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Archive for September 29th, 2010
Glaciers May Have Soggier Bottoms Than Thought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
LiveScience.com): Glaciers may seem to be all ice, but it turns out they can be soggy with water, a finding that should help researchers understand how glaciers slide toward the sea, and improve their predictions about rising sea levels in the face of climate change. "Adding water to the base of glaciers and ice sheets can make them speed up," said glacialogist Joel Harper of the University of Montana at Missoula, who with his colleagues discovered an unexpected amount of water near the bottom of a ...
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Water map shows billions at risk of ‘water insecurity’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
BBC: About 80% of the world's population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis. Researchers compiled a composite index of "water threats" that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution. The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people. Writing in the journal Nature, they say that in western countries, conserving water for people through reservoirs and dams works for people, but not nature. They ...
Rivers worldwide in peril: society treats symptoms, ignores causes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Mongabay: Dams, agricultural runoff, pesticides, sewage, mercury pollution from coal plants, invasive species, overconsumption, irrigation, erosion from deforestation, wetland destruction, overfishing, aquaculture: it's clear that the world's rivers are facing a barrage of unprecedented impacts from humans, but just how bad is the situation? A new global analysis of the world's rivers is not comforting: the comprehensive report, published in Nature, finds that our waterways are in a deep crisis which ...
Pennsylvania GOP rejects natural gas tax plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Reuters: A top Pennsylvania Republican rejected a Democratic-sponsored plan for taxing natural gas production on Wednesday, vowing to stop a bill that he said would drive energy companies out of the state. The opposition will force Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, to seek a compromise between Democratic and Republic plans. Sen. Joseph Scarnati said a bill proposing to tax gas drillers 39 cents per 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced was "totally unacceptable" and that it would not even go ...
World’s rivers in crisis, study says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Reuters: The world's rivers are in crisis including in North America and Europe where governments have invested trillions of dollars to clean up freshwater supplies, a study showed Wednesday. "Threats to human water security and biological diversity are pandemic," Charles Vorosmarty of the City University of New York, co-lead author of the report in the journal Nature, told Reuters. The international team of scientists estimated that almost 80 percent of the world's population -- or ...
Human impact on world’s rivers ‘threatens water security of 5 billion’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Guardian: Nearly 80% of the world's rivers are so badly affected by humanity's footprint that the water security of almost 5 billion people, and the survival of thousands of aquatic species, are threatened, scientists warned today. The global study put together by institutions across the globe is the first to simultaneously look at all types of human intervention – from dams and reservoirs to irrigation and pollution – on freshwater. It paints a devastating picture of a world whose rivers are ...
UN environment chief urges recycling of rare metals
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
AFP: The UN's environment chief on Wednesday called for a global drive to recycle rare metals that have hit the headlines in a spat between Japan and China, warning that they are crucial for green technologies. Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that demand for "rare earth metals" such as lithium and neodymium -- used in batteries for hybrid cars or components in wind and solar power -- was accelerating fast. Rare earths are available in only ...