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Archive for May, 2011
Brazil does away with laws to protect large swathes of rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Telegraph: The bill, which now goes to the Senate, was initially intended as a measure to rein in unfettered logging, and increase protections of Brazil's forested areas, which play an important role in reducing greenhouse gases.
But farm-based economic interests prevailed against environmentalists in reshaping the bill to ease restrictions that have been in place since 1965 and are credited with curbing deforestation.
"The Chamber of Deputies (on Tuesday) turned what was a forest protection law into...
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United States: Climate changes chomp away at Cape
Posted by Cape Cod Online: Eric Williams on May 25th, 2011
Cape Cod Online: Erosion, that hungry land-eating beast, may be getting a power boost around Cape Cod as climate change kicks up higher sea levels and increases storm intensity and frequency.
That was the hatch-battening message from Cape Cod National Seashore GIS specialist Mark Adams, a mapping guru who has been trying to decipher how flooding and erosion brought on by accelerated coastal processes might affect Seashore properties -- roads, parking lots and historical structures -- as time munches on.
Owners...
South Korea probes second report of U.S. army chemical dumping
Posted by Reuters: Jeremy Laurence on May 25th, 2011
Reuters: South Korea opened a second investigation in days into a report that the U.S. military dumped toxic chemicals near the capital decades ago, a Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday, threatening to trigger an anti-American backlash. Experts have been sent to the former U.S. base in Bucheon, west of Seoul, to check out the claims after South Korean media reported that a U.S. veteran had said "hundreds of gallons" of chemicals were buried there between 1963 and 1964. The accusations could rekindle...
Chevron heads face shareholders after huge $18bn Ecuador fine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2011
Guardian: 'Chevron [should] cease its lies and pay,' said Humberto Piaguaje, an Ecuadorian tribal leader attending the AGM. Chevron bosses are facing shareholders for the first time since the company was fined a total of $18bn (£11.1bn) by a court in Ecuador over contamination from oil extraction in the Amazon. California's largest oil company is coming under increasing pressure from institutional investors and long-term shareholders who are gathering at the annual general meeting at Chevron's HQ in San Ramon,...
China crisis over Yangtze river drought forces drastic dam measures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2011
Guardian: The dried up Yangtze river in southwest China's Chongqing municipality. The severe drought has forced a massive release of water from China's Three Gorges reservoir for irrigation and drinking water.
The Yangtze – Asia's biggest river – is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years, forcing an unprecedented release of water from the Three Gorges reservoir. The drought is damaging crops, threatening wildlife and raising doubts about the viability of China's massive water diversion ambitions.
Between...
Al-Qaida threat ‘catastrophic’ for west African monsoon project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2011
Guardian: AMMA scientists work near a dust sensor in July 2006 near Niamey, Niger. The mission's aims include understanding the reasons of drought in the Sahel. A major international research project in Africa will lose vital data because of the suspension of fieldwork in Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, after the French government declared the area a 'no go zone' for its nationals.
The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project, involving more than 400 scientists from 140 institutions in 30...
Central China drought ‘worst in over 50 years’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2011
AFP: Central China's worst drought in more than 50 years is drying reservoirs, stalling rice planting, and threatens crippling power shortages as hydroelectric plants lie idle, state media said Wednesday.
Rainfall levels from January to April in the drainage basin of the Yangtze, China's longest and most economically important river, have been 40 percent lower than average levels of the past 50 years, the China Daily said.
The national flood and drought control authority has ordered the Three Gorges...
Bacteria ‘abound in hailstones’
Posted by BBC: Jason Palmer on May 25th, 2011
BBC: A study of hailstones has found large numbers of bacteria at their cores.
The find lends credence to the "bio-precipitation" idea, which suggests that bacteria are actively involved in stimulating precipitation.
The bacteria have protein coatings that cause water to freeze at relatively warm temperatures.
Researchers at the American Society for Microbiology meeting suggest bacteria may have evolved to use the water cycle to facilitate their own dispersal.
The micro-organisms that can...
China power crunch to worsen as drought slashes hydro output
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2011
Reuters: The worst drought to hit central China in half a century has brought water levels in some of the country's biggest hydropower producing regions to critical levels and could exacerbate electricity shortages over the summer.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday that the water level at the world's biggest hydropower plant at the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province has fallen to 152.7 meters, well below the 156-m mark required to run its 26 turbines effectively.
Total capacity at the...
Biggest Floods in History—Does Mississippi Make the List?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 24th, 2011
National Geographic: As the crest of the Mississippi River flood moves through New Orleans and out to sea this week, peak river levels recorded during the month-long deluge threaten to top even the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
The most destructive river flood in U.S. history, the 1927 event moved about 2 million cubic feet (65,000 cubic meters) of water—enough to fill about 26 Olympic-size swimming pools—every second. (See pictures: "Mississippi River at Its Worst.")
"The numbers are still provisional, but...