Archive for August, 2010

Arctic ice: Less than meets the eye

New Scientist: LAST September, David Barber was on board the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen (pictured), heading into the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska. He was part of a team investigating ice conditions in autumn, the time when Arctic sea ice shrinks to its smallest extent before starting to grow again as winter sets in. Barber, an environmental scientist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, went to sleep one night at midnight, just before the ship was due to reach a region of very ...

Oil sands polluting river with heavy metals, say researchers

Business Green: Scientists have published a study concluding that oil extraction and processing operations in the Alberta tar sands are polluting the nearby Athabasca river. The study, produced by University of Alberta biological scientists Erin Kelly and David Schindler, contradicts statements by the Albertan government, which has said that the controversial oil sands developments have no effects on the river. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study ...

Trouble In Paradise: Hawaii Waits For Drought Relief

National Public Radio: Hawaii is suffering through an unprecedented drought -- El Nino conditions in the Pacific have added new misery to a half-century of declining rainfall on the tropical island chain. A two-year dry spell has fueled wildfires and destroyed crops from Oahu to the Big Island. Big Island resident Judy Hancock recalls the day a month ago that she told her husband that a nearby road, full of dry trees and plants, was at risk for a fire. Soon after that dinner-table conversation, ...

Zimbabwe: Climate change reality dawns on rural farmers

AllAfrica: Rural folk across Zimbabwe are beginning to experience the effects of climate change, with crop yields declining as prolonged droughts and erratic rains start taking their toll. The changing climatic patterns have resulted in food insecurity in some areas as the hectarage of land under the staple maize crop declines. This has prompted Government and its partners to go on campaigns encouraging planting of drought-resistant varieties such as small grains, in addition to adopting ...

Lenders Back Off of Environmental Risks

NYT: Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists' biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative. A Massey Energy mountaintop site. Some lenders that previously extended credit have eliminated ties to the company. For a growing number of banks, however, that does not seem to matter. After years of legal entanglements arising from ...

Portugal’s Forests Losing Ability to Capture Carbon

Inter Press Service: Environmentalists are alarmed: fires have destroyed close to 100,000 hectares of forest in Portugal this summer, releasing one million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Worst of all, the forests are losing their ability to absorb carbon. Experts say the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted is not a major concern, compared to emissions in 2008 -- the latest year for which official statistics are available -- but stress that the fact that the forested area of the country ...

‘Dry water’ could make commercial waves

Edie: UK scientists have unveiled a super powder called 'dry water' which could help tackle global warming by storing carbon dioxide The powdered material, which looks like icing sugar or flour, could help absorb and store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. It could also prove a commercial hit in other areas, according to research presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, this month (August). Ben Carter, PhD researcher for ...

Climate change: The facts of life

Guardian: Climate change now reveals itself on a weekly basis. Scientists this month identified a colony of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries both yellow fever and the dengue virus, in the Netherlands. This African insect had not been seen in Europe for more than 50 years. A few days later US researchers reported that on the evidence of satellite data, global plant productivity – which had increased by 6% in two decades, in response to the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – has begun to ...

Is genetically altered fish OK? U.S. to decide

Reuters: U.S. health officials are set to rule on whether a faster-growing, genetically engineered fish is safe to eat in a decision that could deliver the first altered animal food to consumers' dinner plates. The fish, made by Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, is manipulated to grow twice as fast as traditional Atlantic salmon, something the company says could boost the nation's fish sector and reduce pressure on the environment. But consumer advocates and food safety experts are worried ...

Disgusting algae’s spread perplexes scientists in California

Sacramento Bee: On a sunny stretch of the Bear River near Colfax, the cool water carries a nasty surprise for swimmers and fishermen. Look closely at the water flowing by. It carries clots of a feathery substance that looks like shredded toilet paper. Step into the gravelly shallows. Your feet will scream at you to get out of the sewage spill. But this isn't sewage. About 10 miles of the Bear River below Rollins Reservoir is infested with a strange algae called "didymo," short for its ...