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Archive for April 17th, 2013
Half of Tamiflu prescriptions went unused during 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, UK sewage study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2013
ScienceDaily: A new study concludes that approximately half of the prescriptions of Tamiflu during the 2009-10 influenza pandemic went unused in England. The unused medication represents approximately 600,000 courses of Tamiflu at a cost of around £7.8 million to the UK taxpayer. The novel scientific method used in the study could help measure and improve the effectiveness of future pandemic flu strategies.
The finding, published online in the open access scientific journal PLOS ONE, comes from the first study...
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Outdated Management, Drought Threaten Colorado River, Report Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: Drought, mismanagement, and over-exploitation of its waters have made the Colorado River -- the lifeblood of the arid Southwest and drinking water source for 36 million people -- among the most vulnerable rivers in the U.S., according to the group American Rivers. In its annual report on “America’s Most Endangered Rivers,” the organization placed the 1,400-mile Colorado at the top of the list of threatened rivers, saying the iconic river “is so dammed, diverted, and drained that it dries to a trickle...
How Science Can Predict Where You Stand on Keystone XL
Posted by Climate Desk: Chris Mooney on April 17th, 2013
Climate Desk: On February 17, more than 40,000 climate change activists--many of them quite young--rallied in Washington, DC, to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, which will transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada across the heartland. The scornful response from media centrists was predictable. Joe Nocera of the New York Times, for one, quickly went on the attack. In a column titled "How Not to Fix Climate Change," he wrote that the strategy of activists "who have made the Keystone pipeline their line in the...
Judge halts military-backed dam assessment in Brazil’s Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2013
Mongabay: A federal court in Brazil has suspended the use of military and police personnel during technical research on the controversial São Luíz do Tapajós Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. The military and police were brought in to stamp down protests from indigenous people living along the Tapajós River, but the judge decreed that impacted indigenous groups must give free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) before any furter studies can be done on the proposed dam. However, the decision is expected to be appealed....
Extinction debt suggests endangered species are doomed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2013
New Scientist: From dragonflies to bears, when it comes to lost species we ain't seen nothing yet.
Biologists are getting rattled about growing evidence of "extinction debt" - the idea that there is a delay of decades or even centuries between humans damaging ecosystems and the demise of species that live there.
In the largest extinction debt study to date, Stefan Dullinger of the University of Vienna, Austria, ranked 22 European countries according to the proportion of domestic species classed as endangered...
Can Nutrient Trading Shrink the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone?
Posted by World Resources Institute: Michelle Perez on April 17th, 2013
World Resources Institute: The Gulf of Mexico has the largest dead zone in the United States and the second-largest in the world. Dead zones form when excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous wash into waterways and spur algal blooms, depleting the water of oxygen and killing fish, shrimp, and other marine life. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone can range between an astounding 3,000 and 8,000 square miles. At its largest, it’s about the size of Massachusetts.
Reducing this growing dead zone problem is a huge scientific,...
What happens when Asia’s ‘water tower’ dries up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 17th, 2013
ClimateWire: After photographing Black Dragon Lake here for eight years, He Jiaxin knows of more places where he can get the lake to mirror the majesty of its surrounding mountains than anyone else. But this year, he has a problem: The lake has disappeared.
Since its springs dried up last year, no water has flowed into Black Dragon Lake for more than 400 days. At the same time, hot weather caused a high evaporation rate, turning a large part of the lake into a play yard for children.
Black Dragon Lake had...
Australia: ‘Fracking’ emissions monitoring to be tightened
Posted by Age: Tom Arup on April 17th, 2013
Age: The federal government has signalled that it will tighten monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions from coal seam gas ''fracking'' projects following a heated debate about how much the industry contributes to global warming.
In a discussion paper released on Tuesday, the government proposed that by 2015 companies would have to directly monitor ''fugitive'' methane emissions from coal seam gas production where fracking is used.
Fracking involves pumping fluid into rock layers to help extract gas....
Wisconsin’s climate is changing before our eyes
Posted by Express Milwaukee: None Given on April 17th, 2013
Express Milwaukee: Milwaukeeans have been shivering and wet this past week, so it’s easy to believe that our soggy, cold April means that global warming or climate change isn’t a serious threat.
But unfortunately it is.
This past week’s heavy rains aren’t necessarily caused by global warming, but they do fit the long-term climate trends Wisconsin is experiencing.
“Weather is always going to be variable,” said Matt Howard, director of the city’s Office of Environmental Sustainability. “But when you’ve got an...
Feds overlook climate costs of Keystone, greens say
Posted by FuelFix: Jennifer A. Dlouhy on April 17th, 2013
FuelFix: As House Republicans advance legislation to expedite the Keystone XL pipeline, environmentalists on Tuesday released a new report insisting the State Department is ignoring the full climate change damage that could result if the Obama administration approves the project.
The report by Oil Change International says the pipeline would unleash 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases annually - equivalent to the tailpipe emissions from more than 37.7 million cars. The...