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Archive for July, 2013
Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico is Big, Though Not as Big as Feared
Posted by Nature World News: Tamarra Kemsley on July 29th, 2013
Nature World News: This year's dead zone located off the coast of the Southeastern United States in the Gulf of Mexico, though big, is not a large as feared, NOAA announced Monday.
Dead -- or hypoxic -- zones result when runoff derived from agricultural and other human activities reach the watershed, causing an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes and consumes much of the oxygen needed to support life.
With this in mind, many researchers braced for the worst based on flood conditions in the Midwest that...
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Climate study predicts a watery future for New York, Boston and Miami
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2013
Guardian: More than 1,700 American cities and towns – including Boston, New York, and Miami – are at greater risk from rising sea levels than previously feared, a new study has found.
By 2100, the future of at least part of these 1,700 locations will be "locked in" by greenhouse gas emissions built up in the atmosphere, the analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday found.
The survey does not specify a date by which these cities, or parts of them, would actually...
Jobs and education needed to win British over to fracking: survey
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2013
Reuters: Government incentives for affected communities must be followed up by education and job creation to convince a skeptical British public that fracking for shale oil and gas is right, according to a survey of industry professionals.
Some 70 per cent of almost 200 respondents to the survey by data provider Rigzone believe the British government was right to offer incentives to communities where hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and horizontal drilling will be used.
But 51 per cent believed...
Canada: Orchestra travels to Kootenays to play requiem for melting B.C. glacier
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Bill Metcalfe on July 29th, 2013
Vancouver Sun: Fifty musicians trekked to Farnham Glacier in the Kootenays Saturday to perform for the glacier itself and express their grief about the melting of glaciers with the aptly titled composition Requiem for a Glacier.
“I felt it, as I was playing,” said violinist Gerda Crosthwaite, 74, of Kaslo. “It is farewell to a glacier, feeling sadness it will happen. We cannot stop it any more.”
“It’s an opportunity to help save the glaciers,” said 15-year-old violinist Joy Motzkus. “It’s for the animals...
ALERT! Demand California’s Carbon Market Not Fund REDD+ Old-Growth Forest Logging
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on July 28th, 2013
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal and ClimateArk
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Next week California is to decide whether REDD+ [search] forest carbon offsets which include funding for first time industrial logging of old-growth forests is worthy of inclusion as a carbon credit under the states carbon markets. Logging old-growth forests is an ecological disaster that threatens local livelihoods, biodiversity, ecosystems, climate, and the biosphere; and must not be funded by carbon markets. Members of the forest carbon industry supporting REDD+ must be compelled to stop their old forest logging greenwash - or face ridicule, protest, and an end to public support, until they do.
Heatwaves will make crops produce smaller grains
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2013
Guardian: "The wheat is usually green at this time, but its already gone brown," says Laurence Matthews, overlooking a bone-dry and dusty field on his 3,000-acre farm near Dorking in Surrey. "It's like a tinderbox: there's a real risk of fire." The summer heatwave is having a dramatic effect on his crops. "Without water, the plants just shut down," he says. But it is the twists and turns of increasingly erratic weather that is making farming more difficult, Matthews says. "In spring 2012, it was unbelievably...
Louisiana coastal erosion lawsuit: Attorneys explain its chances and potential pitfalls
Posted by Nola: Benjamin Alexander-Bloch on July 28th, 2013
Nola: The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s jaw-dropping lawsuit this week against a host of oil, gas and pipeline companies is creative and ambitious, some local attorneys with knowledge of coastal issues said. But because the suit is so broad and unique, and so lacks precedent, they said, its outcome remains far from certain. “This is such an unprecedented lawsuit,” said Blaine LeCesne, a tort law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. “There has never been a claim of this...
OSU researchers warn climate change will impact Eugene’s drinking water
Posted by Register-Guard: Samuel Stites on July 28th, 2013
Register-Guard: The average temperature on Earth could increase by 3.6 degrees by the middle of this century, according to data from climate change researchers in nearly 20 countries. And that increase is enough to potentially affect the main source of Eugene-Springfield's drinking water, according to a study by Oregon State University scientists. The McKenzie River is the major source of drinking water in the Eugene-Springfeld area. The single-digit increase in temperatures predicted worldwide means the snowpacks...
Barack Obama expresses reservations about Keystone XL pipeline project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2013
Guardian: Barack Obama has given the strongest indication to date that he holds reservations about the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, saying the project would not create many jobs and could raise gasoline prices. In an interview with the New York Times, the president disputed a main justification for the pipeline – its economic benefits – and reaffirmed he would reject the project if it expanded carbon pollution. The comments were seen by campaigners as evidence that Obama, in the wake of last month's landmark...
Rising CO2 levels causing ‘tooth decay’ in sea organisms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 27th, 2013
Times of India: Rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are having a catastrophic effect on microscopic marine life, according to scientists. Experiments by the University of St Andrews show microscopic organisms, called foraminifera ('forams'), suffer the equivalent of tooth-decay as seawater becomes more acidic. Foraminifera are tiny single-celled organisms that build intricate shells to protect themselves. They feed on algal cells called diatoms, which they break open using tooth-like structures on their...