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Archive for September 6th, 2013
What Media Left Out: Pro-Fracking Report Funded By Gas Industry
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: Multiple mainstream media outlets have covered a new report touting the economic benefits from fracking without disclosing the report`s industry funding.
The recently released study, America`s New Energy Future: The Unconventional Oil & Gas Revolution and the U.S. Economy, received widespread media attention on Thursday. The report, conducted by consulting group IHS CERA, was commissioned by multiple fossil fuel organizations that stand to benefit from growth in the oil and gas industry.
According...
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Lake Michigan drowning in prescription drug waste
Posted by Mother Nature Network: Brian Bienkowski on September 6th, 2013
Mother Nature Network: Prescription drugs are contaminating Lake Michigan two miles from Milwaukee’s sewage outfalls, suggesting that the lake is not diluting the compounds as most scientists expected, according to new research. “In a body of water like the Great Lakes, you’d expect dilution would kick in and decrease concentrations, and that was not the case here,” said Dana Kolpin, a U.S. Geological Survey research hydrologist based in Iowa. It is not clear what, if any, effects the drugs are having on fish and other...
West Antarctic Ice Sheet’s Age Gains 20 Million Years
Posted by LiveScience: Laura Poppick on September 6th, 2013
LiveScience: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet could have formed 20 million years earlier than previously thought, researchers propose, after updating a detail in global climate models, placing more confidence in those models' ability to predict future changes in global climate.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet accounts for only about 10 percent of the ice on the continent today. It sits below sea level and is subject to melting from warm air and seawater infiltration, more so than the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet,...
Rising seas are subject of study
Posted by Vineyard Gazette: None Given on September 6th, 2013
Vineyard Gazette: Seas around the Vineyard are rising slightly faster than the global average and Island planners should prepare for significant sea level rise by the end of the century, a new climate change report has found.
The Vineyard Conservation Society report examines the effects of climate change on the Martha's Vineyard and its surroundings. Sea level rise, health, ecology, emissions, severe weather and ocean acidification are all topics covered in the report.
Loss of wetlands increases erosion issues...
Risk of Sandy-level flood in NYC has doubled since 1950
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on September 6th, 2013
Climate Central: As the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy approaches, a new study points to the rapidly escalating risk of Sandy-magnitude flooding events in the New York City area. The study, published Thursday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, found that sea level rise has already nearly doubled the annual probability of a Sandy-level flood in the New York City region since 1950.
Rising seas are a consequence of manmade global warming, as well as local shifts in land surface elevations. Sea...
Fires burning managed areas: Climate change overwhelms best efforts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2013
Associated Press: Idaho wildfires burned so hot this summer they scorched even intensely-managed areas, a sign climate change, hot temperatures and extremely dry fuels may trump even man’s best efforts to put a dent in forest blazes.
The Idaho Statesman reports the Elk Complex Fire in August burned 6,000 acres of intensively managed state endowment forests, in addition to nearby Boise National Forest that had recently been logged.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Sen. Jim Risch have called for a return to more-aggressive...
Anglers feel the burn of global warming
Posted by Times Herald: Michael Eckert on September 6th, 2013
Times Herald: Last month, it was the Department of Natural Resources talking about what global warming would do to the critters with legs.
This month, it’s the National Wildlife Federation warning about the obvious: Ice fishing isn’t what it used to be.
It’s more than ice fishing, but that’s a good place to start.
University of Wisconsin researchers have been tracking ice-in and ice-out data since 1855, because what else is there to do there? The graphic is easy to read; ice-fishing season in central...
Life inside a Chinese mining company
Posted by Guardian: Hua Ming on September 6th, 2013
Guardian: At first I was sent to an old factory, more than fifty years old. The technology was backwards and the only environmental protection equipment was a few dust filters and a simple water treatment station.
For many workers, environmental protection just meant keeping things clean. During environmental protection bureau inspections furnaces would be shut down, and my job was to check none of the chimneys were giving off any smoke.
I left there and was moved to another of the company's smelting...
Tigris River Flotilla Celebrates Water’s Role in Shaping the Cradle of Civilization
Posted by EcoWatch: Pete Nichols on September 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: When I first visited Iraq in 2010 to help launch the Upper Tigris Waterkeeper, I never imagined the impact the presence of a Waterkeeper would have on the river that nurtured the cradle of civilization for millennia. The Upper Tigris Waterkeeper has changed the dialogue on water issues throughout the region through community outreach and education, water quality monitoring and assisting the Iraqi government in developing strong water policy.
Now, in the midst of pending turmoil in the Middle East,...
Could water markets encourage collaboration and reduce conflict?
Posted by Guardian: Giulio Boccaletti on September 6th, 2013
Guardian: This week an estimated 3,000 water professionals convened in Stockholm for World Water Week. The theme of the conference – inspired by the UN General Assembly, which declared 2013 International Year of Water Co-operation – was "water co-operation and building partnerships".
The choice of theme highlights a fundamental challenge for the water sector: its practitioners have limited control over its performance.
The water sector only manages the underlying natural infrastructure in a particular...