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Archive for April, 2011
Australia: Climate change to bring more heatwaves
Posted by AAP: Evan Schwarten on April 5th, 2011
AAP: Australia can expect more heatwaves, fewer cyclones and possibly more floods as a result of climate change, extreme weather experts say.
Research meteorologist Dr John McBride from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research told reporters in Cairns it was clear that the predicted rise in global temperatures would result in more heatwaves.
"There will be more heatwaves, most certainly," he said.
However, he said the picture was less clear when it came to the impact of climate...
Radioactive water at 5 million times limit found at Japan plant
Posted by Reuters: Mayumi Negishi and Yoko Nishikawa on April 5th, 2011
Reuters: The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found water with 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity as it struggles for a fourth week to contain the world's biggest nuclear disaster in quarter of a century.
Underlining the concern over spreading radiation, the government said it was considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on seafood for the first time in the crisis after contaminated fish were found in seas well south of the damaged nuclear reactors....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Radioactive water at 5 million times limit found at Japan plantStudy Demonstrates Climate Change Effects On Forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2011
redOrbit: 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 tomorrow in the journal Global Change Biology, identify earlier spring warming as one of several factors that affect tree reproduction and growth.
They also show summer drought as an important but overlooked risk factor for tree survival,...
Study sees climate change impact on trees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2011
United Press International: Tree growth and fecundity -- the ability to produce viable seeds -- are more sensitive to climate change than previously thought, an 18-year U.S. study found.
The study of 27,000 individual trees by National Science Foundation-funded scientists identified earlier spring warming as one of several factors that affect tree reproduction and growth. It also found summer drought was an important risk factor for tree survival, and species in four types of trees -- pine, elm, beech, and magnolia -- are...
Mangroves among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics; Coastal trees key to lowering greenhous..
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2011
ScienceDaily: Mangroves Among the Most Carbon-Rich Forests in the Tropics; Coastal Trees Key to Lowering Greenhouse Gases
Coastal mangrove forests store more carbon than almost any other forest on Earth, according to a study conducted by a team of U.S. Forest Service and university scientists.
Their findings are published online in the journal Nature Geoscience.
A research team from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest and Northern research stations, University of Helsinki and the Center for International...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mangroves among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics; Coastal trees key to lowering greenhous..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 Water Conservation Comments Off on Water Utilities Failed to Alert Public to Presence of Likely Carcinogen, Group SaysJapan 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...