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Archive for March 22nd, 2010
Bangladesh needs action on arsenic-tainted water: U.N
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Reuters: Bangladesh must act quickly to combat arsenic contamination in water and food affecting at least 20 million people, a U.N. agency said Monday, decades after a well-meant plan for clean water became a public health disaster. A recent survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) showed that 12.6 percent of Bangladesh households, or about 20 million people, still drink water containing arsenic above the government's recommendation of no ...
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Hunting for Projects to Help Fish and Wildlife Adapt to Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Scientific American: For the average United States' city or 'burb dweller, firsthand evidence of climate change is rare. Hunters and anglers see it every day. That's one of the main messages from a coalition of hunting and fishing organizations that released a report Monday outlining the consequences of climate change for fish and wildlife in the United States. "It's very evident that major shifts are under way," said Richard Kearney, assistant regional director for climate change for the U.S. Fish ...
Thirsty Peruvians harvesting fog with nets
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Reuters: Catching fog with nets is the solution to water scarcity for people who live beyond the reach of utility lines in this sandy hillside shantytown overlooking Peru's capital, Lima. Lima, which along with Cairo is one of the world's two driest capitals, gets only a few drops of rain each year. But thick fog from the Pacific Ocean blankets the coastal hills surrounding the city for eight months a year as hot tropical sun mixes with cold waters of the Humboldt current. Using nets ...
Scientists discover world’s first amphibious insects: Hawaiian caterpillars
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Mongabay: Scientists have never before discovered a truly amphibious insect until now: writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have announced the discovery of 4 species of Hyposmocoma moths in the Hawaiian islands which they consider truly amphibious--that is a species able to survive both on land and underwater indefinitely. Hyposmocoma moths are native only to the Hawaiian islands and comprise over 350 species. When the amphibious moths are in larva form, as ...
Drought crippling southwest China, millions without drinking water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Mongabay: Over 50 million people are affected by a severe drought in southwest China, according to Xinhua, the nation's state media. The lack of rain and unseasonably high temperatures has also left 16 million people without easy access to drinking water. Since last autumn many regions have received only half their usual rainfall. The nation expects that nearly a million hectares will not produce crops due to the drought, while some rivers have dried up completely. China has sent more ...
Kenyan farmers get micro-insurance
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
SciDev.Net: Kenyan smallholders are 'micro-insuring' themselves against crop losses under a scheme launched this month (5 March) that combines mobile phone payment with the use of automated weather stations. The scheme, Kilimo Salama -- a Swahili phrase for "safe farming" -- aims to give small-scale farmers in Kenya 'pay-as-you-plant' insurance, so if they lose their harvest they can still afford farming the following season. Farmers with as little as one acre of land pay an extra five per ...
Plains Flooding And Climate Change Linked?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Public News Service: Although the Red River crested over the weekend in Fargo, climate scientists predict flooding events will become more common over time because of global warming. George Seielstad with the Union of Concerned Scientists says average temperatures in the Great Plains region have gone up 15 percent in the last 50 years. As a result, he says, a warmer planet creates warmer air, which holds more moisture. "Much more of the rain that we get comes in intense downpours and much less comes in ...
EPA to issue stricter drinking water standards
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening drinking water standards to impose stricter limits on four contaminants that can cause cancer. In a speech Monday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency is developing stricter regulations for four compounds (tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, acrylamide and epichlorohydrin). All four chemical compounds can cause cancer. Two of the compounds (tetrachloroethyleneylene and trichloroethylene) are used in industrial and ...
Waste water kills millions of children, pollutes sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Reuters: Human beings are flushing millions of tonnes of solid waste into rivers and oceans every day, poisoning marine life and spreading diseases that kill millions of children annually, the U.N. said on Monday. "The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars," the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said. In a report entitled "Sick Water" for World Water Day, UNEP said the two ...
Dirty Oil drives Canada’s dirty secret into the open
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2010
Business Green: Anyone with an interest in climate change is likely to have heard of the threat posed by the development of Canada's tar sands, but that has not stopped a new documentary film from betting that the sheer scale of the problem still has the power to shock. Having seen Dirty Oil from director Leslie Iwerks it is clear that their gamble should pay off. It is easy to position the tar sands as a faceless scientific or even existential problem where hugely carbon intensive industrial ...