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Archive for March 17th, 2011
Canada’s unique wetlands under threat: report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Canada must limit large-scale industrial activity in its boreal forest, the world's largest intact timberland, to preserve millions of lakes and rivers critical to forming Arctic sea ice, a new report said Wednesday.
The first of its kind study by the Pew Environment Group shows Canada's boreal forest contains more unfrozen freshwater than any other ecosystem, totaling more than 197 million acres of surface freshwater.
"When you look at a color-coded map of the world's (unspoiled) freshwater...
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Pulp and paper firms urged to save 1.2M ha of forest slated for clearing in Indonesia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Mongabay: Forest to pulp mill in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Eyes on the Forest presented its case for a stronger moratorium in a report sent to Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of Indonesia's REDD task force, an authority especially directly by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This image is from the Eyes on the Forest filing with Kuntoro.
Indonesian environmental groups launched a urgent plea urging the country's two largest pulp and paper companies not to clear 800,000 hectares of forest and peatland...
Plasticity of plants helps them adapt to climate change
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on March 17th, 2011
Science Centric: The study, which has been published in Trends in Plant Science, provides an overview of plants' molecular and genetic mechanisms, which is important for ecologists, physiologists and molecular biologists, since it covers the prime requirements for anticipating plants' response to global change.
The results show that plants in natural and agricultural systems have 'the capacity to adapt to a changing environment without requiring any evolutionary changes, which always happens over several generations,'...
Japan nuclear crisis deepens as radiation keeps crews at bay
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Guardian: Helicopter crews and teams of police officers in water cannon trucks are battling intense radiation at the crippled Fukushima power station in Japan in a desperate attempt to douse overheating fuel rods with tonnes of water.
Authorities have drafted in extra workers and turned to ever more radical tactics as fears grow that pools used to cool down spent fuel rods have leaked, leaving the rods exposed and in danger of catching fire, which could release huge amounts of radiation into the air.
Tepco,...
Deadly heatwaves will be more frequent in coming decades, say scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Guardian: The heatwave that scorched eastern Europe in 2010, killing thousands of people and devastating crops, was the worst since records began and led to the warmest summer on the continent for at least 500 years, a new scientific analysis has revealed.
The research also suggests that "mega-heatwaves", such as the prolonged extreme temperatures that struck western Europe in 2003 will become five to 10 times more likely over the next 40 years, occurring at least once a decade. But the 2010 heatwave was...
Cable reaches Japan nuclear plant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
BBC: Thursday's attempt to use helicopters to dump seawater on to the Fukushima power station is almost certainly unprecedented in more than half a century of nuclear power operations around the world.
Long-range video footage indicates why it is not a more widely-used technique: it does not appear to work.
Water cannon - tried, with similar results - seemed a similarly desperate measure.
Far more orthodox was the plan to reconnect the stricken facility back to the national grid, enabling the...
High Radiation Severely Hinders Emergency Work to Cool Japanese Plant
Posted by New York Times: NORIMITSU ONISHI, DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD on March 17th, 2011
New York Times: Amid widening alarm in the United States and elsewhere about Japan’s nuclear crisis, military fire trucks began spraying cooling water on spent fuel rods at the country’s stricken nuclear power station late Thursday after earlier efforts to cool the rods failed, Japanese officials said.
The development came as the authorities reached for ever more desperate and unconventional methods to cool damaged reactors, deploying helicopters and water cannons in a race to prevent perilous overheating in...
The refugees of climate change
Posted by News: None Given on March 17th, 2011
News: Fishermen, farmers and herdsmen who once led prosperous lives in the flood-prone district of Thatta are now being forced to scramble from village to village to avoid natural disasters. These people, according to experts, are "refugees of climate change".
They live in constant fear of high tides, floods and cyclones. A persistent shortage of drinking water has compelled the residents of 16 small villages in Kharo Chan Taluka to migrate to different areas and some of them have even been forced...
Germany’s Eco-Trap: Is Environmentalism Really Working?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Spiegel: As usual, ordinary Germans were to blame. Everything had been prepared for the green revolution: fresh supplies and new signs at the gas stations, and the refinery depots were full to the brim with the new wonderfuel. But then drivers turned their backs on the new era. They didn't want to buy E10, a blend of ethanol and gasoline, even through it cost almost 10 cents less per liter than conventional gas. "It's annoying but there's no question of stopping the sale of E10," said Environment Minister...
Brazil’s water management challenges open doors for cleantech entrepreneurs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 17th, 2011
Guardian: Brazil's massive economic growth could have environmental consequences in the future, and the two-fold punch of an increasing population and an agricultural boom threatens its plentiful water supply. Nanotechnology and cleantech entrepreneurs, however, will find opportunity in Latin America's largest economy.
While many countries still suffer from an economic hangover due to the 2008 global financial crisis, Brazil's economy continues to grow. Once a fiscal lost cause, Brazil emerged from years...