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Archive for July 20th, 2012
E.P.A. to Consider Relaxing an Air Pollution Rule
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 20th, 2012
New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday afternoon that it would review its new standards for mercury, soot and other emissions for a handful of proposed new coal-burning power plants.
The review will delay the implementation of the regulation for the new plants for at least three months while experts determine whether the emissions limits may safely be relaxed.
The agency said the action was a “routine” reconsideration of technical standards based on new information received...
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United States: Fuel spill threatens Albuquerque water supply
Posted by Associated Press: Jeri Clausing on July 20th, 2012
Associated Press: Environmentalists call it the largest threat to a city's drinking water supply in history, as much as 24 million gallons of jet fuel -- or twice the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill -- seeping into an underground aquifer and steadily toward this drought-stricken city's largest and most pristine water wells.
Only on NBCNews.com AP Families, friends anxiously await word of missing Colorado shooter ‘looked so calm’ Theater shooter believed to be ex-graduate student Barry Gutierrez / AP Updated...
Drought, Climate Change, Corn Prices, Ethanol and Biofuels
Posted by Forbes: Tim Worstall on July 20th, 2012
Forbes: As we’ve all noticed there’s a drought going on in the American heartland. As many have noted this is leading to soaring prices of three main crops, corn wheat and soya. For that American heartland is the major source of export crops for all three (less so for soya than the other two to be sure).
We know that high food prices can kill poor people: this is not generally regarded as a good thing even though there are far too many small population fanatics around. Even they tend not to advocate starvation...
France maintains shale gas ban: environment minister
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 20th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: France has no intention of lifting its ban on shale gas exploration because of continued concerns over its environmental impact, Environment and Energy Minister Delphine Batho said Friday.
"The government clearly and distinctly maintains the ban on exploiting shale gas because nowhere in the world has it been proven that this exploitation can be done without significant environmental damage and important health risks," Batho told BFMTV.
"Nothing in the government's agenda today foresees a reconsidering...
Melting The World’s Biggest Ice Cube
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 20th, 2012
National Public Radio: IRA FLATOW, HOST: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, I'm Ira Flatow. Think of Antarctica as the world's largest ice cube. Ninety percent of the world's ice is locked up down there. But Antarctica is also home to one of the fastest-warming spots on the planet, the Antarctic Peninsula. That's the tip that points towards South America. See a problem here? What happens when the ice in Antarctica melts? That's what one of my next guests has been trying to figure out by studying glaciers and ice sheets as they...
Southwestern Drought, in Fact and Film
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 20th, 2012
New York Times: While relatively low flow into Lake Powell has been a constant in recent years, an improvement in 2011 has helped mask the effects of the severe drought this year.
Like the actors in "A Chorus Line," different regions of the United States have had their moments in the spotlight as droughts gave them stories to tell. Last year it was the Deep South and especially Texas and Oklahoma.
As a 50-year chart by my colleagues Haeyoun Park and Kevin Quealy reflects, this year unusually large swaths of...
Drought Has Ties to La Niña, with Global Warming Assist
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 20th, 2012
Climate Central: Driven by a combination of natural climate variability, manmade global warming, and plain old bad luck, drought conditions are so widespread in the U.S. that it's possible to take a cross-country flight from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco -- a distance of approximately 2,400 miles -- without once overflying an unaffected area. With about 81 percent of the lower 48 states experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions, and 63 percent mired in moderate-to-exceptional drought, it's becoming harder...
Piecing the Puzzle Together on Dolphin Deaths
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 20th, 2012
New York Times: Unusually cold water in the Gulf of Mexico combined with damage to the food web from the BP oil spill probably caused the premature deaths of hundreds of dolphins in the region, a new report concludes. The study, published in the journal PLoS One, suggests that a perfect storm of events led to the deaths. The researchers cited three specific stresses: an unusually cold winter in 2010, the oil spill from April to July of 2010 and an unusually large and rapid flow of very cold freshwater from melting...
United States: Tribes ask for action on climate change
Posted by McClatchy: Rebecca Cohen on July 20th, 2012
McClatchy: Climate change is sweeping indigenous villages into the sea in Alaska, flooding the taro fields of native Hawaiians and devastating the salmon population from which Indian tribes in Washington state draw their livelihood, tribal leaders testified Thursday at a Senate hearing.
"The ocean is important to all of us," said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, a group of 20 Washington state tribes with treaty rights to salmon fishing. "It's dying. And who the hell...
Indian scientists try to crack monsoon source code
Posted by Reuters: Ross Colvin and Jatindra Dash on July 20th, 2012
Reuters: Scientists aided by supercomputers are trying to unravel one of Mother Nature's biggest mysteries -- the vagaries of the summer monsoon rains that bring life, and sometimes death, to India every year.
In a first-of-its-kind project, Indian scientists aim to build computer models that would allow them to make a quantum leap in predicting the erratic movements of the monsoon.
If successful, the impact would be life-changing in a country where 600 million people depend on farming for their livelihoods...