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Archive for November, 2010
Climate change is top fear in North: report
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 16th, 2010
CBC: Northern Canadians are more worried about the impacts of climate change on their communities than the risk of terrorist threats, according to a report on Arctic security by the Conference Board of Canada.
The national policy think-tank's Centre for the North surveyed people across the region for the report, Security in Canada's North: Looking Beyond Arctic Sovereignty.
The report, released Monday, said much of the national discussion about Arctic security deals with Arctic sovereignty, offshore...
Preparing for Climate Change in Asia
Posted by Planetsave: Joshua S. Hill on November 16th, 2010
Planetsave: Much has been made about emerging economies like India and China refusing to take a leading role in minimizing the increase in climate change as climate change itself is effectively a result of western industrialized nations. However Asia is still going to have to make changes, regardless of who is backing the endeavor, and a new report lays out some guidelines for ways in which the region can prepare for climate change.
One of the biggest issues at stake is the 50,000 or so glaciers that populate...
Budding research links climate change and earlier flowering plants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 16th, 2010
ScienceDaily: According to research published November 16 by a University of Cincinnati faculty member, native plants in southwestern Ohio are flowering significantly earlier, a finding he attributes, at least in part, to global warming.
UC biologist Denis Conover, field service associate professor, has spent countless hours walking the Shaker Trace Wetlands at Miami Whitewater Forest over the last 18 years to survey hundreds of different plant species.
Conover's results, published in the December issue...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Budding research links climate change and earlier flowering plantsArab nations to suffer most from climate change
Posted by Seek4media: None Given on November 16th, 2010
Seek4media: Environmental scientists say that the Arab nations will suffer most from the ill effects of climate change.
It is already evident as dust storms wreak havoc in Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are now suffering from floods, Egypt's coast is slowly eroding as sea levels rise.
The Middle East is already experiencing water shortage and dry weather will get even drier within the next years. Scientists are urging Arab nations to act now to avoid potential disaster in the future.
The Arab region has...
Environmental disaster hits eastern Syria
Posted by Reuters: Khaled Yacoub Oweis on November 16th, 2010
Reuters: The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to distant memory.
Drought in the past five years has also killed 85 percent of livestock in eastern Syria, the Inezis' ancestral land.
Up to half a million people have left the region in one of Syria's largest internal migrations since France and Britain carved the country out of the Ottoman Empire in 1920....
India Floods, Droughts to Worsen by 2030, Government Climate Report Says
Posted by Bloomberg: Natalie Obiko Pearson on November 16th, 2010
Bloomberg: India may endure floods 30 percent more severe in magnitude and heightened drought conditions by 2030 due to climate change, which could affect crop yields, damage dams and harm infrastructure, the government said today.
“There is no country in the world that is as vulnerable on so many dimensions to climate change as India is,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a climate-change report prepared by 220 scientists in the country.
Every India region is expected to see more rainfall by...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India Floods, Droughts to Worsen by 2030, Government Climate Report SaysPulling Together To Protect Zambia’s Kafue Flats
Posted by Inter Press Service: Lewis Mwanangombe * - IPS/IFEJ on November 15th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Dams, sugarcane plantations and rapidly growing population threatened the health of the Kafue Flats, a richly diverse wetlands in southern Zambia. But growing recognition of more sustainable use of its water and fertile soil are securing the health of the ecosystem.
The Kafue Flats cover a surface area of about 6,500 square kilometres, part of the Kafue River system which flows into the Zambezi River. The river falls only 13 metres as it flows east for 250 kilometres from Itezhi-tezhi to the Kafue...
EPA sets water pollution limits for Florida
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency has set legal limits for farm and urban runoff polluting waterways in Florida, the first time the federal agency has set standards for a state.
The EPA set the limits Monday after it settled a lawsuit with environmental groups last year. The numeric limits on runoff are designed to reduce pollution from sewage treatment plants and runoff choking lakes, rivers and other Florida waters with algae blooms.
Agriculture, business interests and some politicians,...
Percolating CO2 and an ‘invisible’ water supply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Daily Climate: Leaking underground CO2 storage could contaminate drinking water
Leaks from carbon dioxide injected deep underground to help fight climate change could increase contaminant levels tenfold or more in drinking water aquifers if it inadvertently bubbles up through groundwater, according to a new study from Duke University scientists.
Leaking carbon dioxide changes the water's chemistry, leaching heavy metals, uranium, barium and other contaminants from nearby rock and soil at levels above the...
Ecotourism brings home the bacon in the Peruvian Amazon
Posted by Mongabay: Catherine Meyers on November 15th, 2010
Mongabay: Ecotourism is one of the most profitable uses of tropical forest in the Tambopata area of the Peruvian Amazon, according to a study released on 29 September in the journal PLoS ONE.
In 2002 Peru’s government passed legislation to allow ecotourism-controlled zones in the Tambopata region of southeastern Peru. Policymakers hoped such zones would preserve spectacular rainforest habitats while bringing in steady money. Critics have wondered, though, whether the strategy can succeed in the face of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ecotourism brings home the bacon in the Peruvian Amazon