RSS Feed
Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
European Summers Hottest Since Roman Empire, According to Tree Ring Analysis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: For the past three decades, Europe has been experiencing its warmest summers since the days of the Roman Empire, according to a study published in the Environmental Research Letters Journal. The study, compiled by 40 academics, concluded that average summer temperatures have been 1.3 degrees Celsius hotter than they were 2,000 years ago. Heat waves also occur more often and last longer. The temperature figures were calculated by analyzing the tree ring analysis of three pine species found in Austria,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on European Summers Hottest Since Roman Empire, According to Tree Ring AnalysisAustralia bushfires raze ancient World Heritage-listed forests
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Glenda Kwek on January 29th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: World Heritage-listed forests whose origins pre-date the age of the dinosaurs are being destroyed by raging Australian bushfires, with conservationists increasingly fearful they could be lost forever.
Firefighters in Tasmania -- a state south of the mainland known for its cooler temperatures -- have been battling bushfires for 18 days, with 95,000 hectares (234,750 acres) of land burnt so far, authorities said Friday.
While no properties have been destroyed and no one hurt in the infernos --...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia bushfires raze ancient World Heritage-listed forestsErin Brockovich to Stephen Colbert: ‘Flint, Michigan Is the Tip of the Iceberg’
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on January 29th, 2016
EcoWatch: Environmental activist Erin Brockovich appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about the Flint water crisis. Brockovich said members of the Flint community reached out to her a year ago because they were concerned about how their water looked, tasted and smelled. She sent a team of experts to Flint to investigate and even drafted a protocol for how the city should deal with the problem.
She explained to the audience what went wrong in Flint and what the city needs to do to provide...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Erin Brockovich to Stephen Colbert: ‘Flint, Michigan Is the Tip of the Iceberg’As memory of Chernobyl, Fukushima fades, activists renew nuclear warning
Posted by Climate Home: Alex Pashley on January 29th, 2016
Climate Home: As aides escorted him past swaying chandeliers to a panic room, the mind of Japan`s prime minister flashed to his country`s seaside nuclear power stations.
Tremors in Tokyo meant tsunamis, Naoto Kan, a physics graduate, feared. It was 11 March 2011.
The next day 250km north-east of the capital, three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant went into meltdown as cooling systems failed.
Large explosions shot radioactive materials into the atmosphere following a barrage by 20-metre waves. Over...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As memory of Chernobyl, Fukushima fades, activists renew nuclear warningPipeline reforms ‘great step’ but don’t account for most emissions, say climate critics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
Tyee: The Trudeau government's newly announced reforms to pipeline environmental assessments still fail to consider the impact of almost 90 per cent of resulting greenhouse gas emissions, climate experts have told The Tyee.
The government announced a new interim assessment regime Wednesday, saying it will restore public confidence in much-criticized National Energy Board reviews.
The major change will see a pipeline's upstream emissions included in the assessment. For a pipeline from Alberta's oil...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pipeline reforms ‘great step’ but don’t account for most emissions, say climate criticsOilpatch seethes over new environmental rules for pipelines: ‘Deeply disappointing.’
Posted by Financial Post: None Given on January 29th, 2016
Financial Post: Many in the oilpatch are quietly seething over Ottawa`s announcement that decisions on the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines will be delayed as it studies the projects’ contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Ottawa to take more time weighing Energy East, Trans Mountain pipeline approvals
The two companies proposing the pipelines, TransCanada Corp. and Kinder Morgan Inc., were diplomatic in their responses to the new approval rules announced Wednesday, saying they had "concerns" about...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oilpatch seethes over new environmental rules for pipelines: ‘Deeply disappointing.’British people as unconcerned about climate change as Americans and Saudis
Posted by Independent: Harry Lambert on January 29th, 2016
Independent: In a survey of 17 countries, the people of Britain has ranked 15th in its concern over climate change.
The UK, US and Saudi Arabia are the three countries least concerned among the group surveyed by YouGov. Only 10.8% of Britons ranked climate change as their most important issue.
Hong Kong is the most concerned, with 20 per cent of those surveyed choosing the issue ahead of eight others.
The Scandinavians countries are also among the more concerned.
They – and the Chinese, the French,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on British people as unconcerned about climate change as Americans and SaudisAir pollution plays bigger role in global rainfall changes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
PhysOrg: Ozone is a naturally-forming gas in our atmosphere, but human activity has caused ozone to increase in the lower atmosphere (a component of air pollution, from causes such as vehicle exhausts and other industrial and agricultural activities) and decrease in the stratosphere (ozone depletion - due to historic emissions of CFC gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning).
It has long been understood that these ozone changes, as well as affecting human health, also contribute to climate change....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Air pollution plays bigger role in global rainfall changesUAE banks on ‘rainmakers’ to secure future water supply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
Guardian: On a winter morning in one of the world’s driest and most water-stressed countries, meteorologist Sufian Khaled Farrah watched on the Doppler radar screen as a cold, wet front scudded across the Arabian Gulf - and quickly called air traffic controllers.
Over the next 15 hours, six twin-engine planes took off from an airfield in Al Ain, on the eastern edge of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and flew repeatedly into the clouds, firing off 162 flares loaded with tiny particles of potassium chloride...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UAE banks on ‘rainmakers’ to secure future water supplyTyphoid hits Harare, as water crisis fuels fears of new epidemics
Posted by Reuters: Jeffrey Gogo on January 28th, 2016
Reuters: Health officials in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, have detected several cases of typhoid fever in the past week, adding to fears that a water crisis will fuel the spread of infectious diseases.
The city's health director, Prosper Chonzi, said six cases of typhoid had been confirmed, with more expected to emerge.
"The conditions on the ground - frequent water cuts and poor sanitation - are conducive to a typhoid outbreak," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Last year, more than 40 people...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Typhoid hits Harare, as water crisis fuels fears of new epidemics