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A confluence of water woes threatens Rio Grande Basin
Posted by Albuquerque Journal: Jen Pelz on March 24th, 2016
Albuquerque Journal: The rattling trumpet call of sandhill cranes echoed throughout the Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico this February.
The flocks began to make their ascent into the sky, circling to gain altitude and then heading north. The cranes` early departure – driven by climate change – reveals one of the many challenges of adapting to the reality of this new climate.
A recent study by Michael Dettinger, Bradley Udall and Aris Georgakakos, Western Water and Climate Change, analyzed four of the most...
Scrap 52 GW thermal projects to avert water scarcity: Greenpeace
Posted by Comment: None Given on March 24th, 2016
Comment: The situation is particularly critical in China where 45% of coal-fired power plants are in areas of water over-withdrawal, followed by India and Turkey at 13%.
Coal power plants use enough water to supply the needs of 1 billion people and that will nearly double if all the world's planned power plants come online. This would cause severe drought and worsen the ongoing conflict between agriculture and industry over water in regions such as Vidarbha and Marathwada in Maharashtra and Northern Karnataka....
We Know How To Stop The Epidemic Of Lead Poisoning. So Why Aren’t We?
Posted by Bryce Covert: None Given on March 24th, 2016
Bryce Covert: Before Lanice Walker moved her family into a new home in Chicago, she and her nine children had to share the cramped quarters of a three-bedroom apartment. Even so, she struggled to afford that small space. The single mother was facing homelessness, which would mean likely having to send her children to live with their grandmother.
Getting a housing voucher to help cover rent is almost like winning the lottery. Just one in four eligible low-income families actually get the assistance, thanks to...
Mass Extinctions And Climate Change: Why The Speed Of Rising Greenhouse Gases Matters
Posted by Conversation: None Given on March 24th, 2016
Conversation: We now know that greenhouse gases are rising faster than at any time since the demise of dinosaurs, and possibly even earlier. According to research published in Nature Geoscience this week, carbon dioxide (CO2) is being added to the atmosphere at least ten times faster than during a major warming event about 50 million years ago. We have emitted almost 600 billion tonnes of carbon since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations are now increasing at a rate of...
China Puts the Brakes on New Coal Plants
Posted by EcoWatch: Maura Cowley on March 24th, 2016
EcoWatch: Chinese media reported today that the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has ordered 13 provincial governments to suspend approvals of new coal-fired power plant projects until the end of 2017.
Another group of 15 provinces has been ordered to delay new construction of projects that have already been approved. According to Greenpeace East Asia’s initial assessment of the implications of the rules, up to 250 coal-fired power plant units with a total of 170 gigawatts of capacity could...
‘Gasland’ Director Josh Fox Arrested at ‘Pancakes Not Pipelines’ Protest
Posted by AlterNet: Lee Ziesche on March 24th, 2016
AlterNet: Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox (Gasland) and others from the activist group Beyond Extreme Energy were arrested today protesting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its role in continuing to permit fossil fuel projects that will greatly accelerate climate change.
Today’s protest draws specific attention to FERC’s role in using eminent domain to condemn and clearcut a wide swathe of maple trees across the Holleran family maple syrup farm in New Milford, Pennsylvania. The clearcut...
Ecological collapse circumscribes traditional women’s work in Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 24th, 2016
PhysOrg: For thousands of years, the marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq were an oasis of green in a dry landscape, hosting a wealth of wildlife. The culture of the Marsh Arab, or Ma'dan, people who live there is tightly interwoven with the ecosystem of the marshes. The once dense and ubiquitous common reed (Phragmites australis) served as raw material for homes, handicrafts, tools, and animal fodder for thousands of years. Distinctive mudhif communal houses, built...
Bill McKibben: Fracking Has Turned Out to Be a Costly Detour
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 24th, 2016
EcoWatch: With a new piece in The Nation, environmental leader Bill McKibben upends widely held assumptions not just about President Barack Obama`s climate legacy, but about the so-called "natural gas revolution" that was once considered a "savior" in the fight against global warming.
The author and 350.org co-founder points to "an explosive paper" published last month in Geophysical Research Letters, in which Harvard researchers "concluded that the nation as a whole is leaking methane in massive quantities."...
New methodology for adapting Mediterranean basins to the demands of climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 24th, 2016
PhysOrg: The paper, published in Global Environmental Change, is the result of a research project designed to establish selection criteria when choosing what climate change actions to take, based on economic and environmental principles.
Evaluating all options before embarking on expensive projects
By means of an optimisation model, the system selects the best combination of actions based on the nature of the basin, demand planning forecasts, economic factors and different plausible climate change scenarios....
Report: Colorado River To Drop As Much As 27 Percent
Posted by Frontera: Laurel Morales on March 24th, 2016
Frontera: Water authorities in the Southwest promise to compensate towns, tribes and other partners for coming up with water saving strategies that will boost the levels of Lakes Powell and Mead.
The Colorado River and other Western river levels are expected to drop as much as 27 percent during the 21st century. That’s according to a climate change report released on World Water Day (March 22) by the Interior Department.
The reductions in snowpack and runoff could mean a drop in water supply both for...