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Archive for February 18th, 2012
Animals can’t keep up with climate change
Posted by Sunday Observer: None Given on February 18th, 2012
Sunday Observer: Animal and insect species in Europe are losing the fight to keep up with rapid changes in climate in a new phenomenon dubbed "climatic debt", according to an international study.
More than 11,000 bird and butterfly species were analysed over 20 years by scientists in the largest study of its kind. Releasing some of the data for the first time, scientists reveal how species are failing to keep up as warmer temperatures move north. The findings saw birds lag behind their normal climate zones, on...
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Research confirms climate warming for yellow cedar death
Posted by Associated Press: Dan Joling on February 18th, 2012
Associated Press: U.S. Forest Service researchers have confirmed what has long been suspected about a valuable tree in Alaska's Panhandle: Climate warming is killing off yellow cedar.
The mighty trees can live more than 1,000 years, resisting bugs and rot and even defending themselves against injury, but their shallow roots are vulnerable to freezing if soil is not insulated by snow. And for more than a century, with less snow on the ground, frozen roots have killed yellow cedar on nearly a half-million acres in...
Dying yellow cedars
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2012
Living on Earth: Something is killing the majestic Yellow Cedars of southeastern Alaska and parts of British Columbia. Scientists have been baffled for decades but now they have an answer. Paul Hennon, a researcher at the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, tells host Bruce Gellerman what's going on.
Transcript
GELLERMAN: To the Native people of Southeast Alaska, yellow cedar is more than just a tree. It's deeply rooted in their culture and mythology. They use yellow cedar to fashion canoes...
Uncharted waters: Probing aquifers to head off war
Posted by New Scientist: Chelsea Wald on February 18th, 2012
New Scientist: DEEP beneath the eastern Sahara, the Nubian Sandstone aquifer was in trouble. By the early 2000s, the aquifer - one of the largest and oldest groundwater deposits in the world, which supplies Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan - was emptying fast. Egypt was tapping the aquifer to feed its growing desert cities far from the Nile. Libya, whose only other water source is the salty Mediterranean, was drawing water off by way of an underground network of pipes and aqueducts known as the Great Man-Made River,...
Australia to assess development pressure on Barrier Reef
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2012
Reuters: Australia will carry out a comprehensive assessment of development pressure on the Great Barrier Reef to help preserve the world's largest coral reef system, ministers said Saturday.
The assessment will take into account how development along Australia's northeast coast is affecting the reef, Environment Minister Tony Burke said in a joint statement with the Queensland state government.
In 2010, part of the reef was damaged when a Chinese-owned coal ship, the Shen Neng 1, ran aground on it....
Climate change may increase risk of water shortage in US by 2050: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 18th, 2012
Xinhua: More than one third of the counties in the United States could face a "high" or "extreme" risk of water shortage due to climate change by 2050, according to a study published Wednesday.
The new study, carried in the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology, also concluded that 70 percent of the more than 3,100 U.S. counties could face "some" risk of shortage of fresh water for drinking, farming and other uses.
Population growth is expected to increase the demand for water for municipal...