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Archive for July, 2010
Teaching ‘stuff’ about ecology
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
LA Times: Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs. Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility. That was before she discovered cartoons. Get important science news and discoveries delivered to your inbox with our Science & Environment newsletter. Sign up ยป Today the 45-year-old Berkeley activist is America's pitchperson for a new style of environmental message. ...
Sea levels rising in parts of Indian Ocean; Greenhouse gases play role, study finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
ScienceDaily: Newly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean, including the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, appear to be at least partly a result of human-induced increases of atmospheric greenhouse gases, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The study, which combined sea surface measurements going back to the 1960s and satellite observations, indicates anthropogenic climate warming likely is amplifying regional sea ...
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Comments Off on Sea levels rising in parts of Indian Ocean; Greenhouse gases play role, study findsGods, floods – and global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2010
Telegraph: 'Global warming is a myth.' Type that into a search engine and you get thousands of hits -- but global warming is not a product of the human imagination; or no more so than any other scientific claims for -- like them -- it depends on its data, the accuracy of which has been affirmed by the inquiry into the leaked East Anglia documents. The subject has, alas, become the home of boring rants by obsessives. More interesting is the notion that myths themselves may reflect real happenings ...
Eco-friendly ski resorts offset glacial melting
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on July 13th, 2010
Independent (UK): Northern Italian officials have begun covering the Presena glacier with an insulating blanket and parts of the Andes have been painted white to try to reduce glacial melting. Now eco-friendly ski resorts around the world are also working on reducing that sport's ecological impact. Officials have begun covering some mountains in Northern Italy with a giant blanket in an attempt to slow the rate at which the ice is melting, reported BBC Brazil on July 8. 970,000 square feet ...
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 ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ecosystem damage to show true cost of Gulf spill: expertHuge 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 ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Huge underwater volcano found off IndonesiaOil 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 ...