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Archive for May 6th, 2011
Study: Global warming reduced corn, wheat harvests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 6th, 2011
Agence France Presse: Climate change has stunted the worldwide increase in corn and wheat yields since 1980 by 3.8 and 5.5 percent respectively, according to a new study in the journal Science.
Without global warming, total harvests of both crops would have been significantly larger than they were, the statistical analysis found.
The shortfall equals the annual yield of corn in Mexico, some 23 metric tonnes, and wheat in France, about 33 metric tonnes.
One of the country's with the largest crop loss was Russia,...
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EPA ratchets down radiation samples in milk, water
Posted by Associated Press: Garance Burke on May 6th, 2011
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency has ratcheted down the nation's radiation monitoring program for rain, drinking water and milk in response to a consistent drop in the levels of fallout detected in the wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis.
Extremely low amounts of radioactive iodine showed up in milk sampled in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts over the last two weeks, but agency officials said Friday the levels were so miniscule they were not harmful to public health.
A...
Mont. Senate Race Will Turn on Energy, Climate, Natural Resource Issues
Posted by Greenwire: Jean Chemnick on May 6th, 2011
Greenwire: Democrat Jon Tester has tried to steer a middle course in his first term in the Senate between safeguarding Montana's natural beauty and protecting its economic interests as he sees them -- whether that means allowing wolf hunting or opening new areas of the forest to logging.
But Republicans are betting that the senator has failed to prove to Montanans that he will buck his party to protect them from environmental regulations, which many oppose both on principle and because the state's economy...
Enviros, GOP Lawmakers Square Off Over Plan to Block Southwest Endangered Species Listings
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 6th, 2011
Greenwire: Environmental groups are marshalling opposition to a proposal by four Republican lawmakers from New Mexico and Texas to yank the Fish and Wildlife Service's ability to provide Endangered Species Act protections to a lizard and grouse that roam parts of the Southwest. Groups including WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity this week accused Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) of misstating the effects of FWS's proposal to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species. In an...
White House Orders Agencies to Submit Overdue Scientific Integrity Policies
Posted by Greenwire: Emily Yehle on May 6th, 2011
Greenwire: The White House is requiring federal agencies to submit drafts of their scientific integrity policies in August, more than two years after President Obama announced plans to protect scientists' work from political meddling.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced yesterday in a blog post that agencies have 90 days to submit drafts, news that was welcome to advocacy groups who have waited years for such progress.
Gavin Baker, a federal information policy analyst at...
Forest fires: Britain bursts into flames
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 6th, 2011
Telegraph: Well, I suppose, if you wait long enough, a barbecue spring -- if not yet a summer -- will eventually turn up, like the number 11 bus. And it has arrived with a vengeance. Two years after the Met Office made its ill-fated prediction, and as these normally damp islands swelter in temperatures that have at times outstripped the Sahara, cookouts have been one of the causes of the wildfires that have set much of the country ablaze.
Tinder-dry after months of low rainfall, our heaths, moors and forests...
Feds drop Bush era endangered species policy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 6th, 2011
Associated Press: The Obama administration has discarded a Bush administration policy that considered state boundaries when determining endangered species protections.
Under the policy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could require special protection for a species in one state but not in another, even though the species' habitat exists in both states.
In 2008, the agency imposed protections for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse in Colorado but not in neighboring Wyoming.
U.S. Interior Department Solicitor...
What kind of pesticide is your exterminator using?
Posted by Yahoo! Green: None Given on May 6th, 2011
Yahoo! Green: A reputable exterminator should list the active ingredients in their pesticides. The exterminator also should tell you the potential health threats associated with the pesticide, symptoms of poisoning and any additional instructions for minimizing exposure and health impacts.
While each company likely has a unique formula, the most common ingredients in professional-grade pesticides are pyrethroids and pyrethrins, according to a June 2010 study in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental...
Papua New Guinea suspends controversial grants of community forest lands to foreign corps
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 6th, 2011
Mongabay: Papua New Guinea suspends controversial grants of community forest lands to foreign corps
Papua New Guinea, as viewed from Google Earth, covers the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as other Pacific Islands.
The government of Papua New Guinea yesterday suspended its controversial Special Agricultural and Business Leases program which has granted logging and plantation development concessions to mostly foreign corporations across 5.2 million hectares of community forest land,...
Climate Change Effects in Arctic More Extensive than Expected
Posted by U.S. News and World Report: None Given on May 6th, 2011
U.S. News and World Report: Together with Terry Callaghan, a researcher at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Margareta is the editor of the two chapters on snow and permafrost.
"The changes we see are dramatic. And they are not coincidental. The trends are unequivocal and deviate from the norm when compared with a longer term perspective", she says.
The Arctic is one of the parts of the globe that is warming up fastest today. Measurements of air temperature show that the most recent five-year period has been the...