RSS Feed
Archive for May, 2010
Alpacas to Help Fight Gulf Spill?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2010
National Geographic: Can an Alpaca help protect the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from a massive oil slick? SOUNDBITE (off camera): Patti Hall, Director, Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo "They're not having a great time, but by the time they're finished, they're going to feel a lot cooler. " Some Gulf Coast residents are pinning hopes on what may be a unique defense against millions of gallons of oil that has spewed from a ruptured deep sea drill site. Soak it up with hair. Skip a few ...
Salt killing crops, driving migration in storm-hit southern Bangladesh
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2010
Reuters: Worsening sea water storm surges and overuse of irrigation have left fields, wells and ponds in parts of southern Bangladesh too salty to grow crops, leading to a growing exodus of farmers from the region. During Cyclones Sidr and Aila, in 2007 and 2009, sea water was driven into ponds and rivers in Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts in southern Bangladesh, and some fields remained flooded by sea water long enough to raise levels of salinity in the soil and in underground ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Salt killing crops, driving migration in storm-hit southern BangladeshGlobal warming blamed for pattern of lizard deaths
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2010
Washington Post: When it comes to the hazards of global warming, it may turn out that lizards in burrows are the canaries in the coal mine. In a study to be published Friday in the journal Science, an international team of biologists reports that in more than one-tenth of the places in Mexico where lizards flourished in 1975, the reptiles now cannot be found. The researchers predict that by 2080, about 40 percent of local lizard populations worldwide will have died off and 20 percent of lizard species ...
Gulf Spill Could Be Much Worse Than Believed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2010
National Public Radio: The amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico may be at least 10 times the size of official estimates, according to an exclusive analysis conducted for NPR. At NPR's request, experts examined video that BP released Wednesday. Their findings suggest the BP spill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, which spilled at least 250,000 barrels of oil. BP has said repeatedly that there is no reliable way to measure the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ...
Environment group plans to sue U.S. over oil permits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2010
Reuters: U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar improperly approved offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico without regard to possible harm to marine mammals, an environmental group said on Friday in a legal notice. The Center for Biological Diversity said it plans to sue Salazar and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) for failing to get environmental permits required by two environmental laws -- the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species ...
Lizard Starvation, Extinction Tied To Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2010
National Public Radio: Scientists who study lizards say many local populations around the world are going extinct. And the cause, they suspect, is climate change. Scientists have predicted that warmer temperatures could endanger some kinds of plants and animals. This new research, published in this week's issue of the journal Science, suggests the process is already under way. The news surprises experts who thought lizards would be more adaptable; after all, they live in some of the hottest places on the ...
Exxon Valdez cleanup holds lessons for Gulf oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: Two decades after the Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground and ripped open its cargo tanks, the spill still marks Alaska's environment. Pockets of fresh crude are buried in beaches scattered around Prince William Sound and segments outside it, in isolated spots along more than 1,200 miles of coastline that received oil in 1989. The discovery confounded earlier predictions that remnant crude would quickly weather and disperse as waves washed it into the sea. "At this rate, the ...
Arctic explorers take first-ever water samples at north pole
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2010
Guardian: Link to this video Arctic explorers have taken the first-ever samples of ocean water at the north pole after a gruelling two-and–a-half month expedition across the polar ice. Headed by former bank manager Ann Daniels, the Catlin Arctic survey team achieved what last year's expedition - led by polar explorer Pen Hadow - failed to do: reach the north pole and take water samples to measure the impact of a changing climate. Pen Hadow, the survey's director and last year's ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic explorers take first-ever water samples at north poleClimate change may kill 20% of lizards by 2080
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2010
USA Today: TODAY Hundreds of species of lizards in nearly all parts of the world are at risk of extinction due to climate change, says a new study out today in the journal Science. In fact, due to rising global temperatures from carbon dioxide emissions, about 1,000 (20%) of the world's 5,000 lizard species could be extinct by the year 2080, the study says. "This rivals some of the greatest extinctions of any organisms in the geologic record," says study lead author Barry Sinervo, a ...
‘Unique’ frog discovered in India
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2010
BBC: A new species of "brightly coloured frog" has been discovered in a remote peak in the southern part of India, scientists have told BBC News. This reddish orange amphibian, spotted in the Eravaikulam National Park of the Western Ghats mountain range, has been named Raorchestes resplendens. The scientists found the frog at an altitude of 2698m above sea level on the Anaimudi peak. It inhabits a very small area of less than three square kilometres. The discovery was ...