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Archive for July 31st, 2013
Crews battle wildfires threatening homes in Pacific Northwest
Posted by Reuters: Eric M. Johnson and Teresa Carson on July 31st, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters in Washington state and Oregon were grappling on Wednesday with blazes that have blackened more than 200 square miles of terrain across the Pacific Northwest, forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.
In Washington, some 1,700 firefighters worked to contain a pair of fires that have charred a combined 85,000 acres east of the Cascade Range, destroying at least three homes and several outbuildings, said state Emergency Management Division spokesman Mark Clemens.
The so-called...
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Even Small Dams a Potential Hotbed for the Greenhouse Gas Methane
Posted by Nature World News: Tamarra Kemsley on July 31st, 2013
Nature World News: Dams, it turns out, may take an even greater toll on the environment than previously thought.
Already scientists have shown that the world's 50,000 large dams are a source of methane, but a new study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, provides new evidence that smaller dams are a problem as well.
Methane is a known greenhouse gas with a warming effect 25 times more powerful than the headline-grabbing carbon dioxide. Among the largest contributors of emissions in the...
Canadian Regulators Investigate Mysterious Tar Sands Spills
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 31st, 2013
National Public Radio: Government regulators in Canada are investigating a series of mysterious oil spills around tar sands operations in Alberta. Thick oil is gurgling up unexpectedly from the ground instead of flowing through the wells that were built to collect it.
The spills are raising questions about a technology that's rapidly expanding to extract fossil fuels that could ultimately end up in the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
The extent of the spills is small, compared with the huge open pits and slag...
Activists shut down first US tar sands mine project
Posted by Salt Lake Tribune: Christopher Smart on July 31st, 2013
Salt Lake Tribune: Several environmental groups protesting tar sands development in the Book Cliffs region of southeast Utah stopped work Monday on a road that will serve a strip mine to be operated by Calgary-based U.S. Oil Sands. Celia Alario, a spokeswoman for Canyon Country Rising Tide and Peaceful Uprising, said dozens of protesters had peacefully stopped road building on Seep Ridge Road and also interrupted mining operations at the East Tavaputs Plateau site. Protesters surrounded heavy equipment and, in some...
Can you be sceptical about GM but believe in climate change?
Posted by Guardian: Alice Bell on July 31st, 2013
Guardian: A friend asked me recently, how can someone be sceptical about GM and yet also believe in climate change? This post is an attempt to answer her. If you scream "I totally heart science, the Royal Society has teh awesomist mindz ev-er, you cannot dispute their pure and good genius" in one breath before voicing suspicion at these strange, corrupt and elitist would-be-wizards in pay of big pharma/ag/oil/ [insert your own bogey-man] in another, then yes, you are being a bit silly. But such silliness...
Sens. Landrieu, Hoeven to Float Keystone XL Resolution
Posted by Hill: Zack Colman on July 31st, 2013
Hill: Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) will introduce a resolution Wednesday that says building the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is in the national interest and that President Obama should approve it, according to a news report. “It’s just another measure designed to put pressure on the administration to approve the project," Hoeven told North Dakota's The Dickinson Press. A nonbinding resolution, if it came to a vote, would put lawmakers on record regarding their stance on the...
3 Unexpected Ways to Improve Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Posted by World Resources Institute: Tim Searchinger and Craig Hanson on July 31st, 2013
World Resources Institute: The United Nations’ new population growth projections show that the world is set to reach nearly 9.6 billion by 2050. This growth holds serious implications for global food security. Absent other effective measures to control dietary shifts and reduce food loss and waste, the world will need to produce about 70 percent more food annually by 2050 to meet global demands. That is a big task, and even harder to do without converting millions more hectares of forests into farmland, contributing to climate...
Climate Change May Lead to Critical Water Shortages for South America
Posted by Nature World News: Tamarra Kemsley on July 31st, 2013
Nature World News: As global temperatures continue to rise, Chile and Argentina may face critical water storage issues as rain-bearing westerly winds over South America's Patagonian Ice-Field move south, a new study by University of New South Wales researchers found. In reconstructing past changes in the North and Central Patagonian Ice-Field, which plays a vital role in the hydrology of the region, the scientists found that the ice field suddenly contracted around 15,000 years ago after a southerly migration of westerly...
Proposed Method for Extracting Liquid Gas Would Trap CO2 Deep Underground
Posted by Nature World News: Tamarra Kemsley on July 31st, 2013
Nature World News: A new technique for trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide deep underground could simultaneously be used to release the last remains of natural gas liquids from dwindling reservoirs, reports a new paper in the journal International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology. The method, the authors argue, could be used to offset a portion of the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. While so-called "fracking" has dominated headlines of late, there are alternatives to obtaining the remaining...
Something in the air: how global warming is spreading toxic dust
Posted by ClimateWire: Henry Gass on July 31st, 2013
ClimateWire: When Rose Eitmiller found a new house on Sweet Pea Lane in Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz., population 3,613, she felt at home. She was still mourning the death of a daughter whom she always called "Sweetpea," and the place seemed right to her.
But that move in 2004 only brought more heartache for Eitmiller. Four years later, U.S. EPA dug up her front lawn in a successful search for arsenic, and Dewey-Humboldt soon became a Superfund site.
Now the town is one of several locations in the western United...