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Archive for February, 2011
Tar sands pipeline poses health risks, campaigners claim
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Guardian: Just after dawn on July 26, 2010, homeowners along Talmadge Creek near Marshall, Michigan, awoke to the chemical stench of raw fuel. Several bolted outside and followed the sickening stink to the creek's wooded banks and found its source: a torrent of black goo, unlike anything ever experienced in Michigan or anywhere else in the upper Midwest, heading downstream to the Kalamazoo River.
The black goo originated some 2,000 miles away, in the tar sands fields of Alberta, Canada. There, a massive...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Tar sands pipeline poses health risks, campaigners claimRising seas threaten 180 US cities by 2100: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Reuters: Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected.
Previous studies have looked at where rising waters might go by the end of this century, assuming various levels of sea level rise, but this latest research focused on municipalities in the contiguous 48 states with population of 50,000 or more.
Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will...
Study links rise in rain and snow to human actions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
New York Times: An increase in heavy precipitation that has afflicted many countries is at least partly a consequence of human influence on the atmosphere, climate scientists reported in a new study.
Members of the British Army tried to reinforce floodwalls in North Yorkshire in November 2000, when severe rains flooded England and Wales.
In the first major paper of its kind, the researchers used elaborate computer programs that simulate the climate to analyze whether the rise in severe rainstorms, heavy snowfalls...
Scientists identify human connection to precipitation extremes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Climate Central: With waters finally receding from early 2011's collection of devastating floods, people in many parts of the world are wondering if the storms and their aftermath are a preview of future extreme weather. Until recently, there's been little evidence that climate change is responsible for the growing number of intense rainfall events seen in many regions, but new research now shows there is a clear connection between some heavy rainfall events and increasing levels of climate-warming greenhouse gases...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists identify human connection to precipitation extremesUnited Kingdom: Extreme Storms Linked To Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
redOrbit: Two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature suggest that extreme rainstorms and snowfalls have grown considerably stronger over the last half of the 20th century, with scientists linking man-made global warming to the torrential downpours. The studies are among the first to identify the telltale signs of climate change and its impact on deadly and damaging extreme weather events. Australia, Brazil, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all been devastated recently by massive flooding, raising questions...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Extreme Storms Linked To Greenhouse Gas EmissionsUnited Kingdom: Man-made climate change doubling risk of extreme flooding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Ecologist: By allowing emissions to to rise humans may have doubled the likelihood of further floods like those that struck the UK in 2000, say climate scientists in first attempt to prove link between man-made climate change and extreme weather
Humans are increasing the risk of dangerous flooding events by allowing greenhouse gas concentrations to continue to rise in the atmosphere, according to a groundbreaking new study.
Analysing the floods in England and Wales in 2000, climate scientists found a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Man-made climate change doubling risk of extreme floodingIndonesia set to free orangutans into ‘killing fields’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: More than 1,000 captive orangutans set for release into the wild on Borneo island are being sent into a "killing field" of illegal logging and poaching, conservationists said Thursday.
Indonesia has reserved 86,450 hectares (214,000 acres) of forest in Muara Wahau, East Kalimantan province, for the rehabilitation of 1,200 captive big apes over the next four years.
But the independent Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) warned that the endangered mammals were being sent to their deaths unless...
China ministry: drought likely to last, threatening winter wheat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Reuters: China's ongoing drought in northern wheat areas is likely to continue, threatening the winter crop, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday.
The drought worsened in some wheat areas that haven't seen precipitation recently despite a slight decrease in the overall size of the drought-hit region as of Wednesday, said the ministry in a statement published on its web site.
For areas that have received precipitation or irrigation recently, the drought may reappear with rising temperature, as...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China ministry: drought likely to last, threatening winter wheatRare frog proves glimmer of hope for ‘lost amphibians’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Telegraph: The Rio Pescado stubfoot toad was found during a night time search by a remote stream in Ecuador.
The striking spotted toad has not been seen since 1995 and the discovery should help to protect the last surviving specimens or stubfoot - or harlequin toads - living in the wild.
But despite the involvement of more than 120 scientists across five continents the search for nine other elusive creatures that make up the world's top 10 'lost amphibians' proved fruitless.
Dr Robin Moore, of Conservation...
Malaysia drops coal power plant scheme: minister
Posted by Agence France -Presse: None Given on February 17th, 2011
Agence France -Presse: A plan to build a controversial coal-fired power plant in Malaysian Borneo has been scrapped over fears of its impact on the environment, a local minister was quoted as saying Thursday.
Musa Aman, Sabah chief minister, said coal would not be used as a source of energy in the state as it could hurt the environment and damage its key tourism industry.
"Sabah needs to increase its power supply but the state cannot put its natural environment at risk," he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper....