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Archive for July 28th, 2011
Climate Change Debunked? Not So Fast
Posted by LiveScience: Stephanie Pappas on July 28th, 2011
LiveScience: New research suggesting that cloud cover, not carbon dioxide, causes global warming is getting buzz in climate skeptic circles. But mainstream climate scientists dismissed the research as unrealistic and politically motivated.
"It is not newsworthy," Daniel Murphy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cloud researcher, wrote in an email to LiveScience.
The study, published July 26 in the open-access online journal Remote Sensing, got public attention when a writer for The...
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United Kingdom: Majority objected to badger cull before policy was approved
Posted by Independent: Jonathan Brown on July 28th, 2011
Independent: Evidence of overwhelming public opposition to the proposed cull of badgers was withheld until the Government had decided to go ahead with the controversial plan.
The results of a consultation held last year revealed that 69 per cent of respondents were against killing up to hundreds of thousands of the mammals in a bid to eradicate tuberculosis from cattle herds in England.
Scientific experts, animal-welfare organisations and wildlife groups objected to the proposal which was announced by the...
EPA proposes first-ever controls on air pollution at oil and gas wells, equipment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2011
Washington Post: Faced with a natural gas drilling boom that has sullied the air in some parts of the country, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed for the first time to control air pollution at oil and gas wells, particularly those drilled using a method called hydraulic fracturing.
The proposal, issued to meet a court deadline, addresses air pollution problems reported in places such as Wyoming, Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado, where new drilling techniques have led to a rush to obtain natural...
African ‘Land Grab’ Threatens Continent’s Food Security
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: The Worldwatch Institute reports that to ensure the food security of their own people, nations across Asia and the Middle East are gobbling up African land. The Washington, D.C.-based group reports that from 2006 to mid-2009, foreign investors purchased 15 to 20 million hectares (37 to 50 million acres) of African land and that millions of additional acres are being sold to governments and not being officially documented. “People are always saying that Africa needs to feed itself,” said Danielle...
Canada: Under fire over emissions, Alberta banks on unproven coal gasification
Posted by Globe and Mail: Josh Wingrove on July 28th, 2011
Globe and Mail: Alberta thrives on the strength of its oil and gas sector, while coal keeps the province's lights on -- as such, in an era where many demand lower emissions, the province is a carbon giant looking to change its ways.
Choking the output of those industries, however, could be economically devastating. So rather than limiting the actual amount produced, the province has pinned its hopes on a process known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), which would see carbon collected and buried deep below...
Tundra fire’s massive carbon release prompts warming worries
Posted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur: None Given on July 28th, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: A massive tundra fire in Alaska in 2007 released as much carbon into the air as a city the size of Miami emits in two years, a study released Wednesday said.
The findings have triggered growing concern among scientists about the escalating effect of ever more frequent tundra fires on global warming.
'The 2007 fire was the canary in the coal mine,' said Michelle Mack of the University of Florida, whose team contributed to the study. 'It's a wakeup call that the Arctic carbon cycle could change...
Survival of plants top of the agenda
Posted by New Zealand Herald: Greg Ansley on July 28th, 2011
New Zealand Herald: While the politics of climate change are being played out in Canberra, many of the world's leading botanists are in Melbourne discussing the science of survival for the planet's plant life.
Researchers at the week-long International Botanical Congress warn of implications ranging from the threat to future food supplies from declining agricultural land and potential clashes between farming and crucial ecosystems to impacts on grape-growing for wine.
And as demand grows for new means of feeding...
Intoxicated on independence: Is domestically produced ethanol worth the cost?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2011
Scientific American: The thundering rumble and whine of race cars whizzing around NASCAR tracks across the U.S. boast engines burning a new fuel this year: ethanol. Given the sport's roots in running corn whiskey among other products during Prohibition in the 1920s, it might be viewed as coming full circle. After all, ethanol as fuel is just a 200-proof version of the drinking variety—albeit blended with more traditional petroleum-based gasoline. But NASCAR is hardly alone: U.S. IndyCar has run exclusively on ethanol...
Arctic fire hints at warming cue
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2011
BBC: An exceptional wildfire in northern Alaska in 2007 put as much carbon into the air as the entire Arctic tundra absorbs in a year, scientists say. The Anaktuvuk River fire burned across more than 1,000 sq km (400 sq miles), doubling the extent of Alaskan tundra visited by fire since 1950. With the Arctic warming fast, the team suggests in the journal Nature that fires could become more common. If that happens, it could create a new climate feedback, they say. Fires in the tundra are uncommon because...
Q. and A.: ‘The Rambunctious Garden’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2011
New York Times: It`s not exactly wilderness, an environmental thinker and author suggests, but the Madrona Woods in Seattle are worth nurturing, and treasuring.
The Madrona Woods cascade down a hillside and through a ravine, connecting the Seattle neighborhood where I live with Lake Washington below. Thanks to volunteer efforts and timely financing, native plants thrive along the pathways, and a restored creek empties into the lake at a recreated cove, offering habitat for salmon fingerlings.
Bald eagles out...