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Archive for February, 2010
Scientists rue errors, seek better climate report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2010
Associated Press: A steady drip of unsettling errors is exposing what scientists are calling "the weaker link" in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning series of international reports on global warming. The flaws -- and the erosion they've caused in public confidence -- have some scientists calling for drastic changes in how future United Nations climate reports are done. A push for reform being published in Thursday's issue of a prestigious scientific journal comes on top of a growing clamor for the ...
Desertification threatens 38 percent of the world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2010
Mongabay: Over one third of the world's land surface (38 percent) is threatened with desertification, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. The study found that eight of fifteen eco-regions are threatened by desertification, including coastal areas, the prairies, the Mediterranean region, the savannah, the temperate steppes, the temperate deserts, tropical and subtropical steppes, and the tropical and subtropical deserts. "The greatest risk of ...
The story of coal’s dirty, deadly legacy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2010
Washington Independent: Most of us take it for granted that when we flip the switch, the lights will go on. Sure, we write the electric company a monthly check, but otherwise lend no thought to the source of the power -- like urban kids clueless that chicken originates someplace other than the freezer aisle of chain groceries. But this month, an energetic author from the rugged, coal-laden hills of southern Illinois hopes to relay the message -- utterly apropos in a country where coal generates nearly half ...
Mounting urgency as Asian carp threaten the Great Lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: Washington's focus on snowfall this week was briefly diverted by fish – Asian carp – that threaten to invade and then gobble their way through the Great Lakes ecosystem, likely ruining the pleasure boating and fishing industries of abutting states and Canadian provinces. Though a looming snow storm caused many official activities in Washington to be cancelled, congressional hearings on the fish threat sailed ahead Tuesday in a nearly empty hearing room – propelled by a mounting sense ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Mounting urgency as Asian carp threaten the Great LakesBaltic Sea states seek clean-up; Russia expands oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
Reuters: Political and business leaders meet in Helsinki on Wednesday to spur efforts to clean up the Baltic sea, which has suffered from decades of pollution and is a focus of Russia's oil and gas expansion plans. The Baltic, which organizers call the most polluted sea in the world, remains for adjacent countries a major destination for untreated sewage and many chemical pollutants, including agricultural waste that causes blooms of algae that choke marine life. It is also facing ...
Chinese farms ’cause more pollution than factories’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
Guardian: Farmers' fields are a far bigger source of water contamination in China than factory effluent, the Chinese government revealed today in its first census on pollution. Senior officials said the disclosure, after a two-year study involving 570,000 people, would require a partial realignment of environmental policy from smoke stacks to chicken coops, cow sheds and fruit orchards. Despite the sharp upward revision of figures on rural contamination, the government suggested the ...
Indonesia: One billion trees program ‘verifiable’: Govt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
Jakarta Post: The government on Monday defended its ambitious plan to plant 1 billion trees this year to check carbon emissions, saying the program would comply with international standards in which all trees must be verified on the ground. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said his office would allocate 500,000 hectares of land to plant about 500 million trees using the state budget. Each hectare will be planted with 100 trees. "The remaining target will be shared between members of the ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indonesia: One billion trees program ‘verifiable’: GovtWarm world will be more fragrant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
BBC: As CO2 levels increase and the world warms, land use, precipitation and the availability of water will also change. In response to all these disruptions, plants will emit greater levels of fragrant chemicals called biogenic volatile organic compounds. That will then alter how plants interact with one another and defend themselves against pests, according to a major scientific review. According to the scientists leading the review, the world may already be becoming more ...
David Adam on internecine war in IPCC over glacier error
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
Guardian
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on David Adam on internecine war in IPCC over glacier errorChina points to farms as major pollution risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: China on Tuesday named pollution from farms as a major cause for concern, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases released its first nationwide survey on sources of environmental degradation. "There were some outstanding problems identified by this national census such as the high contribution to water pollution by agricultural sources," the State Council, or Cabinet, said in a statement. China's rapid industrialisation has led to widespread environmental damage over ...