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Archive for July 29th, 2011
United States: On Hudson Pollution, Back to Routine Worries
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
New York Times: Water tests along the Hudson River show that bacteria levels are falling near the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Harlem, which stopped treating sewage for a few days last week because of a fire.
But now that the raw sewage discharges from the accident have stopped, says the environmental group Riverkeeper, we’re back to worrying about the routine ones caused by rain.
Riverkeeper said that results from its sampling on Monday to test for the bacterium enterococcus, found in the intestines...
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Sea Level Rise Less From Greenland, More From Antarctica, Than Expected During Last Interglacial
Posted by redOrbit: Jill Saka on July 29th, 2011
redOrbit: During the last prolonged warm spell on Earth, the oceans were at least four meters – and possibly as much as 6.5 meters, or about 20 feet – higher than they are now.
Where did all that extra water come from? Mainly from melting ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, and many scientists, including University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscience assistant professor Anders Carlson, have expected that Greenland was the main culprit.
But Carlson's new results, published July 29 in Science, are challenging...
Drought and water shortages stalk Eritrea’s refugee camps
Posted by Ecologist: Matilde Gattoni on July 29th, 2011
Ecologist: 50,000 people are estimated to be living in refugee camps in Eritrea. Growing taste for 'long life' sandwiches threatens health and environment Public sector should develop GM crops for seed companies, says leading researcher Air pollution may be ‘health timebomb’ for London’s deprived children Lamb, beef and cheese have largest food footprint Sceptics told they'd be 'foolish' to ignore potential of geoengineering Drought and water shortages stalk Eritrea's refugee camps In the second of our series...
EPA targets air pollution from gas drilling boom
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
Associated Press: 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...
EPA seeks to reduce oil and gas pollution
Posted by Daily Times: Chuck Slothowe on July 29th, 2011
Daily Times: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed rules to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling operations.
The standards would require oil and gas producers to capture emissions from hydraulic fracturing that escape into the air.
If enacted, the proposed standards would have wide-ranging effects in the San Juan Basin, one of the nation's busiest natural gas production areas.
The rules focus on smog-forming volatile organic compounds and gases such as methane and benzene....
Northwest tribes see changes in sacred ‘first foods’
Posted by OPB: Rob Manning on July 29th, 2011
OPB: Northwest tribal leaders say they're seeing climate change affect food sources that are vital to their culture.
"All we can do is try to help these plants and animals adapt. If we don't, the future of the tribes' First Foods could be at stake" says Paul Lumley of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
He's worried about the future. Rob Manning reports on how climate change is affecting tribal culture.
Gerald Lewis is a member of the Yakama Tribal Council. He says a traditional...
Freak storm, aging sewers and Chicago’s topography lead to flooding woes
Posted by Chicago Tribune: Michael Hawthorne on July 29th, 2011
Chicago Tribune: Chicago flooding Q&A: Freak storm, aging sewers and Chicago's topography lead to flooding woes
Chicago's Deep Tunnel was billed as an engineering marvel that would "bottle rainstorms," but one of the nation's most expensive public works projects was no match for the biggest rainstorm in the city's recorded history.
Last weekend's deluge quickly saturated aging sewers in the city and suburbs and soon overwhelmed the Deep Tunnel, a cavernous $3 billion backup system built to prevent flooding...
Russia may lose 30 percent of permafrost by 2050
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Russia's vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official said Friday.
"In the next 25 to 30 years, the area of permafrost in Russia may shrink by 10-18 percent," the head of the ministry's disaster monitoring department Andrei Bolov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
"By the middle of the century, it can shrink by 15-30 percent, and the boundary of the permafrost may...
Weather disasters seen costly sign of things to come
Posted by Reuters: Molly O'Toole on July 29th, 2011
Reuters: The United States is on a pace in 2011 to set a record for the cost of weather-related disasters and the trend is expected to worsen as climate change continues, officials and scientists said on Thursday.
"The economic impact of severe weather events is only projected to grow," Senator Dick Durbin said at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and Government, which he chairs. "We are not prepared. Our weather events are getting worse, catastrophic in fact."
Durbin, an Illinois...
Bomb blast hits oil pipeline in western Syria
Posted by Associated Press: Zeina Karam on July 29th, 2011
Associated Press: A bomb blast struck a major oil pipeline in western Syria on Friday, causing oil to spill into a nearby lake. State television said the explosion was a "terrorist" attack by a group of "saboteurs."
It was the second incident involving an oil pipeline in a month, and the second time this week that authorities accused saboteurs of striking installations.
Syrian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown in an effort to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad, and activists say more...