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Archive for June 14th, 2010
Ancient Mars Had Vast Ocean, New Evidence Shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
National Geographic: A vast ocean chock-full of microbes may have once covered more than a third of Mars's surface, scientists say. The new evidence, from an analysis of dried-up Mars river deltas, adds to growing signs the red planet was once wet. elated: "Sulfur Dioxide Kept Ancient Mars Ocean Flowing.") On Earth, river deltas all lie at more or less the same elevation and reflect the current sea level. In fact, by estimating the elevations of ancient deltas, scientists can reconstruct how ...
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China Goes for Friendly Giant Role in Mekong
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The Mekong River is steadily emerging as a testing ground for public diplomacy, Chinese style. Beijing, it appears, wants to reach out to its southern neighbours who share the river more as a friendly giant than an imposing bully. An unprecedented move to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding two of four dams on the upper stretches of the river that snakes through southern China is only the latest in a diplomatic shift towards openness taking shape since mid-March. On Jun. 7, ...
White-tailed eagle reintroduction plan falls victim to spending cuts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Guardian: Plans to reintroduce white-tailed eagles to England have fallen victim to public spending cuts, as the government's conservation agency said it was withdrawing as lead partner in the scheme. Natural England, along with conservation charity the RSPB, had been leading the project examining the possibility of releasing the enormous birds of prey, known as "flying barn doors", in Suffolk. The eagles have already been reintroduced into Scotland and the Suffolk coast was identified ...
Indonesia: Scientists on hunt for climate-change clues explore rare tropical glacier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: Indonesia's towering Puncak Jaya mountain on the island of Papua straddles one of the world's richest and most inaccessible gold and copper mines. But the scientists currently prospecting on the 16,000-ft peak are digging for a different kind of treasure: fragile ice cores that can yield clues to the climatic past and give pointers on the future. Puncak Jaya, a patch of ice on a barren peak that juts from the jungle-clad southern shores of western Papua, is one of only a handful of ...
Intensive farming ‘massively slowed’ global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
New Scientist: Fertilisers, pesticides and hybrid high-yielding seeds saved the planet from an extra dose of global warming. That, at least, is the conclusion of a new analysis which finds that the intensification of farming through the green revolution has unjustly been blamed for speeding up global warming. Steven Davis of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues calculated how much greenhouse gases would have been emitted over the past half-century if the ...
The Business of Bottled Water: An “Obsession” with a Price
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
National Geographic: This story is part of a special series that explores the global water crisis. For more visit National Geographic's Freshwater website. Everyone needs water, and in much of the developed world, they get it--virtually for free. Yet companies have made a big business out of selling water products to people with ready access to safe, clean tap water. The effects of the bottled-water movement have been devastating, not just on wallets but also on the environment, says Peter Gleick, ...
Chesapeake bay acid affected oysters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Environmental News Network: The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. In its waters are abundant marine life but the environment is changing. The shells of young oysters in Chesapeake Bay are not getting as thick as they've been in the past, and higher acidity levels seem to be to blame. The bay is mostly known for its great seafood production, especially blue crabs, clams and oysters. The plentiful oyster harvests led to ...
Florida Keys Residents Plan Their Own Oil Spill Cleanup
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Time Magazine: A small island in the middle of a big ocean, Key West has always made a virtue of its isolation. In 1982, for example, an onerous Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Route 1, which links the Keys to mainland Florida, resulted in the island's declaring itself the autonomous Conch Republic. This was, of course, mostly a joke ("We Seceded Where Others Failed" was its e pluribus unum), but the mayor's declaration of independence did include a twinge of real anger and a vow that "we have no ...
W.House confident BP will set up big escrow account
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Reuters: The White House is confident BP Plc will agree to set up a multibillion-dollar escrow account to pay mounting claims relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a spokesman said on Monday. "We feel confident that this is going to be able to move forward," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama for a two-day visit to the Gulf region. He declined to comment specifically on the size of the account beyond saying that it would be in the ...
New UN panel to focus on saving life on Earth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2010
Mongabay: In South Korea last week 230 delegates from 85 nations approved a new UN science panel focusing on saving life on Earth, known as the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The panel, which is to be modeled off of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is meant to bridge the gap between scientific understanding of biodiversity loss and the policy decisions necessary to stop it. "IPBES represents a major breakthrough in ...