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Archive for May 1st, 2013
Who Paid For Last Summer’s Drought? You Did
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 1st, 2013
National Public Radio: Say the words "crop insurance" and most people start to yawn. For years, few nonfarmers knew much about these government-subsidized insurance policies, and even fewer found any fault with them. After all, who could criticize a safety net for farmers that saves them from getting wiped out by floods or drought? But consider this: According to a , crop insurance allowed corn and soybean farmers not only to survive last year's epic drought, but it also allowed them to make bigger profits than they would...
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Spread of Hydrofracking Could Strain Water Resources in West, Study Finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 1st, 2013
New York Times: The rapid expansion of hydraulic fracturing to retrieve once-inaccessible reservoirs of oil and gas could put pressure on already-stressed water resources from the suburbs of Fort Worth to western Colorado, according to a new report from a nonprofit group that advises investors about companies’ environmental risks. “Given projected sharp increases” in the production of oil and gas by the technique commonly known as fracking, the report from the group Ceres said, “and the intense nature of local...
Study links insecticide use to invertebrate die-offs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 1st, 2013
Guardian: The world's most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed.
On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food crops rely.
However, much tougher action in the form of a total worldwide ban is needed, according to the scientist who led the new study.
"We are risking...
Climate Change-Driven Prostitution Claim In House Resolution Makes For Misleading Headlines
Posted by Huffington Post: Lucia Graves on May 1st, 2013
Huffington Post: The Internets were abuzz this week with tales of how Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), that notorious Berkeley liberal, introduced a resolution claiming that climate change forces women to be prostitutes. Another development in the Democrats' elaborate climate change hoax! Conservatives were righteously outraged.
Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller led with the headline, "Democrats: Global warming means more hookers." Michelle Malkin's Twitchy settled on, "We're screwed: Cong. Dems fear that climate change...
Global networks must be redesigned, experts urge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 1st, 2013
ScienceDaily: Our global networks have generated many benefits and new opportunities. However, they have also established highways for failure propagation, which can ultimately result in human-made disasters. For example, today's quick spreading of emerging epidemics is largely a result of global air traffic, with serious impacts on global health, social welfare, and economic systems.
Helbing's publication illustrates how cascade effects and complex dynamics amplify the vulnerability of networked systems. For...
How plants may offset global warming
Posted by Mother Nature Network: Marc Lallanilla on May 1st, 2013
Mother Nature Network: Could plants help to slow the march of global warming? It's possible, suggests a new study, which finds that as climates warm around the world, plants may respond by releasing more aerosol particles into the atmosphere. The research, published online April 28 in the journal Nature Geoscience, finds that these natural aerosols can fuel cloud formation, which may help cool a warming climate. [The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted] Aerosols are fine particles of solid or liquid matter,...
Amphibians living close to farm fields are more resistant to common insecticides
Posted by Scienc Daily: None Given on May 1st, 2013
Scienc Daily: Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides, according to two recent studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides.
In a study published today in Evolutionary Applications, the Pitt researchers demonstrate,...
Sugarcane production impacting local climate in Brazil
Posted by Mongabay: Thomas Handley on May 1st, 2013
Mongabay: Intensification of Brazil's sugarcane industry in response to rising demand for sugar-based ethanol could have impacts on the regional climate reports a new study by researchers from Arizona State University, Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Following the conversion of cerrado grasslands into sugarcane in Brazil, a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters found local cooling that approached 1 degree Celsius during the growing season and maximum local warming near...
Better wheat varieties in the future? Wheat genome shows resistance genes easy to access
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 1st, 2013
ScienceDaily: It's hard to go anywhere without a map -- especially into the deep and complex world of genetics. Now, Kansas State University researcher Bikram Gill and an international team of researchers have developed a physical map of wheat's wild ancestor, Aegilops tauschii, commonly called goatgrass, as they take the first huge step toward sequencing the wheat genome -- a complete look at wheat's genetic matter.
A physical map of a genome shows the physical locations of genes and other DNA sequences of...
Whatever you think of fracking, this isn’t the way forward
Posted by Guardian: Michael Hanlon on May 1st, 2013
Guardian: Serious countries, with serious governments, have equally serious energy policies to keep the lights on. This means developing long-term strategic plans, making sure that you create as mixed a basket of energy sources as possible. It means taking steps to ensure that if the supply of a particular energy source becomes scarce or prohibitively expensive, then there are alternatives that can be brought on stream quickly.
That is the sort of thing a serious country does. What it does not do is come...