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Archive for September 6th, 2012
Canada: Will carbon capture clean up tar sands?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
New Scientist: ARE tar sands becoming a bit cleaner? For the first time, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant is going to lock away some of the carbon dioxide produced by refining the dirty oil. However, the oil will still lead to more emissions than conventional crude oil.
Tar sands contain bitumen, which is difficult to extract and must then be processed to produce crude. This means tar sands release about 17 per cent more greenhouse-gas emissions overall than conventional oil (Environmental Research Letters,...
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Current state of food market differs from 2008: FAO head
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
Reuters: The situation in the food market is different from the crisis of 2008 with little sign of the speculation seen four years ago and no panic buying, the head of the UN's food agency said on Thursday.
"In 2008 there was a substantial inflow of funds, and we don't see speculation playing a major role at moment," FAO director general Jose Graziano da Silva told a news conference in Rome.
"In 2008, there was a lot of panic buying, we don't see this at the moment," he said.
Earlier, the agency...
Pakistan: Climate Adaptation Troubles Karachi’s Planners
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Climate proofing this bustling port city is a daunting task for planners who must consider factors ranging from proneness to flooding and administrative malaise to the fact that 60 percent of its 18 million people live in slums.
The Economist Intelligence Unit in its latest global survey of living conditions released in August rated Karachi as the seventh least liveable city, placing it 134th in the world out of a list of 140 countries.
Farhan Anwar, an engineer and urban planner, argues that...
Wetter Arctic Could Influence Climate Change, Study Finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
ScienceDaily: Increased precipitation and river discharge in the Arctic has the potential to speed climate change, according to the results of a study led by Xiangdong Zhang, a scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center.
"As the Earth's climate continues to change, the high-latitude North is becoming even wetter than before," Zhang says. "In particular, air moisture, precipitation and river discharge have increased, leading to a stronger water cycle. These recent changes...
Wildlife haven in the Korean DMZ under threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
Guardian: A distant waterbird flaps lazily along a strip of verdant marshy shoreline, the brown river drifting sluggishly alongside, while a young soldier stands looking on bored with his rifle. There are no sounds but the water lapping and a soft drone of insects – only the barbed-wire fence and the military presence give a clue that this tranquil scene is the centre of one the world's most dangerous nuclear stand-offs.
The no man's land between North and South Korea, surrounded on all sides by heavily...
Climate change so serious Democrats mention it once in over 80 speeches over two days
Posted by Daily Caller: Jamie Weinstein on September 6th, 2012
Daily Caller: Though the 2012 Democratic Party platform declares that the “national security threat from climate change is real, urgent, and severe,” it is apparently not urgent and severe enough to merit mention by speakers at the Democratic National Convention during the past two days.
The Daily Caller reviewed the speech transcripts of the over 80 speakers who took the stage at the Time Warner Cable Arena here in Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday, and only one mentioned climate change — and even he only...
Salinity and Climate
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on September 6th, 2012
Environmental News Network: The degree of salinity in oceans is a driver of the world's ocean circulation, where density changes due to both salinity changes and temperature changes at the surface of the ocean produce changes in buoyancy, which cause the sinking and rising of water masses. Changes in the salinity of the oceans are thought to contribute to global changes in carbon dioxide as more saline waters are less soluble to carbon dioxide. A NASA-sponsored expedition is set to sail to the North Atlantic's saltiest spot...
Amazon deforestation could trigger drop in rainfall across South America
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2012
Mongabay: Deforestation could cause rainfall across the Amazon rainforest to drop precipitously, warns a new study published in the journal Nature.
Using a computer model that accounts for forest cover and rainfall patterns, Dominick Spracklen of the University of Leeds and colleagues estimate that large-scale deforestation in the Amazon could reduce basin-wide rainfall 12 percent during the wet season and 21 percent in the dry season by 2050. Localized swings would be greater. Forest clearing in the Congo...