RSS Feed
Archive for April 4th, 2011
Water Utilities Failed to Alert Public to Presence of Likely Carcinogen, Group Says
Posted by GreenWire: Jeremy P. Jacobs on April 4th, 2011
Greenwire: U.S. water utilities have known about the prevalence of a likely carcinogen in water sources for seven years and have failed to share that information with the public, according to an advocacy group, which released today a 2004 industry study of hexavalent chromium.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) Research Foundation study focused on hexavalent chromium in groundwater sources nationwide. The AWWA report was obtained and released by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group today. ...
Posted in 
Japan to dump 11,500 tons low-radioactive water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
Reuters: Japan will need to discharge a total of 11,500 tons of low-contaminated water into the ocean from the site of a stricken nuclear reactor, a senior Japanese nuclear official said in Vienna on Monday. "The total amount of water is 11,500 tons," Koichiro Nakamura, a deputy director general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), told a news conference when asked how much water Japan needed to dump into the ocean. He said this was a required measure to avoid a more serious risk. Plant...
‘No Safe Levels’ of Radiation in Japan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
Inter Press Service: In a nuclear crisis that is becoming increasingly serious, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed that radioactive iodine-131 in seawater samples taken near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that was seriously damaged by the recent tsunami off the coast of Japan is 4,385 times the level permitted by law.
Airborne radiation near the plant has been measured at 4-times government limits.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the company that operates the crippled plant, has begun releasing...
Panorama of Species Tweaks Life for Climate
Posted by New York Times: Carl Zimmer on April 4th, 2011
New York Times: Over the past 540 million years, life on Earth has passed through five great mass extinctions. In each of those catastrophes, an estimated 75 percent or more of all species disappeared in a few million years or less. For decades, scientists have warned that humans may be ushering in a sixth mass extinction, and recently a group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, tested the hypothesis. They applied new statistical methods to a new generation of fossil databases. As they reported...
Radioactive Water To Be Released From Japan Plant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
National Public Radio: The operator of Japan's besieged nuclear power plant began pumping moderately radioactive water into the ocean to make room for water that's more severely contaminated.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. says the release of the water, which has radiation levels above the legal limit, is necessary to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors fully under control.
Most of the radioactive material in the water is iodine-131, which will essentially decay away to nothing in the next few months. Japanese...
Mangrove Destruction Accounts For 10% Of CO2 Emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
REDORBIT: According to a study released on Sunday, mangroves are in important bulkhead against climate change.
The study found that destruction of these tropical coastal woodlands accounts for about 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation, which is the second largest source of CO2 after fossil fuel combustion.
Fewer trees would lead to less CO2 being absorbed from the air and would also release carbon stocks that have been accumulating in shallow-water sediment over millennia.
Mangroves...
“Epidemiological” Study Demonstrates Climate Change Effects on Forests
Posted by National Science Foundation: None Given on April 4th, 2011
National Science Foundation: "Epidemiological" Study Demonstrates Climate Change Effects on Forests
Study of 27,000 trees shows early spring warming, summer drought as major factors
Some 280,000 tree-years of data show that magnolias are vulnerable to climate change.
An 18-year study of 27,000 individual trees by National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientists finds that tree growth and fecundity--the ability to produce viable seeds--are more sensitive to climate change than previously thought.
The results, published...
Declining mangroves shield against global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
AFP: Mangroves, which have declined by up to half over the last 50 years, are an important bulkhead against climate change, a study released on Sunday has shown for the first time.
Destruction of these tropical coastal woodlands accounts for about 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation, the second largest source of CO2 after fossil fuel combustion, the study found.
Fewer trees not only mean less CO2 absorbed from the air, but also the release of carbon stocks that have been accumulating...
Carbon-rich mangroves ripe for conservation
Posted by Nature: Janelle Weaver on April 4th, 2011
Nature: Carbon-rich mangroves ripe for conservation
Failing to preserve mangrove forests could cause sizeable carbon emissions.
Until now, the amount of carbon locked up in mangrove forests was largely unknown
Mangrove forests in tropical regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans store more carbon than previously recognized, according to a study published today in Nature Geoscience1. The findings indicate that much of the carbon in such forests is found in the surrounding soil, which is rich in organic...
Japan nuclear plant to release radioactive water into sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2011
Guardian: Japanese police outside Tokyo Electric, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant where radioactive water is to be released that is 100 times the legal limit. Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images
The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant has started breaking its own regulations by discharging 11,500 tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific to make space for more highly radioactive liquid.
The release of water that is 100 times the legal limit is an unprecedented breach of...