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Archive for June, 2012
Rio+20 conference’s search for green solutions hampered by deep divisions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2012
Guardian: Twenty years after trying and failing to halt humanity's destruction of our planet, the governments of the world will gather again in Rio this month for a "once-in-a-generation" Earth Summit that will open with great fanfare but low expectations of success.
With a new United Nations study warning that the deterioration of the environment is accelerating, more than 130 national leaders will attend the Rio+20 conference from 20-22 June to try to thrash out a new blueprint for a "green economy" and...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Rio+20 conference’s search for green solutions hampered by deep divisionsMaine Dam Removal a Start to Restoring Spawning Grounds
Posted by New York Times: Murray Carpenter on June 12th, 2012
New York Times: Under a bright sky here, a convoy of heavy equipment rolled onto the bed of the Penobscot River on Monday to smash the Great Works Dam, a barrier that has blocked the river for nearly two centuries. Before the destruction began, a tribal elder from the Penobscot Indian Nation used an eagle wing to fan smoke from a smoldering smudge of sage, tobacco and sweet grass over the crowd that had gathered to watch. “Today signifies the most important conservation project in our 10,000-year history on this...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Maine Dam Removal a Start to Restoring Spawning GroundsNo change in climate talks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Twenty years ago, a burst of sunny optimism radiated from Rio de Janeiro as world leaders staged a meeting that would prove pivotal.
Amid post-Cold War euphoria and a desire to tackle the problems of the looming millennium, the UN's 1992 Earth Summit inscribed protection of the planet on the world's priority list. It set down a blueprint, Agenda 21, for sustaining nature rather than destroying it, and created UN mechanisms designed to brake the oncoming juggernauts of climate change, desertification...
As the Earth warms, forest floors add greenhouse gases to the air
Posted by Washington Post: Brian Vastag on June 12th, 2012
Washington Post: Huge amounts of carbon trapped in the soils of U.S. forests will be released into the air as the planet heats up, contributing to a "vicious cycle' that could accelerate climate change, a new study concluded.
"As the Earth warms, there will be more carbon released from soils, and that will make the Earth warm even faster,' said Eric Davidson, who studies soil carbon at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts but was not involved in the new study.
Forests are an important buffer against...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As the Earth warms, forest floors add greenhouse gases to the airUniversity at Buffalo Faces Scrutiny Over Gas Drilling Report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 12th, 2012
New York Times: A report from a new institute at the State University at Buffalo asserting that state oversight has made natural gas drilling safer is causing tumult on campus and beyond, with critics arguing that the institute is biased toward industry and could undercut the university’s reputation. The study, issued on May 15, said that state regulation in Pennsylvania had made drilling there far safer and that New York rules were even more likely to ensure safety once drilling gets under way in the state. But...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on University at Buffalo Faces Scrutiny Over Gas Drilling ReportStudy: Climate change leaves American West especially vulnerable to wildfires
Posted by Colorado Independent: Troy Hooper on June 12th, 2012
Colorado Independent: Rising temperatures are projected to trigger more wildfires in most of North America and Europe, according to a new study, but climate change may have the opposite effect around the equator. The American West, where massive conflagrations are currently chewing up parts of Colorado and New Mexico, will be especially vulnerable to wildfires over the next three decades, according to scientists from the University of California-Berkeley and Texas Tech University. Their study, published today in the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study: Climate change leaves American West especially vulnerable to wildfiresOil sands firms test alternative way to tap bitumen
Posted by Globe and Mail: Carrie Tait on June 12th, 2012
Globe and Mail: When a group of Harris Corp. employees in Florida began working to develop new technologies for the oil sands industry, they got off to a shaky start. In their first brainstorming session, they pronounced bitumen, the tar-like substance in the oil sands that is transformed into crude, "by-TOO-men." Harris went on to form a consortium with Nexen Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., and privately held Laricina Energy Ltd. The group said Tuesday it has field-tested a new extraction method that holds the potential...
Resource depletion: Opportunity or looming catastrophe?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2012
BBC: Imagine a world of spiralling food prices, water shortages and soaring energy costs.
For many living in the world today, this nightmare scenario is already a reality. Even for the well-off living in developed economies, it is becoming all too familiar.
And on current projections, it's going to get a whole lot worse. Short-term fluctuations in supply and demand aside, a global population explosion combined with finite resources means the planet cannot sustain ever-increasing levels of consumption...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Resource depletion: Opportunity or looming catastrophe?Biofuels Viability
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on June 11th, 2012
Environmental News Network: What is green? What is a viable economic alternative? What is reasonable and will do more bad than good? Welcome to Biofuels. Two scientists are challenging the currently accepted norms of biofuel production. A commentary published today in GCB Bioenergy reveals that calculations of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from bioenergy production are neglecting crucial information that has led to the overestimation of the benefits of biofuels compared to fossil fuels.
A biofuel is a type of fuel whose...
The Heat is On: U.S. Temperature Trends
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2012
Climate Central: Report Summary
Global warming isn't uniform. The continental U.S. has warmed by about 1.3°F over the past 100 years, but the temperature increase hasn't been the same everywhere: some places have warmed more than others, some less, and some not much at all. Natural variability explains some of the differences, and air pollution with fine aerosols screening incoming solar radiation could also be a factor.
Our state-by-state analysis of warming over the past 100 years shows where it warmed the...