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Archive for September 27th, 2011
Shale rock gives Israel oil optimism
Posted by BBC: Daniel Estrin on September 27th, 2011
BBC: Prospectors in Israel say hundreds of feet below the ground lies shale rock that can be converted into billions of barrels of oil. But environmentalists say it's a disaster waiting to happen.
"This is the distinct smell I'm talking about when I talk about oil shale."
So says Texan oil man, Scott Nguyen, as he sniffs a handful of rock fragments - not back in Houston where he used to work for Shell - but in the lush Valley of Elah in central Israel, about 50lm (30 miles) from Jerusalem.
Mr...
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How Climate Change Could Hurt Yellowstone National Park
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2011
New York Times: Before the end of the century, Yellowstone National Park could experience summers that feel like Los Angeles’s, according to a report released Tuesday. These warming temperatures will imperil everything from native cutthroat trout to aspen forests and the $700 million in annual economic activity that they and other gems in the park generate by attracting tourists, the report said.
The report, the first evaluation of how climate change will affect the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, is a joint project...
200 Million Depend on Melting Glaciers for Water
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fabíola Ortiz on September 27th, 2011
Inter Press Service: At least 200 million people in the world are in danger of being left without water, because they depend for their supply on glaciers that are melting, although paradoxically the process creates the illusion of plentiful water resources.
While the average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 years, the temperature of glaciers has increased by 1.5 degrees in just two decades.
Local communities, especially in the Himalayan and Andes mountain ranges, are the most...
Over 100 arrested as tar sands civil disobedience spreads to Canada
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2011
Mongabay: After two weeks of sustained protesting at the US White House against the Keystone XL pipeline, with 1,252 people arrested, civil disobedience has now spread to Canada, home of the tar sands. Yesterday, around 500 people protested in Ottawa against Canada's controversial tar sands; 117 were arrested as they purposefully crossed a barrier separating them from the House of Commons in an act of civil disobedience.
One of those arrested, Maude Barlow, chairperson of the environmental NGO Council of...
Arctic Ice Melt, Severe Summer Heat Signal Warmer Planet
Posted by Yahoo!: William Browning on September 27th, 2011
Yahoo!: To see signs of global warming, all humans have to do is head to one of the coldest places on the planet. The Arctic Ocean ice pack is at its second-lowest levels on record for summer ice melt. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center revealed satellite data and mapping estimates just over 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean is covered in ice as of mid-September. That figure is just barely more than the 1.608 million square miles that was the lowest amount set in 2007.
For...
New study predicts warmer Yellowstone if climate change isn’t slowed
Posted by Billings Gazette: Brett French on September 27th, 2011
Billings Gazette: The weather in Yellowstone National Park could feel more like that of Los Angeles in 60 years if climate change continues to accelerate, according to a new report released Tuesday.
Under that "medium high" climate change scenario, the average summer temperature in the nation's first national park would rise by 9.7 degrees by 2070.
Stephen Saunders of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, lead author of the report that was underwritten by the Bozeman-based Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said...
Coal Industry, States Blast Obama Administration’s Stream Proposal
Posted by Greenwire: Manuel Quinones on September 27th, 2011
Greenwire: Here in the heart of coal country, just miles from numerous mining operations, a series of politicians, industry leaders and state regulators yesterday voiced strong opposition to the Obama administration's rewriting of rules to protect waterways from mountaintop removal mining. Critics spoke in near-apocalyptic terms about the Office of Surface Mining's effort to develop a new stream protection rule to replace George W. Bush-era regulations, saying it would kill thousands of jobs and jeopardize...
Shale gas find threat to UK carbon goals
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2011
Guardian: Your report on fracking (Vast gas field set to turn Blackpool into Dallas-on-sea, 22 September) failed to mention the impact of the exploitation of huge quantities of gas in the shale beneath Lancashire on climate change. While it's true that burning natural gas produces less CO2 than oil or coal per tonne of fuel burnt, this argument does not take into consideration the leakage of methane. This greenhouse gas, some 70 times more potent at producing global warming after 20 years than CO2, would be...
Scientists find frog genes that provide immunity to extinction plague
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2011
Mongabay: Scientists with Cornell have discovered genetics that may provide immunity to frogs in face of the killer amphibian-disease chytridiomycosis. This plague, which is spreading to amphibian populations worldwide, is responsible for a number of frog species' recent extinction. But now researchers report in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that they are one step closer to understanding why some frog populations are able to fend off the disease, while others succumb...
Deforestation may boost rainfall on West African cropland
Posted by SciDev.Net: Christine Ottery on September 27th, 2011
SciDev.Net: The many negative effects of deforestation are well-known, but scientists have shown that farmers may derive one advantage from planting in deforested areas that are sandwiched between patches of forest. Converting rainforests into cropland increases rainfall in the new cropland by four to six times, but halves the amount of rain over the forest, says a modelling study by scientists from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. The effect stems from the heat difference between air over the cropland...