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Archive for January 25th, 2011
Industry Boos Oscar Nod for ‘Gasland’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2011
New York Times: "Gasland," a film that turns a harshly critical eye on the perils of natural gas drilling, has earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary.
The Oscar nod guarantees even wider exposure for the controversial film, which uses images of flames leaping from kitchen faucets and polluted streams to make an argument for the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a drilling technique where water and chemicals are injected at high pressure deep underground to free up previously inaccessible...
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The Future of Algae Fuels Is … When?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2011
New York Times: As I write in Tuesday`s Times, a new study from the Rand Corporation, the global policy think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif., and formed more than 60 years ago to advise the American government on military issues, suggests that Department of Defense is wasting its time exploring alternative fuels.
It raised particular questions about the near-term viability of algae-based fuels, which the study`s authors considered to be more or less laboratory-level stuff -- and certainly not likely to scale...
Jobs, education and water key to growth in Georgia: governor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2011
Reuters: Georgia must focus on creating jobs, investing in education and resolving a tussle with Florida and Alabama over how to divide water resources, the state's new Governor Nathan Deal said on Tuesday.
The three issues are interlocking parts of a single effort to ensure that the southeastern U.S. state, which has a population of around 10 million, rebounds from recession, Deal, a Republican, told a forum of business leaders.
"It doesn't serve us in the overall scheme of things to spend our money...
Rogue storm system caused Pakistan floods that left millions homeless
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 25th, 2011
Science Centric: Last summer's disastrous Pakistan floods that killed more than 2,000 people and left more than 20 million injured or homeless were caused by a rogue weather system that wandered hundreds of miles farther west than is normal for such systems, new research shows.
Storm systems that bring widespread, long-lasting rain over eastern India and Bangladesh form over the Bay of Bengal, at the east edge of India, said Robert Houze, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor. But Pakistan,...
AP Interview: Gingrich calls for replacing EPA
Posted by Associated Press: Mike Glover on January 25th, 2011
Associated Press: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Tuesday for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, which he wants to replace with a new organization that would work more closely with businesses and be more aggressive in using science and technology.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Gingrich said the EPA was rarely innovative and focused only on issuing regulations and litigation.
"What you have is a very expensive bureaucracy that across the board makes it harder to solve...
Climate change in Tanzania: a search for water takes its toll
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2011
Guardian: Climate change in Tanzania: a search for water takes its toll
These photographs are part of a book, Changing Climate, Changing Lands, launched in Tanzania today. The book is part of a British Council programme that enables people around the world to better understand, document and communicate the causes and effects of climate change. Twelve professional photojournalists were trained for five weeks and then sent out to record life at the sharp end of global warming
Chesapeake Bay Foundation spent extra to make its headquarters eco-friendly
Posted by Washington Post: Darryl Fears on January 25th, 2011
Washington Post: While leading a tour of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's headquarters in Annapolis, Mary Tod Winchester stepped into a restroom and waved her hand across a toilet as elegantly as a game-show model on "The Price Is Right."
It wasn't just any commode. There was no flush handle, no knob, no pulley. At the foundation's ultra-green workplace, there wasn't any water in the toilets, either. As far as the organization's leaders are concerned, it's a waste. They'd rather compost than send more polluted...
Toads won’t crack
Posted by WSAV: Kris Posman on January 25th, 2011
WSAV: Who knew toads can prefer heat?
While many fish and cold-blooded species could suffer from potentially rising temperatures, the Cane Toad of Australia is not going to be one of them.
In fact, the destructive toad will likely thrive in the face of increasing heat.
When temperatures rise, an amphibian's oxygen starvation. But when the Cane Toads were tested over a temperature range of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, not only did they acclimatize perfectly, but they showed a preference for higher...
Climate change pilot project launched in northern Kenya
Posted by Standard: Ali Abdi on January 25th, 2011
Standard: A pilot project on mainstreaming climate change adaptation among the pastoralists of northern Kenya has been launched.
The Ministry of Northern Kenya and Development of other Arid Areas through Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) in partnership with among others the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) will carry out the exercise in Isiolo County for a period of three years before it is rolled out to three other districts in northern Kenya. It would be funded...
Canadian-led team finds mysterious new algae species
Posted by Leader Post: Randy Boswell on January 25th, 2011
Leader Post: Canadian-led team finds mysterious new algae species
A Canadian-led team of biologists has identified a strange new family of algae that inhabits both ocean and freshwater ecosystems, is widely dispersed around the world and may prove crucial to forecasting the effects of climate change.
The aquatic microbe, remarkably unlike any other type of algae known to science, is said to be as different from fellow members of its group of organisms as humans are from mushrooms.
The discovery, reported...