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Archive for January, 2011
Natural greenhouse gas sink is smaller than believed
Posted by Daily Independent: None Given on January 17th, 2011
Daily Independent: An international team of scientists has uncovered an important part of the global greenhouse gas budget. This new analysis indicates that greenhouse gas uptake by continents is less optimistic than previously thought.
The balance between carbon uptake by continents and their emissions of greenhouse gases is important because it indicates how much continents can compensate for human emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere.
Past analyses of carbon and greenhouse gas exchanges on continents have failed...
Australian floods threaten Victoria state
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2011
Reuters: Water seeped on to the streets of rural communities in southern Australia today as the country's flood crisis threatened to deliver another region its worst deluge in a century.
Residents of Victoria state waited anxiously for rising waters in their towns to peak, after three weeks of flooding tore a devastating path through the north-eastern state of Queensland, in what could be the country's costliest natural disaster.
The region's Murray-Darling river basin links Queensland with New South...
Kansas teacher discovers new water beetles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2011
Associated Press: LAWRENCE -- University of Kansas entomologist Andrew Short is not new to fieldwork.
The 30-year-old assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology has taken part in 20 expeditions to South America, eight in the past four years to Venezuela to study aquatic insects.
But his latest expedition directed him to what he describes as "a high-difficulty place to get into" -- an unspoiled tropical rain forest in Suriname, where he discovered at least 20 species of water beetles new to science....
The freshwater fish fight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2011
Guardian: While Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been raising awareness about sea fishing with his Fish Fight campaign, it seems an opportune time to cast an eye inland to our native freshwater species: the pike, perch, zander, chub, carp, bream and gudgeon that swim largely uneaten in our lakes and rivers.
Britain has a rich history of consuming freshwater species. In the past those who didn't live near the sea ate whatever they could coax out of inland waterways. Monastic gardens and manor houses almost...
EPA, Florida Face Off Over Water Standards
Posted by National Public Radio: Trimmel Gomes on January 17th, 2011
National Public Radio: Florida officials have renewed their fight against the Environmental Protection Agency over strict new water quality standards. Florida is the first state required to implement these strict guidelines and says it's being singled out unfairly.
Global warming explains flooding, says German scientist
Posted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur: None Given on January 17th, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Floods around the globe this month are partly just vagaries of the weather, but are also partly the outcome of global warming, a German climate expert warns.
Last year and 2005 were the planet's warmest years since daily records began, suggesting increasingly hotter and wetter weather globally.
Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Research Institute on Climate Effects (PIK) spoke to the German Press Agency dpa on Sunday.
dpa: Is global warming causing the major floods, as has been the case in...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Global warming explains flooding, says German scientistWorld is ‘one poor harvest’ from chaos, new book warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 17th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Like many environmentalists, Lester Brown is worried. In his new book "World on the Edge," released this week, Brown says mankind has pushed civilization to the brink of collapse by bleeding aquifers dry and overplowing land to feed an ever-growing population, while overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. If we continue to sap Earth's natural resources, "civilizational collapse is no longer a matter of whether but when," Brown, the founder of Worldwatch and the Earth Policy Institute, which...
Yudhoyono Talks Tough on Forest Destroyers
Posted by Jakarta Globe: None Given on January 17th, 2011
Jakarta Globe: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday ordered provincial governors to act more firmly against mining and plantation firms which continue to destroy forests in the country.
"A number of mining and plantations operations remained destructive to the environment. I urged governors to carry out firmer actions against them," he told a national forum attended by high-ranking officials in the capital.
Indonesia is considered the world's third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, due...
Coal barons must pay for flood damage, says Bob Brown
Posted by Australian: David Uren on January 17th, 2011
Australian: GREENS leader Bob Brown has pinned the blame for the Queensland floods on the coal industry.
He says the sector's contribution to global warming is responsible for the extreme weather conditions causing the floods.
Senator Brown said yesterday the "coal barons" should be made to pay for the damage caused by natural disasters, with half of Canberra's planned mineral resources rent tax set aside for a repairs fund.
"Burning coal is a major cause of global warming," he said. "This industry,...
Uganda: Can farmers curb dry spells?
Posted by New Vision: Thomas Ssemakula on January 17th, 2011
New Vision: TOWARDS the end of last year, weather experts predicated that Uganda would face a long and dry spell. This prediction has already come to pass with the current hot temperatures sweeping throughmost parts of the country.
The drought phenomenon is part of a wave of natural disasters that have hit the world in the past decades as a result of human induced global climate change.
The trend these natural disasters have taken will be aggravated by the projections of extreme weather patterns related...