RSS Feed
Archive for August 1st, 2011
Climatic benefits from carbon sequestration are largely offset by increased nitrous oxide emissions, s
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2011
ScienceDaily: Recent studies have shown that human nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems increase the terrestrial carbon dioxide uptake from the atmosphere. A new study published online in Nature Geoscience reports now that the climatic benefits from carbon sequestration are largely offset by increased nitrous oxide emissions, a further side-effect of human nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems.
Human activities have more than doubled nitrogen inputs to the terrestrial biosphere since the 1860s....
Posted in 
Greenhouse gas impact of hydroelectric reservoirs downgraded
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2011
ScienceDaily: Greenhouse Gas Impact of Hydroelectric Reservoirs Downgraded
An international team of scientists has amassed the largest data set to date on greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric reservoirs. Their analysis, published August 1 in the online version of Nature Geoscience, posits that these human-made systems emit about 1/6 of the carbon dioxide and methane previously attributed to them.
Prior studies based on more limited data cautioned that hydroelectric reservoirs could be a significant...
Chart: US suffers record drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2011
Mongabay: Map shows the level of drought and dryness across the US. Map courtesy US Department of Agriculture. Click to enlarge.
An exceptional drought is still scorching major parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. A new report from the National Drought Mitigation Center finds that over July, nearly 12 percent of the US saw exceptional drought conditions, the highest record since monitoring began a dozen years. Exceptional drought is the worst possible on a 5-scale drought scale.
The drought...
Pakistan seeks tech fix for impending water crisis
Posted by SciDev.Net: Saleem Shaikh on August 1st, 2011
SciDev.Net: Pakistan is seeking technological solutions for an unfolding water crisis, caused by depleting natural water resources and wastefulness, which is turning much of its land arid.
Lack of funds, though, has proved a major constraint for Pakistan's efforts to plug the technological gap in its water sector, Jawed Ali Khan, director-general at Pakistan's ministry of environment, told SciDev.Net. The ministry estimates that almost 80 per cent of the country's land is semi-arid or arid.
Experts attribute...
Ethiopia responds to famine with controversial resettlement plan
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on August 1st, 2011
A "no-nuclear" Germany would have to build more than 2,800 miles of new high-vol: In the face of climate change and increasingly severe droughts, should African governments resettle rural farmers and encourage new types of agriculture?
The world is rushing to get emergency food relief to the 11.5 million people going hungry in the Horn of Africa's worst drought in 60 years. In Ethiopia, President Meles Zenawi's government is seeking a longlasting solution to the problem by launching a resettlement program.
Ethiopia wants to group its scattered semi-nomadic peoples into permanent...
Oil sands critics target a new concern – pipelines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2011
Globe and Mail: The crude oil that is pulled from Canada's oil sands is thick and heavy, a black tar-like substance that takes large amounts of energy and effort to make into end products like gasoline and diesel. Even some people in the Alberta energy industry describe it as "nasty' stuff.
Over the past few months, critics of the oil sands have taken a new tack. They are now arguing that oil sands crude, which contains more contaminants than traditional sources of crude, poses a risk to pipeline safety -- and...
Australia: Act now on climate change before it is too late
Posted by Canberra Times: None Given on August 1st, 2011
Canberra Times: We need to start taking climate change seriously and working out measures to address it.
Over the past 18 months the quality of the political dialogue on climate change in Australia has spiralled downwards, following the removal of Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Coalition in December 2009, and Kevin Rudd's repudiation of his own policy on responding to climate change in April 2010.
Increasing numbers of Australians have simply tuned out of this discussion and, if asked, will either confess...