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Archive for March 5th, 2012
Weathering of rocks impacts climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2012
Physorg: The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves in rainwater forming carbonic acid, which, once in contact with rocks, slowly dissolves them. This atmospheric carbon is then transported by rivers into the oceans, where it is trapped for several thousand years, before returning to the atmosphere or alternatively being stored in marine sediments or in corals.
This chemical weathering process stores around 0.3 billion tons of atmospheric carbon in rivers and in the oceans every year: although this...
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World’s most toxic frog gets new reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2012
Mongabay: Touching a wild golden poison frog could kill you within minutes: in fact, a single golden poison frog, whose Latin name Phyllobates terribilis is even more evocative than its common one, is capable of killing 10 humans with its one milligram dose of poison. Yet the deadly nature of this tiny frog has not stopped it from nearing extinction. Now, in a bid to save the species, the World Land Trust (WLT) and Colombian NGO ProAves have teamed up to establish a 50 hectare (124 acres) reserve in the Chocó...
Why Rio+20 must not leave politics out of sustainable development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2012
Guardian: In the runup to June's Rio+20 Earth Summit, sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a hot topic. First proposed by the Columbian government, SDGs are now regarded by many as possible concrete outcomes from a conference whose prospects for delivering change otherwise seem gloomy at best. SDGs feature prominently in Rio's zero draft document and the recommendations of the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. Others argue that SDGs should be signed in 2015, the deadline for the millennium...
United States: Spill from hell: Diluted bitumen
Posted by The Tyee: Mitchell Anderson, on March 5th, 2012
The Tyee: On a July morning in 2010 in rural Michigan, a 30-inch pipeline owned by Calgary-based Enbridge Energy Partners burst and disgorged an estimated 843,000 gallons of thick crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. This was no ordinary crude -- it was the first ever major spill into water of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands.
The cleanup challenges and health impacts around Kalamazoo were unlike anything the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had ever dealt with, and raise serious...
Climate change, drought and social unrest in Syria
Posted by Reuters: Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell on March 5th, 2012
Reuters: Syria's current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia early last year. However, that's not the whole story. The past few years have seen a number of significant social, economic, environmental and climatic changes in Syria that have eroded the social contract between citizen and government in the country, have strengthened the case for the opposition movement, and irreparably...
United States: Climate change made the drought worse, scientists say
Posted by San Antonio Express: Colin McDonald on March 5th, 2012
San Antonio Express: Several scientists at NASA and the state climatologist say the record-setting heat and drought of last summer in Texas was made worse by climate change.
More than just providing bragging rights that Texas now holds the record for hottest summer ever recorded in the United States, that conclusion adds another layer of uncertainty for water planners.
James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University's Earth Institute titled his still unpublished climate analysis,...
Australia: UN probes threat to barrier reef
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2012
BBC: A UN team has arrived in Australia to investigate possible damage to the Great Barrier Reef by the mining industry.
Fears that coal exports and oil and gas exploration would jeopardise the reef prompted the Unesco delegation's visit.
Environmentalists have urged the government to suspend mining development until a government review is completed.
The reef is home to 400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish.
The Great Barrier Reef, which holds Unesco World Heritage status, lies off...
Climate change threat to ice hockey
Posted by Belfast Telegraph: None Given on March 5th, 2012
Belfast Telegraph: Man-made climate change is said to be threatening the future of ice hockey in Canada, where the sport is a cornerstone of national culture.
Top players have traditionally learned their skills on frozen lakes and backyard rinks but as winters get warmer, experts believe aspiring ice hockey stars in years to come will struggle to find suitable outdoor facilities.
Canadians are passionate about ice hockey. Last year, riots broke out in Vancouver after the home side, the Canucks, lost to rivals...
Tornado-ravaged areas hit by snowstorm, cold
Posted by Reuters: John D. Stoll on March 5th, 2012
Reuters: A winter snow storm added to the woes on Monday of tornado-struck Indiana and Kentucky, dropping several inches of snow on the ravaged region where dozens of people were killed, meteorologists said.
Overnight, three to five inches of snow fell in southern Indiana and north-central Kentucky, where recovery efforts were underway after Friday's deadly twisters, the National Weather Service said.
The fast-moving tornadoes, numbering at least 30, splintered blocks of homes and tossed around vehicles...
Canada: Climate change inevitable, say scientists
Posted by 24 Hours: Michael Mui on March 5th, 2012
24 Hours: Sea level rises and climate change in the Great White North are “unavoidable,” regardless of any effort to halt them, according to local scientists.
If we completely stop producing greenhouse gas emissions today, Canadians can still expect the air to get two degrees Celsius hotter in the coming decades, said Simon Fraser University professor Kirsten Zickfeld.
“This is the warming we’ll get based on our past emissions,” she said.
“(It) will be unavoidable, and it will stick around for centuries...