Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
Cambodia Preparing for the Impacts of Climate Change, Says Official
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2016
Voice of America: Cambodia is beginning to coordinate efforts to respond to climate change, a government official said ahead of high-level talks in California at which the environment is set to be on the agenda.
Recent years have already seen hotter weather and more irregular rainfall in Cambodia, which is predicted to be badly hit when global temperatures change further.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and leaders from the other nine Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are currently at the Sunnylands estate...
Green anger as EU prepares to subsidise dash for gas
Posted by Climate Home: Megan Darby on February 16th, 2016
Climate Home: The EU emphasised gas supply in its “energy union” strategy unveiled on Tuesday, raising doubts about its commitment to climate goals.
Diversifying gas supply routes is Brussels’ main answer to concerns parts of Europe are overly reliant on imports from an aggressive Russia.
In the European Commission’s first big energy initiative since agreeing a UN climate pact in Paris, it proposed subsidies for new pipelines and LNG terminals.
“EU funds can help to make up for the weak commercial viability...
Ice sheet modeling of Greenland, Antarctica helps predict sea-level rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2016
ScienceDaily: The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will make a dominant contribution to 21st century sea-level rise if current climate trends continue. However, predicting the expected loss of ice sheet mass is difficult due to the complexity of modeling ice sheet behavior. To better understand this loss, a team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers has been improving the reliability and efficiency of computational models that describe ice sheet behavior and dynamics. The team includes researchers Irina...
3 Reasons Flint’s Water Is Poisoned
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 16th, 2016
EcoWatch: The catastrophic lead poisoning of the water supply in Flint, Michigan is, obviously, an appalling condemnation of the vigilance exercised by the state appointed Emergency Financial Manager, the State of Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the regional officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But it is also a shocking reminder of how shoddy American infrastructure has become in the last 20 years and how fragile the gap between shoddy and lethal has become.
Let`s begin...
Guatemala’s La Pasión River is still poisoned, nine months after an ecological disaster
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 16th, 2016
Mongabay: Nine months ago, the water of La Pasión River showed up smelling foul and covered with dead and poisoned fish. Soon after, hundreds of fishermen of Sayaxché —the largest nearby river community– learned two new terms coined by environmentalists and by the Guatemalan government: “ecocide” and “closed season.” Many of those fishermen are now deep in debt and embroiled in conflict. There isn’t even a general consensus over what to do about the cause of the ecological disaster: REPSA (Reforestadora de...
High risk of bankruptcy for one-third of oil firms: Deloitte
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2016
Reuters: Roughly a third of oil producers are at high risk of slipping into bankruptcy this year as low commodity prices crimp their access to cash and ability to cut debt, according to a study by Deloitte, the auditing and consulting firm.
The report, based on a review of more than 500 publicly traded oil and natural gas exploration and production companies across the globe, highlights the deep unease permeating the energy sector as crude prices sit near their lowest levels in more than a decade, eroding...
Impact climate change on parasite infections depends on host immunity
Posted by PhysOrg: Sam Sholtis on February 16th, 2016
PhysOrg: New research demonstrates how climate change and the immune reaction of the infected individual can affect the long-term and seasonal dynamics of parasite infections. The study, led by Penn State scientists, assessed the infection dynamics of two species of soil-transmitted parasites in a population of rabbits in Scotland every month for 23 years. The study's results could lead to new strategies for the treatment and prevention of infections from similar parasites in humans, livestock, and wildlife....
January sets record for world’s most unusually warm month
Posted by Mashable: None Given on February 16th, 2016
Mashable: Global warming went into overdrive in January, leading to astounding temperature records.
January was the globe's most unusually warm month ever recorded, and the past three months have been the most unusually warm three-month period on record as well, according to new findings from NASA.
January was also the warmest such month on record, NASA found, in preliminary data released this weekend by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
The data, which is subject to adjustment...
Timely flood warnings for downstream Nepal and India
Posted by SciDevNet: None Given on February 16th, 2016
SciDevNet: Communities in flood-prone areas often do not have access to information about flood forecasting. As a result, they do not have sufficient time to evacuate and put their cattle and belongings in a safe area. The new Community-Based Flood Early Warning system, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)'s new initiative, now allows communities downstream to access almost real-time information about the water level upstream.
The system is cheap (at US$1,000) and the technology...
Better water management could halve global food gap
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Improved agricultural water management could halve the global food gap by 2050 and buffer some of the harmful climate change effects on crop yields. For the first time, scientists investigated systematically the worldwide potential to produce more food with the same amount of water by optimizing rain use and irrigation. They found the potential has previously been underestimated. Investing in crop water management could substantially reduce hunger while at the same time making up for population growth....