RSS Feed
Archive for January 24th, 2011
Bird, Fish Kills Quite Common – and That’s the Problem
Posted by Inter Press Service: Matthew Cardinale on January 24th, 2011
Inter Press Service: The New Year brought a spate of incidents across the United States and around the world in which large numbers of birds appeared to have fallen out of the sky, and thousands of fish were found floating dead in rivers.
As media reports multiplied of mysterious mass wildlife deaths, and blogs and social media picked up on the story, the inevitable theories began circulating, ranging from the outlandish (a sign of the apocalypse) to the more plausible (a consequence of environmental damage, such...
Posted in 
First-ever global map of surface permeability informs water supply, climate modelling
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 24th, 2011
Science Centric: University of British Columbia researchers have produced the first map of the world outlining the ease of fluid flow through the planet's porous surface rocks and sediments.
The maps and data, published Friday in Geophysical Research Letters, could help improve water resource management and climate modelling, and eventually lead to new insights into a range of geological processes.
'This is the first global-scale picture of near-surface permeability, and is based on rock type data at greater...
Climate change and evolution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Economist: OUR topics this morning are global warming, evolution and feathers. Let's start with the warming. Despite a frenzied last-minute drive involving snowstorms in Europe and the eastern United States, planet Earth failed to save itself from another last-place finish in 2010: once again, it was the least cold year on record. The World Meteorological Organization announced its finding last week that global mean temperatures for the year were 0.53°C above the 1961-1990 mean, 0.01°C warmer than 2005 and...
South Africa flood death toll rises as government declares 33 disaster zones
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Guardian: Flooding in South Africa has killed more than 100 people, forced at least 8,400 from their homes and prompted the government to declare 33 disaster areas.
With unusually heavy rainfall forecast until March, the UN has warned that almost every country in southern Africa is on alert for potentially disastrous flooding.
The government said that 88 deaths in the rising toll were in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. The costs of damage to the infrastructure in the seven of the country's nine provinces...
A Great Plains pipeline debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Washington Post: A massive feat of engineering by any measure, the Keystone pipeline expansion project would transport crude oil close to 1,700 miles from "oil sands" in the icy reaches of Hardisty, Alberta, down through the Great Plains to the refineries of Port Arthur, Tex. In doing so, the giant pipe also promises to allay some fears about U.S. energy security: The oil will come from a trusted ally, and its cross-continental path avoids visions of another deep-sea drilling disaster. But the decision on whether...
Indonesia delays deforestation ban
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Carbon Positive: Indonesia's planned two-year moratorium on deforestation to have begun this month has been postponed. Two government ministries are still trying to reach consensus and agree details of the moratorium on permits to convert natural forests and peatlands, according to the ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report. Views differ on how much and which types of forests should be covered in the moratorium and there is yet no consensus on whether current forest concession- holders will still be permitted to clear...
Crop warning over China drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
BBC: Crop warning over China drought
More than 50% of land used to grow wheat in Shandong has been hit by the drought
A prolonged dry spell in parts of northern, central and eastern China is threatening both crops and water supplies, Chinese state media says.
Shandong province is experiencing its driest weather for 60 years.
Half the wheat-growing land there is affected, while almost a quarter of a million people face drinking water shortages, the China Daily said.
Beijing has also been...
China province hit by worst drought, warning on wheat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Reuters: Most of China's wheat-growing areas in the north are suffering from drought with some seeing no rain for more than three months while the second most important wheat province of Shandong is facing its worst drought in a century.
Experts say that if the drought goes on over coming weeks, with no effective measures to combat it, the winter wheat crop, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country's wheat harvest, could be hurt significantly.
Guo Tiancai, deputy chief of the agriculture...
Wild bears in Russia – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 24th, 2011
Guardian: Wildlife Wild bears in Russia – in pictures
The photographer Sergey Gorshkov has spent six years following bears as they hunt for salmon, paddle in a lake and walk for miles through forests in Kamchatka, Russia, home to more than 18,000 bears
Some 7.27 million hectares of forests in C Kalimantan damaged
Posted by Antara News: None Given on January 24th, 2011
Antara News: Deforestation and barren land in Central Kalimantan. (www.greenpeace.org)Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - About 7.27 million hectares of forests in Central Kalimantan are damaged due to deforestation, a lecturer said here Tuesday.
"Deforestation and barren land in Central Kalimantan cover more than 7.27 million hectares, while rapid forest degradation is less than 150 thousand hectares per year in the area," Sidik R Usop, the lecturer, said here Tuesday.
According to him, forest...