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Archive for March 7th, 2013
New Type of Bacteria Reportedly Found in Buried Antarctic Lake
Posted by LiveScience: Elizabeth Howell, on March 7th, 2013
LiveScience: A new type of microbe has been found at a lake buried under Antarctica's thick ice, according to news reports. The find may unveil clues of the surrounding environment in the lake, according to scientists.
The bacteria, said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist on Earth, was discovered in a water sample taken from Lake Vostok, which sits under more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) of Antarctic ice. The freshwater lake has likely been buried, unaltered, under the ice for the past...
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Captive frogs may be spreading diseases to wild cousins across Southeast Asia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2013
Mongabay: Scientists have documented a series of links between exotic frogs for trade and diseases in wild frogs in Southeast Asia, including the first documented case of the chytrid fungus-a virulent and lethal disease-in Singapore. According to researchers writing in a new study in EcoHealth, frogs imported into Southeast Asia as pets, food, or traditional medicine are very likely spreading diseases to wild populations.
Collecting samples of some 2,300 wild and captive frogs across four countries (Laos,...
Canada: Environmental Justice and the Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Bk Goldtooth on March 7th, 2013
EcoWatch: On March 1, in an unexpected move, President Obama’s U.S. Department of State released its draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline section that will cross the U.S. and Canadian border in Montana and travel into Steele City, Nebraska.
First and foremost, the SEIS report defies common sense with the statement that reads “the proposed Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands,” and gravely understates...
Shale Gas Boom Drives Surge in Propane-Fueled Vehicles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: The U.S. satellite TV provider DISH Network Corporation has announced it will introduce 200 propane-fueled vans to its fleet in 2013, another sign that propane, like natural gas, is offering an increasingly cost-effective transportation fuel alternative to gasoline and diesel. While there are already more than 13 million propane-fueled vehicles worldwide, propane historically has been considered a niche fuel because of high production costs. But driven by the surge in domestic shale oil and gas production,...
Warming Lakes: Climate Change Threatens the Ecological Stability of Lake Tanganyika
Posted by National Geographic: Lisa Borre on March 7th, 2013
National Geographic: Tropical lakes in East Africa don’t grab headlines the way polar bears do, but climate change is having an effect on them, too. Although the changes are not as visible as melting polar ice caps, they are no less real.
As in many lakes around the world, water temperature is on the rise in Lake Tanganyika. This and other climate-related factors are causing subtle but significant changes that threaten the ecological stability of the lake and the livelihoods of people who depend on it.
With air...
A Communications Scholar Analyzes Bill McKibben’s Path on Climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2013
New York Times: Bill McKibben and I have been on parallel but very different journeys related to human-driven global warming since the greenhouse effect first became front-page news back in the late 1980s (examples here and here). (Our video chat above was done in December for my Pace University blogging class.)
Years ago, McKibben shifted from writing to advocacy and movement building with the creation of 350.0rg. With his peripatetic campus-focused campaign for divestment in stocks of fossil fuel companies...
Illinois deal on fracking could be national model
Posted by Associated Press: Tammy Webber on March 7th, 2013
Associated Press: After years of clashing over the drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the oil industry and environmentalists have achieved something extraordinary in Illinois: They sat down together to draft regulations both sides could live with.
If approved by lawmakers, participants say, the rules would be the nation's strictest. The Illinois model might also offer a template to other states seeking to carve out a middle ground between energy companies that would like free rein and...
Canadian glaciers face ‘big losses’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2013
BBC: The glaciers of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago will undergo a dramatic retreat this century if warming projections hold true.
A new study suggests the region's ice fields could lose perhaps as much as a fifth of their volume.
Such a melt would add 3.5cm to the height of the world's oceans. Only the ice of Greenland and Antarctica is expected to contribute more.
The assessment is reported in the Geophysical Research Letters journal.
"This is a very important part of the world where there...
Ban on Radioactive Fracking Waste Passed by Putnam County, NY Legislators
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 7th, 2013
EcoWatch: A coalition of health and environmental groups gathered in Carmel, New York yesterday following the meeting of the Putnam County Board of Legislators to congratulate the legislators for voting to prohibit the sale, application and disposal of waste products in the County from natural gas drilling operations.
Advocates working together with Putnam County legislators to address the dangerous exposures associated with radioactive toxic waste pause for a photo with Putnam County legislators who unanimously...
Big Melt Expected for Canadian Arctic Glaciers
Posted by LiveScience: Stephanie Pappas on March 7th, 2013
LiveScience: A fifth of Canada's Arctic Archipelago glaciers may disappear by the end of the century, contributing 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) to sea-level rise, new research finds. For the study, published online Thursday (March 7) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists used computer models to predict how the glaciers would respond to future climate change. The results were not reassuring. "Even if we assume that global warming is not happening quite so fast, it is still highly likely that...