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Archive for August 21st, 2013
How will crops fare under climate change?
Posted by SPX: None Given on August 21st, 2013
SPX: Under the hotter, wetter conditions projected by the climate scenarios they used, the empirical model estimated that maize production could drop by 3.6 percent, while wheat output could increase by 6.2 percent. Meanwhile, the mechanistic model calculated that maize and wheat yields might go up by 6.5 and 15.2 percent, respectively.
The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, according to...
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United Kingdom: Cameron is fracking’s biggest cheerleader
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Guardian: Any new technology has a short honeymoon period where its attractions loom large before practicalities intervene to burst the bubble and a more realistic picture of its costs and benefits emerges. I should know, I helped to raise expectations about the future of UK wave power in the early 2000s. Our hope that large wave farms would be up and running within the decade proved distinctly optimistic.
But most politicians develop an instinctive reflex against technological optimism, understanding the...
Q&A: Fukushima leak problems
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on August 21st, 2013
BBC: This isn't the first water leak at the plant. What is going on?
The ongoing problem with water seems to be coming, in the main, from poorly constructed storage tanks.
Tepco, the company that operates Fukushima, is using huge volumes of water every day to cool the reactors that once generated electricity at the plant.
When the water comes in contact with fuel rods at the heart of the reactors, it becomes highly radioactive and has to be stored in large containers on the site where the water...
Hurricane enable: How climate change is mixing up bigger, badder storms
Posted by Grist: Jim Meyer on August 21st, 2013
Grist: Buy your Hurricanes at the Hard Rock Café, and you can probably make it through a third before you’ve dimmed enough to believe the Republican talking points on climate change. But by the time you get to The Marigny, they’re making those things with three kinds of rum, a half-gallon of rocket fuel, and the soul of an angry leprechaun.
Most climate models predict the same thing with storms: The more we stray from the climate norm, the stronger the hurricanes become. Which makes a lot of sense when...
Fukushima leak: Japan ‘working to prevent serious or fatal accident’ – video
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Guardian: The head of Japan's nuclear regulation authority questions whether it is appropriate to use the international nuclear event scale in the context of the latest incident at the Fukushima plant, but acknowledges that officials are working to prevent a leak there from becoming a fatal or serious accident. The plant's operator, Tepco, admits 300 tonnes of toxic water has leaked from a tank on the site in its is most dangerous incident since the 2011 meltdown
Exxon Pipeline Rupture: Amount of Oil Spilled Is Still Guesswork
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on August 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: Homeowners whose lives are still in limbo after thousands of gallons of oil streamed into their neighborhood from a ruptured pipeline on March 29 [3]might never know precisely how much of the sticky black goo oil actually spilled. The working estimate is that 5,000 barrels—210,000 gallons—of Canadian heavy crude oil poured from a 22-foot break in ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline [4] on that Good Friday afternoon. But officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [5] and Exxon say the actual...
China says ‘shocked’ by continuing Japan radiation leaks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: China was "shocked" that Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was still leaking radioactive water two years after it was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
China "hopes that the Japanese side can earnestly take effective steps to put an end to the negative impact of the after-effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident", the Foreign Ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Fracking protest at Balcombe: ‘People just seem to be looking for a party’
Posted by Telegraph: Joe Shute on August 21st, 2013
Telegraph: An unwanted mob had descended on the Balcombe protest camp yesterday, swarming en masse through police lines and fiercely resisting all attempts to squash them.
"Bloody wasps,' frowns 40-something protester and mother-of-three Ioonah Woods, watching one of the insects greedily burrowing into a jar of marmalade with all the gusto of a Cuadrilla drill. "They weren't a problem a few days ago but now they have invaded.'
Quite who is, and who is not, entitled to be in Balcombe is all the talk in...
Evacuation orders lifted as crews gain on massive Idaho wildfire
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters gained ground on a wildfire threatening the ski resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on Tuesday as evacuation orders were lifted for hundreds of homes and officials said they had "turned the tide" against the wind-whipped blaze.
The so-called Beaver Creek fire has destroyed one home and seven other buildings and forced the evacuation of thousands. It was sparked by lightning nearly two weeks ago outside Sun Valley, one of three tourist communities that make up a resort area in central...
Japan to raise severity rating for Fukushima leaks to level 3
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 21st, 2013
Reuters: Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, with the country's nuclear watchdog saying it feared more storage tanks were leaking contaminated water.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday it viewed the situation at Fukushima "seriously" and was ready to help if called upon, while nearby China said it was "shocked" to hear contaminated water was still leaking from...