RSS Feed
Archive for January 18th, 2013
After a Die-Off, Small Trees Protect Watershed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2013
New York Times: It doesn`t take an expert to understand that logging and violent storms cause massive damage to forests. What is less obvious, however, is the devastating effect that the removal of trees and vegetation can have on streams and lakes.
Nitrate concentrations in waterways can soar by as much as 400 percent when the nitrogen cycle is disrupted by logging and the nitrate once tied up in organic matter washes into streams. Algal blooms and fish die-offs almost always follow this sort of nitrogen fertilization...
Posted in 
Fracking debate draws Yoko, Lennon and Sarandon to rural battlegrounds
Posted by Guardian: Adam Gabbatt on January 18th, 2013
Guardian: Yoko Ono might not seem the most likely bus traveller. Northern Pennsylvania, on a cold, snowy January day, might not seem a likely destination.
Yet the threat of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and its impact on the farm she and John Lennon bought in New York spurred Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, into action. On Thursday the pair, a group of activists and the actress Susan Sarandon formed an improbable troupe for a road trip through towns which have been affected by fracking.
The expedition...
How Climate Change is Damaging the Great Lakes
Posted by EcoWatch: Matt Kasper, ThinkProgress on January 18th, 2013
EcoWatch: Great Lakes Michigan and Huron set a new record low water level for the month of December, and in the coming weeks they could experience their lowest water levels ever. It’s becoming certain that, like the rest of the country, the Great Lakes are feeling the effects of climate change.
Last year was officially the warmest year on record for the lower-48 states. The hot summer air has been causing the surface water of the Great Lakes to increase in temperature. One might think this causes more precipitation...
West Antarctica Vulnerability
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos, Enn on January 18th, 2013
Environmental News Network: Radiocarbon dates of tiny fossilized marine animals found in Antarctica’s seabed sediments offer new clues about the recent rapid ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and help scientists make better future predictions about sea-level rise. This region of the icy continent is thought to be vulnerable to regional climate warming and changes in ocean circulation. Reporting this month in the journal Geology a team of researchers from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Alfred Wegener Institute...
Indonesia: Children at risk as Jakarta floods – aid workers
Posted by AlertNet: Emma Batha on January 18th, 2013
AlertNet: Aid workers responding to floods that have swamped the Indonesian capital Jakarta fear an outbreak of disease, especially among children playing in dirty floodwaters.
At least 12 people have been killed and more than 18,000 forced to flee their homes by the floods, which began on Wednesday following torrential rains.
Overall, some 250,000 people have been affected across the sprawling city, according to Save the Children. But there are warnings the rains could worsen in the coming days.
Water...
Climate Change Hits the Mississippi River
Posted by Daily Beast: David Frum on January 18th, 2013
Daily Beast: Here on the east coast, global climate change means earlier springs. Who can object to that? But elsewhere, the costs are harsher.
For months along the Mississippi River here, the withering drought has caused record-breaking low water levels that have threatened to shut down traffic on the world’s largest navigable inland waterway. …
The fact that the river has remained open for business along the critical “Middle Miss” -- the 200 miles between the Mississippi’s last dam-and-locks structure,...
Do You Live in One of the 32 States that Has Been Fracked?
Posted by EcoWatch: Matthew McFeeley, Natural Resources Defense Council on January 18th, 2013
EcoWatch: Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a “progress report” on its ongoing study of hydraulic fracturing and the impacts of fracking on drinking water. The progress report contains a lot of interesting information, but one particular map caught my eye. The map shows that fracking has occurred in more states than previously known, including places like Arizona, Nevada and Maryland. All in all, we now know that fracking has occurred in at least 32 states since 2005.
It...
Climate change to profoundly affect the Midwest in coming decades
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2013
EurekAlert: In the coming decades, climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated.
Those are some of the conclusions contained in the Midwest chapter of a draft report released last week by the federal government that assesses the key impacts of climate change on every region in the country and analyzes...
Amazon Rainforest Under Threat From Climate Change
Posted by redOrbit: April Flowers on January 18th, 2013
RedOrbit: A megadrought that started in 2005 is still affecting a portion of the Amazon Rainforest twice the size of California, a new study led by NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) finds.
The results of this study, combined with the observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to forests in both the southern and western Amazon over the past decade, reveal that the rainforest might be showing the initial signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.
An...
What the FDA Isn’t Telling Us About GE Salmon
Posted by EcoWatch: Tim Schwab on January 18th, 2013
EcoWatch: In September 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appeared primed to approve AquaBounty’s genetically engineered (GE) salmon, the hormone-enhanced fish that, nevertheless, can’t live up to its fast-growth hype. Trumpeting unprecedented transparency, the FDA released to the public hundreds of pages of the agency’s favorable risk assessment, along with an announcement of a days-away public meeting in Rockville, Maryland. The extremely short timeline seemed designed to limit public participation...