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Archive for July 26th, 2010
Exploring Algae as Fuel
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
New York Times: In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern biotechnology are being applied to lowly pond scum. Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked. Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains. The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and ...
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Climate change linked to mass Mexican migration to US
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
LA Times: Climbing temperatures are expected to raise sea levels and increase droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires. Now, scientists are predicting another consequence of climate change: mass migration to the United States. Between 1.4 million and 6.7 million Mexicans could migrate to the U.S. by 2080 as climate change reduces crop yields and agricultural production in Mexico, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The ...
Global Warming Means More Mexican Immigration?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
National Geographic: Disputes over illegal Mexican immigrants are already heating up in the United States, thanks in part to a new Arizona immigration law. But global warming could bring the immigration issue to a boiling point in the coming decades, if a new study holds true. According a new computer model, a total of nearly seven million additional Mexicans could emigrate to the U.S. by 2080 as a result of reduced crop yields brought about by a hotter, drier climate--assuming other factors ...
Heat Wave: 2010 to Be One of Hottest Years on Record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
National Geographic: Thanks to a combination of global warming and an ocean-warming El Niño event, 2010 is set to become one of the hottest years ever recorded, a new report says. Land and ocean temperatures for the period of January to June were the hottest seen since record-keeping began in 1880, according to an analysis released July 15 by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The average temperature for the first half of 2010 was 57.5 degrees Fahrenheit (14.2 degrees ...
BP could start final process to kill well next week
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
Reuters: BP Plc could start the final procedure to kill its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico late next week despite storm-related delays, the top U.S. oil spill official said on Monday. The procedure involves pumping mud and cement through a relief well, which has been drilled since May 2 to a spot close to the bottom of the stricken well. "The next thing that we need to do is get this well in the position where we can make the intercept and kill this well from the bottom," ...
Egypt extends olive branch in Nile river row
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
Reuters: Egypt sounded a conciliatory note on Monday in a dispute over how Nile waters should be shared by the countries it passes through at an African summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala. After more than a decade of talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed a new deal in May without their northern neighbors. The five signatories have given the other Nile Basin countries -- ...
Climate change could spur Mexican migration to US: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Global warming could drive millions more Mexicans into the United States in search of work by 2080 due to diminishing crop yields in Mexico, a study released Monday showed. "Depending on the warming scenarios used and adaptation levels assumed... climate change is estimated to induce 1.4 to 6.7 million adult Mexicans (or two percent to 10 percent of the current population aged 15-65 years) to emigrate as a result of declines in agricultural productivity alone," the study ...
United Kingdom: Engineers race to design world’s biggest offshore wind turbines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
Guardian: British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines – giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before – that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale. Today, a revolutionary British design that mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and which was inspired by floating oil platform technology, entered the race. Leading engineering firm Arup is to work with an academic ...
Converging weather patterns caused last winter’s huge snows in U.S
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2010
ScienceDaily: The memory of last winter's blizzards may be fading in this summer's searing heat, but scientists studying them have detected a perfect storm of converging weather patterns that had little relation to climate change. The extraordinarily cold, snowy weather that hit parts of the U.S. East Coast and Europe was the result of a collision of two periodic weather patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds. It was the snowiest ...