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Archive for August 2nd, 2012
Earth absorbing more carbon, even as CO2 emissions rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
ScienceDaily: Despite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions by humans in recent decades that are warming the planet, Earth's vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of them, according to a surprising new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
The study, led by CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Ashley Ballantyne, looked at global CO2 emissions reports from the past 50 years and compared them with rising levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere during that time, primarily because of fossil...
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Enbridge insists pipe safety regimen is working
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Enbridge Inc insisted on Thursday its quick response to a U.S. oil pipeline leak last week showed that safety improvements implemented after a devastating 2010 spill in Michigan were working, despite sharp criticism from regulators.
Enbridge, which reported a 7 percent increase in adjusted second-quarter profit, said it was still uncertain when it could reopen the line.
The Canadian pipeline company is under growing pressure from the public, its oil-shipping customers and now investors to show...
Study: Dispersants used in Gulf oil spill could damage marine food web
Posted by MSNBC: Kari Huus on August 2nd, 2012
MSNBC: During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which dumped nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the water, responders applied some 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant to break up the oil slick.
The chemicals, which were sprayed on the surface and pumped near the gushing pipe on the ocean floor, largely prevented the slick from saturating delicate coastal marshes, but they had their own environmental impact that scientists are only now beginning to understand.
A...
Extreme weather and climate change: Caution required but not reckless statements
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Washington Post: In the wake of punishing heat waves, historic droughts, extensive flooding and extraordinary melt activity on Greenland, many are asking if we are seeing long-predicted results of climate change, caused primarily by man-made heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies on extreme events found in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society suggest that such events may not be attributable to weather variability alone....
Women ‘are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation’ – expert
Posted by AlertNet: Amantha Perera on August 2nd, 2012
AlertNet: In 2006, when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to launch a multi-million dollar rural water project in eastern and north central regions of Sri Lanka, there was one overriding requirement -- women would be placed in key positions.
As a result, experts say, the $263 million program, aimed at providing drinking water to over 900,000 people by 2011, has been a particular success.
In the village of Talpothta, in the rural north-central Polonnaruwa District, the village women's association...
Drought-Stricken Farmers Pay the Price for Failed Climate Bill
Posted by Huffington Post: Donald Carr on August 2nd, 2012
Huffington Post: In the face of crippling drought across the Corn Belt, Congress is considering funding a disaster aid package with cuts to climate friendly conservation programs.
Even as extreme drought wreaks havoc on crops and communities across the Midwest, government officials are now confident that they can link recent bouts of extreme weather to man-made climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration underscored that point in early July when it released research conducted by 378 scientists...
Big Drought Makes for a Small ‘Dead Zone’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
New York Times: The dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, outlined in red, were far smaller than last summer`s when measured at the end of July.
In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth’s ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico.
Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area of water colloquially known as the dead...