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Archive for September 11th, 2013
Study provides insights on protecting world’s poor from climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
PhysOrg: The worst impacts of climate change on the world's poorest fishing communities can likely be avoided by careful management of the local environment and investing in the diversification of options for local people, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and James Cook University.
Climate change is already putting pressure on fishers who depend on nature for their livelihoods. In a new study, scientists found large differences in the potential to adapt based on the local mixture of social...
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Flawed Fracking Bill Passes California Assembly
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Senate Bill 4, which undermines existing environmental law and leaves Californians unprotected from fracking and other dangerous and extreme fossil fuel extraction techniques, passed the California Assembly today and will likely head to Governor Brown’s desk after a concurrent vote in the Senate.
"This legislation does nothing to stop fracking or protect communities across the state from its harmful effects and last minute changes to the bill made it even worse," said Adam Scow, California campaigns...
Aquifers Discovered in Drought-Ridden Kenya
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
New York Times: The United Nations and Kenyan officials on Wednesday announced the discovery of a potentially enormous underground supply of water, a find they said could improve the lives of generations of people in impoverished northern Kenya, if not the entire nation.
With water security a growing concern around the world, the discovery of five aquifers in drought-plagued Turkana County could help secure Kenya's access to the most critical of natural resources, particularly in the arid north.
Out of a population...
Criminal Charges Filed Against ExxonMobil Subsidiary in PA for Dumping Toxic Fracking Wastewater
Posted by EcoWatch: Donald Gilliland on September 11th, 2013
EcoWatch: Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday afternoon filed criminal charges against a Pennsylvania subsidiary of ExxonMobil for illegally discharging more than 50,000 gallons of toxic wastewater from a Marcellus Shale gas well site in Penn Township, Lycoming County.
XTO Energy Inc., of Indiana, PA, was charged after evidence and testimony was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended the criminal charges be filed, according to a news release from Kane’s office.
XTO...
California Legislature passes fracking regulation bill
Posted by LA Times: Marc Lifsher on September 11th, 2013
LA Times: A heavily lobbied bill that would give California the nation's toughest regulation of a controversial oil drilling technique won easy passage Wednesday from the Legislature.
The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who said Wednesday that he would sign it into law.
At issue is the practice of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. It is a process that involves injecting mixtures of sand, water and chemicals to free oil and natural gas trapped deep underground in shale formations.
The...
Climate Change Not Felt Equally Throughout Europe: A Study
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: Climate change is not equally felt throughout Europe, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters shows.
Comprised of researchers from the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick, the team translated weather observations into climate change observations using a gridded dataset going back 60 years.
In doing so, they discovered that the hottest 5 percent of summer days warmed fastest in a stretch of territory from southern England and northern France to Denmark....
Discovery Of Massive Aquifers Could Be Game Changer For Kenya
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
National Public Radio: Satellite imagery and seismic data have identified two huge underground aquifers in Kenya's drought-prone north, a discovery that could be "a game changer" for the country, NPR's Gregory Warner reports.
The aquifers, located hundreds of feet underground in the Turkana region that borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, contain billions of gallons of water, according to UNESCO, which confirmed the existence of the subterranean lakes discovered with the help of a French company using technology originally...
Great Lakes Asian Carp Invasion Inevitable, Researchers Say
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: If the right conditions are present, the introduction of fewer than two dozen Asian carp to the the Great Lakes system could be enough to establish a thriving population of an invasive fish notorious for out-competing native fish for food and resources, according to new research published in the journal Biological Invasions.
Researchers from Waterloo University in Canada say the arrival of Asian carp, which are well-established in major waterways like the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, is inevitable...
Another sign of the growing North-South divide, but this time it’s climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
Independent: Global warming even applies to the North-South divide according to scientists who have discovered that temperatures in the south of the country have been rising much faster than in the north.
In the most extreme case of the temperature divide, a new paper finds that, since 1950, climate change has made the hottest days of the year rise by at least 2.5C in much of the south east, but just 1C or so in the north east.
Dr David Stainforth, the lead author on the paper, said: “In Britain, climate...
Arsenic in Vietnam Groundwater Slowly Moving Toward Hanoi, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 11th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: As the population and water needs of Hanoi mushroom, the capital city of Vietnam is slowly drawing poisonous arsenic into the aquifer that supplies its drinking water, say researchers from the U.S. and Vietnam. Water contaminated with arsenic has moved more than a mile closer to the aquifer over the last 40 to 60 years, the researchers report in Nature, due to the city's increasing water demand; municipal pumping in Hanoi doubled between 2000 and 2010. The good news, says lead researcher Alexander...