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Archive for December 26th, 2012
Switzerland: From Carbon Sink To Carbon Source, Bogs Lose Effectiveness Dues To Increasing Shrub Cover
Posted by redOrbit: Brett Smith on December 26th, 2012
RedOrbit: Bogs and mires are important ecosystems that also play an important role the storage of global atmospheric carbon emissions.
According to a study in Nature Climate Change, the peat mosses, which are found in boglands and drive the production of peat, are being outcompeted by vascular plants, resulting in bog degradation.
In the study, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) closely observed four Swiss bog sites at different altitudes, from...
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Mississippi River water levels lowest in decades, threaten shipping
Posted by Chicago Tribune: Ryan Haggerty on December 26th, 2012
Chicago Tribune: Tim Cox was supposed to be steering an 800-foot string of barges through the twists and turns of the Mississippi River in southern Illinois last week, moving tons of grain and coal toward downstream ports.
Instead, Cox's towboat and about a half-dozen others spent nearly 15 hours sitting in the drought-starved river about 115 miles south of St. Louis.
The boats, each pushing thousands of tons of cargo, were forced to stop while crews dredged downstream in a desperate attempt to keep the shipping...
Mississippi Receding Faster Than Expected, Shippers Say
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on December 26th, 2012
Bloomberg: Water levels in the Mississippi River south of St. Louis are falling faster than anticipated, requiring more urgent action to keep the nation’s busiest waterway open, according to a group of shipping companies.
Debra Colbert, senior vice president of the Waterways Council Inc., said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now projects river levels may fall to a point at which many tugboats can’t operate by Jan. 3 or Jan. 4. Previous estimates indicated that the river would remain navigable until at least...
Storm brings tornadoes, white Christmas to parts of South
Posted by Reuters: Kaija Wilkinson on December 26th, 2012
Reuters: A major winter storm system swept through the southern United States on Tuesday, spawning tornadoes, including one that struck downtown Mobile, Alabama, and bringing a rare white Christmas to a number of states.
The National Weather Service said a tornado struck Mobile, a U.S. city with a population of about 200,000, at about 5 p.m. local time (2300 GMT). There were reports of damage to trees and widespread power outages, along with some structural damage.
"Right now our initial reports are...
Park City Film series examines climate change with ‘Chasing Ice’
Posted by Park Record: None Given on December 26th, 2012
Park Record: When Katharine Wang became executive director of the Park City Film Series last month, she understood the organization wanted to elevate the level of dialog in the community by using film as that platform.
She reviewed the schedule and saw Jeff Orlowski's "Chasing Ice" would be screened Dec. 28 through Dec. 30.
The film is a documentary about National Geographic photographer James Balog who embarks on a quest to photograph climate change through multi-year, time-lapse photography.
The film,...