RSS Feed
Archive for January, 2011
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...
Posted in 
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...
Era of low-cost food is over, study warns
Posted by Financial Times: Clive Cookson on January 25th, 2011
Financial Times: The era of cheap food is at an end, with the real prices of key crops set to rise 50-100 per cent during the next 40 years, according to a UK government report. If supplies are to increase sufficiently to prevent widespread starvation as the global population heads towards 9bn, an “agricultural revolution” is needed, says the report produced by the Foresight think-tank. The term “sustainable intensification” is used to describe the method of enlisting all technologies, including genetic modification,...
Climate benefits of natural gas may be overstated
Posted by ProPublica: Abrahm Lustgarten on January 25th, 2011
ProPublica: The United States is poised to bet its energy future on natural gas as a clean, plentiful fuel that can supplant coal and oil. But new research by the Environmental Protection Agency--and a growing understanding of the pollution associated with the full "life cycle" of gas production--is casting doubt on the assumption that gas offers a quick and easy solution to climate change. Advocates for natural gas routinely assert that it produces 50 percent less greenhouse gases than coal and is a significant...
Chromium-6 and clean water
Posted by Guardian: Rebecca Sutton on January 25th, 2011
Guardian: The Environmental Working Group welcomes informed scrutiny of our recent study on hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) in tap water. We detected this probable human carcinogen in the water of 31 of 35 American cities tested.
We now know that chromium-6 exposure is not limited to communities like Hinkley and Kettleman City, California, victims of extreme industrial pollution and corporate malfeasance. Our results show that communities across the United States, and probably around the world, may be...
Western Canadian province sees major spring floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2011
Reuters: The western Canadian province of Manitoba, a key producer of wheat and canola, will see major spring flooding if weather conditions continue as expected, the provincial government said on Monday.
The province gave its earliest outlook for spring flooding in recent memory -- one month ahead of usual -- out of concern about already-saturated soil conditions, heavy snowfall and expectations of a cooler and wetter than normal spring.
The flat southern Manitoba Prairie around the Red River is prone...