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Archive for January 30th, 2013
Climate vulnerability assessments may fall short for migratory species
Posted by Ars Technica: None Given on January 30th, 2013
Ars Technica: It's been estimated that up to one in ten species could go extinct by the end of this century as a result of climate change. Conservation professionals are working hard to understand how climate change will influence species and to develop strategies to manage the risks, but migratory species pose a particular challenge. These long-distance migrants spend parts of their annual cycle in different habitats, at different latitudes, and often cross geopolitical boundaries.
Migration is an adaptive...
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Argentine court upholds freeze on Chevron assets
Posted by Reuters: Guido Nejamkis on January 30th, 2013
Reuters: An Argentine appeals court has upheld a freeze on up to $19 billion worth of assets held by U.S. oil major Chevron Corp in Argentina as part of an environmental lawsuit by Ecuadorean villagers, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers said on Wednesday.
An Ecuadorean court last year ordered Chevron to pay the enormous sum for contamination of watersheds over nearly 30 years that the plaintiffs say sickened indigenous tribes people and farmers in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
Chevron, which vowed to fight the...
English Heritage launches study into effect of bridges on floods
Posted by Guardian: Maev Kennedy on January 30th, 2013
Guardian: Ancient stone bridges with water pouring over the parapets, their narrow arches choked by fallen trees and debris washed down swollen rivers, have been recurring images in reporting the myriad floods of the past sodden years – and the bridges have often been blamed for damming the rivers' flow and causing misery to nearby communities.
As torrential rains wash away the snows, causing more floods in many parts of the country, English Heritage is launching a pilot study to establish whether the 7,000...
Mississippi River barge backup tops 1,000 after oil spill
Posted by Reuters: Karl Plume on January 30th, 2013
Reuters: More than 1,000 barges were backed up on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Wednesday after a weekend barge accident and oil spill forced the closure of the major shipping artery, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
An 80,000-gallon tanker barge that struck a railroad bridge on Sunday continued to leak crude oil, but cleanup crews have deployed 2,800 feet of boom to contain the spill and airborne spotters have not detected any oil outside the containment area.
Response crews will...
5 Sobering Realities about Global Water Security
Posted by World Resources Institute: None Given on January 30th, 2013
World Resources Institute: Some people say that water is the oil of the 21st Century. If only water were that simple.
Water is very complicated. It’s affected by large-scale issues like climate change and globalization. International commerce moves virtual water (the water it takes to grow or produce a product) from farms in Brazil to grocery stores in China and Egypt.
But water is also inherently local, impacted by site-specific weather, geography, and other environmental and land use conditions. Managing and using...
Floods hit 250,000 Mozambicans, cyclone threatens Madagascar
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on January 30th, 2013
AlertNet: Severe flooding in southern Mozambique has affected a quarter of a million people, while heavy rains are pounding the north of the country and a tropical cyclone threatens the island of Madagascar, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Floods that started around 10 days ago have killed at least 48 people in the south of Mozambique, and 146,000 people are still being housed in temporary shelters in the Limpopo Basin, the United Nations said in an update. Government officials put the death toll...
Lawmakers to hold hearing on fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
LA Times: State lawmakers will hold a hearing next month to examine the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in California. Unlike other major oil-producing states, California does not require energy firms to disclose where they use the controversial procedure or what chemicals they inject into the ground. Regulators released draft rules for fracking last month that would mandate such disclosure but allow oil companies to keep secret the names of certain chemicals they claim to be proprietary....
Satellite Analysis Shows Gulf Oil Spills Typically Underestimated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: An analysis of satellite images has revealed that small oil spills that have become common in the Gulf of Mexico are often much larger than reported, U.S. scientists say. Using technology that calculates the size of oil slicks based on differences in the texture of water surface, as captured in publicly available satellite photos, a team of oceanographers at Florida State University (FSU) estimated that known human-caused spills in the Gulf were typically about 13 times larger than reported to the...
Pennsylvania Fracking Victims Come to New York to Share Their Stories
Posted by EcoWatch: New Yorkers Against Fracking on January 30th, 2013
EcoWatch: As the state rapidly approaches the deadline to decide whether to allow fracking to go forward in New York, residents from across Pennsylvania came forward to tell legislators their stories. New Yorkers Against Fracking also released an ad, which will initially run in the Albany and New York City markets highlighting stories of dead cows and poisoned water.
Since fracking began in states outside of New York, there have been numerous reports of water contamination in those states. Studies link...
Controversial research outlines physics behind how forests may bring rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2013
Mongabay: It took over two-and-a-half-years for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics to finally accept a paper outlining a new meteorological hypothesis in which condensation, not temperature, drives winds. If proven correct, the hypothesis could have massive ramifications on global policy-not to mention meteorology-as essentially the hypothesis means that the world's forest play a major role in driving precipitation from the coast into a continent's interior. The theory, known as the biotic pump,...