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Archive for February, 2011
Scientists finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 19th, 2011
Associated Press: A University of Georgia scientist has gone public with video and slides showing how oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The images demonstrate that the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. At a science conference in Washington, Samantha Joye aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes...
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Researchers cite climate change in forest decline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 19th, 2011
Associated Press: Researchers predicted aspens and white pines in the West will face worsening devastation because climate change will make them more susceptible to disease and bugs, including an infestation of bark beetles.
The researchers spoke Friday at a conference in Aspen.
Jim Worrall, a U.S. Forest Service plant pathologist, says overwhelming circumstantial evidence indicates climate change has left aspens stressed and vulnerable. About 845 square miles of aspens died in 2008.
The Aspen Times reports...
‘Climate change reshapes tropical forests’
Posted by PressTV: None Given on February 19th, 2011
PressTV: The results of a new study suggest that future changes in climate and rainfall patterns can greatly affect the characteristics of tropical forests.
According to the study published in the journal Global Change Biology, future climate change would affect carbon storage and biodiversity, the state-funded BBC reported.
"It is important because - depending on the rate of change, and the type of species that are found in the forests - it will influence a lot of ecosystem services and processes,"...
India: Climate change action plan by April
Posted by Morung Express: None Given on February 19th, 2011
Morung Express: Viewing the impact of climate change with seriousness that poses a grave threat to rich and varied natural resources of the state and threatens the livelihood, the state government and stakeholders today pulled themselves up to address the issue and taking the decision to frame the State Action Plan on Climate Change. "Climate change and its effects have already started to manifest itself in our own backyard,' asserted Minister for Forest M.C. Konyak while speaking at the workshop here today as part...
United States: In brief: UI to study climate change
Posted by Spokesman Review: None Given on February 19th, 2011
Spokesman Review: The University of Idaho will lead a $20 million research project to help Northwest wheat and barley growers adapt to climate change.
The Northwest grows about 13 percent of the nation’s wheat and 80 percent of the country’s soft white wheat exports. Grain sales are valued at $1.5 billion annually. Some climate models are predicting changes that would affect growing conditions in the Northwest and other prime wheat-producing regions.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding the five-year,...
Picturing Pakistan’s Floods: A Photographer Looks Back
Posted by National Public Radio: Jonathan Makiri on February 19th, 2011
National Public Radio: 2010 was a year when catastrophic natural disasters felt in abundance and seemed to span the entire calendar year. With the media focused on the dire conditions these disasters caused, the devastating floods that swept across Pakistan, from July through mid-September, seemed to have garnered far less attention.
Photographer Daniel Berehulak was there for much of it, shooting in-depth, long-term coverage of a disaster that killed an estimated 1,700, affected more than 20 million and at one point...
Global warming ‘may increase water-borne diseases’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 19th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Climate change could increase exposure to water-borne diseases originating in oceans, lakes and coastal ecosystems, and the impact could be felt within 10 years, US scientists told a conference in Washington on Saturday.
Several studies have shown that shifts brought about by climate change make ocean and freshwater environments more susceptible to toxic algae blooms and allow harmful microbes and bacteria to proliferate, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said....
Japan touts pedal-powered water purifier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 19th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: A Japanese company is gearing up for large-scale production in Bangladesh of a bicycle that can also be used to purify water at disaster zones or remote villages.
"If you can bike to a river, pond, pool or other sources of water, all you need is your leg power to produce clean drinking water," Yuichi Katsuura, president of Nippon Basic Co. said on Thursday as he introduced the system.
Cycloclean needs only manpower to turn a bike chain driving a motor to pump water through a series of filters,...
India: Chhattisgarh climate change can hit Chennai
Posted by Deccan Chronicle: None Given on February 19th, 2011
Deccan Chronicle: With all-powerful coal lobby in the country almost getting permission to go for “phased mining” of lakhs of hectares of forest areas in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, environmentalists have sounded alarm bells about an impending ecological disaster.
“India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular will see the mercury crossing all previous records and rains coming to naught. If Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand sneeze, Tamil Nadu will catch a cold,” said Dr. Nanditha Krishna, noted environmentalist and director,...
Montana bill would ’embrace’ global warming
Posted by Associated Press: Matt Volz on February 19th, 2011
Associated Press: A Montana legislator is proposing the state embrace global warming and wrest control of greenhouse gas regulation from the federal government, ideas that scientists and environmentalists call an indefensible denial of physics and a waste of taxpayer money.
Republican Rep. Joe Read of Ronan aims to pass a law that says global warming is a natural occurrence that "is beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana."
Montana holds large tracts of coal reserves and fossil-fuel extraction...