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Archive for July 12th, 2010
Ecosystem damage to show true cost of Gulf spill: expert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster is likely to cost far more than cleanup and compensation for lost income once damage to ecosystems is factored in, a top expert said Tuesday. In an interview coinciding with a UN-sponsored report on the link between business and biodiversity, economist Pavan Sukhdev said the BP debacle underscores the need for a sea change in how the "natural capital" upon which human wellbeing depends is measured and valued. "The economic invisibility of ...
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Huge chunk of ice breaks off of glacier in Greenland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: A huge chunk of ice about one-eighth the size of Manhattan has broken off of Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, NASA scientists report. A 2.7-square-mile (7-square-kilometer) section of the glacier broke up on July 6 and 7 and was spotted in NASA satellite images. Greenland's ice sheet, which is 2 miles (3.2 km) thick and covers an area about the size of Mexico, has been losing ice mass at an accelerating rate over the last decade. The ice sheet discharges much of its ice ...
Taiwan: Typhoons carry carbon out to sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Nature: Researchers in Taiwan have discovered that typhoons can pump large amounts of carbon from inland areas into the deep sea, potentially affecting the global carbon cycle and marine ecosystems. Small islands such as Taiwan constitute only 3% of the world's landmass, but are responsible for more than 35% of terrestrial-carbon flux to the sea. Exactly how they are able to dump this much carbon into the world's oceans has been a mystery until now. To investigate the mechanism, marine ...
The day of the oil diatom
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Asia Times: India on a national strike over rising fuel prices, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, and other oil-related woes could be worries of the past if diatom "oil cows" deliver expectations of billions of gallons of fuel annually. Indian scientist T V Ramachandra, Canada-based Richard Gordon and their colleagues have upgraded the increasing global interest in harvesting fuel from algae, the small organisms found widely in water, from oceans to the yucky, green slime on ...
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Huge underwater volcano found off Indonesia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Guardian: Scientists on a deep-sea expedition off the coast of Indonesia have discovered an underwater volcano that towers 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) above the ocean floor, yet remains far from sight beneath the water's surface. The volcano was discovered by a group of US and Indonesian researchers who are using a powerful sonar system and a robotic vehicle with high-definition video to explore marine ecosystems off Sulawesi island. "This is a huge undersea volcano, taller than all but ...
Oil spill panel hearing more about cost than why
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Associated Press: The presidential panel that is supposed to find out the cause of the Gulf oil spill is starting by focusing more on the response and impact. Monday was the start of a two-day New Orleans hearing by the National Oil Spill Commission. Amid interruptions by protesters, the talk from oil executives, experts and regular people was more about the aftermath of the spill than why it happened. Commissioners say that's by design. They want to know the disaster's impact. BP ...
Scientists: Acidity in much of the Sound can be lethal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Seattle PI: The acidity has risen so much in parts of Puget Sound that it has become lethal to shellfish larvae, report scientists from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington. Much of the acidification -- an estimated 24-49 percent -- is the result of the ocean absorbing increased carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide is coming from such sources as industrial emissions and car exhaust. Most of the ocean has changed (the ...
Germany swelters amid soaring temperatures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Spiegel: More than 40 train passengers needed medical treatment for dehydration in Germany this weekend after the air conditioning broke down. The railway apologized for the fault which affected several of its high-speed ICE trains as Europe gasped under temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius. German railway operator Deutsche Bahn apologized on Sunday after several passengers collapsed from heat exhaustion in three of its high-speed ICE trains when the air conditioning broke down on ...
Australia: Every drip has a climate story to tell
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Sydney Morning Herald: WALKING into a cave of stalagmites and stalactites is like entering a Tiffany's showroom. But unlike an expensive ring, the sparkle of these formations is a precious record of climate history. Australian scientists are using structures from the Wombeyan Caves, south-west of Sydney, to build a picture of rainfall patterns in NSW over the past 1000 years. Until now, rainfall records extended back only to the 1800s, the lead researcher, Janece McDonald, of the University of ...
Babies of the oil spill face an uncertain future
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2010
Associated Press: The smallest victims are the biggest challenge for crews rescuing birds fouled with oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill. There's no way to know how many chicks have been killed by the oil, or starved because their parents were rescued or died struggling in a slick. "There are plenty of oiled babies out there," said Rebecca Dmytryk of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, one of the groups working to clean oiled animals. The lucky ones end up in a cleaning center ...