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Archive for April, 2013
Chilean Court Suspends Pascua Lama Mine
Posted by Inter Press Service: Marianela Jarroud on April 11th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Environmental groups and indigenous Diaguita communities of the Huasco Valley in northern Chile celebrated a court decision Wednesday that will bring to a complete halt work on the Pascua Lama gold, silver and copper mine belonging to Canada's Barrick gold.
"The mine was approved on the condition that the glaciers would not be touched. But the General Water Department (DGA) has repeatedly confirmed that Pascua Lama is destroying glaciers," said Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory...
Early warning signs of population collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Spatial measurements of population density could reveal when threatened natural populations are in danger of crashing.
Many factors -- including climate change, overfishing or loss of food supply -- can push a wild animal population to the brink of collapse. Ecologists have long sought ways to measure the risk of such a collapse, which could help wildlife and fishery managers take steps to protect endangered populations.
Last year, MIT physicists demonstrated that they could measure a population's...
Choking on China
Posted by Foreign Affairs: Thomas N. Thompson on April 11th, 2013
Foreign Affairs: China is the world’s worst polluter -- home to 16 of the 20 dirtiest cities and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Recent headlines have been shocking: 16,000 decaying pig carcasses in Shanghai’s Whampoa River, dire air quality reports in Beijing, and hundreds of thousands of people dying prematurely because of environmental degradation. Most recently, the country has been shaken by a mysterious virus, H7N9, which has already killed six people and has spurred health authorities to order the...
In Assam, Searching for New Crops and Farming Methods for Depleted Soil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2013
New York Times: For generations, the annual monsoon cycle blessed the upper Assam village of Boralapar with ideal conditions for paddy farming. Moderate annual flooding of the Dorpang River, a small tributary of the Brahmaputra River, enhanced the rich, loamy soil with a yearly booster dose of river-borne nutrients.
But over the past decade, upland deforestation and repeated embankment failure have turned the Dorpang vicious. Volatile flash floods can last for days, drowning paddy and burying fields under sand...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on In Assam, Searching for New Crops and Farming Methods for Depleted SoilUS congressman cites biblical flood to dispute human link to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Guardian: The Texas Republican Joe Barton stands out even among his fellow conservative Republicans who have made it an article of faith to deny the existence of a human component to climate change.
On Wednesday, Barton cemented that reputation by citing the Old Testament to refute scientific evidence of man-made global warming, drawing on the story of Noah's ark.
"I would point out that if you are a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood was an example of climate change," Barton...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US congressman cites biblical flood to dispute human link to climate changeControversy erupts as New Zealand plans to drop poison over Critically Endangered frog habitat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
Mongabay: New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) is facing a backlash over plans to aerially drop a controversial poison, known as 1080, over the habitat of two endangered, prehistoric, and truly bizarre frog species, Archey's and Hochsetter's frogs, on Mount Moehau. Used in New Zealand to kill populations of invasive mammals, such as rats and the Australian long-tailed possum, 1080 has become an increasingly emotive issue in New Zealand, not just splitting the government and environmentalists, but...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Controversy erupts as New Zealand plans to drop poison over Critically Endangered frog habitatScientists use islands to gauge rainfall’s effect on landscapes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
ScienceDaily: If you've ever stood on a hill during a rainstorm, you've probably witnessed landscape evolution, at least on a small scale: rivulets of water streaming down a slope, cutting deeper trenches in Earth when the rain turns heavier.
It's a simple phenomenon that scientists have long believed applies to large-scale landforms as well -- that is, rivers cut faster into mountains that receive heavier precipitation. It's thought that if rainfall patterns influence how rivers cut into rock, over time, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists use islands to gauge rainfall’s effect on landscapesTexas Rep. Cites Biblical Flood as Example of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2013
ABC: In his five-minute remarks today on the Keystone Pipeline, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, pointed out a "divergence of evidence" on global warming, citing the biblical Great Flood as an example of climate change.
Barton delivered remarks today at the Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing in support of the Northern Route Approval Act,legislation that would grant Congress the authority to approve the controversial Keystone petroleum pipeline.
"I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Texas Rep. Cites Biblical Flood as Example of Climate ChangeUsing aging, retrofitted pipelines to ship oil — what could go wrong?
Posted by Grist: Suzi Parker on April 10th, 2013
Grist: Until the Pegasus pipeline ruptured on March 29, leaking an estimated 147,000 to 210,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into the town of Mayflower, Ark., few Arkansans knew it was even there.
In fact, thousands of miles of pipelines snake through the heart of the United States. Proponents insist that pipelines are the safest way to transport oil - safer than trucks or trains or tankers. Yet, in recent years, the Yellowstone River spill in Montana, the Kalamazoo River spill in Marshall, Mich., and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Using aging, retrofitted pipelines to ship oil — what could go wrong?Heat to shift wine industry tradition
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporatin: Dani Cooper on April 10th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporatin: Bye bye bordeaux The French wine industry could lose Bordeaux as climate change pushes wine-growing regions in Europe north, a new study says.
At the same time, some of Australia's Barossa reds may become Devonport drops with the impact of climate change pushing prime wine-growing conditions further south.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlines a shift of wine growing areas around the world in response to climate change.
The international study...