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Archive for May, 2011
The Middle East is running dry – and into the perfect storm?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Guardian: Water stress is at its most extreme in the Middle East and north Africa, according to Maplecroft's water stress index. Photograph: maplecroft.com
Water, it's the very stuff of life, and a high-resolution analysis of the most water-stressed places on Earth reveals anew a stark reality. The Middle East and north Africa (Mena), currently in the middle of a historic wave of unrest, is by far the worst affected region.
Of the 16 nations suffering extreme water stress, according to risk analysts...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on The Middle East is running dry – and into the perfect storm?Activists Protest Destruction of 500-Year-Old Forest by Road
Posted by Inter Press Service: Kester Kenn Klomegah on May 19th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Environmentalists and rights campaigners have mounted pressure on the Russian government to rescind the decision to demolish more than 500-year-old woodlands to make way for the construction of a new super-highway linking Moscow with the country's northern capital, St. Petersburg.
Despite the divided public reaction, the multi-lane motorway project was given the go-ahead in late December, just three months after President Dmitry Medvedev suspended it. Ecologists have argued the new highway could...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Activists Protest Destruction of 500-Year-Old Forest by RoadClimatologist: Flooding the Result of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Public News Service: Connecticut rivers have been high this spring, but nothing like the record-breaking, devastating flooding of the Mississippi River. Some climatologists point to climate change as a direct cause of these extreme weather events.
Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says the environment in which all these storms are occurring is different than it was, for instance, 30 years ago.
"When we look at the statistics, we find that the very heavy rains are...
China acknowledges dam ‘problems’
Posted by BBC: Michael Bristow on May 19th, 2011
BBC: China acknowledges Three Gorges dam 'problems'
Beijing The Three Gorges is the world's largest dam China has admitted that the Three Gorges Dam has created a range of major problems that need solving quickly.
Top leaders say the project has led to environmental problems and issues involving relocating 1.3m people.
The Three Gorges is the world's largest dam and could have cost up to $40bn. This appears to be the first time that central government leaders have admitted to problems with the...
China confronts raft of problems at Three Gorges
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Associated Press: China is acknowledging serious troubles with its showcase Three Gorges Dam project, citing an urgent need to curb pollution and do a better job with relocations and disaster management related to the world's biggest hydroelectric project.
A government statement released Thursday outlines a blueprint for a cleaner, safer and more sustainable future for the Three Gorges, a scenic section of the Yangtze River that was dammed to create a 410-mile (660-kilometer) -long reservoir.
With shipping stalled...
Waters still rising on the Mississippi
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Independent: A US Army engineer inspects sandbags on the banks of the Mississippi river in Natchez yesterday, where cargo was slowly moving along the flooded river after a costly daylong standstill.
Floodwaters are still rising, threatening thousands of acres of farmland on the lower Delta.
Scientists Clash on Claims Over Extinction ‘Overestimates’
Posted by Green Wire: Paul Voosen on May 18th, 2011
Green Wire: For decades, it has been an open secret among conservationists. An elegant equation widely used to calculate how many species will go extinct from deforestation and habitat destruction -- one of the "laws" of ecological theory -- was a little shaky.
More often than not, unless carefully calibrated, the equation seemed to overestimate extinction rates.
Early threats of mass global extinctions by 2000, based on the algorithm, failed to materialize. Exploring why, ecologists developed ideas like...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists Clash on Claims Over Extinction ‘Overestimates’U.S. weather extremes show “new normal” climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Reuters: Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a "new normal" of extreme U.S. weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday.
"It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University told reporters.
"We are used to certain conditions and there's a lot going on these days that is not what we're used to,...
Species Extinctions Overestimated by 160 Percent?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
National Geographic: Global extinction rates may have been overestimated by as much as 160 percent, according to a new analysis.
In recent decades numerous studies have predicted that habitat destruction will doom some 20 to 50 percent of Earth's species within 500 years.
"By 2050 Warming to Doom Million Species, Study Says.")
It's true that many species are still dying off, but the decline is happening at a slower pace than generally feared, according to study co-author Stephen Hubbell, an ecologist at the...
UF research aims to help preserve plants, animals caught between forest ‘fragments’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
EurekAlert: Maintaining the world's threatened animal and plant species may rest with something as simple as knowing how far a bird can fly before it must answer nature's call.
Birds disperse seeds as they travel, but deforestation can mean those seeds might land where they can't sprout and grow, according to a University of Florida researcher who co-wrote a study in last month's issue of Ecology that looks at how tropical birds disperse plant seeds in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
If birds spread plant...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UF research aims to help preserve plants, animals caught between forest ‘fragments’