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Archive for February 14th, 2012
Obama’s Budget Seeks $300 Million for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Posted by Yahoo!: Rachel Bogart on February 14th, 2012
Yahoo!: According to the Associated Press, under a budget proposal submitted by President Barack Obama, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative would receive another $300 million for tackling environmental problem in the Great Lakes system. If approved, the funding would go to individual projects and partnerships the federal government has with state, local and tribal agencies that specifically seek to help alleviate ecological concerns. Initially Obama sought $5 billion for Great Lakes restoration projects...
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Climate change increases risk of storm surges, according to MIT study
Posted by Boston Globe: Carolyn Y. Johnson on February 14th, 2012
Boston Globe: Studies of climate change and its impact on coastal communities usually focus on rising sea level. Now, scientists from MIT and Princeton University have developed a method to examine how multiple effects of climate change – including the combination of sea-level rise and stronger hurricanes -- will affect storm surges that wash over sea walls and inundate communities, damaging buildings and infrastructure.
As a demonstration of the new technique, the scientists quantified how hurricane storm...
Washing clothing pollutes oceans with billions of microplastics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
Mongabay: Washing synthetic clothes-such as nylon, polyester, and acrylic-is polluting the oceans with billions of microplastics: plastics that measure less than one millimeter. It may sound innocuous, but research has shown that these microplastics are accumulating in marine species with unknown health impacts, both on the pollution-eating species and the humans who consume them.
"An important source of microplastic appears to be through sewage contaminated by fibers from washing clothes," the authors...
Artificial Glaciers Water Crops in Indian Highlands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
National Geographic: A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or "artificial glaciers," to get through the dry spring months. (See a map of the region.)
Located on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, the village of Skara in the Ladakh region of India is not a common tourist destination.
"It's beautiful, but really remote and difficult to get to," said Amy Higgins, a graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies...
Reliance on ‘Virtual Water’ Puts Some Nations at Risk, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: A new study calculates that about one-fifth of all water goes toward the production of crops and commodities for export, part of a global phenomenon known as “virtual water” that researchers say could place pressure on finite water supplies in some nations. Using worldwide trade indicators, demographic data, and statistics on water use, researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands mapped the world’s water footprint, including patterns of trade they say are creating disparities in...
Congressman introduces bills to stop US natgas exports
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
Reuters: The United States should stop exports of natural gas to prevent domestic prices from rising, Democratic Congressman Edward Markey said on Tuesday while introducing two bills in the House of Representatives to prevent shipments.
The bills, which would face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, come as U.S. regulators consider applications for exports of a glut of natural gas that has weighed down prices and caused some companies to step back from drilling.
One of the bills from...
Antarctic lake race sees scientists dash for life’s secrets in subglacial world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 14th, 2012
Guardian: One hundred years after Robert Falcon Scott raced Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the south pole, scientists are engaged in another dash at the bottom of the world, this time to reach lakes that have been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands and millions of years.
Russian scientists have confirmed they have drilled through more than 2.3 miles of ice to reach Lake Vostok, a 16,000 sq km (6,200 sq mile) body of water that has been isolated from the rest of the world for almost...
Bulgaria becomes second state to impose ban on shale-gas exploration
Posted by Guardian: Mirel Bran on February 14th, 2012
Guardian: Shukri Hussein was only 23 when he first bought some land, with a friend, to start a farm at Praventsi, a village close to Novi Pazar, in north-east Bulgaria. Ten years later the biology graduate heads a 110-hectare organic farm with a workforce of 35.
He was pleased with what he had achieved and had no intention of letting anyone spoil his dream. At the beginning of January he joined thousands of others to protest against plans to explore the huge shale-gas reserves in his region. Their efforts...
United States: Could there be another Spicewood Beach?
Posted by State Impact: Mose Buchele on February 14th, 2012
State Impact: After a year of record-breaking heat and drought, it began to seem inevitable that a town in Texas would run dry. What might have come as a surprise is that the town would have a name like “Spicewood Beach.”
Perched on the shores of Central Texas’ largest reservoir, the small lakeside community doesn’t seem like the kind of place where wells suddenly fail and water needs to be shipped in by tanker truck. Yet one of the persistent complaints from people in Spicewood Beach is that the Lower Colordo...
United States: Hydrofracking: Under the surface
Posted by WHAM: Adam Chodak on February 14th, 2012
WHAM: In Towanda, PA the great rush of the Susquehanna has met its match.
At all hours, heavy trucks and trailers chug across Veterans Memorial Bridge.
Follow the traffic up Main Street and try to pick out an empty storefront.
It`s near impossible.
"Now Hiring" signs decorate several windows.
Towns like Towanda have made Bradford County, monetarily, one of the fastest growing counties in the country.
"The recession that hit the rest of the country passed right over us," said Bradford...