable consumption and changes in body weight may raise the risk of non-infectious...
Invasive species aren’t always a threat, some research says
Posted by New York Times: Erica Goode on March 3rd, 2016
New York Times: Invasive species are bad news, or so goes the conventional wisdom, encouraged by persistent warnings from biologists about the dangers of foreign animals and plants moving into new territories. Conservation organizations bill alien species as the foremost threat to native wildlife. Cities rip out exotic trees and shrubs in favor of indigenous varieties. And governments spend millions on efforts to head off or eradicate biological invaders. “I think the dominant paradigm in the field is still a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Invasive species aren’t always a threat, some research saysAnchorage is so warm this year it has to import snow for the Iditarod
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 3rd, 2016
Grist: Take an already warming planet, stir in a dash of El Niño, and add a splash of melting Arctic ice. Voila! You`ve got a baked Alaska.
The state has experienced a warm and wacky winter, with only one-tenth its usual snowfall and temperatures 10 degrees F above average. This lack of snow is especially problematic for a cherished tradition: the Iditarod, Alaska`s annual dogsled race.
To avoid the tribulations of slushy mushing, a snow-bereft Anchorage is importing snow for the beginning of the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Anchorage is so warm this year it has to import snow for the IditarodTrudeau Meets With Aboriginal Leaders To Discuss Climate Change
Posted by Huffington Post: Bob Weber on March 3rd, 2016
Huffington Post: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with aboriginal leaders Wednesday to discuss a role for First Nations in the fight against climate change.
But Trudeau may be finding that the talks with First Nations aren't any easier than they are with the premiers.
The prime minister was defending himself even before the talks began over the decision not to include the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, which represents non-status aboriginals, and the Native Women's Association of Canada.
"The federal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Trudeau Meets With Aboriginal Leaders To Discuss Climate ChangeJapan’s nuclear refugees face bleak return five years after Fukushima
Posted by Reuters: Minami Funakoshi on March 2nd, 2016
Reuters: Tokuo Hayakawa carries a dosimeter around with him at his 600-year-old temple in Naraha, the first town in the Fukushima "exclusion zone" to fully reopen since Japan's March 2011 catastrophe. Badges declaring "No to nuclear power" adorn his black Buddhist robe. (For a video of 'Fukushima refugees face a bleak return home' click here) Hayakawa is one of the few residents to return to this agricultural town since it began welcoming back nuclear refugees five months ago. The town, at the edge of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Japan’s nuclear refugees face bleak return five years after Fukushima