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Archive for September 12th, 2012
Tree-killing Asian beetle found in Massachusetts
Posted by Reuters: Ros Krasny on September 12th, 2012
Reuters: The emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that has destroyed millions of trees in North America since being accidentally introduced from Asia, has been identified in Massachusetts for the first time, state officials said on Wednesday.
The beetle, named for its bright green color, was found in Dalton, a town in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.
Massachusetts authorities said they are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to limit the pests' impact on the state's trees and...
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Bolivian Park Declared One of Most Diverse Places on Earth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Yahoo!: Madidi National Park, in northwest Bolivia, may be the most biologically diverse place on earth, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
A list of species living there was released this week in a presentation at the World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea. The report follows yesterday's release of the 100 most threatened species, some of which live in Madidi National Park.
According to a WCS release, a full 11 percent of the world's bird species live in the park. Madidi's...
Coal power to drive U.S. emissions higher next year: report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Reuters: U.S. fossil fuel emissions will rise 2.8 percent next year as higher costs for natural gas prompt power plant operators to switch to coal, according to a government energy report released on Wednesday.
Coal-fired power generation will increase by 9.3 percent next year, the report said, in part because utilities are expected to pay almost 20 percent more for natural gas. Burning coal releases more carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere than natural gas.
Power plants have in recent years been...
Drought hurt world crops less than many had feared: USDA
Posted by Reuters: Charles Abbott on September 12th, 2012
Reuters: Searing droughts in the United States and Russia will deplete harvests of wheat, corn and soybeans, the U.S. government said on Wednesday, but global food supplies were not hurt as badly as many had feared.
With the U.S. harvest off to a fast start, the Agriculture Department said the country's corn crop would be the smallest in six years and the soybean crop would be the smallest in nine years. But even though USDA lowered its crop estimates for the United States and Russia, they are bigger than...
Italy to cut environmental red tape for companies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Reuters: Italy will this week pass a decree to drastically cut the bureaucratic steps required by companies to assess their environmental impact, saving businesses some 1.2 billion euros ($1.55 billion) a year.
According to a government statement, the Ministry for Public Administration will present the decree at a cabinet meeting on Friday. It will enable thousands of small and medium-sized companies to benefit from a simplified assessment of the environmental impact of their business.
The decree is...
Dry-Soil Phenomenon Triggers More Storms, Not Less
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Climate Central: Common sense says that you should get more rainstorms in areas with moist soils, since that's where there's the most water evaporating from the ground. But common sense isn't always the best guide to scientific truth, and a paper released Wednesday in Nature has cast doubt on this bit of conventional wisdom.
In fact, say a team of European scientists, parched soil is more likely than damp soil to trigger some kinds of rainstorms -- and the fact that climate models assume the opposite may lead...
On the Fate Of Asia’s Great Rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
New York Times: A new report from the National Research Council, a group that advises the United States government, brings some sobriety to the oft-heated discussion about melting Himalayan glaciers. Interest in the glaciers intensified in 2010 when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body that publishes periodic summaries of climate science, acknowledged an error in its 2007 report. One paragraph had said in reference to the Himalayan glaciers that “the likelihood of them disappearing...
Fears of global food price crisis recede
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Reuters: The third global food price spike in four years may have peaked after a summer of stunning increases on cereal markets, as a U.S. government report on Wednesday raised hopes that a full-blown food emergency could be averted.
Fears of unrest and hunger seen in the 2007/08 crisis emerged as the worst U.S. drought in over half a century and persistent dryness in other key grain producing countries sent corn and soybean prices to successive record highs.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture on...
Climate change likely to increase Lake Erie algae blooms and ‘dead zones’
Posted by R and D Magazine: None Given on September 12th, 2012
R and D Magazine: Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of intense spring rain storms in the Great Lakes region throughout this century and will likely add to the number of harmful algal blooms and "dead zones" in Lake Erie, unless additional conservation actions are taken, according to a University of Michigan aquatic ecologist.
Climate models suggest that the number of intense spring rain storms in the region could double by the end of the century, contributing to an overall 30 to 40% increase...
Climate change: Research questions ‘worse drought’ warnings
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 12th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Some computer models for global warming may be over-estimating the risk of drought, according to a study published on Wednesday by the journal Nature.
Several key models used in climate research that factor in warming trends suggest that droughts will intensify as world temperatures rise.
This is on the basis that dry soils have less moisture to suck up into the atmosphere, which reduces rainfall and thus causes even greater aridity.
But scientists are worried that these models are too large...