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Archive for August, 2010
Data suggests Iowa really is getting wetter
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
KCRG: Muddy rivers, moldy classrooms, swarming mosquitoes, blighted tomatoes and effulgent quack grass will be mere annoyances in Iowa's new era of serial cloudbursts. Unless Iowans adjust dramatically to more extreme precipitation and flooding, they can expect more swamped crops, failed dams, subÂmerged cities and monolithic public institutions turned into indoor swimÂming pools, said Gov. Chet Culver, who recently dubbed the chronically wet conditions plaguing Iowa as 'the new ...
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Cold snap may have killed millions of fish in Bolivia, poisoning rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Mongabay: Although the last few months have been some of the warmest worldwide on record, including 17 countries reaching or breaking all-time highs, temperatures have not been above average everywhere. Cold air from Antarctica has brought chilling temperatures to parts of South America, including Bolivia where millions of fish and thousands of caimans, turtles, and river dolphins according to Nature. The estimated six million dead fish have poisoned some rivers in the region, forcing officials ...
Fears for wildlife in UK waters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
BBC: The Firth of Clyde in Scotland was once known for its stocks of cod, halibut and herring, but scientists have warned that it faces ecological meltdown. The decline is echoed in many other seas around the UK that have suffered as a result of over-fishing. Richard Bilton has been investigating what is happening to the wildlife in our waters.
Google Earth animation shows Brazilian plans to turn Amazon into ‘series of stagnant reservoirs’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Mongabay: The decision last week by the Brazilian government to move forward on the $17 billion Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu river will set in motion a plan to build more than 100 dams across the Amazon basin, potentially turning tributaries of the world's largest river into 'an endless series of stagnant reservoirs', says a new short film released by Amazon Watch and International Rivers. The film, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, uses a Google Earth 3-D tour to illustrate the potential impact of ...
Pakistan floods: Thousands return to historic city as levees keep water at bay
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
AP: Thousands of people returned to the historic southern city of Thatta in Pakistan today after levees built from clay and stone held back the floodwaters that have ravaged large areas of the country. Thousands who fled as the floods inundated nearby towns complained about a shortage of food and water as they camped in a graveyard on a hill near the city. People ran after vehicles distributing food and water near the graveyard – a chaotic distribution system that left many flood ...
U.N. says 270,000 at risk as floods loom in Ethiopia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Reuters: More than a quarter of a million Ethiopians are at risk from severe flooding next month when heavy rain is expected in the country, according to government estimates issued by the United Nations on Monday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 19 people were killed in mudslides after flooding last week and nearly 12,000 people had been displaced since then. "Some 270,000 people could be affected by flooding in the (Amhara region)," OCHA said ...
Bad weather delays retrieval BP blowout preventer: US gov’t
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Reuters: BP Plc delayed retrieval of the failed blowout preventer atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well this week because of bad weather, the top U.S. official overseeing the oil spill said on Monday. "We are in a weather hold right now," Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, noting seas were 6 to 6 feet high at the site of the Macondo well. He said bad weather is expected to last two to three days. The blowout preventer retrieval had been slated for Tuesday or Wednesday.
Oil sands polluting Alberta river system: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Reuters: Oil sands operations are polluting the Athabasca River system, researchers said on Monday, contradicting the Alberta government's assertions that toxins in the watershed are naturally occurring. In a study likely to add more fuel to the environmental battle over oil sands development, researchers said mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium are among the toxins being released into the Athabasca, which flows north through the region's major oil sands operations. The findings of the ...
IPCC climate change panel needs transparency, review panel finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, set up 22 years ago to provide science advice to governments as they try to deal with global warming, needs to overhaul the way it runs itself, according to a report released Monday. Among those needs: more transparency; a rigorous set of conflict-of-interest rules; wider representation of dissenting views among practicing climate scientists in its final reports; and a limit on the number of reports scientists can take a lead role in ...
Once-in-a-century salmon run hits Canada’s West Coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 30th, 2010
Reuters: Every year Vancouver resident Stephen Ottridge takes hamburgers or steak to his street's annual summer block party. This year, against the backdrop of what looks to be the biggest sockeye salmon run in almost a century in the nearby Fraser River, he arrived with a salmon large enough to fill the whole barbecue. "There is a cornucopia of salmon this year, so we decided to treat the block to some," Ottridge said from the city on Canada's Pacific Coast, where marine experts are ...