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Archive for December 5th, 2013
Climate Change Could Affect Southeast Salmon Habitat
Posted by Alaska Public Radio: Matt Miller on December 5th, 2013
Alaska Public Radio: Map based on the latest climate change research shows a projected average annual temperature increase of 6.1 degrees Fahrenheit by 2080 which could mean more rain and less snowfall for Southeast Alaska and western British Columbia. Courtesy Colin Shanley/The Nature Conservancy.
Researchers expect that salmon productivity could shift in Southeast Alaska streams over the next 70 years as temperatures rise and rainfall increases because of climate change.
Projections suggest that the average annual...
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Geoengineering approaches to reduce climate change unlikely to succeed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 5th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface by geoengineering may not undo climate change after all. Two German researchers used a simple energy balance analysis to explain how Earth's water cycle responds differently to heating by sunlight than it does to warming due to a stronger atmospheric greenhouse effect. Further, they show that this difference implies that reflecting sunlight to reduce temperatures may have unwanted effects on Earth's rainfall patterns.
The results are...
Worst-case scenario for oil sands industry revealed in leaked document
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on December 5th, 2013
InsideClimate: As environmentalists began ratcheting up pressure against Canada's tar sands three years ago, one of the world's biggest strategic consulting firms was tapped to help the North American oil industry figure out how to handle the mounting activism. The resulting document, published online by WikiLeaks, offers another window into how oil and gas companies have been scrambling to deal with unrelenting opposition to their growth plans. The document identifies nearly two-dozen environmental organizations...
Oilsands environmental agency in danger of folding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 5th, 2013
Edmonton Journal: A key environmental agency working to clean up the oilsands is within weeks of folding, but board members say they’re still hopeful Environment Minister Diana McQueen will find a way to renew its industry funding. The Fort McMurray-based agency, which needs about $5 million to $8 million from the energy industry to carry on, does technical reports on issues such as air and water pollution and most of its recommendations are adopted as government policy. This is the second year the oil industry...
Could China combat smog with artificial rain?
Posted by New Scientist: Michael Slezak on December 5th, 2013
New Scientist: China plans to open the heavens to bring back its blue skies.
According to local news reports, a document released by the China Meteorological Administration says that from 2015, local weather authorities will be allowed to use cloud seeding to create rain and clear the country's notorious smog. It's part of the government's plan to invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) in tackling air pollution. But will it work?
Programmes to generate artificial rain have been running since the 1950s. In...
United Kingdom: Protesters removed from fracking site
Posted by Guardian: Luke Dale-Harris and Vlad Ursulean on December 5th, 2013
Guardian: US energy company Chevron has resumed its search for shale gas at a controversial site in north-east Romania after hundreds of riot police forcefully removed protesters from the village of Pungesti.
For more than two months, the village, which is believed to be sitting on large reserves of the valuable natural resource, has been the site of largely peaceful protests. Villagers, many of whom are elderly farmers, have set up camp next to the fields targeted for drilling, spending their nights in...
Gates’ scheme to reinvent the toilet is ‘too high-tech’
Posted by SciDevNet: None Given on December 5th, 2013
SciDevNet: Bill and Melinda Gates's competition to produce a high-tech toilet for the developing world has been questioned by toilet experts.
An environmental engineer and an NGO worker have criticised the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for funding the development of advanced toilets that would be too expensive to provide sanitation for the 2.5 billion people without access to a toilet.
The foundation should instead focus on cheaper technologies and ways to get toilets into communities in a sustainable...
Climate change affects Northwest snowpack, study says
Posted by Spokesman-Review: Becky Kramer on December 5th, 2013
Spokesman-Review: Last weekend’s doozy of a storm followed a classic Northwest weather script.
Winds gusting to 40 mph blew moisture-rich air from the ocean into the Cascades and Northern Rockies, dumping snow on the mountains while leaving lower elevations bare.
The winds – called “winter westerlies” – are vital to a region that depends on mountain snowpack for its water supply. But a new study suggests that climate change is disrupting the winds, with stark implications for future water availability.
“Those...