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Archive for October 23rd, 2011
A Salmon Virus: Where Do We Go From Here?
Posted by New York Times: Rachel Nuwer on October 23rd, 2011
New York Times: If anything is certain about the recent discovery of infectious salmon anemia in two wild juvenile salmon in British Columbia, it’s the extent of the uncertainties. Questions range from whether its discovery will be confirmed in additional lab tests to whether it has spread widely to how to contain it. Filling in the unknowns is the first order of business.
Representatives of the aquaculture industry argue that the two cases may be false positives. Daniel Pauly, a fisheries biologist at the University...
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Population of world ‘could grow to 15bn by 2100’
Posted by Guardian: Paul Harris on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: The United Nations will warn this week that the world's population could more than double to 15 billion by the end of this century, putting a catastrophic strain on the planet's resources unless urgent action is taken to curb growth rates, the Observer can reveal.
That figure is likely to shock many experts as it is far higher than many current estimates. A previous UN estimate had expected the world to have more than 10 billion people by 2100; currently, there are nearly 7 billion.
The new...
Scientists: Water loss estimates overstated
Posted by Green Bay Press Gazette: None Given on October 23rd, 2011
Green Bay Press Gazette: Climate change probably won't reduce Great Lakes water levels as much as experts have predicted and might even cause them to rise slightly, federal scientists say.
For two decades, studies have said a warming climate could send water levels sharply lower by boosting evaporation and reducing rain and snowfall in the Lake Superior basin, which feeds the other lakes. But a revised computer modeling system suggests those predictions were overstated, said Brent Lofgren, a scientist at the NOAA Great...
President Evo Morales announces road will not go through TIPNIS national park
Posted by Bolivia Diary: Dario Kenner, on October 23rd, 2011
Bolivia Diary: In a press conference this morning President Evo Morales said the road project his government has been determined to build will not go through the TIPNIS national park and indigenous territory. This is a dramatic change in policy. It comes after a two month long march by indigenous movements against the planned road that arrived in La Paz two days ago.
President Morales said he would modify a law approved in the Plurinational Assembly last week to include a section stating that this road will...
Thailand shores up capital as waters creep higher
Posted by Reuters: Ploy Ten Kate and Wilawan Pongpitak on October 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Thailand's capital was braced for more flooding on Sunday as water levels rose in some of Bangkok's northern suburbs and troops raced to fortify defense walls to protect two key industrial zones.
Authorities have taken measures to divert floodwaters flowing from the north away from the city and into the Gulf of Thailand, but the capital was on tenterhooks because of the possibility of heavy rainfall into canals and rivers already full to the brim.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said authorities...
United States: Fracking on My Land
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2011
New York Times: A CLOUD of dust and sand and diesel exhaust, thick as a desert windstorm, snaked up into the sky and blotted out the midsummer Pennsylvania moon. The scene was backlighted by 100 high-powered lights glaring from the top of a 70-foot-tall, hundred-yard-square acropolis of broken stone carved into our hillside. Standing there, in what used to be my family’s pasture, I was surprised by my own feelings as I watched a small army of workers rev up the machines that would crack open the Marcellus Shale...