Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category

Australia’s scientific agency to see job cuts for “ignoring climate change”

Xinhua: The Australian government and its national science agency have been accused of turning its back on fighting climate change, after the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced it would be cutting hundreds of jobs in the climate field. The move, labeled a restructure by the CSIRO, will result in jobs being shed in the Oceans and Atmosphere department as well the Land and Water sectors, and the scientific community and the federal opposition have on Friday expressed...

Climate Change Implicated in a Specific Extreme Weather Event

National Geographic: Scientists have warned that even a few degrees rise in global temperatures can lead to increasingly severe storms. Now an international team of climate scientists has linked man-made climate change to historic flooding that hit the south of England in the winter of 2013–2014. It’s the first time a peer-reviewed research paper has connected climate change to a specific flooding event. In an article published in Nature Climate Change, the team said that their climate model simulations showed that...

Organic agriculture key to feeding the world sustainably

PhysOrg: Washington State University researchers have concluded that feeding a growing global population with sustainability goals in mind is possible. Their review of hundreds of published studies provides evidence that organic farming can produce sufficient yields, be profitable for farmers, protect and improve the environment and be safer for farm workers. The review study, "Organic Agriculture in the 21st Century," is featured as the cover story for February issue of the journal Nature Plants and...

With haze threatening return, Indonesian forestry giant pushes peatlands restoration model

Mongabay: Last year some two million hectares of land in Indonesia went up in flames across Sumatra, Borneo, and the Western half of New Guinea. The conflagrations caused choking air pollution, hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of people and further denting regional economies already hard hit by the downturn in commodity prices. Daily carbon emissions from the fires during the height of the crisis were higher than the daily emissions from the entire U.S. economy. Most of the haze was caused by fires burning...

US Forest Service releases findings on the effects of drought for forests, rangelands

ScienceDaily: The U.S. Forest Service has released a new report, Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis, that provides a national assessment of peer-reviewed scientific research on the impacts of drought on U.S. forests and rangelands. This report will help the Forest Service better manage forests and grasslands impacted by climate change. "Our forests and rangelands are national treasures, and because they are threatened, we are threatened," said...

British opposition to fracking still outstrips support, survey finds

Guardian: Opposition to fracking continues to outstrip support - particularly among those who know about the controversial process, a survey for the government shows. More than half (53%) of those who said they knew a lot about fracking were against it, compared to a third (33%) who said they were in favour of it, the latest poll tracking attitudes to energy policies has revealed. Among those who thought they knew a little about it, opposition outstripped support by 40% to 26%, the survey for the Department...

Plumbers Converge On Flint To Help Get Lead Out Its Drinking Water

National Public Radio: Some good news for Flint, Mich., where the water was contaminated with lead. Dozens of union plumbers volunteered to install water filters and replace faucets for some of the city's poorest residents.

United Kingdom: Global warming will unleash increasingly devastating floods in coming years, scientists warn

Independent: Climate change made the severe storms which flooded the Somerset Levels in 2014 much more likely, according to new research that suggests global warming will unleash increasingly devastating floods in coming years. The report finds that man-made greenhouse gas emissions have increased the chance of extreme flooding by 43 per cent, as the warming climate holds larger quantities of moisture, which leads to heavier rainfall. “What was once a 1 in 100-year event in a world without climate change is...

Queensland gives Adani environmental permit Carmichael coalmine

Guardian: Adani has secured an environmental permit from the Queensland government to build Australia’s largest coal mine. The Indian conglomerate was issued an environmental authority for its Carmichael mine, west of Bowen in north Queensland, by the department of environment and heritage on Tuesday. It is one less hurdle for Adani’s highly contested plans, after its Australian chief complained last week that delays in government approvals were “incentivising” green activists to plot further legal challenges...

Imperiled Amazon freshwater ecosystems urgently need basin-wide study, management

Mongabay: The Amazon’s freshwater ecosystems are at risk because current policy and existing protected areas fail to protect the connectivity of the water cycle, scientists warn. The new study, published in Global Change Biology, examines the factors degrading the Amazon basin’s hydrological connectivity: the movement of water — and with it the life-giving matter, nutrients and organisms it carries — between the vast system’s headwaters and the Atlantic Ocean, between the rivers and the forest, and the earth...