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Archive for February, 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...
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...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Research confirms climate warming for yellow cedar deathDying 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....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia to assess development pressure on Barrier ReefClimate 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change may increase risk of water shortage in US by 2050: studyOnly the heavens can prevent a dreadful drought in England
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Telegraph: Writing about impending drought, in my experience, is a dicey business. The last time I did so -- in June 2011, after the second driest spring on record -- a wet summer duly followed. And I well remember, as a young reporter, interviewing Denis Howell, the newly appointed Minister for Drought, in the long dry summer of 1976: within days the heavens opened and he was made Minister for Floods.
Yet last summer's rains only provided brief relief and the country is now facing the biggest water crisis...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Only the heavens can prevent a dreadful drought in EnglandPanel reinforces Ecuador award halt in Chevron case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Reuters: An arbitration panel reinforced an order that Ecuador's government seek to suspend an $18 billion court award against U.S. oil company Chevron Corp over pollution in the South American country's rainforest.
A year after its original order, the three-person panel, working under The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, told the Republic of Ecuador on Thursday to "take all measures necessary" through its judicial, legislative or executive branches to suspend enforcement of the award at home and...
Brazil’s plan to cut protected areas for dams faces constitutional challenge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Mongabay: Federal public prosecutors in Brazil have challenged a plan to strip protected status from 86,288 hectares of land to make way for five new dams, reports International Rivers. The challenge is set to be heard by Brazil's Supreme Court, according to the group, which is campaigning against new hydroelectric projects in environmentally-sensitive areas.
The prosecutors, known as the Ministério Publico Federal (MPF), filed a complaint against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on the grounds that eliminating...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Brazil’s plan to cut protected areas for dams faces constitutional challengeClimate change leads to pollution of indigenous people’s water supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2012
Physorg: These are the preliminary findings of Sherilee Harper, a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar in Aboriginal People's Health at the University of Guelph, who says that there has been a significant increase in the incidence of diarrhea and vomiting following these weather events.
Harper is undertaking a comparative study of how extreme weather events affect waterborne diseases in the Arctic and in southwestern Uganda--and is finding plenty of similarities between health issues faced by indigenous groups...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change leads to pollution of indigenous people’s water supplies