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Archive for March, 2011
Climate change worsens food security for Southeast, East Asia: experts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2011
Xinhua: Climate change will compound challenges of food security for Southeast and East Asia, experts issued the warning in Beijing Tuesday.
Man Ho So, deputy regional representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the region is still home to a quarter of the world's undernourished people and food security remains as a major concern.
"Climate change will compound these challenges further," as the region will be subjected to extreme weather in increasing frequency and intensity...
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US gains help European markets look past crises
Posted by Associated Press: Carlo Piovano on March 29th, 2011
Associated Press: Gains on Wall Street helped most European markets close higher Tuesday despite new ratings downgrades of Portugal and Greece and more bad news from Japan, where authorities struggled to contain radiation from a nuclear power plant.
Sentiment in Europe had been fragile earlier after losses across Asia, as leaks of highly toxic plutonium from Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant suggested the fallout may be worse than previously expected.
The plant was crippled when a towering tsunami -- spawned...
India releases tiger numbers as experts convene
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on March 29th, 2011
Science Centric: The Indian Government today released new tiger population numbers for the first time since 2007, indicating that numbers have increased in the country that has half of the world's remaining wild tigers.
The government estimated current tiger numbers in India at 1,706, up from 1,411 during the last count in 2007. However, the 1,706 figure includes an additional tiger reserve in the count, the Sundarbans, that contained 70 tigers. This area was not counted in 2007.
Therefore, when comparing the...
Study sheds light on how heat is transported to Greenland glaciers
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on March 29th, 2011
Science Centric: Warmer air is only part of the story when it comes to Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet. New research by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) highlights the role ocean circulation plays in transporting heat to glaciers.
Greenland's ice sheet has lost mass at an accelerated rate over the last decade, dumping more ice and fresh water into the ocean. Between 2001 and 2005, Helheim Glacier, a large glacier on Greenland's southeast coast, retreated 5 miles (8 kilometres) and...
The dark side of spring? Pollution in our melting snow
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on March 29th, 2011
Science Centric: With birds chirping and temperatures warming, spring is finally in the air. But for University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) environmental chemist Torsten Meyer, springtime has a dark side.
'During the winter months, contaminants accumulate in the snow,' says Meyer, an expert on snow-bound organic contaminants and a post-doctoral fellow at UTSC. 'When the snow melts, these chemicals are released into the environment at high concentrations.'
In a specially designed, temperature-controlled laboratory...
Ecuador: Trees on Shaky Ground in Texaco’s Rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2011
Inter Press Service: When the trunks of the trees move with every step you take, you know you are in a swamp. This is what happens when you walk over the seemingly firm and vegetation-covered ground over what was once a pit used to dump oil sludge in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.
The extent and impact of oil contamination on the environment and human health in northeastern Ecuador are much worse than anyone could imagine, as Tierramérica discovered during an extensive tour of the area.
This reporter travelled...
Wind can keep mountains from growing
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on March 29th, 2011
Science Centric: Wind is a much more powerful force in the evolution of mountains than previously thought, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led research team.
Bedrock in Central Asia that would have formed mountains instead was sand-blasted into dust, said lead author Paul Kapp.
'No one had ever thought that wind could be this effective,' said Kapp, a UA associate professor of geosciences. 'You won't read in a textbook that wind is a major process in terms of breaking down rock material.'...
Will the Gulf Stream slow down?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2011
Guardian: The Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift – which are part of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation – bring warm water, and with it warm air, from the tropical Atlantic to northern Europe. This helps keep the UK several degrees warmer than it would otherwise be.
Although this system is unlikely to pack up entirely, the IPCC deems a slowdown of it "very likely" over the next century. The reason is that increasing rainfall and snow-melt across the Arctic and nearby land areas could send more freshwater...
Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2011
AFP: More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.
The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world's fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that under current urbanization trends, by mid-century some 993...
Nuclear power: When the steam clears
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2011
Economist: FEAR and uncertainty spread faster and farther than any nuclear fallout. To date the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan, laid low by the tsunami of March 11th, seems to have done little if any long-term damage to the environment beyond the plant’s immediate vicinity or to public health. In fits and starts, and with various reverses, the situation at the plant has come closer to being under control.
But the immediate crisis is far from over. The temperature of the three reactors...