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Archive for February 15th, 2012
New sanctuaries declared for Asia’s freshwater dolphins
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Mongabay: Bangladesh has declared three new sanctuaries to help protect the south Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. Split into two subspecies, the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and the Irrawaddy River dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor), the new sanctuaries will benefit both. Listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List, the south Asian freshwater dolphin has disappeared from much of its habitat. Already Asia has its other...
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Climate change may increase risk of water shortages in hundreds of US counties by 2050
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
EurekAlert: More than 1 in 3 counties in the United States could face a "high" or "extreme" risk of water shortages due to climate change by the middle of the 21st century, according to a new study in ACS's Journal of Environmental Science & Technology. The new report concluded that 7 in 10 of the more than 3,100 U.S. counties could face "some" risk of shortages of fresh water for drinking, farming and other uses. It includes maps that identify the counties at risk of shortages.
In the analysis, Sujoy B....
Kenya: Challenges Posed By Climate Change and Population
Posted by Nairobi Star: Babatunde Osotimehin on February 15th, 2012
Nairobi Star: IT is fitting that this year's UN Climate Change Conference was held in Africa, where both the current and future consequences of climate change are clearly discernible.
The short and medium-term impacts of floods and drought, and the long-term prospect of rising global temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns, will continue to make Africa Exhibit A in discussions about the implications of climate change.
Until recently, the dominant approach to analyzing the global impact of climate change...
Half of UK households ‘could face water restrictions by April’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Guardian: Half of all households in Britain could face water restrictions unless exceptionally heavy and prolonged rain falls by April, water companies and the environment agency have warned.
The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, will hold a crisis meeting of companies, wildlife groups and other river users next week after the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) stated that the average rainfall so far this winter has been the lowest since 1972, and the English Midlands and Anglian regions have...
“Only the Mayor Will Benefit from the Mine”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Inter Press Service: "No one will pay for the damages when work at the mine has finished," says María del Rosario Velásquez, who lives in a town near the Oasis mine 100 km southeast of the Guatemalan capital.
The Canada-based Tahoe Resources company plans to extract gold, silver, zinc and lead from the mine.
Velásquez is not so sure that the mine will bring benefits to her hometown, San Rafael Las Flores. But she is sure of the risks that it poses to the environment.
"We know it will cause a great deal of pollution,...
New York City’s ‘once-a-century’ storms could become ‘once-a-decade’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 15th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Massive storm surges that statistically threaten New York City once a century could occur at intervals from three to 20 years by 2100, according to estimates by US scientists published Tuesday. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University built a computer model that simulated tens of thousands of storms under different scenarios for global warming. In the model, intense storms become more frequent by the period from 2081 to 2100, a finding that backs...
Keystone XL: Five stories not told
Posted by Media Matters: None Given on February 15th, 2012
Media Matters: In the media storm surrounding TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, news outlets have largely focused on the employment impacts of the project, often parroting discredited industry statistics in the process. But jobs are only a part of the story. A review of recent testimonies, tax records and local news reports shows that, on many other important issues at stake, TransCanada has been advertising one thing to its stakeholders and delivering another. What follows is a list of stories that...
Study: Sierra snowfall consistent over 130 years
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Peter Fimrite on February 15th, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle: Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada has remained consistent for 130 years, with no evidence that anything has changed as a result of climate change, according to a study released Tuesday.
The analysis of snowfall data in the Sierra going back to 1878 found no more or less snow overall - a result that, on the surface, appears to contradict aspects of recent climate change models.
John Christy, the Alabama state climatologist who authored the study, said the amount of snow in the mountains has not...
Where the Colorado Runs Dry
Posted by New York Times: Jonathan Waterman on February 15th, 2012
New York Times: MOST visitors to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon probably don’t realize that the mighty Colorado River, America’s most legendary white-water river, rarely reaches the sea. Until 1998 the Colorado regularly flowed south along the Arizona-California border into a Mexican delta, irrigating farmlands and enriching a wealth of wildlife and flora before emptying into the Gulf of California. But decades of population growth, climate change and damming in the American Southwest have now desiccated...
Texas drought leads to shade tree die-off
Posted by Reuters: Jim Forsyth on February 15th, 2012
Reuters: Some 5.6 million urban shade trees were killed by the record drought that baked Texas last year, the Texas Forest Service reported on Wednesday.
Last year was the driest year on record in the state and the second-hottest, according to the National Weather Service.
The shade tree die-off represents some 10 percent of the state's urban forest, and is in addition to as many as a half-billion rural, park and forest trees that the forest service reported in December were killed in the drought. ...