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Archive for September, 2013
Rim Fire at Nearly Quarter Million Acres Entering Third Week
Posted by Nature World News: James A. Foley on September 7th, 2013
Nature World News: The Rim Fire continues to burn through a huge swath of land in and around Yosemite National Park, standing at nearly a quarter-million acres as the blaze entered its third week of burning Saturday.
While the fire continues to gain ground daily, growing about 10,000 acres between Thursday and Friday, fire-fighting crews were mostly able to keep pace throughout the week; the conflagration remains at 80 percent contained, as it has for the past several days, officials reported Friday night.
At...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Rim Fire at Nearly Quarter Million Acres Entering Third WeekFightback starts against invasive species that threaten British plants and animals
Posted by Guardian: Conal Urquhart and Robin McKie on September 7th, 2013
Guardian: The pillwort fern is one of Britain's most unusual – and striking – native water plants. Its tiny fronds unfurl to create lush green underwater meadows in lakes and ponds.
However, the pillwort is under threat, a victim of polluted waters and invasive species that are changing the watery habitats of Britain.
The fern is not alone. The tadpole shrimp is another rare species that finds its existence similarly threatened. Considered to be a living fossil, the shrimp – known as Triops cancriformis...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fightback starts against invasive species that threaten British plants and animalsCanadian PM to Obama: Let’s make a deal on Keystone!
Posted by Grist: Lisa Hymas on September 7th, 2013
Grist: The country`s leaders and its oil industry really, really want the Keystone XL pipeline built so they can ship tar-sands oil from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. But the Obama administration keeps postponing its decision on the pipeline.
In his big climate speech in June, President Obama said he would approve Keystone only "if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution." And in an interview with The New York Times in July, Obama said, "there is no...
Fracking industry says fracking made you $1,200 richer last year
Posted by Grist: John Upton on September 6th, 2013
Grist: If you keep a close eye on energy news, you probably know by now that fracking for oil and natural gas is injecting $1,200 a year into the bank accounts of American households. Fricking awesome, right? Go on out right now and buy that 65-inch plasma TV on credit — you’re good for it. Because of fracking. Or maybe not. A new report [PDF] from consulting firm IHS CERA claims that fracking increased household disposable income in the U.S. by more than $1,200 last year, and that the industry supports...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking industry says fracking made you $1,200 richer last yearNew Report Connects 2012 Extreme Weather Events to Human-Caused Climate Change
Posted by World Resources Institute: C. Forbes Tompkins and James Bradbury on September 6th, 2013
World Resources Institute: As extreme weather events like wildfires, heat waves, downpours, and droughts continue to make headlines in the United States and around the world, many have wondered what their connection is to climate change. A new report sheds some light, firmly drawing correlations between several extreme weather events in 2012 and human-induced warming.
In a report published yesterday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Report Connects 2012 Extreme Weather Events to Human-Caused Climate ChangeClimate Change May Have Impacted Half of 2012’s Extreme Weather
Posted by Wired: None Given on September 6th, 2013
Wired: 2012 was a rough year around the globe, and not for any of the Planet X/Mayan calendar doomsday reasons people feared. Instead, it was a year of extreme weather: drought and heat waves in the United States; record rainfall in the United Kingdom; unusually heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia, Japan, and Australia; drought in Spain; floods in China. And of course there was Superstorm Sandy.
One of the first questions asked in the wake of such an extreme weather event is: “Is this due to climate change?”...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change May Have Impacted Half of 2012’s Extreme WeatherCanadian PM offers Obama possible climate action to secure Keystone deal
Posted by Fox: None Given on September 6th, 2013
Fox: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has written to President Obama to say that he is prepared to work on a joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions, in an attempt to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday.
Harper reportedly wrote to Obama in late August, the Wall Street Journal reports, signaling his willingness to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and to address concerns raised by the White...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canadian PM offers Obama possible climate action to secure Keystone dealReport Ties Climate to Extreme Events, But Shows Hurdles
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on September 6th, 2013
Climate Central: Climate scientists examining a dozen extreme weather events from 2012 found that manmade global warming likely contributed to at least half of them, including a record-breaking deadly heat wave in the U.S. The international report released on Thursday offers a demonstration of the new capabilities that scientists are developing in an emerging, complex area of climate science known as "extreme event attribution.'
On the whole, the scientists found that, as suspected, climate change has already...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report Ties Climate to Extreme Events, But Shows HurdlesNot just bats & frogs: snake fungal disease hits US
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on September 6th, 2013
Mongabay: A fungal outbreak in the eastern and Midwestern United States is infecting some populations of wild snakes. Snake Fungal Disease (SFD), a fungal dermatitis consistently associated with the fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, is showing recent spikes in occurrence according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) and other diagnostic laboratories.
So far, the diseased snakes submitted by Wildlife Monitors to the NWHC are attributed to wild populations from nine states,...
Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World by Steven Mithen – review
Posted by Guardian: PD Smith on September 6th, 2013
Guardian: Today the world faces a water crisis. One billion people (a seventh of the population) don't have access to clean drinking water and 2 billion live without adequate sanitation. In the future, as the population increases and the effects of climate change become ever more severe, efficient management of water supplies will be essential. But we have been here before. As Steven Mithen shows, civilisations in the ancient world also solved challenging water supply problems: "the heroes of this book" are...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World by Steven Mithen – review